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18
May 2010

The Dame Was Framed

So after a marathon session last night, I finished my Framed Lady. I’m going to be honest with you, it was a case of “Third time is the charm”. Here she is, in all her shiny (and unpressed) glory.

Small confession, her left arm.. or is it right? The one pointing down and not holding a flower anyway, I messsssed it uppppppp! Her hand is supposed to be more… well claw like actually. I made a mistake somewhere in the ground area under it, and I cannot for the life of me see exactly where I went awry. I’ve checked, counted, checked, counted and everything looks fine, but is still somehow wrong. I don’t know. I think it’s okay as it is. Yes? Validate me.

As mentioned, I actually had two stabs at this lady before starting this one. The first go was ruined by dodgy grid product. I picked up a clear perforated sheet that is designed to let you stitch onto any fabric, then dissolve the plastic in warm water. It sounded so much easier than the waste canvas method, which I usually avoid because I can never pull the threads out cleanly. I think this stuff would work super well for very small designs, it’s not made for larger things that are worked on longer term. Things stretch, shift and generally get messy.

As I worked down the left border I realised that even though I’d been super extra careful to tack the stuff on tight and smooth, it was buckling. You can see the ripples in this shot even. It was a MESS. Stitches vary in size and tension, the whole thing is slipping on a diagonal and it looks like hell. Ghastly stuff, won’t touch it again.

The second attempt I didn’t even photograph, I just gave up about 4 rows in. I was stitching the negative space on black aida with perle cotton. It looked like a dog had eaten it then brought it back up.

Here’s my poor old dog eared chart. The yellow is attempt 1, the orange is the final attempt, and the blue is attempt numero two.

You’ll notice the design is very blocky, and it did take some will power to not throw some half stitches in there to smooth it out a bit. It’s actually a filet chart from I-Don’t-Know-What-Year, but if you’d like to see it in all its glory and perhaps have three goes at getting it right yourself, you can grab the book .pdf from right here. Made available by the Antique Pattern Library.

Category: Craft Fail, Embroidery, Finished Projects  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment
17
May 2010

Variegated Experiments

I’m a sucker for variegated thread and yarn.  I’d say around half my yarn stash is variegated in various forms, from the subtle tones of one colour to a whole matching palette.  Since I mostly crochet pretty simple things, I like the variations to make it more interesting to work and look at.  So, when faced with a cross stitch project that was to be worked in 1 colour OR a variegated thread I jumped hard on the chance to play with variegation in embroidery. You should also know that “variegated” is one word I can never spell correctly on the first go, so this constant repetition of the word is making my brain ache. Next post will be about cats. I can spell that.

Anyways. Moving swiftly onward. I’ve been working the piece with the usual method – making one whole cross before moving to the next one. Overall this has given it a nice graduation, but being me I wanted to see what else I could do with it. Since the main piece is for a swap, I couldn’t very well start fecking about with it, so I picked up some more thread and had a play.

This sample is stitched in the generally common method (as far as my research could tell me). Instead of doing all the bottom legs of the cross, then going back along the row, each stitch is fully worked before moving on. This seems to eat a lot more thread, but it does give a nice graduation of colour. It also seems to take longer, but I might have been imagining that, who knows? Sometimes I think I’m a princess, so it’s safe to say I could be making crap up.

This one is done in the usual cross stitch method, all the bottom legs are worked, then all the top legs going back along the row. I tried to fudge making a larger sample by looping my thread over the hoop before returning, but it’s still given me a nice toning. You can see best along the bottom the effect of two tones of thread.

Finally, I shook things up mad style (I’m a rebel baby) by separating two strands of the thread, then turning one around so the graduations didn’t match up. You can see where the tones start to match each other on the bottom row of stitches. You can also see, if you’re looking close, a long black dog hair. I have a border collie in the house.

So why use variegated thread? Well, it’s a quick and easy way to create interest in borders or alphabets, and a good way to add some depth to large areas of background, or embroidered water, sky, trees… Depending on how you use it, you can give a chopped up colour effect like the bottom sample here, or you can make a smooth graduation like the top. It also makes each piece your own, as no two variegates will  varie their gates in the same way.

As for the piece I’m working in variegate right now, it’s from a pattern from the 1890s or something like that. Since it’s all “one” colour, I decided to make it more fun for myself (and maybe the person I send it to) with fancy pants thread.

That’s the border, I took a bunch of photos of the border because it came out so well (I’m easily amused). I’m about half way through the center, so I’ll post that when it’s done and you can be super impressed with my skillz.

Category: Embroidery, Experiments, WIP  Tags: ,  2 Comments