I also start in the middle, and go where I feel like it. But I guess my "bad" habit is I tend to leave the face till last. Will work up the rest of the pattern and leave it till last. I just feel like I have to have extra pretty stitches there as that is where one's eye is naturally drawn. Well that I guess always bothered my hubby....to see all these faceless projects kicking around. So now I am trying not to leave the face till last. My Fairy Flora I am working on now has most if her face done! And I still have a bunch of the rest of the pattern to do.

But I will also say I use Q snaps. I was working on a Victoria Sampler project, where I used scroll bars for the first time and then did put down guidelines and worked from the top down. That was earlier this year (no it's not done yet!) I would like to try this sometime with a Mirabilia so see if this is a better method.