Back to business after the excitement of launching the new site. I haven’t had time to do much sewing recently, but I have finished off the Plantagenet Wreath. With it cut out, I needed to stitch it onto the background fabric, which is a dark red cotton velvet. I did take photos of this as…
Category: Stretching and mounting embroidery
‘Jungle Book’ slip case – getting set up
With the design drawn up, time to get started. First, and as usual, I made a transfer of the design, ironed this onto some fine linen, and used this to line the fabric that I’m using for the front: I’m using a silk dupion in a shade called ‘Laurel Leaf’ from Hansson of Guildford. They…
Red bat – stretching and mounting the embroidery
I want to get this framed, but I’ll mount it onto card myself before taking it to the framer. No surprises here but the usual routine. Damp stretching: Cutting some mount board to the right size (20cm x 20cm, or 8″ x 8″): Sticking some wadding to it with 505 fabric spray glue: Stretching the…
Apple tree fire screen – stretching and mounting
I dismantled the fire screen, putting the old embroidery away, and giving the frame a good clean. There was already a board cut to size for the embroidery to go round, having been used for the old one, so no need to get anything else. The old one was glazed, but I don’t want this…
St Cuthbert’s Flowers: everything else
Apologies for not having posted anything in ages, but I’m back now. Even if I wasn’t blogging I was sewing, and have finished the St Cuthbert’s Flowers panel. As I’ve kept you waiting far too long already I won’t drag it out any further – this post will cover the rest of the project to…
Lindisfarne Beasts: completed
The embroidery was already finished, but to finish the piece I needed to do a few more final bits and pieces. I first damp stretched it, to get it nice and wrinkle-free: I’ve had a frame in mind for this from that start, and had made sure that the piece of linen I was using…
Earth mini: finishing off
The front was completed, but I wanted to put a small Awen design on the back, just to finish it off: This was worked in gold chain stitch and filled in with split stitch, in the same way as the front, and using Madeira stranded cotton in a pale green shade to match the colour…
Setting up the final panel
The last lap, panel-wise. The final thing to do is to get all the embroidered flowers onto the background fabric, then do the goldwork. So, to get things underway, I marked out the design with a reference grid: Mounted the background fabric onto my big frame, and marked out a corresponding grid on it with…
Starting the left panel
Starting to put it together, that is, as the flowers are all embroidered. They did need to be damp stretched, though. Here they are, all pinned out ready to be dampened: Now they’re all beautifully flat, I can cut them up. It almost seems a shame, doesn’t it! It’ll be worth it, though, as the…
Preparing the panel
Now all the flowers are done, they need to be applied to the background fabric, but before I can do that, I need to get this ready. I also need a means of ensuring that I put the flowers on in the right place. As both of these are part of the same process, I’ll…