Good luck on your endeavor!

That's beautiful, Mary! I'm sure you will enjoy stitching it. I always count up and over to the left, also. I like starting at the top and working down, rather than starting in the middle.

It does look like ‘the beach’ Mary. Have fun on your endeavor and send WIP pictures when you can. It will be lovely! 🌴🌴

You're going to love this when finished. It's one stitch at a time, just like your others!

Thank you for your encouragement, and I agree, it is just one stitch at a time. Maybe I'm just a bit weird, but I find the pattern for this larger than it needs to be. The pattern is 4 pages for a project that ends up being approx 5x7. I know that Artecy does this for all their patterns ( I have another waiting in the wings!) I guess I'm just accustomed to a pattern for a project this size being mostly on one page so makes it easy to see where the colors go and end at one glance. I'm not complaining or dissing Artecy ... I just find the large pattern somewhat awkward! But then, maybe I will appreciate this when I get to my next Artecy pattern which is much bigger! Mary

Well, I have learned 2 things so far.... white fabric may not be the best choice if stitching with 2 strands and I either need to stitch each 10 x 10 box or each row in its entirety as I go along. I tend to work in all directions with a colour and extend as far as that colour goes... and I'm finding that is not working out so well for me. Maybe it has something to do with the size of the squares on the pattern... I think I should be further over to the right than I am and I have miscounted a couple of times. Not a problem to fix ... just needed to add a few more stitches. Mary

Four pages for a 5x7 inch pattern?! Wow! Even an old fogey like me could see that pattern...without my glasses! 👵 I usually have to blow up my patterns to see them properly. I agree with you, Mary, that could have been reduced to one page or, at the most, two, and it would have been much easier to follow. Since this is your first cover all pattern, I'm wondering if you are relatively new to stitching. If not, forgive me, but sometimes new stitchers pull their stitches too tight, which can cause the fabric to bunch up and be visible beneath the stitches and the holes become enlarged. If you're new to stitching that might be why the white fabric is showing through. If not, forget I mentioned it! I'm not meaning to insult you. 😊 I don't use the 10x10 gridded boxes, nor do I stitch across a full row, one at a time, unless it's all the same color. I tend to stitch as you do, stitching as much as I can with one color before moving on to the next one. Sometimes that works really well, other times not so much. This pattern looks like it would work for that kind of stitching, but then without really examining it closely I couldn't really say for sure. Keep at it, it's going to be beautiful!

Is the thread not giving good coverage? I'm also using black and bright colors on 25ct (1 over 1) and not pleased with the coverage. There's been a lot of talk on here about DMC being thinner.....or our imagination that it is. I grid my fabric and still miscount, but it's easier to "catch it" before I get too far. On my first cover all I stitched a row at a time, but it was full of confetti stitches. Try doing a few 10x10 and see if it's easier. It's a pretty design! Liz

It's the black that's not covering as well as the other colours, and we have covered this problem in other chats.

Mary, what is the fabric count you are using?