Heaps of Hearts!

The Sweetheart Tree hearts have been completed! I finished stitching Bloomin' Tulips on Sunday and completed all of the beading on Monday. I cursed the invisible thread a few times, but it was a mainly painless process.

Sweet Clover Heart

I actually finished this heart, beading & all, in Cambodia last year.

In all of the other hearts, I changed the DMC Ecru & Perle Ecru to DMC 3823 & Perle 3823; naturally, I had to return to this piece, frog the Perle Ecru and replace it with Perle 3823 so that it would match the other hearts.


Comparing the two colors, I preferred the Ecru, but it wasn't as visible, and, as I said, it didn't fit in with the group. I'm still pleased with how it turned out.

Lavender Blossoms Heart

There be beads, I swear! They're just pale and not too visible.

I think this one might be my favorite. I love the colors, the specialty stitches, the whole arrangement of the piece.


Blueberry Heart

DH & my dad like this one the best. My dad likes the blackwork, and DH likes the colors.








Caché Heart

This pattern came in a kit. A not-put-together-so-well kit. The colors of the floss weren't labeled; there was an extra shade of green and an extra shade of purple; and of the three pieces of ecru, one was a completely different shade.

The finished product is gorgeous (I love how Scotch stitches look), but I found this to be the most frustrating of the hearts due to the kitting issues.

I've never seen or done this lattice stitch before; I think it's beautiful, and it's really easy.








Bloomin' Tulips Heart

Last but not least- tulips! I like how this one incorporates at least one stitch each from the other hearts. I didn't do that on purpose, but I'll certainly take credit for it!




Now, what to do, what to do with it? I was thinking about giving it to my mom for Mother's Day. I can't afford to have it framed, and I don't know how to make a wall hanging. I am not good with the sewing machine, and there's no way I'm handstitching something that long! Oh, well, I've got two months to decide, right??

Best Stitches & Wishes,

Cleaning Embroidery Fabric

I'll confess: I'm an evenweave snob. Linen's unevenness annoys me, and Aida is difficult to do half and quarter stitches on. That's not to say that I don't stitch on Aida or linen, just that evenweave is my default fabric.

Despite this, I have no idea how to clean embroidery fabric. This became very apparent when I took my Around the World SAL off of my Q-snaps to find that said Q-snaps had left a light green streak on the fabric.

Color me AAAAAAHHHH! Oh, how disappointed I was in my Q-snaps that have served me so faithfully for years! There was a green streak left on Baby Carriage when I finished it, but I covered it up when I made the no-sew cube and didn't think twice about it. That was a mistake.

Blue streak on 3rd Baby Carriage

Blue streak on Merry Christmas Needleroll

My immediate solution was to buy cotton fabric and cut it into pieces that would fit between the clamps on my Q-snaps and the embroidery fabric.

 
But I was still left with the problem of that green streak. Joy dish soap was recommended, which I tried; the streak faded, but it's still there. Orvus Quilt Soap was also recommended, but none of the stores in town sell it. So I believe that I will take a deep breath, accept the faded streak, and soldier on.

After the Great Freak Out Regarding my Fabric, I did manage to finish Lavender Blossoms by The Sweetheart Tree, albeit without the beading.

Blueberry Heart, also by The Sweetheart Tree, was next in the wall-hanging-to-be. I swapped out the DMC White and Pearl White for Kreinik 001P and DMC 3823. Again, no beading yet.

Blueberry Heart is a simple design and easy to stitch. Lavender Blossoms, though not exactly difficult, was a bit complicated, so Blueberry was a welcome, relaxing change from that.

Baby Carriage was made into a no-sew cube and sent to its new home in D.C.

I finally got up the courage to start working on Lily of the Valley again. I put in about 240 stitches in 2010; now there are 1,002 stitches. Slow and steady finishes the HAED!

Best Stitches & Wishes,

Backstitching: A Love-Hate Relationship

It's a complaint I often hear from stitchers: I hate backstitching!!!

I can certainly sympathize; I often find myself growling at a needle that keeps splitting stitches or moaning that it's plain boring. But every once in a while I find myself backstitching and enjoying it.

How could I like a thing that is universally derided in the stitching world? The answer has finally dawned on me: the type of backstitching makes all the difference.

Take the above piece, Lavender Blossoms Heart by The Sweetheart Tree, as an example.  The stitcher is required to backstitch through an area that has already been cross stitched. While there's no doubt that the backstitching truly enhances this work, I loathe it. I moan and groan and curse the designers who think that I would want to spend my precious free time torturing myself in such a manner. And then I finish the backstitching and bless the aforementioned designers for their beautiful patterns. (No, designers, you just can't win!)

Now take this piece of work: Blueberry Heart by The Sweetheart Tree.

In this piece, the backstitching is the design, so there's no need to stick a needle into a hole that eight threads have already taken up home in. It's simple and pleasant with a beautiful result. Even the backstitching near the cross stitched blueberries is mere outlining, which isn't complicated. This is the kind of backstitching that I like; I find it very relaxing.

The outcomes in both kinds of backstitching are gorgeous, but I don't think I will ever be convinced to like the first type of backstitching- it's just too frustrating for me!

 Speaking of backstitching, I had to make a change to my Around the World SAL. There is a section in Part I that calls for backstitching around some ray stitches and Norwich stitches. The backstitching color was meant to be Flower Color #6: light yellow in my scheme. However, since the ray stitches were metallic brown and the Norwich stitches dark yellow, this color combination was...

...this.

Revolting, no? So I switched the backstitching to Floral Color #7, which is dark brown in my piece.

Sweet relief!

I sewed up my first needleroll- Merry Christmas by Down Sunshine Lane. It's much skinnier than I expected, but I'm still pleased since it was my first.

Finally, the winner of my giveaway! Please give a loud congratulations to...

Tracy!

Congratulations! Please email me at Anne.Sans.Tete@gmail.com with your address, and I will send you the Pretty Pinks frogging needle & scissor fob set.

The mistake in the Around the World SAL? The Lazy Daisy flower on the left was off by a half of a stitch! It's been frogged.

Best Stitches & Wishes,