The wall hanging for my mother is coming along slowly, but I have to admit it's moving faster than my Chinese Birds and Flowers Project, which is languishing, but I'll talk about that a bit later. In my last post about this project, I mentioned that I would try to jazz it up a bit by using stitches other than backstitch and French knots. As it turns out, I'm using stem stitch almost exclusively, at least so far.
I also mentioned that I used Transfer-Eze to mark the embroidery pattern. I have mixed feelings about this product. It runs easily through my ink jet printer, but the sheet size is just a tad smaller than the standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet, so it's tricky to get a large pattern, such as this one, copied correctly. I had to make four transfers to get the whole pattern copied, and there were overlaps. On this photo you can see where I didn't trim it quite perfectly where the four corners meet. This product is supposed to adhere right to the fabric, but the edges all have a tendency to separate from the fabric, which makes matching the patterns on the edge of the sheets difficult. This is a "folksy" piece of embroidery, so not a great deal of precision is required. On an embroidery piece on which a more precise pattern is required, I would have a problem with using Transfer-Eze, and would likely pick a more reliable transfer method.
One of my sewing friends swears by the stuff. She says that now she only makes kitchen towels for gifts because she can use Transfer-Eze and work the embroidery without a hoop.
This is the final selection of colors that I've chosen for this embroidery. I'm using DMC 355, the next to the darkest, for the tree trunk and the branches. I'll use the darkest, 3777, for the electric cord, and a mixture of the lighter colors for the needles, bird, snow and heart. I'm also thinking of adding snowflakes with gold bead centers to the sky around the tree. I think a little bling is always welcome, don't you?
As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I haven't made much progress on the Chinese Birds and Flowers Project. By the time I get home from work, there isn't much light left outside, and my sewing room is completely packed up and put away for the ceiling work. If you remember, I signed up for Trish Burr's Little Bee Eater Project, which starts this Saturday! I hope I can find it to start on it!
Today the last of the ceiling treatment was removed, so there is a fine layer of dust all over the house. It's been fairly hot, but if I run the A/C or even the house fan that will just redistribute dust all over the place. But I'm not complaining, at least there are no hurricanes here. I hope all of you affected by Hurricane Isaac are safe and sound.
Choosing stitches is a balancing act between finding something interesting to do and not throwing too much detail at the eye of the beholder, so don't be surprised if you find yourself not jazzing it up as much as you thought!
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