Serindë's Stitching adventure 2024 31 December

[Mabel Figworthy]

Ah well, amusement is a very personal thing
Congrats on saving the show - and taking home several rosettes!

[Steam.Jo]

Well done

I do wonder if our sewing group should exhibit at our local shows to drum up some new members.

Jo

[Serinde]

Absolutely you all should -- good for the community and good for your group! Our Show is quite low-key in some ways, but the standards are high, even if not intimidatingly so. And there are prizes! I could have collected a princely £1.20, but to my uncertain knowledge, the grown-ups don't collect their winnings. But I'd never won a cup before, so that was an unexpected pleasure. But really, get your group involved: the local shows are likely to appreciate it.

[Serinde]

Ah well, amusement is a very personal thing
Congrats on saving the show - and taking home several rosettes!

I'm sure I didn't save it, but a couple of sections looked a bit more loved, anyway.

[Serinde]

I realised I'm behind hand on the stitch journal, so here is June.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Are the yellow orange and red swirl a heatwave?

[Steam.Jo]

Are the yellow orange and red swirl a heatwave?

Memories of summer

Jo

[fccs]

It looks great. Is it as fun to stitch as it is to admire?

[Serinde]

Are the yellow orange and red swirl a heatwave?

This summer... probably not! (We're supposed to have the hottest day since May... today!) I just liked the bit of thread, and just sort of played about. It does rather jump from the design, though, I grant you.

It looks great. Is it as fun to stitch as it is to admire?

In all, I'd say probably not, but that's very definitely me, and nothing to do with the concept or the design. The idea is just to intuitively stitch within the theme of 'landscape'. Each space is meant to take between 20-30 minutes. Naturally I overthink it and it can take much longer. Also, it's there sort of nagging at me to do 'the day'. And equally naturally, I think 'perhaps not', which is why August is still incomplete... Although curiously, it's simpler to do two days at a time to catch up... which is a bit perverse of me. I'm glad I'm doing it -- my surface stitching has drastically improved -- but I'll not be tempted by this sort of thing again. In a way, it has been an excellent learning experience: weavers also are known for keeping "daily diaries", and I've been tempted, but now I know it really would be a mistake!

[Serinde]

Here's July, too.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I like the mix of abstract and figurative! Is the bird a goose?

[Serinde]

Yes, indeed it is. The village my in which my in-laws live have your actual English pond and geese! When we were visiting, I thought I’d immortalise them, as there are only 3 left (several hit by cars, since said village now becoming something of a rat-run to avoid roadworks).

[Serinde]

I need some advice.

I'm going to return to an HAED I began some time ago, in the hopes of making headway. At that time, I had it on a roller frame, but took it off in order to work on something else (still incomplete; I'm something of a serial starter). Instead of remounting it, I'm hoping to be able to work on it in a clip frame. Apart from rolling up all the excess fabric on the right side and the bottom, is there any obvious reason I'm missing which would make it difficult to stitch using a floor stand? I'm also wondering -- if I use clip frames -- whether my trusty Daylight floor stand or my lovely Lowery would would be best to use.

Any ideas?

[Steam.Jo]

One can't have too many Elbesee roller frames, how can we be serial starters without them . I tried their quick clips frames and was not happy about how evenly they clipped the material but I suspect you are talking about something different

The problem I find with the standard Lowery stand is they are about 10" too short for me to work with comfortably from a dining room chair (slouching around on Low chairs gives me back ache ). All three of my Lowerys have had extensions added.

Jo

[Serinde]

Yes, I should have been more specific -- either QSnaps or R&R clip frames is what I have. They hold pretty well.

But you can just STOP that enabling! I have plenty of roller frames, just not the right size for this. And no, no more! Being quite short in the leg department, I find a Lowery's adjustments suit me ok, although I've never used it with a larger size roller frame, for which I'd probably buy an extension. Can you use a Lowery with QSnaps or do you need a corner thingy?

[Steam.Jo]

The side type of Lowery clamp should be used with flat surfaces or the stitching frame will sag. I believe the plastic clippy frames you are looking at have a round profile. Yes the corner Lowery clamp would work on round but I would be concerned that the corner clamp is not actually big enough to reach passed the plastic corners on the frames to grip onto the main tubes, if they don't then the frame won't be as firm a hold.

I have an Elbesee and a quilting clamping frame which are designed to clamp around round surfaces which proved to be so good at holding the work up that I brought the Lowery frames and am considering what I could use the Ash (wood) they are made of for. I suspect the quilting frame is designed to only hold the top of the quilting hoop with the intention you place the other end on your lap... But I was hoping for actual support of my work frame not an expensive top holding point.

Jo

[Arianwen]

Serinde I currently have my Haed, what lies beneath, in an 11 x 17 r&r frame and in my Lowery. I currently have the corner clamp on but I have usedd the straight clamp with it too (I just added some fleece/rubber shelf liner to help with grip). I have been known to overtighten the clamp til the frame makes some.............unwelcome......cracking sounds but everything is fine so far!

I use a home made grime guard to hold the excess fabric and while it isnt ideal it works just fine.

I have since decided that I prefer more tension than my r&r frame can give but I'm too tight to buy a large scroll/omanik frame.

I do have to weight the bottom of the lowery stand a little more than usual to compensate for the size of the frame but no worse than any other large project.

Good Luck!

[Serinde]

Thanks for that, Arianwen. I thought about using a smaller R&R frame, and rolling up rather more fabric, because I know how long it takes me to stitch these designs. I have a strip of cork in the straight clamp, which I'm hoping will hold well. If not, then I'll resort to a smaller hoop. This is not a permanent arrangement!

[Serinde]

Well, I did take that HAED piece up north, where we had a week of wall-to-wall sunshine, perfect for stitching in the conservatory. And I learned that what I feared has, indeed, come to pass. Even with both my reading glasses and the magnifying lens, in the bright sunshine, I can no longer see well enough to stitch over one with two threads on 25ct fabric. I knew when I bought these designs that this would likely happen, so at the time I told myself to get on with them NOW. However, I did not listen to myself. Now is then, and it's too late.

So! I'm going to trial stitching over 1 with one thread on 25ct, to see if that helps. But if not, does anyone have any experience in using other thread counts for HAEDs? Obviously a lower count, like 20ct (since 22ct only seems to be "Hardanger") means an even bigger finished piece.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Ah, if only we took our own wise advice.... I'm sorry your eyesight is letting you down HAED-wise. I've never done any myself but have definitely seen people do them on other counts - would Hardanger fabric work? It would give you just that little more visibility without increasing the overall size too much. Because let's face it, their big enough as it is