First Hardanger Heart
I finished my first Hardanger piece today!
One of my New Year’s stitching resolutions was to learn some new stitches and techniques. I have been a regular visitor to the Victoria Sampler Website for quite a few months and have downloaded just about all of the free patterns there. For those of you unfamiliar with the site and Thea’s designs, she uses lots of Hardanger, one of the specialty techniques that I have been itching to try.
Yesterday I bought some Pearl Cotton and after doing quite a bit of research on the web and printing off about two dozen pages with various suggestions for Hardanger beginners, I decided to jump right in.
I used one of Thea’s free designs, the Heart Sweet Bag, but only did the Hardanger heart. It seemed fairly easy and included the main stitches; kloster blocks, eyelets, satin stitch hearts, and weaving. I counted carefully, stitched slowly, and I think everything turned out pretty well.
Most of the instructions I read suggested doing Hardanger without a hoop and so I tried that at first. Since I always stitch with a hoop though, I found it rather cumbersome and couldn’t keep good tension, so after about 10 minutes I gave up and put it in my hoop. After that the stitching went smoothly. The kloster blocks were fun and I really enjoyed doing the eyelets. I did have a little trouble figuring out exactly how to tack down my thread though. In the end, I tacked it down like I do with regular cross stitch, but I am not sure I am 100% happy with that.
Once I came to the cutting I was really nervous. Sure, the piece was small and only for “practice,” but I had already spent a couple of hours doing all the stitching and I didn’t want to have to throw it away if I messed up the cutting. Overall, I did OK with the cutting, though in one corner I cut one thread too many and so instead of having four threads to weave around, I only had three. If I look closely the weaving doesn’t look quite as balanced there, but I doubt many people will notice. I think cutting is something that definitely will take some practice!
The weaving was easy, but after I was finished with it I found out it called for dove’s eyes and they are to be done in conjunction with the weaving. By that time I was almost done, so I decided to leave them out this time. I finished it off by adding four little satin stitch hearts.
I love the way the variegated thread works with Hardanger and am very proud of my first piece. I can’t wait to do some more! 
31 March 2005 at 21:59
Wow! That turned out great, Renee!
My local needlework shop offers classes and seminars, and one of them is for Hardanger. I was planning to try it sometime this year. I am really impressed that you taught yourself!
31 March 2005 at 22:32
Congrats!!!!
I left off the doves and picots from my very first Hardanger piece as well, I figured it was more important to get the weaving under control before I started adding frillies. And yes, I was scared less to put scissors to blocks… and yes I’ve cut the wrong thread, but I’ve also learned how to fix it, too, which is a good thing.
What’s your next specialty stitch? (hey, that sounds like a good SBQ!)
1 April 2005 at 01:07
Wow! You’re braver than I am so far! Nice job!
1 April 2005 at 05:35
WOW, that is a GREAT job for your first Hardanger piece! Congratulations! I have enjoyed visiting your Blog, and will check back often!
1 April 2005 at 14:51
Pretty! I’m planning on taking a Hardanger class in September at the stitching festival. I have a great pattern for a heart that I got out of The Cross Stitcher. I can’t wait to try it!