My Third Needlework Class

I love the shop. It just a scoonch over 7 miles from the house, but it's nice & quiet, and they already have their base of clientele, and they just opened in March. But I was talking to one of the owners and the other one (her sister-in-law) used to have a shop by the same name in downtown Bloomington, but then her life got too busy (kids & whatnot) and then Michael's moved in, took a chunk of her clientele, and Joann Fabrics expanded..... But now a lot of needleworkers are not satisfied with Michael's offerings (4 aisle in the whole store dedicated to needlework, and that includes regular sewing, knitting/crochet, needlepoint, cross stitch, latch-hook rugs, not much there for us types... the rest of the store is framing, silk flowers, scrapbooking and a bazillion other crafts)... And Joanne's doesn't have much either so they decided to open back up. I am so glad they did! I have 3 more classes, all next month, and one is over two different days.

n news:C11AF59A.5E85F% snipped-for-privacy@adelphia.net, Cheryl Isaak purred:

That's for sure - at least IMHO. Like a true naif, my 2nd ever project was on 32 ct linen. It went to the hold pile after a while, and I did another on 28 ct evenweave instead. When I brought in the infamous pansies to the LNS here in VA (after getting it at my LNS in Albuquerque) the owner looked at me as if I was insane "what - this is your 2nd project???" It had lots of color changing and shadowing. 10 years later - I might finish it ;^) Talk about UFOs

For your hardanger - just be brave - and have really good scissors - that you don't use for cutting metal threads. I have some lovely pointy ginghers that have lasted about 10 years, as my Hardanger & cutwork scissors. Makes a difference getting the points in nice and close.

Happy stitchin' ellice

Hm. That may be *if* the project isn't washed before framing. In all my *many* years of stitching with a hoop (and I don't remove the hoop when not working on it, either), I have never had any piece with hoop marks in them after washing and ironing.

JM2CW :)

Joan

Joan - you're right about the hoop marks washing/ironing out. But, in the years that I've been doing framing - I've seen some that even the best framer couldn't make perfect after the fabric had been pulled "drum" tight. The marks are only an issue if you're not going to be able to wash the piece. However if the fabric is pulled too tight when you're stitching, in the extreme it won't lay evenly - even after being blocked/stretched. Better when we learn to stitch with even tension on fabric with even tension, or even in hand. Guess that was really my point.

As always - just my few cents, as well. ellice

Actually, this is not my "first" project. Been doing Xstitch for years, just never on linen fabric! Also, never on evenweave, either. I normally use a scroll frame for my work., and am careful when I have the fabric pulled tight to not make my stitches too tight. It's easy to not pull too hard when working on linen (or evenweave) as it has a tendancy to make the holes bigger... and yech!

Here is a picture of my (non-class-related) project

news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net,Magic Mood Jeep© purred:> Monday morning I dragged myself to (yet another) needlework class,> this one an intro to working with linen. The first hour was spend> talking about where linen comes from (the flax plant) and all the> different types, and there were tons of samples of them to pass> around. Then we got to work on a small project, on Zweigart's 28ct> cashel, natural in color. Project, for the most part, is worked 2> over 2, but a couple parts are one over one.> I've never worked on linen fabric before (but I did buy some of the> DMC linen floss, but I have yet to use it). I do have a current> project that is on 28ct cotton evenweave, but not on linen. It's> much stiffer than the evenweave, and it does look better than aida> when the project is completed.> Anyway, my current Xstitch project is on 28ct evenweave, 2 over 2, so> that's not a problem - I whizzed through that part of the class> project fairly quickly. Then came the one over one. That was the> part where I really needed my magnifier. But I did it!>

It's not done - about 1/4 left!!!

It looks like Marjolein Bastin and I agree--it's GAWJUSS!

It's neither. The packaging/paperwork say nothing of the original artist nor designer, but the pattern has on it that you are supposed to backsticth the name of the artist on it (I never do that, unless it's a Hummel design :D), and the way they have the backstitch lettering, it's hard to read, but it *looks* like "W Huenraets" to me.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Magic Mood Jeep© purred:

Just did a google sears - looks like it's Willem Haenreats. Originally a kit put out by Lanarte/Leisure Arts, now by Janlynn: