Incoherent Scribblings

Finishes!

Today I did some finishing!
First up was “Tempest.” I bought a silver frame for him a few days after I finished him and today I got around to putting him in it. I had to do it twice because on the first go-round I cut the backing cardboard too small and as a result he was too small for the frame. The second time was a charm though and he is now hanging on my “Stitching Wall of Fame.”

Second up was a piece that I stitched back in June of last year. Most of you are probably familiar with this piece if you have visited the Stitching Blogger’s Question Homepage because it graces it. “Friends are like a Patchwork Quilt” is from the March 1993 issue of Cross Stitch Plus.

Apparently, my mom tried to cross stitch during my freshman year of college (1992-93). I knew that she stitched a “Sisters” piece for my aunt about that time, but until I started stitching in 1999 and she gave me half a dozen Cross Stitch Plus magazines I never knew she gave stitching much of a chance.

Anyway, as I said, I stitched “Friends” last summer and though I originally thought I might frame it, I never got around to buying a frame for it so it just sat in my “to be finished” drawer.

As I mentioned yesterday, I signed up for a couple of exchanges over at the Stitching Bloggers’ Exchange Board; one of which is a needleroll exchange. I have always thought needlerolls were cute, but had never done one, so I decided before I make my needleroll for my exchange partner, I better try my hand at making one first. That way if I was a miserable failure I could drop the exchange before the names were paired up.
Enter “Friends are like a Patchwork Quilt.” I decided that I should try and finish something I had already done into a needleroll and thought that the “Friends” design was a good candidate. And so I spent today learning how to make a needleroll using Jill Robinson’s “Needleroll Finishing Instructions.”

I started by pulling the necessary threads (even though I only counted 12 instead of 24 because the fabric of “Friends” wasn’t as long as would have been ideal) and then I set up my sewing machine and learned how to sew a “French Seam.”

I then finished off the edges with a hem seam. The hem seam was another learning experience for me, as I had never done them before either. (I found some nifty diagrams of a bunch of needlework stitches here.) I have to say that I absolutely loved the hem seam!! However, once again I deviated from Robinson’s instructions because instead of doing my hem seam with two threads, I did them with four. Robinson mentions that this gives a lacy effect… and it does, but the main reason I did them this way was because I figured since it was less stitches it would also be faster.

After I finished up the hem seams I threaded the ribbon through the pulled threads, stuffed my needleroll, and tied everything up. It turned out awesome! (IMHO)
As is the norm for me, after completing this first needleroll I now know what I will do differently next time, but otherwise I am now officially in love with needlerolls and am looking forward to the needleroll exchange!