Finishing – Page 2 – Feather Stitching

Cross Stitch, Finishing, Needlerolls, Shepherd's Bush, Works in Progress

Needleroll mania

25 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

As mentioned in my previous post, I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday finish-finishing 4 Shepherd’s Bush needlerolls. Following are the fruits of my labour (including improved photos of my latest two needleroll finishes, as previously I could only scan them and the quality was dreadful).

Folk Heart Needleroll

Millennium Roll

Halloween Roll

Pine Needle Roll

During my needleroll ‘frenzy’ yesterday I decided to sit down in front of the TV and downloaded a couple of free TV episodes on TiVo, and watched Episode 1 of Season 1 of The Tudors and the same of The Guardian. After my finishing session I also decided to blob out in front of the gogglebox and did a teeny tiny bit of stitching on a new start … I’m thinking of starting a bit of a mini-rotation of all the projects that I currently have kitted up with DMC, as I’m constantly having to keep raiding them for new projects (although I’ve made it easier now by having all my kitted up projects with all their contents on a spreadsheet, so at least I know which project has which DMC now!). This was the result of my bit of TV viewing – while watching The Ugly Truth (a truly stupid movie I have to say!) and half of the Taking of Pelham 123. As you can see, I did a LOT! haha. (Sorry for the crappy photo!)

This will eventually be Just Nan’s Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls. I’ve been meaning to start this one for weeks, but I needed to tea-dye the fabric to give it a slightly darker look and it’s taken me this long to finally drag the tea bags out of the cupboard! The last time I stitched ghosts on Lambswool linen they disappeared into the background, so fingers crossed this time the slightly darker colouration will see them showing up more (I’ll find out soon enough, as they’re getting stitched next).

While I was tea-dyeing, I also threw in a piece of cotton lace that I needed to dye so I can complete my first PIF ready to be sent off to its new home. I’ve still dickering over what to stitch for my next two ‘victims’, but I do have some ideas brewing in my little mind and have some designs pulled out into a separate pile ready to start work. I also need to decide on which design to use for my Scissor Pocket exchange, as I need to start working on that very very soon.

As for the rest of my finishing weekend, the question I’m asking myself is “what now?” – I still have a large pile of finishing to do, I just have to decide what to concentrate on first. I have the following to choose from:

Christmas flat-fold
Tie-on pillow for (next) Easter
Bunnies in my Garden set
Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello
3 x Scissor fobs
Hocus Pocus pinkeep
2 x picture frames – then the mats cut and projects laced
Hardanger needlebook
Numerous Christmas ornies
Lavender bag (Victoria Sampler)
2 more needlerolls
2 x bellpulls
Santa quilted wallhanging (halfway through when sewing machine broke down last time)
Canvaswork pincushion
Quilt for my best friend’s first born (who’s now at school, and she’s since had two more kids!! ahem …)
Quilting bag – pretty much stitched, but needs to be put together
and a whole heap more that I can’t remember right now!

I did want to finish off a scissor fob tutorial with one of my pieces, so perhaps I’ll throw that into the mix this weekend, plus finishing off my Christmas ornie tutorial which is almost finished. If nothing else, I’m certainly not short of finishing items to be done!! Of course the sooner I get off this PC the quicker I’ll get to make a start as well … so perhaps I’d better leave it at that and go make a start! 😉

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishing

A spot of Christmas ornie finishing

25 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

At least I managed to stitch up 7 ornie sides before my sewing machine packed up … here are 6 I managed to fully complete last night – the last remaining one is for my tutorial, and I prefer to wait until the weekend when I’ll have better daylight for the photos … now I’m off to sit in front of the goggle box for an hour or two to chill out – TGIF tomorrow! 😀

PS: I should add that this isn’t all my handiwork – only the top left and top right ornaments were stitched by my own fair hand … the other four beauties were stitched by my Mum 😀

Elizabeth's Designs, Finishing, Needlebook, Stash

Needlebook finish … finally!

23 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

This has been sitting around since 2007 for it to be turned into a needlebook – how do I know? ‘cos I dated the back!! I was panicking about doing the finishing, and as you can see from the below photos attaching the lining is FAR from perfect, and well it just doesn’t sit as nicely as I had hoped … but it’s done now, which feels awesome! I haven’t touched much of my finishing pile since everything got put into storage 2 1/2 years ago, but eventually now I’d like to start building up my finishing confidence once again and get back into the saddle …

I also started doing a quick cushion finish of a few Christmas ornies yesterday, and have been using one of them for a tutorial – that should be completed over the next few days, depending on what time I get home from work this week!

I also started doing a quilted wallhanging of Mum’s Prairie Schooler Santas, but a spool of thread I’d had sitting on the machine fell into the bobbin spooler while I was loading up a new bobbin on the top of the machine, and all of a sudden it started jamming and the entire bobbin spooler popper up … now my machine is just jamming all the time, which is a real bugger … so off to the repair shop it goes, and my quilted wallhanging and all those other finishing jobs that need the machine are once again put on hold, ho-hum.

Oh well, to brighten the day I did unpack my teeny tiny stash splurge from The Ribbon Rose – as you can see I didn’t buy much, just a couple of ribbons, some beads, some size 22 needles (for my canvaswork) and some red fabric for my finishing of Random Hearts into a little cushion – and some hand-dyed pearl cotton for hardanger class I’d like to start this year (for a cushion). Next time I go I’ll be armed with my wishlist 😉

Angels, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Lavender & Lace, pinkeeps

A spot of finishing

26 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

This has been sitting in my finishing for a couple of years – awaiting the back to be personalised … I managed to finally do the personalisation before Christmas when I was housesitting across the other side of Sydney, but I then misplaced the backing board which was already cut out with batting attached. Finally today all the pieces came together … literally … and I put the finishing touches to my pinkeep for a stitching pal that I haven’t seen for quite some time. The name has been removed to keep the surprise, but hopefully it will be in the mail some time soon 🙂

This is a freebie angel by Lavender and Lace, stitched on 32ct Waterlily linen by Wichelt.

Canvaswork, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Framing, picture framing

Back briefly

11 December, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

Sorry I have been AWOL for a while … all I can say is that I’ve been struggling emotionally, I guess, for a number of weeks now, and I’ve been in a bit of a ‘black fog’ for want of a better way to put it. Anyway, I have been planning a trip back down to Melbourne for about 2 months now, but it was then put on hold indefinitely after Erin passed away until I heard about when her service would be held in NZ – as that is now likely to be the middle of January, on Monday night it was all of a sudden ‘full steam ahead’ and Katie and I started making plans once again for the trip. It’s taken me probably until yesterday before I started feeling brighter and looking forward to the trip, but now I think it will do me the world of good … getting away from home and away from the stress and pressures of work will be great. Of course it just may make me more homesick for Melbourne and those friends I left behind …

When I get home I think I may need to take a quick visit to the GP as well … according to my hairdresser the itchy scalp I’ve been developing over the last few weeks is likely caused by stress and upheaval, as opposed to a reaction to my conditioner … I guess my body’s trying to tell me something! Oh well, only two weeks left and I’ll get some TLC at home when I fly over to Mum and Dad’s for Christmas – something else that I’m really looking forward to. Recent events brings it home even more that family is really important!

I haven’t picked up a needle for weeks now, so I guess that gives an idea of my mindset of late, as that’s super super unusual! I did force myself to do a bit of home DIY, though, as I had a gift I needed to get ready for my trip to Melbourne. Unfortunately other gifts still aren’t done, so I guess those’ll have to go in the post later.

Here’s the results of my labours that I finished last night (just have to have the hooks/hangers screwed into the back):

A framing job I did first, but in a ready-made mat and frame from Target:

The gift I needed to get finished for this weekend (as it would be too hard to post) – this is for my ex-flatmate and friend Lisa for her birthday:

Then this one is especially for me – LHN’s Hannah Purington, to match our lounge’s marine/blue theme):

The piece de resistance – Graeme Ross’ Tiger … I’ve been waiting many many years to see this one framed!

And, finally, the one frame that I cocked up a bit (this was my 2nd framing attempt) … the corner shifted slightly when I was tightening up the clamps and I didn’t notice – c’est la vie, I still love it 🙂

These are all photos taken prior to adding the glass – I can’t believe it only cost AU$29 for 5 pieces to be cut, and the canvaswork and tiger pieces are decent sizes! Anyway, I’m really quite proud of these for first attempts – it feels wonderful to be able to say “I did all that” … from the stitching to the mat cutting, frame making, and the actual framing itself. I think I’ll be doing more in the future to give myself some more practice, and get some items out of the finishing pile.

Anyway, I’d better go get my packing done … it’s 8pm and I still haven’t even started yet! Maybe there’s still a bit of reluctance hanging around under that black cloud, but I’m sure that’ll be shaken off by the morning 🙂

Canvaswork, Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishing, The Drawn Thread

Small ornie finishing session

8 November, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

This week I’ve been a bit anti-social at home, rather being glued to the Ghost Trappers chat room and radio in my bedroom, so yesterday I made an effort to catch up with Katie while watching a bit of recorded TV, and decided to finish off a couple of old stitched ornies while sitting around. The following are the results of my wee finishing session – some were stitched by Mum (those on Aida), while the others were stitched by me.

The skiing Santa was one of the first XS pieces I ever stitched many years ago – Mum accidentally took it out of its hoop frame holder, so I made it into an ornie instead 🙂

I still have a HUGE pile of finishing yet to be done, but I figure if I just pull a few out every now and then it will eventually get whittled down. I’ve really lost my confidence with finishing over the last couple of years, so I think I need to just not think about it, and just do it – seems to be working so far! 😀

I also finished a pinkeep last night too, but I’m not happy with it this morning when seeing it in daylight, so I’m going to replace the ribbon used on it today, and hopefully will like the finished result a bit better.

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Tutorials

New tutorial for a Christmas Ornie

1 November, 200929 November, 2021 Anne S

Unfortunately I don’t think the Just Cross Stitch ornie magazine is very clear with their finishing instructions for ‘newbies’ so I thought I’d make one up myself to help people out that haven’t done this type of fnishing before – and show just how simple it is 🙂

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT TUTORIAL

(the way Prairie Schooler finishes them)

Materials needed:

Stitched ornament
Felt in coordinating colour
Cardboard (I use matboard)
Batting (I prefer cotton)
Ribbon for hanger
Glue
Thread for lacing (I use crochet cotton or pearl cotton)

1. Firstly measure your stitched ornie for the size that you want the cardboard to be.

2. Next, cut out your cardboard/mattboard to the desired size. Add glue to one side of the cardboard, and place glue-side down on your batting. Even though I don’t show it in the photos, I actually smooth down the glue with a little offcut of mattboard so that the glue covers the cardboard evenly – that way you don’t feel ugly bumps on the front when it dries.

3. Once the glue has dried, cut around the cardboard shape and cut off the excess batting (my mattboard is black on one side, it just happened to be the piece that our local framers gave me).

4. Now it’s time to attach the stitched piece to the padded mattboard.

Turn the stitching over so the good side is facing down – place the padded mattboard padded-side down on top of the stitching.

5. My instructions for the next part are in relation to lacing the ornie together – I’ve found that this gives a much cleaner finish on the front of the ornie, and in particular in the corners. If you don’t want to lace, you can just use glue to stick the sides down in the same way – you’ll just have to be careful that the glue doesn’t dry before you have the stitched piece nicely centred on the front.

7. Next I start lacing – I usually start with a couple of little anchor stitches at the start, but here I used a waste-away knot first (this will be cut off later) – then you just work from one side of the ornie to the other, as you can see from the series of photos below.

8. At this point turn the stitched piece over and check that the stitching is sitting nicely centred over the mattboard. If it’s not centred perfectly, just give it a little jiggle around until it is nicely centred.

9. Turn the ornie back over again, and continue to lace the remaining two sides. Now I usually stitch up the mitred corners, as this really tidies up the corners and gives nice clean points.

10. The finished version should look something like this if you’ve laced it according to my version.

11. You now have the choice of adding your ribbon hanger now, or at the end. I always used to add my hanger at the end, but decided to try it this way for the tutorial, and have added the ribbon prior to adding the felt backing.

Cut a piece of ribbon to your preferred length – I ‘twist’ my ribbon to give it a nice loop, if you just fold it in half the ribbon doesn’t sit quite as nicely. Hopefully that makes sense, and you can see what I mean from the photos! Attach the ribbon with a couple of little stitches to attach it to the fabric – I prefer to stitch it rather than just gluing to ensure the ribbon hanger doesn’t fall off in a hurry.

12. Next, turn your ornie over and add glue to the back – I usually use Tacky Glue and once again I use a little offcut of mattboard to spread the glue out all over the backing, but this isn’t essential. I figure this will help to keep the glue stuck down for longer than just having a little bit on the edges 🙂

13. Now place your glued ornie down on the felt backing and ensure the felt is pressed down nice and evenly onto the glue. Then, using pinking shears, cut around the ornie shape – don’t forget to hold your ribbon hanger out of the way so it’s not accidentally lopped off!

14. If you prefer to add your ribbon hanger at the end, this is an example of one of my older finished ornies that I completed this way 🙂

15. And you now have a beautifully finished ornie – all you have to do is to hang it up on your (or a loved one’s) tree! 😀

I hope that’s easy enough to follow – if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to scream out and I’ll try to answer them.

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Finishing, Stitching Smalls

Acorn Needlebook all finished

10 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

A very big happy dance today as I not only put the final stitches into my Acorn Needlebook, but I also spent the entire day curled up in my stitching chair doing the actual finishing – not 100% perfect by any stretch of the imagination, as this is my first attempt at this style of finishing, but I’m pretty pleased with the end result 😀

So, without any further ado, here is my Acorn Needlebook by Periwinkle Promises…

Finishing, Stitching Smalls, Wishlist

Pinkeep Finish & Eye Candy

13 September, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

I don’t think I’ve ever posted a photo of this finished pinkeep – this is one I’ve finished as a model for Karen to use at her shop, which has been sitting around for months before finally being placed in a bubble envelope today ready to be posted to her:

“Life’s a Stitch” by Lizzie*Kate

Also, I’m not sure if you’ve seen the following designs, but I personally think they’re all wonderful 🙂

My Lady’s Quaker by Jardine Prive; Amber Ocean Lights by Chatelaine

Afraid of the Dark; and Black Cats & Flying Bats by Blue Ribbon Designs

Born to Stitch by Glory Bee; Hearts & Flowers Casalguidi Needlebook by Half Moon Handwerks

Peacocks Rule by Milady’s Needle; Spirit of Vierlande by Vierlande Samplers

Beading, Finishes, Finishing, scissor fobs, Stash

Beaded Scissor Fobs and some Stash

14 June, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

I’ve just managed to pop into the lounge to take photos of the scissor fobs I made last night – as you can see from the main photo, they ended up a real mixed bag in terms of length … there definitely will be more coming ‘cos they’re so much fun to make! Now I know why some of my other stitching pals (Hi Cindy!) find these so addictive!! 😀

And here’s an individual photo of each fob so you can see the bead choices more clearly.

I really do need to go shopping to get more clear beads etc, though, as I have an over-abundance of blue beads (funny that!) but not so many ‘fillers’ … I’m soooooo tempted to go back to the craft show today!! 😛

And finally, here’s all I have to show from the Craft & Quilt Fair yesterday – including a piece of the world’s largest ric-a-rac, and some more Swiss lace for Shepherd’s Bush needlerolls (can never have too much!!), and my squillions of ‘pandora’ beads … many of these beads are destined for other uses, eg fobs, but I did buy a bracelet while I was there yesterday too … and yes, there is rather an overload of turquoise and blue!! 😉

Finally, here’s the sum total of my week’s stitching – one more tiny addition to Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello. I just had the border left to stitch and the beads/metallics on it’s companion piece, which will hopefully be finished by the end of tonight … after that I will be trying to make some more progress during the week of my Sweetheart Tree UFO, Wildflowers Needleroll (which I started here in the flat while waiting for my furniture to arrive!).

And now I’m about to, sadly, mark all my feeds as read in my feedreader, as it’s depressing the heck out of me – I’ve been trying hard to catch up on the backlog, but still have over 1700 unread feeds … I’m finally going to bite the bullet and wipe the slate clean, so I can continue to keep up with everyone’s news without feeling overwhelmed every day. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but couldn’t bring myself to do it … but today is the day! I want to get back to commenting regularly again! So, in advance, I apologise if I’ve missed any major personal news, but I look forward to reading about you all regularly again 😀