The Crafty Writer

Posts Tagged ‘Woodland Enchantress’

New frames and framing pictures

Some good news this week I finally framed Woodland Enchantress.  I found a place online which had just the type of frame I wanted which was a relief after the local framer I used closed down and relocated out of town.  I’ve framed my own work before so that isn’t so daunting for me and with the hard work of the frame made and the mount cut it’s just a matter of putting it all together. Grumpy Cat got shut out of the room as the picture was put inside the frame and then taken out again to remove the bit of fur that had still managed to find it’s way in.  Eventually the job was done and the finished picture finally hanging on my wall.

This week was also a week spent on Train of Dreams.  I’m having so much fun stitching this design but as the fabric is nearly 32 inches wide I had been stitching using q-snaps rather than the scroll frames I usually use.  But as a special treat and early birthday present I got a millenium frame from needleneeds, apart from being one of the few places where I could get a frame over 30 inches they also have stretcher side bars which are an excellent way to get the fabric tension just right.  They are also lovely and solid but you do need to use a stand of some sort because it would be too heavy to use any other way (the bars are 36 inches).  It took a little bit of getting used to but it does mean that I can now get back to stitching two-handed.  I could also think about parking on this one as well as Fairy Tales but I’m not so sure because I enjoy working on each individual element at a time and I don’t think the parking would really let me do that.

At first I didn’t think I was making much progress with the Train this week but I’ve done a lot more than I thought I had.  It’s so difficult to put it away at the end of it’s rotation but in a way I’m looking forward to spending some time back with the sunflowers next week.

Finally Finished

It has been a little while since I finished the main stitching of Woodland Enchantress, I needed a bit of a break from her before I got to work on the actual finishing.  It’s funny how I can happily spend weeks and months working on a cross stitch but as soon as I get to the backstitch all the patience I have goes out of the window and there is nothing left but the urge for it to be finished … NOW.

In my head I knew that this one was not going to be quick to finish so I deliberately left it until I had a bit of time off work so I could settle down and get it done with little in the way on interruptions.  Four days it’s taken but finally I am there, tonight Woodland Enchantress joins the waiting to be framed pile.  The backstitch wasn’t too bad, a little difficult to see in places which mostly made it annoying.  Couching was something new for me and not difficult although I did adapt the pattern slightly leaving some bits out as they seemed too squashed in.  Lots of french knots on the head-dress part – I don’t like french knots and there’s a couple of dodgy looking ones in there.  There’s also some beads but I’ve done lots of beadwork before so I can get that done pretty quickly.  I left out the french knots which are meant to be falling snow part of it may have been my dislike of french knots, or it may have been that I wanted to get it finished but the reason I’m sticking with is that I just didn’t like what they did to the picture; personally I think it looks better without them and it’s my wall the picture is going on – when I get it framed that is.

My next project is to finished the Enchanter, not much to go on him now I’m on the bottom part of the frame so when that’s done it’s a quick wash and then more backstitch and beads.  I’m also getting everything prepared to start on a Heaven and Earth Designs quickstitch, that one is going to take some time to do but at least it doesn’t have any backstitch.

New pictures

Finally a picture of Woodland enchantress mostly done; just the finishing bits to do now, backstitch, beading, french knots and couching.  I did give it a bit of a gentle wash which brought the stitches back to plumpness after being squashed on the frame for a while but it’s all dry now and waiting for me to have a bit of time that I can sit down and do as much of the finishing as possible on the one day.  Got some time off work soon so I’ll save it for then.

Now though I’ve gone onto The Enchanter, well I should say gone back to, I don’t have too much to do on this one to get it finished as I’m about halfway through the border and I’ve already stitched and backstitched the main picture.

The stitching itself got a bit dusty while it wasn’t being done but I’ve got my fingers crossed that a good soak once it’s finished will get it looking as good as new.  This one has a lot of fractional stitches which I don’t mind when I’m working on evenweave, my only problem is not seeing them on the pattern properly and forgetting to put them in.  I wonder if I’ll be able to get it finished by the end of the year?

The end is in sight

After a break from stitching to recover from my cold here’s a picture of it mostly done which is now out of date.

Yes I have finally finished the main stitching for Woodland Enchantress, as you can see from the picture I was pretty close to getting the last few stitches in anyway.  But it isn’t fully completed yet, just backstitch, couching (never done before), beading and the dreaded french knots to do; first though I’m going to take a break.  A lot of the couching is done with metallic threads and I don’t like to wash my work once metallics have been put on, I’ve also got some time off work coming up so I’m planning to use a whole day of that to get the finishing touches done.

In the meantime I’ve gone back to my UFO (UnFinished Object) The Enchanter – bit of a magic theme going on here – he’s be sitting unfinished for a while and I’ve only got the border to do, well I’ve only got half the border to do.  Lesson learnt over the weekend, make sure everything is put away, my poor enchanter has quite literally been gathering dust and either I used the wrong colours completely or the white and light grey have both morphed into a sort of peach colour.  When I got back into stiching again I made myself some bags to put my sewing frames in – nothing spectacular just some curtain lining (very) roughly machine stitched along two sides and with some corded rope put in at the top so I can pull it closed.  The lining is coated with something on one side, I think to keep the light out, because it isn’t regular fabric it’s very good at not attracting dust and cat hair so it makes a very good inside for the bag.  I had an idea of decorating it with small pictures that you get on magazines but I’ve been spending most of my time on big pictures since then.