Busy, busy! And silk gauze progress...

Well, this has been the longest gap between postings since I started the blog. I've been busy with stitching-related stuff, but haven't been stitching much. On Wednesday I leave for our EGA region seminar. I'm the exhibit chair, so this week has been crazy with prep work, printing placards, making sure I have all the right forms, etc.

Yesterday was my cousin's wedding (see this post for the item I stitched for the couple!). I saw them this morning for a brunch, but I don't think they had opened their gifts yet.

Today I picked up one counted canvas piece from my LNS/framer. I finished Silk Pageantry, an ANG GCC by Kay Cline, several months ago, but just had it framed so I can put it in the seminar exhibit. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out very well since the piece is still in the clear plastic bag from the framer. Since I intend to transport it to seminar that way, I don't want to take it out of the bag. I promise to share a pic when I get back from seminar!

Since I saw Mom at the brunch and she didn't feel up to anything else today, after I returned from the framer I did some work out in the yard. I then did some "silk gauze gardening" while watching the Yankees game. I almost have one whole blackberry leaf!
I'm not sure if I like the lightest green. It seems a bit too yellow. I have to revisit my stash of Eterna silks to see if I can find something light with a bit more blue in it.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there!

Window 2 arrived!

The second surprise window in the Gay Ann Rogers mystery sampler arrived in Monday's mail. I started it last evening. As you can see in the picture, this window shows "The Bedroom". I should be able to show the finished room by Friday. I have a sampler to stitch on the wall, the bedroom window, and a couple of floorboards, and this window will be done!

Here are the main sections I've stitched so far. You can see that I was too impatient to finish stitching the borders before I started this window! :-) Once I've finished the bedroom, I'll go back to the borders.

How-To: Mount silk gauze on muslin

Tonight was our monthly EGA meeting. For the program, one of the members (Hi Dorothy!) shared her method for mounting silk gauze on muslin so it can be stretched for stitching. I took pictures along the way so I could share here!

Step 1. If your chart is not kitted with a piece of gauze, determine the finished size of the design on silk gauze by dividing the number of stitches in each direction by the thread count of the gauze, then add 1-2 inches (or as much needed by your framer) all around. Cut your gauze to this size. For example, my design is approximately 160 stitches square, and I'm doing it on 40 ct gauze, so the finished size will be around 160/40 = 4" square. I added a bit all around, so I'm working on a 7" square of gauze.

Step 2. Cut your muslin several inches larger than this. It depends on what kind of stretching device that you choose to use. I will be mounting mine on scroll rods, so I have a long piece of muslin (maybe 20"?) by 12". I didn't have the time to put it on the rods tonight, so I just used a large hoop. Find the center of your muslin. I did this by folding it in quarters and creasing it slightly.

Step 3. Roughly center the gauze piece on the muslin. (Sorry it's difficult to see this in the pic. There's not much contrast between the two fabrics!)

Step 4. Pin the gauze to the muslin around the outer edge, keeping the two fabrics as smooth as possible. (And if you're doing this on a plastic tablecloth, take care not to pin the whole thing TO the tablecloth. Trust me on this. Don't ask how I know! ) If your piece of gauze is smaller than 4" square or so, you might be able to skip this step.

Step 5. With a contrasting sewing thread, take running stitches around the edge of the gauze. I went around twice, staggering the stitches on the second round, since I had a large piece of gauze.




Step 6. With the MUSLIN side up, separate the two layers of fabrics. I used a needle through the muslin to pull it away from the gauze. In the middle of the area of the muslin/gauze sandwich, cut the muslin. Once you get it started in the middle of the area, you can slip a finger inside to keep the gauze away from the muslin as you cut close (about 1/8 of an inch or so) to the running stitches. (I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of this process!) Once the muslin is cut away, you'll have an exposed section of gauze.

Step 7. Put the muslin-mounted gauze on your choice of stitching frame. It doesn't matter if it's gauze-side up or muslin-side up. To begin stitching, it's easiest to find the middle. Here's my trick for finding the middle of any mounted fabric or canvas, if all of the ground fabric is showing. Simply take two long threads, and lay them in an "X", corner to corner, across the fabric. The center of the X is the middle of your fabric!

Step 8. Have fun stitching! I recommend really bright light and good magnification, if needed!

A Stitch in Time: Lilacs on gauze

Yesterday, I mentioned that I'll be starting a silk gauze piece on Monday. This will not be my first gauze project from a chart by Gitta's.

A few years ago, my job required that I make a trip to Toronto (Mississauga, actually) once a month or so. This is a fairly easy car trip of about 3 hours from my home. On only one trip did I have time to visit a few needlework shops in the area, and one of those I visited was Gitta's. I fell in love with several of their floral pieces, and though the shop models were on canvas, I thought they would be stunning on gauze. Naturally, I picked up a few charts!

I have so far only stitched one of these charts, with Eterna silks (as I explained yesterday). I couldn't be more pleased with the finished piece, Lilacs. It's difficult to tell by the picture, but the stitching measures only about 2" wide and 4" tall. I chose this as the first of the charts to stitch because in my area, lilacs bloom for my birthday, and our city has an annual Lilac Festival with hundreds of the bushes in bloom at a local park. The sight of these always makes me smile!

Apparently I'm not the only person who likes the finished piece! I'm proud to say that this piece won People's Choice both at the last judged show held by my EGA chapter and at the showcase at Hershey CATS in 2002.

A Finished Living Room

I know - I've been a delinquent blogger, but Window 1 is done! Gay Ann was able to capture an amazing amount of detail with just a few simple stitches in a really small space. I look forward to receiving the next window. This weekend I'll continue working on this piece, preparing the borders around the next section.This evening I spent some time pulling my threads for the project I'm starting in my EGA meeting on Monday. One of our chapter members will be showing us how to mount silk gauze on muslin so it can be stitched using Q-Snaps, a hoop, stretcher bars, etc. I've stitched on silk gauze before, but I've always had it taped to mat board to stretch it, but the fabric becomes loose easily this way. I hope this new method allows me to keep it taut.

So, what's the new project? It's chart G-230, Blackberries, from Gitta's Charted Petit Point. I picked up the chart and the 40ct gauze this week at my LNS. I'll be stitching this using Eterna stranded silk, which has almost no twist to it. It is almost a flat silk, which means it has great shine, since there are few twists to distort the light. It is also somewhat difficult to work with, since any little dry spot on your hands will snag the silk fibers. Despite this, I like to use this thread on silk gauze because it somewhat spreads out to fill the space available, so little inconsistencies in tension aren't as apparent.

Besides, when this thread first came out, they offered a set of full skeins of the entire color range (then 400+ colors) for only $100, including shipping! So I have plenty to choose from, and just have to comb through them a bit to find the right colors. The color conversion chart from DMC is not perfect, so it takes some time to get the right combination of colors. I think it's close right now, but need to check it again tomorrow in the daylight.

Window 1 progress

If you've checked out the group projects page on Gay Ann Rogers' website, it will come as no surprise that the first surprise window is a living room. (And if you look, please don't tell me what window #2 is! I want to be surprised when it arrives in my mailbox!) Here's my progress on the living room so far.

It's impressive how much detail is in such a small space. I really enjoy watching the scene come to life under my fingers. With the size of this area, it shouldn't take too long to finish this window, and then I can move on to more of the borders, so I can be ready when window 2 arrives.