Cross Stitch Cafe 2012

maria_and_the_imps

flowerofscotland wrote: »

Hi Maria

I would suggest evenweave rather than linen for a spectacular design like this where the stitching appears to cover the whole of the fabric design area. Linen has "slubs" in it which can produce little bumps in the stitching if you are covering the whole of the fabric; usually linen is used where some of the fabric will be on show. Evenweave doesn't have any slubs BUT when you are stitching over 1 you have to be careful with tension - this shouldn't be a problem when working on a frame like the one Louise has recommended. Sewandso sell 25 count Lugana which would be ideal. Or 20 count Bellana would be easier as the holes are more obvious. If you PM me with your address I can send you a piece of 20 count to try - it's what I am using for my Angel Stocking. Hope this isn't putting you off. I personally love stitching on linen and evenweave and rarely use anything else.
Tent stitch is half cross stitch - faster obviously but it has a tendency to distort the fabric on larger pieces of work = this can be remedied by a good framer.
Oh and I personally would leave more of a margin for framing on a piece like this so that when ou have finished and gettting it framed you aren't restricted by lack of "spare" fabric. Just my twopence worth - feel free to ignore

Morning and thanks for the help, I'm nervous about evenweave as I have never used it before, your offer is much appreciated. Would I need the same size evenweave as linen, I would hate not to order enough. Will pm you now, thanks again x

debtdalek

chickywiggle wrote: »

i would join in the linen/ evenweave debate but the thought fills me with dread so i shall just curl back up here.

I managed about 600 stitches in 3 and a half hours yesterday......... is that good or bad (can't remember what the discussion was). it seems pretty rubbish to me (i woulda liked to have done double that) but it's made a bit bigger dent in Troutbeck. Aiming for another 3-4hours tonight then will try and do a new progress pic.

I'd love to be able to work on finer fabrics too, but my eyesight is not what it was, even on aida.
I need new distance glasses, so will see what they say about reading glasses, but the last presecription I got for them I never used, as they didn't seem any better than normal.
Do people use magnifiers and if so do they help?

As for the number of stirches you can do in a given time surely depends on how complex the piece is anyway.
I saw this beautiful chart on HAED the other day for Winter Maiden but I know I'll never be able to do it and surely any sort of stitch timescale would go totally out of the window on something as complex as this.

FOS Thank you so much for your explanation regarding linen and other materials - I have a couple of packets of finer fabrics here that I might now be tempted to try - when I get my glasses/magnifier of course!

Thought I might sort out my UFO's today too.

Ailsb

PP - sorry to hear about the fall. At least you're back to stitching.

Humphrey - welcome, you've come to the right place for encouragement. When I joined a had a UFO that was 12 years old and couldn't get motivated. With the encouragement and gentle wrist slapping from the lovely people on here (don't want to say ladies as I rememember someone saying about a man) I finished it within about 6 weeks. Since then I have finished several things - although I still have a veeerrry long list of UFO's.

Maria- can't remember which website does it know, if I rememember I will let you know, but one of the main ones on the links page offer free samples of fabric so you could try the different sizes before committing.

Harley - hope you have fun and don't spend too much - unless you can afford it in which case go for it!!

Chicky - 600 stitches sounds a lot to me. I think I managed to do about 50 in an hour yesterday on my blackwork. Didn't help that I had to unpick it several times because the lines didn't match up. Have remembered why I didn't finish the balckwork bookmark now.

maria_and_the_imps

oh that would be good ailsb x

23rdspiral

Lap frame hasn't come yet, didn't expect it, just hoped it would

Have decided to stitch the squirrels from current CrossStitcher for Valentines day for my fianc!... I hope he likes it! I don't have any of the 3(!) correct threads, but have similar in anchor so will wing it.

harley1

tellmeitsfriday wrote: »

Do let us know today - if it's good, I will go tomorrow.... x

Have a great time

Thanks all.

TMIF, I had an amazing day and would strongly recommend a visit tomorrow. Was nice and quiet (relatively) until about 11.30 so worth going at 10 when they open.

Thanks to the lovely Ocemeer :AI had a free ticket but I wouldn't have been disappointed if I had paid the full £7 to get in.

Have spent a small fortune but have lots of stuff and tons of inspiration for setting up my own online jewellery business. Also had a chat with a lovely lady about glass painting and got a few ideas there too.:T

Can't wait until baby girl goes to bed now just so I can play with my new stash.
:rotfl:

Harley x

sweetcarer

still no news

blue_eyed_girl

Welcome to the Cafe Humphrey10. Good luck with your UFOs - those snowmen are simply adorable. Looking forward to seeing piccies of your progress.

Sounds like you've had a lovely time harley and got plenty of inspiration. Good luck with your online business should you decide to go ahead with it.

Received some lovely stitchy birthday pressies yesterday - xstitch book, a chunk of aida (thinks its called a fat quarter) and some embroidery scissors. Think people are getting the message :rotfl:

Not many stitches done today as been side-tracked with diy goings on, shopping, washing etc - life can be so unfair at times. Never mind hope to make up for it over the weekend.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Sounds as though we will need to wrap up as the white stuff is on its way.

b_e_g

blue_eyed_girl

sweetcarer wrote: »

still no news

Lets hope the saying 'no news is good news' sweetcarer is true. Hope you hear something soon.

b_e_g

benny1981

Hello Everyone,

Hope he hears soon Sweetcarer!
Those sound like great presents BEG!
I ordered that frame last week 23rd and I am in love!!!!!!!

I am still working on 'share the happiness' it's getting there, been a lot quicker since the frame! But I am missing one or two colours which hopefully will arrive from across town soon.

I was wodering a while ago about ballerina charts and ordered WOXS 5 for £5 as on their website it said the next issue had ballerina charts, I have since received 2 issues (one with lots of Henry 8th designs and one with lots of cars) but no ballerina - does any one know if I have missed the issue - or was I totally wrong and this was in another magazine????