By extending your stitches beyond the 10 x 10 squares, it prevents " ridge lines" which can be seen as 10 x 10 squares throughout your project , so your haphazard way is going to prevent that. Long story short, the owner of a cross stitch shop showed me a completed piece brought in by a customer to have it framed and the customer had done each 10 x 10 square completely and then gone onto the next 10 x 10 square. You could see every square throughout the project. The owner said, " You don't have to go beyond the other 10 x 10 squares with every line, but go a few stitches into the next 10 x 10 square vertically and horizontally. A few stitches over here and some over there, but don't make " blocks" and you won't get the ridges. Same thing when doing PAGES, extend your stitches into the next page."

Bermuda, I stopped at the bottom of the page on my current project because it's a pain to flip the page back and forth. I was lazy. I hope it doesn't run my work.

Check your work by holding it up in the air or lay it flat and take a "bird's eye view" at it. Can you see anything like a demarcation line (ridge line) where the bottom of the one page meets the top of the next page? Worst case scenario is to "frog" out a few of your completed stitches, here and there, bury your "frogged" floss under some stitched areas, then restitch those frogged areas and extend your stitching onto the next page here and there. YOU DON'T HAVE TO FROG EVERY ROW!!!!!
I hear you about flipping the pages from front to back, it saves paper, but I never double side. I bought a pattern that, when I received it, I saw it was double-sided on all 14 pages. First thing I did was take the pattern to our printer and copy the "backsides" of each page so that my pattern was one-sided.: so now I had a 28-page pattern. I didn't do it just to get rid of flipping the pattern pages back and forth, but so I could extend my stitches onto the next page to prevent the "ridge lines". Some stitchers claim that it never happens but I saw what it looks like- not nice. According to that cross stitch shop owner I spoke of, even the stretching for mounting wasn't going to cause all the "ridge lines" to disappear. After a stitcher puts all the hours of work into their project, it's worth taking a few extra minutes to extend the stitches here and there over the 10 x 10 squares and over the page borders. You don't have to do it for every line of stitching... stitching with the same symbol color 3 extra squares here, then over 5 squares a few rows further down, etc. helps prevent the problem.

I figured that since it was a horizontal line, it would be OK. We'll see.

I tend to work by page, but I will stich through if there is a colour that is continuing or leave a colour to do until the next page if it looks like there is more there than on the page I am working on. At least that is what I did for my last project, mostly kept to the pages and didn't end up with any lines. That one was only 6 pages though so a little easier to flip to the next page if needed and at least 1 side was always the outside border. My current project has 26 pages I think so a little harder to keep track.

I have used the 10x10 and the beyond, but for me , since I like confetti patterns, is to stich a color--horizontal or vertical to a good stopping point then move on to the next color. I haven't tried any patterns that are "page to page". Not that brave yet!!!!

I have used the 10x10 and the beyond, but for me , since I like confetti patterns, is to stich a color--horizontal or vertical to a good stopping point then move on to the next color. I haven't tried any patterns that are "page to page". Not that brave yet!!!!

It may not be a problem, but suggest you check when you get into doing next page. I do the extending of stitches both horizontally AND vertically; AND I purposely don't cross stitch some of the same color symbols near the bottom and sides of the page I'm currently working on and that I know are extending into the page next to it and the page below it. Because I don't grid, I have to be cautious when moving onto another page. I made a BIG mistake when I exteneded my stitches so far into the next page ( like 30 stitches) that as I began to fill in with other stitches, I discovered I had miscounted and the Frogging was such a pain- another good reason for gridding.

I've never done the 10 x 10 stitching, and I'm always careful to extend from page to page when I can.

I start in the center and work that colour as far as I can reasonably go. Then pick the next "touching" colour and go! I try to only work stitches that "touch" the other stitches I've done if at all possible as that reduces the amount of mistakes I make. Pretty much all my mistakes are from mis-counting. I have dyslexia and it primarily falls in the dyscalculia form, so anything with counting and numbers is touch and go for me. I tend more often to work from reference points in the pattern than straight counting. (This row goes one to the left of the upper row rather than counting out 13 stitches or whatever).

Hi rosebud, I'm a 10x10er BUT only on a chart that has a large mass of different shades of the same colour. Here I find paper graphing a big help but it's only in that situation I do it. I find that each chart asks me for a different way of stitching......whatever floats your boat.