Cross-stitch cafe 2010

Ruth_honey

Morning all!
Thinking I might lock myself in the bedroom and stitch all day today. DH spotted a mouse in the living room last night (we'd gone 15 months without seeing one!) and I have no desire to spend the day catching glimpses-real or imaginary-of it all day. I *think* the bedroom is safe, although we know last time that the smaller mice managed to scrabble under the gap at the bottom of the door. I've put some old phone books against the door to block the gap, so unless something got in there before (shudder!), I should be ok to spend the day in there. Luckily I have lots of Law & Order SVU on the Sky+ to watch too, so I'm off to have a duvet day. Really should take a Lemsip in with me as I have a sore throat, but I'm too scared to go through the living room to get to the kitchen. Oh no...just remembered my scissors are in the living room too.:eek:

maria_and_the_imps

oh no ruth be brave and ruuuunnnn lol

*Louise*

Elliep - Great of you to post that - I see what you mean about the bottom bar keeing it away, stops the fabric rubbing and getting grubby as well, good idea that.
Btw, don't think I've asked - what colour fabric is that you are using for Santa? I would never have thought to use that shade, but it's really striking.




poppett - I swear, I would only use it for the really big boring bits.....:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:


harley - good luck with finding your pattern, t's always annoying when you KNOW you have something but you can't find it for love nor money!! Hope your little one is feeling better soon xxx


maria -totally sympathising with you - I also have one at school, one at nursey school and one at home (toddler tho, not a baby anymore) so I don't have the pleasure of stitching during the day either. I like the dictionary series, do you have a particular one in mind??



Ruth - EEK!!! :eek: We had a mouse when we lived in our old flat and omg it creeped me out...then it had flippin babies so I put OH on death patrol until they were exterminated.:T Sold the place not long after, I was never comfortable again (serves us right for living next to farmland!). Nowt wrong with a duvet day though *would love one of them myself*

Btw - do you have a little pair of nail clippers handy? I use a set of them when I can't be bothered hunting for my scissors lol - would save you going to the living room.

Ruth_honey

I rescued the scissors-luckily they were on the table near the door, so just stuck my head round & grabbed them. Good tip about the nail clippers, though. Will remember that.
I spotted I had a film on the Sky+, so just watched that. 'Millions' it's called. With James Nesbitt. Quite good. Started a new kit-only a small one and it comes with a frame. It's a girl carrying a pile of shoe boxes and on the mount it says "New shoes cure the blues"! It was handy to grab and should be quick to stitch, so I'm doing that today.
I'm getting hungry now, though. Should I scoff the chocs from christmas, which are hidden in here in a drawer, or brave the kitchen and make something a bit healthier (and get myself a Lemsip while I'm there)??? I'm such a wimp, but mice are horrible dirty little things that eat my clothes and leave yucky 'presents' everywhere (although we couldn't see any evidence of these yesterday, so thinking they moved in recently).

elliep_2

Louise - the fabric colour I've used for santa is called 'Pewter' it's a sory of greyish blue. The magazine reccomended a special hand dyed fabric with 'stormy sky' effect from a specifc retailer who wanted over £20 for the fabric and I wasn't going for that, so I had a think and ordered a plain piece from a cheaper retailer.

I'm glad that my pictures of my frame have been useful. I love that frame because it's so easy and the extra bar is really useful. I've got 2 sets of bars now so I can use the shorter ones for smaller projects and the longer ones for larger projects like now.

Harley - I've found that starched aida can feel like a little bit of a tight fit to get it into the frame the first time but once it starts to loosen off then it's easier. I tend to use evenweve that isn't starched anyway so it's not a problem for me anymore.

shelly

elliep wrote: »

I'm glad that my pictures of my frame have been useful. I love that frame because it's so easy and the extra bar is really useful. I've got 2 sets of bars now so I can use the shorter ones for smaller projects and the longer ones for larger projects like now.

Too useful if you ask me.....I want one!
Whats the inside sewing area of your frame please? (measuring inside the bars) Also how tight does the grooved bar hold the fabric around the dowel? Like if your fabric is not big enough to be able to wrap around the outer bars a couple of times (like in your pic) would it work loose or is it a tight fit?

My frame is pretty similar to yours but instead of wrapping my fabric round a dowel and using a grooved bar to hold it in place I have a bar with a kind of slot in it and clips to clip the fabric into the bar. Only problem I have at the moment is my project isn't all that big so I can't wrap it round the outer bars for extra tightness.
I turn the outer bars to tighten it but after a while the material comes loose as the clips aren't a tight fit.....if that makes sense
Will probably be ok once I get onto doing a bigger piece as then the material would wrap around the outer bars a couple of times and hopefully it won't work loose.

Thanks

MRSMCAWBER

Afternoon all

I see there is lots of temptation going on here today -what with all these different frames and things :rotfl:....we are a bad influence on each other

Well, after much head scratching and looking at different frames -I bit the bullet and have ordered the 9X9 (I don't often do smaller things -but I have some xmas decs planned ), an 11X11 and a 14X14 ...only £1.50 postage to boot :j....
Hopefully the hoop Im using at the moment won't "ping" before they get here-and, well -if I don't get on with the frames -I will give them to mum to try

I haven't got as much done this week as I would have liked -but hey ho -there is no hurry..will post my update in the morning
Harley -that stocking you are describing sounds familiar -I think it was one from just before xmas -I will see if I have it -just in case you can't find yours...

right off to do some sewing -before hubby comes home and we have to nip out for a few bits..bah humbug

elliep_2

The sewing area in my frame is 20cm between the bars and however long your bars are.

I have found that I need my fabric to be at least 30cm (ish) to be held securely between the bars though.

Also, I think I gave a wrong inpression of how to fix the fabric to my frame, I just fold the fabric and wrap it once round the dowel and leave a tail of about 2cm out the other side: like this




It just wasn't clear in the previous pictures because I had the 'tail' to the back.

bookadict

Hi all,

Loving everyone's work.

I won't be posting much as I'm about to start an Open Uni course, so the fishes will go on the back burner for a while!!! :eek::eek::eek:

DOn't worry, I will keep checking in to see everyone's progress.

Louise - good luck with your H&E projects!

MrsM - you've been an inspiration to me and also lead me down the path of tempatation once or twice!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Ruth - enjoy your duvet day!

Cx

shelly

elliep wrote: »

The sewing area in my frame is 20cm between the bars and however long your bars are.

I have found that I need my fabric to be at least 30cm (ish) to be held securely between the bars though.

Also, I think I gave a wrong inpression of how to fix the fabric to my frame, I just fold the fabric and wrap it once round the dowel and leave a tail of about 2cm out the other side: like this


It just wasn't clear in the previous pictures because I had the 'tail' to the back.

Thanks ellie.
I knew exactly what you meant about how to fix the fabric to the frame (your info was good) but I am wondering how tightly the fabric is held in place? It worries me that I will buy one (have a birthday soon so was going to use the cash from that) but it won't be any better than what I have and smaller pieces of fabric will work loose

Say I attached a piece of fabric that only just fit (30am as you mention) would the dowel hold it securely or would it easily work loose do you think?
At the moment I only have to press lightly on my fabric and can feel it loosen immediately from under the clips.
Using a larger piece of fabric doesn't worry me as I can wrap that round the bars but quite a few of my kits are on the smaller size.

Sorry for all the questions but you are the first person I have seen with this frame

Thanks