I have a finish! Last week I finished Lizzie Kate’s 3 Little Words: Never Give Up. It’s actually a very quick stitch, but I worked on small chunks in between my two SAL rotations, plus I picked up some new starts along the way. I stitched this pattern on 32 count Lambswool Linen and used a mix of the called for hand dyed floss and DMC.
It’s so pretty! I was worried about some of the larger slubs in the linen, but you can’t even see where they are on the finished piece. When I bought this pattern, it was suppose to come with a tiny olive round button for the birdhouse, but it was missing and I didn’t know when I made my purchase. So I purchased this little heart button from my LNS and am happier with the heart hole versus a round hole for the birdhouse. I also love the subtle variegation of the flower.
Last night I stayed up late for #xssleepover and decided to fully finish my piece! XStitch Sleepover was hosted by Theresa Venette aka Kitten Stitcher. It was an opportunity for stitchers all over the world to have a stitching “sleepover” and to post pictures on Facebook and Instagram. Alone or with friends, the stitching community was getting together via social media to have fun and do what they love! I love Theresa’s flosstube channel as I’m always learning something new! She designs reproduction samplers which are always fascinating to see and learn about. I hope one day to stitch one.
On to the finishing! Of course, I had been studying Vonna Pfeiffer’s tutorials from her blog and on Flosstube. She’s amazing at finishing cross stitch and she offers a finishing service for a living. How kind of her to provide tutorials on how to finish for ourselves!
I decided on a flat ornament as the idea was to hang it on my door to my sewing room. Where else do I face such challenging projects where a little motivation is what I need from time to time! I was also torn on which fabric to use as the backing. I had two matching pinkish purple fabrics that I wanted to use. With the help of some friends on instagram, I decided to use both. This isn’t a tutorial, but I wanted to share the resources I followed and some tips I learned along the way.
Tutorials:
Here I was trying to decided on which fabric to back the stitching with and which fabric to be the main backing. I decided on the left:
After cutting my piece down to size, I decided to use a basting method, 1/4″ away from the stitching to mark my edge. This isn’t on the tutorials I listed above, but I’d seen someone do this on instagram and I thought it was a fantastic idea to ensure your piece is straight on. Once it’s all glued together, you can snip and remove the basting stitches. My linen was very stiff and the glue would not hold down my corners. Here, I used wonder clips to hold them in place while I covered the other mat boards with fabric. Once I was ready to glue the layers together, the clips were removed and my corners were staying put.
With a thin matching ribbon, I attached my hanger in between the two fabric boards and I was done!
Tips: The last board with the poka dot fabric, I used the Just CrossStitch tutorial and machine sewed this cover so it was seamless on front and back. I used a ladder stitch to close the bottom after inserting my matboard. To ensure all layers were straight, I used the wonder clips on all corners as a guide after measuring the margins with a sewing gauge. I covered my finished project with a towel and placed a book on top to allow everything to dry and set flat.
Fabric used: Penny Rose Fabrics Hope Chest (Dot) and Moda Fabrics Rustic Weave (solid)
Also during #xssleepover, I made myself some needleminders! I was having a very crafty night 😀
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