Hello, Hello? Anybody here?

Oh goodness! I haven’t posted anything since the end of May and even worse nothing in my Finish It Friday section since March. FYI though I have been stitching, cleaning, entertaining, playing with my grandson, in other words I have been busy. And I’ve probably composed at least 10 blog posts in my head – just haven’t typed them out. Maybe I should practice using my Dragon software! Oh yeah and then there’s the photography work to add visual content so you can see what I’m talking about. So I’m going to start again and see if I can’t do better.

Since this is Friday I’ll start with my Finish It Friday post. The hard part about the FIF posts is finding items that are close to being finished, close enough that I would actually be able to finish them on Friday. Mostly I seem to just be advancing them forward. Partly because I miscalculate the amount of work to be done or I change my mind about how I want to finish it.

Today though I think I can finish this:

Small Scribble Embroidery with Left Overs

A small scribble embroidery which I plan to expand upon on Monday in my Tips and Tricks section. For now the embroidery is finished; it’s been damp stretched and now I’m going to mount it in a wood hoop that measures 5 inches. I’m painting the hoop purple and once it is dried I will glue in the embroidery, cover the back, and hang it on my wall.

Ready to paint

Check back later for the final photo.

Here goes!

Happy Finishing Friday!

Rose

Done and Done!

Despite problems with my sewing machine I managed to finish the three flash cards. So now I have four shape or geometric flash cards. The question is will I make more? I didn't plan these very well and did not leave enough room top and bottom of each design when I printed them on the fabric. I will be more careful with this if I decide to make more. I will continue to use an additional black and white fabric with as close to the shape in the card as I can find.  The circle fabric was a little too spaced out so it only looks good on the top portion.

Shape Flash Cards

The embroidered petroglyphs are also finished. I had to do some more painting first on the inside of the outside hoop. I realized when I went to put them together that it would show the original wood finish if I didn't paint. Then I placed the embroidery in the hoop and tightened the hoop as tight as I could. After letting it set for a while I loosened the hoop and removed the inside hoop without disturbing the outer hoop. By letting it sit for a while an indentation was made in the fabric that I could use as a guide to replace the inside hoop once I had placed glue around the outside of it. After placing the inside hoop back on the fabric I tightened the screw on the outer hoop and let it sit to dry. (I used a fabric glue that works as quick as a hot glue gun without the mess and heat.) 

Embroidered Petroglyphs

The back of the petroglyph embroideries had a fusible interfacing so I decided I would not need to cover the back of the stitching with felt as I have on other projects. I also may go back and add some narrow rickrack on the back of the hoop to try and hide the cut fabric. I've done that on other hoop projects too.

For close ups of these projects check out my Flickr account.

Now to get ready for next Friday!

Done feels good!

Rose

Wow it’s Friday already! Time for FIF:Finish It Friday!

I’m back to trying to finish some items on Friday. First up are the three Flash Cards I’ve been trying to finish for several weeks now. So fabric in hand and sewing machine at the ready here we go!

Flash Cards to finish

Next I’ve selected some embroideries I had done since April of 2011. Yes 2011 and the only thing they needed was to get permanently framed in hoops. Only thing was I wanted the hoops to be black. When I first tried painting a hoop the paint didn’t take well so I laid it all aside. Now I’ve sanded the frames, painted them black and I’m ready to go with the finishings. 

Embroidered Hawaiian Petroglyphs

I’ll be back later to show the results (hopefully).

Happy Finishing Friday!

Rose 

Hello there! WWW

Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts! My surgery went well. The tumor was a very small one and only Stage 1A cancer so no more treatment is needed, just watching me closely for a while. I’m feeling great just have to be sure I don’t overdo it with lifting etc.

I have been slowly getting back into stitching so this is what I have in progress this Wednesday.

I finished a block for my quilt guild’s monthly block exchange, I’m only two blocks behind now!

Scrappy Blues Block

My first fifteen minute project is now complete. It was surprisingly easy to keep it going. The day of surgery and two days of recovery did not see any stitching but I made it up later in the week by stitching extra fifteen minute periods. Thirty eight days later the monkey is now done but I think he will just go in the box with all the rest of my TAST2012 pieces. I haven’t decided what to do with them yet. (Please don’t ask how many French Knots are in that piece!) I did add ears which were not in the original scribble. Generally I do not add any lines or scribbles to one once the pencil leaves the paper or fabric but he just needed some ears so they were scribbled in.

French knot monkey 15 minutes a day priject

I’ve gotten back to working on my summer hexagon project that I started last year using embroidery designs from Wild Olive. I modified a few of them. This is my first time making hexagons and I struggled with sewing them together. I worked at it during a few of the Friendship Stitchers group I belong to. Then I decided I really want to get it finished (I have the designs for Fall, Winter, and now Spring waiting in the sidelines). So I started doing it as one of my just fifteen minutes a day projects but I got carried away with it and worked more than fifteen minutes. So it is getting done a little faster than expected.

Summer Hexagon Embroidery Pioject

Painted hoops

Next I painted some outer embroidery hoop frames in anticipation of another Finish It Friday project. I’m hoping this Friday to have some results to show.

Happy Stitching! 

Rose

Ideas and Solutions

Small Embroidery Single Strand

Recently I started working on small embroidered pendants. At the same time I’m testing out working with just one strand of floss. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at needle or thread. When I read some of the writings from these types of artists they said they used only one strand at a time. Hmmm. I’ve used two strands a lot but never one. Last year I took an online class where we were encouraged to use all six strands at once. I had never done that either. So from one extreme to another. I wanted to try something small to see if I liked using just one strand (didn’t really like using all six). I do! So I think I’ll try a kit next and then venture out on my own.

Handi-Wipe

While checking out other artists I came across one on Facebook who was using a Handi-Wipe to protect her work. She said it was to protect the fabric from the hoop. She made it twice as long as the width of the hoop plus some extra, the width was wide enough to fit in the hoop with a little extra. After placing it on top of her fabric and then into the hoop she cut out the middle of just the Handi-Wipe so the fabric where she wanted to do her stitching was exposed. When she put her work aside she laid the extra length over the hoop to protect her work. I thought this was interesting.

Finished Pendant

When I started working on my pendants I was marking the outline of the part that the embroidery would cover on my fabric. After assembling a few of them and seeing how close my embroidery was coming to the edge (and sometimes even being covered) I realized the problem was I was using the inside insert rather than the top frame. The top piece had a rim around it which of course covered up the edge of the fabric. Solution: use the inside of the rim of the top piece for marking the area available for embroidery.

Pendant Frame and Insert

Solution

My next concern was marking this area. I didn’t want to risk having some of the marking showing when I was finished. I knew I could mark it lightly on the back and then do a running stitch around it and follow that stitching on the front and then remove it when I was finished. But that was extra work and I wanted to streamline my process. And then the light bulb went on!

How about using the Handi-Wipe and cut the center out to fit the inside of the frame? Perfect! I might try using some nonwoven sew-in interfacing next and see how that works.

Love finding solutions to problems and faster and better ways to do things!

Happy Stitching!

Rose

Some Updates

TAST2012

These are continuing and I’m doing my scribbles with them. The last three are:

Bonnet Stitch

Bonnet Stitch

This is an old stitch that is not too well known. I had never heard of it but I managed to do it. I thought I would have a difficult time with it but it actually went quite well.

Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch

 Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch

This was a little more difficult for me to get going on. I had to view a video of someone (Mary Corbet of needlenthread.com) working this stitch with my laptop upside down to get the left hand aspect of it. Worked it awhile before figuring out the best way to hold my hoop and work the stitch. Now I like it. Oh the joys of being left handed!

Basque Stitch

 Basque Stitch

I watched a video (Mary Corbet of needlenthread.com) for this stitch too. It actually went quite well. I left my scribble mark so you could see the way the stitch went around the sharper points. I only had one line not two lines to stitch between.

FLOSS BOBBINS

 In my last organizing post I talked about the plastic bobbins made to wind embroidery floss on. I said I preferred the DMC ones and I still do but I have to report this incident. I needed more floss boxes to store my floss bobbins in. So, I went in search of the larger boxes. I didn’t find any but at one of the craft stores I found the regular boxes at a good price and with 50 free bobbins included. They were being sold under the DMC brand so I thought great and bought a couple of boxes. Was I disappointed – the “free” bobbins were not the same as the nice DMC ones I had previously bought. 


These were in fact far worse than the other brand I had purchased. You can see in the photo (you may need to enlarge it) that they had all kinds of problems even the slots for anchoring the threads were bad. Tsk, tsk, DMC, maybe it would have been better if you had sent them back to the manufacturer as inferior quality rather than offer them to your customers as “free”. Now I’m nervous that they are dumping their high quality products for cheaply made ones. I hope not!!

EMBROIDERY HOOPS WITH SCREWS

New Oval Hoop

Oval Hoop with Plastic Cover

I recently found two new oval hoops. I prefer the oval shape when stitching as my hand can hold it better. These secured the fabric better than my wood ones and all I had to do to protect my threads from the screw is cut a longer piece of the plastic tubing. The only think about this style of hoop is the ridge on the inside ring. I would not leave my fabric in the hoop for very long. (You are should remove the fabric at the end of your stitching session anyway.) But it you stitch for a long period of time I would recommend releasing the fabric every now and again (30 minutes?). Sometimes though I set mine down to do something quick and don’t always get back to it like I had planned. I’ll let you know how it works – I will be damp stretching my work for sure.

Inside hoop

NEW PROJECT

Yes you read right, as if I didn’t have enough going on all ready! But I took another online class, what can I say the price was right! This one was from Big Picture Classes called “Happy Go Lucky Stitchalong “ taught by Amy Powers. We’ve been working on a grid of 25 1 and ½ inch squares using mainly six strands of floss. I’ve never worked that small and I’ve never used that many strands at once. So this was a new experience for me. I’ve only done 5 of my squares. I’ll post more about this project later.

Happy Stitching!

Rose

Tip for the Embroiderers Out There

Okay it's Monday and I'm back to share a tip for those who use the hoops for embroidery that are adjusted by a screw.
I always seem to get my thread caught on the screw every now and again and it gets me frustrated. It really isn't good for the thread and I lose my rhythm of stitching as well. So what to do?
I did see where one of the manufacturers of hoops has come out with one that tries to take care of this problem but it was expensive and not available in the type and size of hoop I like to use. My preference is an oval shape about 6 inches long. My hand can hold it better.
Okay back to the problem at hand and I hope I'm not the only one having this happen either a lot or occasionally.
Here's what I did and I can't be more pleased with the results: I went to the hardware store and purchased a roll of plastic tubing. To be exact it was 3/8" X 1/4" X 20 ft. long. Okay sure I don't need 20 feet but that was the smallest I could find. I think places like ACE (at least the one in Hawaii) may have rolls where they will cut off a piece for you.

plastic cover for screw

I cut a piece off that was a little more than the length of the hoop screw. Then I slit along one edge of it to open it up. Now I just slip it over the screw once I have the tension adjusted and I can embroider with out any snagging frustrations!
I think I would like a piece just a little bit bigger so the tube touches the side of the hoop. The 3/8" has a very small gap that your thread could slip under but at least it's not catching on the screw and shredding.

close up of cover

An inexpensive fix for a very frustrating problem! And it can be used on more than one hoop no matter the size of the hoop!

Happy Stitching!

Rose