My goal over the weekend was to finish all of the fillings for square #4. I finished those on Sunday and quickly moved onto square #2.
The filling for square #2 starts with the four-sided stitch over 2 threads in the thinnest thread we have in the kit. Doesn't sound too bad right?
The hard part comes when you have to do the cutwork seen in the animation below (click on the post if you're reading this by email). We do the actual cutting in the middle of the square to make sure we have a long enough strand on each side. The fabric thread is then unwoven and anchored at the back of the four-sided stitch. You have to do this strand by strand. You cut two strands at a time but you can't anchor them together in one shot or you'll pull on the stitches along the sides. Believe me I found that out the hard way :|
The final square looks very neat from the front.
But it's a different story at the back. Those strands are super short, less than half an inch in fact. These threads will be left there until the piece is finished and washed. The fabric is real linen so it will shrink and I wouldn't want them to slip out of their anchor.
I don't think I would dislike this square if it was bigger or if we had longer strands to work with. In fact, once all the preparations are done, I enjoy doing the actual filling of sling stitches and dove's eyes. I liked it so much I bought this kit from Jetta at seminar that is just riddled with them. I'm sort of looking forward to it, but first I need to finish Hedebo Enchantment.
Goal this week on this piece is to finish all the #2 square filling stitches. I have one more square to prep and then I can start the filling.
The filling for square #2 starts with the four-sided stitch over 2 threads in the thinnest thread we have in the kit. Doesn't sound too bad right?
The hard part comes when you have to do the cutwork seen in the animation below (click on the post if you're reading this by email). We do the actual cutting in the middle of the square to make sure we have a long enough strand on each side. The fabric thread is then unwoven and anchored at the back of the four-sided stitch. You have to do this strand by strand. You cut two strands at a time but you can't anchor them together in one shot or you'll pull on the stitches along the sides. Believe me I found that out the hard way :|
The final square looks very neat from the front.
But it's a different story at the back. Those strands are super short, less than half an inch in fact. These threads will be left there until the piece is finished and washed. The fabric is real linen so it will shrink and I wouldn't want them to slip out of their anchor.
I don't think I would dislike this square if it was bigger or if we had longer strands to work with. In fact, once all the preparations are done, I enjoy doing the actual filling of sling stitches and dove's eyes. I liked it so much I bought this kit from Jetta at seminar that is just riddled with them. I'm sort of looking forward to it, but first I need to finish Hedebo Enchantment.
Goal this week on this piece is to finish all the #2 square filling stitches. I have one more square to prep and then I can start the filling.
Beautiful.....
ReplyDeleteI love the little animation to show each step. Cutting is always nervewracking!
ReplyDeleteThe second piece you showed is gorgeous, lots of careful counting there.
Good grief you have nerve! I love the idea of cutwork but am not sure I'm game to try it. This is lovely, and thank you for the animation!
ReplyDeleteeeek! My admiration knows no bounds - not only the tricky cutwork, but an animation of it as well!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous!
ReplyDeleteNice technique cutting the threads in the middle of the block. Looks great.
ReplyDeleteAnother wow, that looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThat square looks scary to make, but the result is so pretty!
ReplyDelete