Thursday, June 26, 2008

Making a Little Progress

Here's how far I've gotten with my Teacher Gift by Tanya. I am so lucky the teacher's name only has four letters, the same as the chart had. I'm about to start on the heart, but I'm still undecided about the floss I want to use. The design is charted for several shades of pink but I think a deeper red would go better with the blue floss I am using for the lettering (Carrie's Threads Indigo). I'd been planning on Crescent Colours Rose of Sharon, so the heart would have a variegated look, but I'm a little leery of it because of the problem of staining the fabric if I have to frog any of it out, like has been happening in my Schoolgirl Lessons. I think I can manage not to frog if I do it carefully, but does anyone think if I iron the piece using steam before I frame it that the color might run? It is the perfect thing for the heart so I really want to do it but am not sure I dare to take the chance. It is hard to see in the picture but the bleeding is on the linen at the top right of the door. There isn't much, but then I hadn't frogged much there! After I get the gift done I will go back to SL, but I'm missing doing something with multiple colors and need to find a new project. I'm beginning to understand why stitchers have so many projects going on at one time!

More questions - I probably don't have enough time to make a tin topper for the Monthly Finishing Challenge (hopefully I'll get back on the bandwagon for the next challenge) but for the future: where is it best to start and end the trim around the sides of the topper so the ends won't show very much? Should it be in a corner or in the back of the tin topper? I keep trying to see where people did this in the pictures of the tins but they are hidden so well I can't tell. Is there a secret I don't know? Any tips would be most welcome. I am so glad for the huge knowledge base out there in the stitching community. I could never have learned the little I do know from books or stitching magazines!

5 comments:

Tanya Willis Anderson said...

What a lovely name, I must say!!!

Tanya

Carol R said...

Welcome back Michele!

Email me if you would like some tips on tin finishing - there's a link on my blog but I think you already have my email address

Sonda said...

My son's preschool teacher was a lovely lady named Mrs. Pray! Her husband was a youth pastor at the church where the preschool was.

Sally said...

Lovely progress on the teacher gift Michele. I really miss making teacher gifts for my girls to give.

Kathy said...

Tried sending you an e-mail and it came back. I did your address wrong, so have sent it again. Trying to answer some of your questions about stitching with silk.

Hope it goes this time. It probably would have gone the 1st time if I had used the right e-mail.