Friday, September 14, 2007

Ta Dah!

It's done! I finished it last night but was too tired to scan it for posting. As you can see, I decided to keep the windows as is. Now I have to think about how to finish it. I've never finished any of my projects before and will probably take awhile to screw up the courage to attempt it. But when I do, I'm going to try Nicki's very clear tutorial on making a pinkeep, which I think even I can follow. A question: where do you get those large pins that are used in the pinkeeps? Are they sold in fabric stores or do you have to go to an LNS or use an online store?

So here is the finished product (I am still learning how to use blogger for photos so I hope this comes out okay):


So now what do I do? Well, I ordered this from Mary Kathryn; it is a line from one of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson - the rest of it goes "and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all." As soon as it arrives it will be a new start for me. I hope I am right that each letter is stitched with a separate thread and you don't carry from letter to letter. I'll be very good at threading my needle by the time this is done! Meanwhile, I am picking up an old challenge, LHN's Where There is Life, which is sold by Elegant Stitch to raise money for breast cancer organizations. Although I have enjoyed stitching this piece it has been a difficult process. I had the border almost done when I realized that I had left out a stitch, and had to pull out the entire thing. I've done about half of it again; this time I started it too low so though I think I have the stitch count right, the top border is too close to the lettering. But I am not frogging it out again! I just hope the ends meet up correctly. So far the stitches seem to be in the right places. But I wouldn't be surprised...

12 comments:

staci said...

Congratulations on your finish!!! Very well done! I can't see anything wrong with Where There's Life, I think it's pretty. You can find pins at most craft stores, JoAnn's has a really good selection that you can buy boxes of individual colors. They can also be found online. Good luck with your pinkeep, I'm sure it'll be beautiful!!!

Linen Stitcher said...

I had the same question about pins for pinkeeps, so thanks for asking it. As for lettering, it is best if you stitch each letter separately. Otherwise, the carried-over thread can show from the front. By the way, I think your border looks fine, too.

Sharon said...

Your finish is wonderful! Congratulations.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on a lovely finish!

Sally said...

Beautiful finish Michele:) Your WIP of Where There is Life is lovely.

Jenn said...

You can find the pins for a pin keep at Wal-Mart in with the quilting stuff.
Your piece looks great. Congrats on the finish.

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

Congrats :) I love it!!!
You can find the pins at Hobby Lobby or Michael's or Joann's but I found buying them in bulk from a person off of ebay is the best way. The seller id is: work4pnuts I think....any way they sell big lots of 1000 pins and it's cheap and you get a lot of different colors :)

Mindi said...

Congratulations on the finish! It looks amazing. I really like your progress on the LHN Breast Cancer Awareness piece. I didn't know about it and will definitely be ordering one.

Aussie Stitcher said...

Your finish looks wonderful, congratulations. Good luck with turning it into a pinkeep. I am yet to try one of these.

Nicki said...

Congratulations! It looks great :)

I was going to recommend work4pnuts on ebay too. I haven't ordered from her yet but know people who have and it's definitely value for money. The ebay shop is The Crafty Elephant.

Mary Kathryn said...

This turned out very sweet Michele!

:0)

Susimac said...

Love that finish - can't wait to see it finished into a pinkeep, you'll make a wonderful job of it!