Finishing a cross-stitch or emboidered bookmark (the lazy way)

Bookmarks are a common project for cross-stitch projects.  They are small, so those into instant gratification (or at least a lot faster than a massive design) and they can make useful little gifts.  But once you finish your work, how do you finish it off and make it look nice?  Even if you are the neatest stitcher in the world, the back of your work is going to look a bit messy.

Well to start with, it will depend somewhat on what you made your cross-stitch bookmark on.  In general, there are two options, ordinary material (either aida cloth or evenweave) or bookmark material (usually aida) which comes in set widths and is already finished on the long sides.  The Medieval garden bookmark bookmark used the later.  If you use the former, you need to finish all four sides

The downside of raw material edges is that it will fray over time.  The threads that run parallel with the cut edge only have to move a tiny bit and they are off the perpendicular threads and flapping freely in the wind.  This ends up looking a messy tangled mess which you don't want for your hard work!  One option is to deliberately fray the cut edge back a set distance (usually at least 1cm).  This means that the remaining parallel threads (relative to the cut edge) will have to travel a lot further to fall off.

Another method is to do some sort of overcast stitching to essentially tie the parallel threads in place.  An overlocking sewing machine, ordinary sewing machine or using overlocking hand stitch can all do this.

And there is the humble hem.  Or in other words, fold the fabric over and iron it to hold the fold in place.  My Medieval Garden bookmark instructions said to do this.  And since I had the ironing board out anyway (for a skirt I'm making- I hate having to iron clothes :P ) I dug it out.

Bookmark with top and bottom folded and ironed down (and then the edges folded under to have a neater finished product).  The felt is the right width for the bookmark but the wrong length so I cut it to size after taking this photo.

This project uses a separate piece of felt to make the back look neat, but if you were making the project up yourself you could plan on using a long enough length of material that you could fold the ends up to hide the back completely.  But there is still the issue of keeping the material there.

Well the instructions said to use a neat line of stitching.  But I hate doing plain hand sewing.  But then, inspiration struck!  I had some hemming tape squirreled away (it's great for making costumes quickly that only need to last a day or so).  It's essentially double sided glue that melts with the heat from your iron.

Cut the hemming tape to size so it covers your backing material.  For the bookmark below I also put a square under each tab at the ends of the bookmark to keep them in place.

Close up view- I ran three strips down the length of the backing and then a short strip at each end for luck

Carefully position your bookmark onto the backing (using a felt backing for this was great as the felt really caught the roughness of the tape).  Once everything is set, use your iron to melt the glue and set everything in place (10 seconds or so should do- if not, just iron it some more).

And that's it!  Five minute job, tops.  Extra tip, if you are like me and glue your back in place and THEN realise that you forgot to add the tassel to the cross stitch layer, it's much easier to separate the layers if you first iron them again to melt the glue.  Then once you've added your tassel, iron again to restick it.

Embroidered card

Here is the first project I acquired from the Melbourne Craft and Quilt fair this year.  Not only the first to post about here, but the first completed (rather impressive if you consider that there are unfinished and unstarted projects from previous years in the cuboard!)

This was such a sweet little kit that I couldn't resist.  It was also a nice quick little project- I picked it up and started it yesterday when I got home from the craft fair and I finished it this morning.  The kit was made by Rowandean and is called Foxgloves at Roadside.

Pros: nice and cheap but provides everything needed including window card, threads, needle and envelope.
Cons: the pattern is printed in permanent ink so when making it up all the printing must be covered which was tricky for the pink flowers.  Also, the instructions for the foxgloves on the left didn't say what sort of stitch to use so I just sort of winged it.

A rather English scene but given how simple it was to do, I'm somewhat curious if a similar scene could be given an Australian feel- just swap the tree to a gum tree and yellow the grass off a bit more.  Perhaps turning the fence into a post and wire fence.  Hmm...

Melbourne Craft fair visit

Hey ho blog readers.  This week is my first week back at uni and already I feel stressed and slightly panicky.  Lots of big assignments, scary talk about job searching, the need to create teaching portfolios, and placements in only four weeks.

So what should I do on my Fridays off.  Get a start on my assignments?  Don't be silly!  I went to the big craft and quilt fair held in Melbourne this weekend.  For those who are not aware, this is a big annual event held at Jeff's Shed (aka Melbourne Exhibition Centre), in Southbank.  It's a massive area filled with stands selling stuff for lots of different crafts from knitting to quilting to beading to embroidery and a few other odd bits and bobs.

There are only a few problems with it.  First of all, it is always PACKED with people.  I got there just as they opened for the day and hoped that being a weekday would make a difference but to no avail.  The aisles fill very quickly and by the time I left, negotiating the crowd involved a great deal of shuffling and human pinball. Sidenote- why do people insist on bringing those wheeled bags along?  They, along with the odd poor child crying in a large stroller, do not help traffic flow!  There is a cloakroom (um, for stuff you buy and bags, not for the small children I mean).

Secondly, I always seem to spend far too much money!  I had to be quite good this year (poor uni student and all that), but even so it's amazing how easy it is to succumb to temptation!

Rather than show all the things I bought, I thought I'd show a few things that are on my wish list because I couldn't justify the expense today.  Partly because this means I can have more posts showing the stuff and my attempts at them in later blog posts but mainly because I put away some of the things and can't be bothered digging them out again right now to photograph them.  It's been a long day, after all.

First of all, I LOVED the Spring Garden beaded lariat necklace that was at the Room for Threads website but they didn't have any kits available at the stand and I couldn't have afforded it today if they did.  The colours in the photo on the site don't do justice to the real thing- not gaudy bright, but a cheerful bright that I could actually see me wearing.  What I did buy was the Cotton Reel tassel in the darker colours.  While I am not sure about the cotton reel part, I do love the little flowers and the technique for the strings of the tassel so I want to learn the technique.

Next on the wish list are a number of quilts from Ann Gadsby Designs, in particular the lovely fairy quilts.  Both the Fairy Garden and the Happy Valley quilts in particular.  The only thing that scares me in any quilt is the high cost of a full quilt means I'm terrified that I'll muck it up in assembly.  I've got to find some good practice projects so I can justify buying one of these lovely kits (I'd hate to buy a kit and then have it live in a box for years if I got it now).

There were lots of other things I loved (any number of other more traditional, standard quilts for instance) but since I didn't get brochures with handy web urls on them I'll leave it there for now.  The Melbourne Craft Fair is on for another couple of days until Sunday so if you are a Melbournian who likes their crafts then it could be a good weekend activity for you.  Plan on at least half a day, more if you want to watch any talks or do any craft workshops (I did quite a few last year, they are great for a quick lesson on a new craft).

Knitted Rose Broach

Or, why some patterns should just not be made.

Knitting is a wonderful craft.  If you think about it, the fact that you can take two sticks and a bit of wool or string and make anything from a delicate lace shawl to a jumper to a pair of socks is quite amazing.  But there are some knitting projects out there that just don't work.  I'm not talking disasters where the tension wasn't right so you produce sleeves more suited to an orangutang than a human or

Jumpers with large images on the front (I think most children from the 80s will relate to having these inflicted on them at some point).  Clothing made in the most eye watering bright clash of multiple colours.  Tops made of yarn so warm that they can only be worn in Antarctica without the owner melting.  And things like this broach.

Now I've seen some jewellery that uses knitting that I think might be great (I have a few queued in my Ravelry queue such as Sea Lace).  But personally, anything that uses large knitted flowers just don't work.  This flower was a kit that came with Simply Knitting, Issue 82 July 2011.  I am trying to break my bad habit of having magazine kits sit around untouched for years (to the point that I loose the magazine they came from) so thought I'd make this up this morning.

The Knitted Rose Broach

The kit and magazine give four different options the materials can be used for- two knitted flower broaches and two crochet flower projects (a headband and a pouch).  I choose to make the rose broach but I think most of the issues would be common for all four projects. 

First issue- the colours.  The pink in particular is a very very very Barbie pink colour.  I am not into pink at the best of times and even as a kid, Barbie pink was more likely to induce shuddering than glee. 

Second issue?  The yarn is REALLY thick!  As a result anything made from it is going to be large.  Great if you are making a jumper and want it to be thick and quick work, terrible for something like jewelry that to me should be delicate and pretty.  The rose ended up being 6-7 cm in diameter.  The length from leaf tip to leaf tip on the finished item was about 11 cm- far bigger than anything I would choose to wear.

Another view along with the magazine issue in question.

The rose also doesn't look all that rose like- if it wasn't for the leaves I'm not sure you would know you were looking at a rose and not just a weird spirally thing.  Now in the interests of fairness and disclosure, after studying the picture after I made mine I think I have the wrong side facing out.  But frankly, after looking at pictures in the magazine I don't think there would be that much difference.

So, are all knitted flowers a waste of time and effort?  Hmm, not sure.  It might be a fun idea to play with if I find the time.  How might flowers be improved?  Well for starters, I'd find some nicer colours.  I'd also scale the size down both in terms of yarn and the finished product.

Any other ideas?  Feel free to leave a comment.

Cross stitch- a medieval garden bookmark

After a full week working (with a cold that gave me laryngitis to boot) all I wanted to do was sit down somewhere nice and warm and do something that didn't require much thought.  So I dug out a unfinished cross stitch project.  I find counted cross stitch lovely and easy because you don't need to do anything other than follow the diagram.  It's like 'paint by numbers' with thread.

The pattern I am doing is 'Medieval Garden' and was a little kit that I bought on holiday in England last year.  I loved the colours in the border, which look like an elaborate calligraphy border and the flowers that are reminiscent of hand painted watercolour flowers.

I also thought I'd point out the great difference that back-stitching can make.  Here is a picture of the bookmark but without any of the back-stitching:
The trouble with most counted cross stitch patterns is that you get to the end of the cross stitches and go 'Yay! I'm done... except for the back-stitch'.  And then you have to spend half as much time again (or so it seems) to get the back-stitching done.  But what a difference it can make-

A bit of backstitch will highlight and enhance an image.  It also allows far more detail than crosses alone.  So if you find yourself sighing when starting what seems like a never ending load of backstitching then just take a big breath and remind yourself it will be worth it in the long run!

One other little tip- don't be tempted to try and do back-stitching as you go unless it is in an area that the crosses are all done in.  When you do back-stitching first and the cross stitches next to the back-stitches, the back-stitching tends to get buried and you loose all that hard work.  It's always best to do the back-stitching after.