The Girl that Stitches

Washing Umbrella Sky: It took me about five months to get the courage to wash Umbrella Sky. Besides I wanted to enjoy looking at it for at least that long in case something went wrong (I was concerned about the reds running).  Thankfully it went well and no thread ran! She was washed in cold water with a tablespoon of Orvus Soap (also called Quilt Soap).  I washed and rinsed her twice because she was extra dirty and needed it!  After that I rolled the stitching between two towels to squeeze out the excess water. She was ironed (straight away) with a plain color tea towel over the top. Usually you iron the piece face down, but I found this was not as effective at getting wrinkles out. It worked much better ironing face up (with tea towel over top). Then she was left to dry on a flat surface. I stitched my name and years worked on into the border: Framing Dilemmas: Different framers had different ideas on the best way to frame a work like this.  This...

I’ve been working on Iris and have almost finished another page. I’ve just tucked into another confetti heavy section. The colors on this page have just been a delight to stitch. Previous Progress: Progress Update: I’m also participating in the Heaven and Earth Designs Facebook SAL in 2015.  So for the record here is an overview where my projects are at as of 1st January 2015 (or close enough depending on your timezone;)  I have currently completed page 1&2 of the Treasure Hunt Crop and a small amount of page 3&4.  I have finished 4 pages of Nocturne and just over 1 and a half on Iris.  We'll see how much I can stitch in a year!   I hope you all had a lovely Christmas/Holidays with family and loved ones. Wishing you all lots of love and light (and wonderful hours stitching) in 2015! Happy New Year!

The Butterfly has finally made it onto the cushion! It’s taken awhile to get round to it but here are the steps I went through to get there! 1. I washed the stitching with quilt soap. This is also known as Orvus paste and is also used for washing horses! I brought this specially to wash Umbrella Sky with because it has no harsh chemicals and wont damage the stitching. 2. After washing I ironed it face down with a tea towel over the top to sort out any wrinkles. It was still a bit damp so I left it to dry. 3. Here I did all the measuring for the cushion cover and pinned the seams. I chopped off the excess fabric on the butterfly and sealed the edges with the fray stop. 4. More pinning and measuring to get everything centered! 5. I needed to sew on the ribbon and butterfly to the fabric before sewing up the side seams of the cushion. I hand sewed all the ribbon and it took me about five hours! 6. I sewed up the seams on the sewing machi...

I have made some progress on Treasure Hunt!  I have been wanting to go back and work on Iris though because the next page has lovely colours... So I've put this one down for the moment because I couldn't resist :)  Before:  After:

I've almost completed 10 percent of Nocturne!  Here is where I left off the other month: Here is my progress now: Stitched on 25 count cream Lugana, tented 3 over 1

Here is my start on Iris Keeper of the Rainbow. After all the navy stitches in Nocturne I have really enjoyed using some brighter threads! Although I should probably be posting something dark and scary in light of Halloween Celebrations :)  I am enjoying stitching this one on 20 count Aida (2 over 1, full cross).  Happy Halloween and stitching!    Start of Confetti Section: Page One Finished:

I have been considering my current projects and the timescale for finishes. Feeling the need to speed the process up, I decided to experiment with tenting. I have noticed that many others have had success tenting on high count fabrics.  I did a small sample on some 25 count Lugana fabric and found 3 over 1 tent stitch gives really good coverage with black and navy floss (the colors most likely to have coverage issues on white/light fabric).  I am using cream colored Zweigart fabric. I have restarted Nocturne on 25 count Lugana (tenting, 3 over 1) in hopes I can finish it in half the time! This also takes the chart size down to a more conservative finished size. It is unfortunate to restart after all the stitching I've done (I'd almost finished 5 pages!) but I really think it’s worth it. I restarted it on the 2nd September and have managed to complete the following in a month (with full crosses this would have taken me about two or three months): I’m still doin...