Answer #1 - Cutting in Hardanger

Carla asked:
"I will be doing some fancy stitching on TW's "Tea Scene" that requires some cutting, I would really like to see how you have figured this out please."


Carla,

Hopefully, the pattern has lines indicating where you should cut the threads.  For the actual cutting, you'll want some small, sharp scissors that will fit easily in the holes of the fabric.  I think the scissors that I use are manicure scissors.  If there is a lot of cutting, like on the photo below, you will need to take a break because your hands will probably start to ache.  Well, at least my hands did.  I have fairly large hands and those are such tiny scissors, my hands hurt from holding the scissors rather than the actual cutting.

For a good tutorial on Hardanger, you can go here.  There is a great diagram showing where the cutting lines should be. 

Here is one of my completed projects that has quite a bit of cutting in it:

This pattern is from the booked Stitched Elegance: Enhanced with Hardanger from Stoney Creek.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

La Belle Dame...progress photo

Another page bites the dust!  Having this as my focus piece is very cool.  Watching this come to life is fascinating.  Since it is my focus piece, I'm getting to see progress much more quickly!

Here's a picture after finishing page 12:

The knight now has part of his arm!  Poor guy has to wait until my next rotation to get any more of his body done.  Don't forget, if you click on the photo, you can view a much larger version!

Up next in my rotation:  The Sistine Chapel.

Oh, look for the start of my "Answer" series probably later today.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Questions?

Hi Everyone!

I've been reading through the comments on some of my previous posts and was wondering if anyone had any questions they would like to ask me about my stitching?

I know there are already a couple:  one about how I handle my rotation, and another about doing the cutting in Hardanger.

All of my readers have been so lovely to me, I thought I'd try to "give back" by sharing any information that I can about our shared crafts.

Anyone who wants to submit a question for me can email me or just post it as a comment.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

God Speed WIP photo

After finishing a page on La Belle Dame Sans Merci, the Random Master app (iOS) chose God Speed as my next project.

I just finished page 6 which is the leftmost page on the 2nd row - on the large print version anyway.  Why I have this one in large print is beyond me.  All my other HAED charts are regular print.  Because this one is large print, there are 5 full and 1 partial row of pages top to bottom.  That means I still have quite a bit to do!

Here's my latest progress photo.  The top edge of stitches are actually rolled up on the scroll frame so that's why the top isn't all there.

Since I've finished a page on this, that means it was time to switch back to my focus piece:  La Belle Dame.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Mystery Band Sampler?

I'm thinking of having a mystery band sampler SAL.  It's my own design and I would offer it in your choice of at least 4 colorways.

Right now, I'm thinking $10US to participate.  I would set up a closed Facebook group where I would release each band (probably two) once a week.  By doing it in a FB group, I would be easier able to answer any questions that might arise or just give pointers.

I'd like to know what you think.  Please leave a comment if you would be interested.  Also, if you have a stitching blog, feel free to share this post.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Apps for Stitching

I thought I'd share what apps I use that are related to stitching.  All of these particular apps are for Apple (iPad).

For keeping track of my floss, I use XStitcher .  I've already done a review of this app along with ThreadTracker117.  You can read that review here.

Update to the review:  On XStitcher, specialty threads now include Anchor, Gentle Art Sampler Threads (GAST) and Week's Dye Works (WDW).

To keep track of my charts, I use Itemizer.

Itemizer lets you create your own template for what information you want to include.  At the moment, I mainly have just the patterns that I want to do in magazines listed.  For each pattern, I have this information available:

• Name of the pattern
• Category:  Christmas, floral, seasonal, etc.
• Type:  Book, kit, magazine, etc.
• Magazine:  name of the magazine or book - I leave it blank if it's a kit or purchased chart
• Issue:  month and year - blank if it's not in a magazine
• Width:  stitch count
• Height:  stitch count

Once that information has been added, I can use the iPad camera to take a photo of the project for additional reference.

The app has a number of different ways that the patterns can be sorted.  Any of the 7 fields above can be selected for sorting.  If I have a narrow set of scroll frames available, I could choose to sort by Width to find a pattern that would fit them.

You can also view with just thumbnails and the details or with a split screen:  larger images at the top and the list below.

To choose what's next in my rotation, I use Random Master.

I do have a little bit of structure in my rotation.  I choose one project to be my "focus" piece.  That project gets worked on every other time.  Currently, it is La Belle Dame Sans Merci.  For the projects in between, I let Random Master do the choosing.  All I had to do was create a WIP list and then have it choose a Random Item.  Because it's my focus, La Belle... is not in the WIP list.

Random Master does have other options as well:  Random number generator, random dice, or random letter.  For stitching, I don't use these.

I also have Print Paper which lets you print lined, graph and music papers.  This one cost me 99¢.  I don't think I'll be using it much.  I does have 2 different graph papers but there are no options for modifying any of the papers.  I'd love to be able to say 14 squares to the inch for example, but it doesn't let me.

Other stitches

Hi All!

If you're like me, your obsession passion for cross stitch has lead you to attempt stitches other than the basic X.  For me, it's because I've developed an addiction fondness for band samplers.  Some of these stitches seem may seem too difficult to even contemplate attempting.  Believe me, they're not!  Here are some of them that I've heard complaints about:

• French Knots.  This has to be the one I see the most complaints about.  They're not really that difficult.  I can do them just fine but I don't.  Why?  Because I've found the colonial knot to be even easier and it produces more uniform results.  Here's a YouTube video on the colonial knot.
• Lazy Daisies.  These are actually rather fun to do and look so cool.  Here's a great video on the lazy daisy.
• Backstitch.  I'm sorry, this one is easy but so tedious.  The finished effort does make it worth doing (sigh).
• Hardanger.  This is more of an embroidery style than a single stitch.  What really intimidates people with this is cutting the fabric.  Yes, making that first cut is scary!  I follow the rule of quadruple-check where you are supposed to cut before you actually do!  Once you've made the first cut, I'd love to say that it's easy going.  It's not, depending on the pattern.  The ones that I've done have required a lot of cutting.  The where becomes second nature.  The doing it becomes really tiring on the hands.

I hope this post helps with some of the non-X stitches.  If you have a stitch you don't like or are afraid to attempt, post it in the comments and I'll see about doing an expanded post.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy