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Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
Tutorial - Framing your work in a flexi-frame
Ever wanted to frame your own piece in a plastic flexi-frame, but lacked the know how and confidence to do it? I hope this series of photos will help you to have a go. By all means, try it out on a spare piece of fabric first if you're afraid to spoil your work, but it's quite straightforward, so I doubt you'll run into any real difficulties.
Flexi-frames can be the ideal solution to mounting a small piece without spending a fortune on professional framing. They tend to come in a few sizes of oval and circle and even in a few colours, although the wood effect one seems to be the most commonly available, followed by the black ones. On the back of the label I found the instructions on how to use it and, whilst following them, I took these photos to share with you, especially as several of the other frames in my basket have no instructions on them and you may also have one that you would love to use if you only knew how....
Take your finished embroidery out of its working frame and, if needed and desired, press it from the back onto a soft towel. Next, after having checked the size using the inner part of the frame and leaving a good inch (up to 3cm) to work with, trim your fabric to shape. As you may be able to make out on the photo here, I drew a light pencil line where I wanted the inner frame to finally be.
Thread a needle with strong sewing thread and work running stitches all the way around the shape about half an inch (just over 1cm) from the edge. Don't finish or knot off the thread, leave it loose.
Place the inner part of the frame onto the back of your work, taking care to position it well (on your pencil outline, if you've drawn one), and begin to draw up the stitches, spreading and evening them out as best you can.
Secure the gathering thread well by tying several good knots and trim off the end of the thread.
Next comes lacing which really stretches your piece and leaves a completely smooth finish. Using a strong thread (I often use a pearl cotton shade that I don't often use for actual embroidery, although I didn't this time) in the end of which you've tied a secure knot that won't slip through your fabric, begin to lace across the piece, pulling each stitch as tight as you reasonably can.
I usually start in the middle and then work towards each edge. You'll probably need more than one length of thread and do cut long threads each time as it soon uses up.
Repeat the process lengthways.
And here's the view from the front after the lacing has been completed - nicely smooth and tight over the inner frame. Don't worry about any tiny bulges at the edges, (such as you can see here at the right hand side/bottom of the piece), as they will be covered by the outer frame.
Two whole stages in one here, as I forgot to take a picture part way through - whoops! Snap on the outer frame from the front, making sure you have the hanging hook part in the right place. Finally, cut a piece of felt to match the size and sew that onto the back to hide and protect the back of the work.
And that's it! Here's the finished thing modelled hanging in our hall way. It's now in Oxford in the home of a sweet 82 year old Japanese friend.=)
A good hour's work, wouldn't you say? Please feel free to share your successes and experiences with this type of frame in the comments section. Links to your work are very welcome.=)
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
Work in Progress Wednesday - 24 July 2013
Just a little bit of work on the sampler to report back on today. As you can see, I've done a couple of sessions of inserting the purple roses into the spaces in all the greenery. I haven't got a great deal done owing to a few social engagements and another jolly old virus! These two photos are rather like those 'spot the difference' quizzes, aren't they??
Sometimes I really do wonder how long it's going to take to finish this piece. I seem to have started it back in early April last year, I posted my first WIP report on the 9th of that month and have fidgeted with it during breaks from other projects since then. I suppose that's part of the key - crack on with it instead of letting other things push it out of the way, but I *want* to start something new now! Look at these:
They're from Helen M Stevens' 'Embroidered Gardens' (the same book as the lovely pool design in my last post) and I confess to being most tempted to have a go at one or both. I was even considering how I could turn the white cat picture into a raised work piece!! I haven't done an animal for a long time and these are just so much simpler than the first one I did - a large, thread painted dog! I think I can manage to embroider from the sketch above, esp. using the embroidery photo as a guide.
Then I found these in some of her older books:
I especially like the second one, although the blue butterflies in the first are most attractive. Maybe I could combine the two concepts into one piece. What would you say?
Anyway, I thought I'd try and set some needlecraft goals for the next month and a bit and see how I get on with them.
* Complete all the surface work on the sampler (i.e. sampler then about 75-80% complete)
* Complete all the remaining mending tasks
* Put in from 30-60 minutes per week on the peacock feather piece
* Order more Pipers silks and a storage box for them (not the hardest item on the list!!)
* Make a start on one of the HMS designs
That seems achievable, health permitting, so let's see how it works out! The sampler and the feather will continue to feature in this WIPW series, the cat(s) will be separate, as will those glorious silks when they come and I also hope to share one or two other articles.
What are your stitching plans for the rest of the (northern) summer?
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
Retake: 'Ornamental Pool' piece
Fans of hers will immediately recognise Helen M Stevens' wonderful 'Ornamental Pool' design from the book 'Embroidered Gardens'. I worked this for my in-laws for their 20th wedding anniversary, but never got a really good photo of the finished item. We took the original pictures in over-bright sunlight and the end result wasn't as distinct as it could have been. So, I took the chance whilst over at their place earlier this month of getting it down off the wall and getting some better photos for my own enjoyment.
As you can see, it had never been properly stretched as MIL did it herself rather than having a pro do it (which was both a shame for the finished result and good in that it was easier for Sir to remove the glass for photography!!), so there are some 'waves' showing in the fabric, esp. the top half. However, try to ignore that and see if you don't love this masterful design as much as I did.=)
Here are some detail photos of various parts:
To be honest, the light was still a little too bright, but, for the first time that I can remember, I reduced the brightness on Photoshop Elements and then increased the contrast slightly and sharpened some shots a little. Have you ever had to do this?
I'm quite pleased with the results and will have to remember to try that again when something looks rather bleached out.
By the way, have you updated your RSS reader links to Sew in Love? I noticed on the last day of Google Reader's 'life' that I had 591 subscribers on there. Imagine how desperately gutted I was to see only 124 when I checked on Feedly today...=( So, don't forget to update your feeds so you can keep up to date with what's happening in my textiles world. I'm hoping to make it well worth your while over the months to come, and feel free to make reader requests too as I'd like to know what you like to read and see.
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
Work in Progress Wednesday - 17 July 2013
It's been a long time since I was able to post to this challenge as, up to this month, I hadn't worked on my sampler since mid February and didn't want to include my three recent stumpwork pieces in it. The photo above is the last one I posted a few months ago.
I was hoping to get quite a bit of work done on it whilst I was away in Germany earlier this month, but as so often happens when I'm away, I didn't get much stitching done at all. In fact, I only got to replace the first three of the five words here:
I'd long felt that the purple just didn't 'go' here and so the first thing I wanted to do was to replace it with green. Got that done just this afternoon and I think it looks SO much better than the purple did. Although it was a nuisance to unpick and restitch a section, I think it was really worth the time and effort.
After that was done, I moved onto working on the final part of the pale green scrolling and the green part of the cross stitch pattern in the bottom left hand corner.
And that's as far as I've got so far, but I'm delighted that it's back in progress and moving on towards completion again. Here's the whole piece as it is at the moment:
I hope to have more to share with you about this time next week and to keep up with the Work in Progress Wednesday reports as regularly as I can until both this piece and the old peacock feather are done.=) The next part to do is to fill the flowers in the gaps in the green sections at the bottom and insert the lower 'V' shaped scroll part, which is just like the one near the top, but without the large leaf motifs.
What have YOU been working on lately??
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
Finishing up a cross stitch bookmark
First of all, finger press in about an inch (up to 3cm) of waste fabric at each end of the design. Make sure that the two ends are equal on the front (assuming that's the effect you want to create, of course!)
Using a sewing thread that matches your Aida band colour as closely as you can manage, make a few discreet stitches along the outside edge. Try to make them between the insides of the two edges so that the stitches don't show on the front. You can do this by catching the long stitches on the inner edge of the Aida band and joining them together.There's no need to make any stitches along the straight edge and it's often better not to so as not to risk anything showing. Also, the edge of the fabric will almost certainly fray, so stitches are no real use here.
Still using the thread that matches the Aida band (in case you slip up and sew through, although you could use one that matches the felt instead, if you preferred), sew the two pieces together, again taking care to catch the long stitches on the band so that they don't show on the front. And here's the (back of) the finished item:
I hope that's been useful! If you use this tute (or part of it), please leave a link in the comments section to where we can admire a photo of your lovely new bookmark.=)
PS, I have some stitching patterns going for sale on e-bay just now, all with international shipping options, (I think!). Click here for details.
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
Four Matching Bookmarks
So, what do you think of these? Four assisi bookmarks worked to an identical pattern, but in four totally different colourways. Two were for men and two for women - two couples.
There's quite a lot of variety in them, isn't there? One thing that really struck me was the variation in size of the actual design, even though they were all worked on 16 count Aida band. Perhaps it doesn't show as well here as it did to me in real life, but there was a good centimetre difference (just under half an inch) between the green/cream one and the red/white one.
Now that our busy month (including Sir's trip to Romania and our joint one to Germany) is behind us, I can now get down to some serious stitchery and blogging! Stay tuned as my next post will be a photo tutorial showing how to put together one of these bookmarks once your stitching is complete. It's a simple process, but might be helpful to some who are new to the idea or who aren't confident with finishing things up into completed items.
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
