Erica's Stitches

I haven't done much of anything stitch related all week.  I've been overwhelmingly tired every evening.  My head and hands hurt and I'm afraid of making mistakes and having to undo everything I tried to do. I'm incapable of doing nothing so instead of present projects, I'm looking towards future projects.  I doodled on graph paper.  If I make a mistake with magic markers it's easy to start again (and I made lots of mistakes which justified my decision).  I also looked for a new stitching project and found a hand-painted canvas that I had forgotten about.  One evening was spent going through all my threads. I've gotten the canvas mounted on stretcher bars and 5 different baggies of threads (one bag for each different area of the the canvas). I'm hoping for quiet time in the next few weeks to get rested and finish up the projects that I have going.  I have to finish them because I'm getting excited about stitching on this can...

I recently posted pictures of my Striped Heart and Purple Mountain Majesties. Both are made with strips of wool appliqued down with embroidery.  It seemed like a good idea, but I didn't know how it would turn out. I made the heart first and used some painted aida cloth and multi-colored floss.  Then I added beads to fill in the gaps.  The whole stitching process went smoothly. When I went to finish it the aida was difficult to work with - hearts are a difficult shape with both inward and outward points and aida doesn't ease well.  I had liked the idea of the paint showing through but when I finished you could barely see it. So, I tried something different the next time around. I used needlepoint canvas.  I managed to completely cover it so none of the canvas was visible.  I liked working on the stiffer fabric.  But, sometimes I wanted to split the thread and other times I didn't so I was constantly switching between a tapestry needle...

A few months ago I was given a box of frames which I'm ashamed to admit that I've ignored.  Not anymore!  I've dusted off the spiderwebs and have inspected them all. Some are purchased and made of plastic or unfinished wood and are of a standard size.  However, many of them are handmade in strange sizes. Here are some of my favorites.  Now instead of designing something and then deciding on how to finish or frame it I can now turn the process upside-down and try to design something for the frames. But first, I went to the drawer where I keep stitched items that have been completed but not framed or finished.  Some of these I've been meaning to finish for years.  The bad news is that none of the frames fit the two older, bigger samplers I did the longest time ago.  The good news is that I know what sized frames to search for in the future.  One frame does suit a piece I completed a few years ago.  It was pur...

I've been stitching paper Easter Eggs as fast as I can.  Which, actually hasn't been very fast these last three weeks.  I can barely find any time but the deadline is looming. I have one more eggs to go and then I'll be done stitching, that is.  They will still need to be finished.  Hopefully then can be revealed next weekend. I can report that the painted peforated paper experiment has been a success.  The paint does not want to come off the paper and there is really no difference stitching on it or unpainted paper.  I have many ideas for this technique.  First, I'd love to drop everything else and paint a simple landscape and then stitch on the details.  But, then I won't finish my eggs!

My friend Pat just went through a few months worth of this blog and asked me "How do you make those snowflakes?" For me, they are easy, so I thought that I'd demonstrate.  Since, spring is coming, I thought I'd use brightly colored origami paper and try to make the snowflakes look more like flowers. First, you start with a square of paper and fold it in half and then in half again.  Pay attention to where the center of the paper is and then fold diagonally going through the center corner. At this point I pick up the paper being sure to hold it at the center.  If you start at the wrong corner you won't end up with a snowflake - just pieces of paper. The two sides radiating from this corner will become the spines of the snowflake.  You need to cut a random pattern into the third side (a very fancy V) making sure you don't cut the two sides coming from the center. Now, you may cut off a piece of the center and pieces along the two sides.  These will...

Here are some of the ingredients for my next project ... I painted the aida cloth over 10 years ago, I think.  This is the back of the fabric. The front is a little too much for this project. The back is more faded and watercolor-like. The stripes are some Kool-Aid Dyed wool - grape and watermelon/cherry. The thread came from the yarn shop (after yesterday's post you will question why I was in a yarn shop, but it happens)  They have a basket of yarn samples that I like to rummage through.  I'm not sure of the fiber content (most likely cotton or silk) but there are 5 threads twisted together and you can easily strip out one thread at a time and the colors are great.  I think it's going to be wonderful to stitch with. I may have to do some sleuthing to find out what it is because I think I want some more of it. Stay tuned to find out what I make with these ingredients ...

Yes, I've finally gone crazy and am trying to trace eggs!  I want to cross-stitch some Easter eggs and need to get a good egg outline. I started in the refrigerator with real eggs.  They were cold and I was afraid they would roll off table and land on the floor and make a mess.  Then I remembered plastic eggs and found them in a box in the closet.  The plastic eggs roll around too, but they do a lot less damage when they hit the floor.  It would be nice if the eggs came apart along the long half.  Then tracing would be easy. There is an art to tracing around the egg.  The angle of the pencil is key.  If you hold the pencil perfectly straight, the egg is huge and doesn't seem like the right shape.  For me, it worked best to have the tip of the pencil tipping in towards the egg.  Then you have to keep that angle consistent all the way around.  But, it's still hard to make the tracing symmetrical.  After several pages of ...

I've been making ornaments on perforated paper recently and I'm getting tired of white and brown.  I know you can get other colors, but I'm ready to try something different. Easter is coming and I'm thinking of tie-dyed easter eggs.  Yes, I could stitch with overdyed floss on white performated paper but why not switch things up and use a solid floss on a painted background? Some investigation is required to answer important questions: 1. How shiny is the perforated paper?  Will paint even stick to it? 2. If it is paintable, will the paper stay flat or will it all get wavy? 3. Will the paint come off on my hands while stitching? Well, only one way to find out ... do it! I pulled out my white perforated paper, basic school supply watercolors and experimented. The results are that yes, the paint does stick to the paper, the paper gets slightly wavy (but it is ironable) and it doesn't appear that it will transfer to my hands. My first attempt was a bit ...