Friday, June 29, 2012

And the internet is back...

Hi Folks! The internet has decided to cooperate, finally. (1 am Friday morning) anyhoo...
So, I'm adding in the padding for the goldwork. This is simply Pellon craft interfacing (non-fusible and non-woven) I drew my circles on it, using a template, and fine tipped marker. And then cut them out with an exacto knife. Very simple. Stitching them down with a an easy couching stitch.

Remember in the last installment, I mentioned that I'd need to stitch from the back. On the right of the circle, you can see where I had to stitch from the back to find the edge of the design. Then I simply trimmed away the excess with a pair of embroidery scissors.


And here's the piece with most of the padding attached.

The next installment will show the goldwork, it's similar to Or Nue, done with one color, over padding.

Until then, Happy Stitching!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Sorry about the delay in posting, there's been wonky internet here. Seems to be fixed though. Also, the weather has gotten really nice. And here we go...


Hi folks! Today's post is about starting a project. I'm beginning a new brooch/pendant, and I thought it might be interesting to see how it all comes together.

This time I'm using a hoop instead of a frame. I wanted to have a piece that felt portable, and small, rather than large and stationary (I also thought this might be a little easier on my back, which has been well agravated this weekend)

I'm showing the back since I wanted to show that indeed I do wrap my hoops, it adds a nice bit of tension and grip to the hoop. It greatly improves even the crummiest of hoops. I also replaced the thumbscrew with a longer one to accomadate the added padding, it's a simple change but it makes the hoop a lot nicer to use. I didn't wrap the outer hoop because that felt like overkill. However, this project may need it, we'll see as I go along.

I'm just using basic cotton muslin as the ground fabric. It's rugged enough, and none of it will show on the final product so I have no problem with it. It's also a wide enough weave that the technique I'm using will work well. Other projects might have a tighter weave of cotton, or wool, it depends on what I'm doing of course (and what's right at hand on the desk. Not that that's a deciding factor or anything, really.)


 I like using tissue paper (standard gift wrapping tissue, buy the cheap stuff, it works better) to transfer a detailed design. I don't have to worry about the grain of the fabric, or running of ink, or anything like that.

  



 I'm just using a very small backstitch to transfer the design. Sometimes I use split stitch, or a running stitch. This time I wanted the back to look as much like the front as possible, in case I needed to find the edge from the backside of the fabric. (This does happen, and on this project I'm pretty sure I'll need to do that)


 


I'll post the next segment as the internet permits. 
Happy Stitching!