Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Following the Yellow Brick Road

My goodness, it's been a long time since I posted! I'd like to say it's because I was off doing something stupendous, but alas, it was just the holidays and limited stitching that kept me from having much to say. But I promised Michele that I'd put up a progress picture of Midsummer Night Designs' Primitive Wizard of Oz, which we are both working on. I'm heading into the home stretch now, with just a few more motifs and a few details to go. This has been such a fun stitch! It's so clever - notice how each motif is near the first letter of its name - G for Glinda, O for Oz, W for both Wizard and Witch, etc. Like Michele I love the Golden Star thread (and thank heavens my border matched up right). I wasn't careful when I read the directions - it's supposed to be stitched 1 over 2, but I started off using two strands of floss and continued that way. It makes the colors quite vivid so I think it's okay. I'll definitely miss this one when it's over.

I'm stitching this for my mom, who has been a Wizard of Oz fan since she was a child. When I was young, it was only on TV once a year - what an event that was! We'd all gather round the black and white screen - it was a revelation to see Oz in color years later. Guess I'm dating myself bigtime. I have a DVD of the first season of Lost in Space, a favorite show of mine early on, and it's all in black and white, which my son watches with disbelief. The other big TV event from my childhood was Peter Pan with Mary Martin, also an annual event. I was always so intrigued by a woman playing a boy - it was a cause for endless fascination. Ah, memories...

Anyway, since I'm making this for my mom's birthday, while I was visiting my parents over Christmas I had to have something else to stitch so she wouldn't see it. I picked up an issue of The World of Cross Stitching, which had a bunch of holiday motifs by Joan Elliott. This one caught my fancy - it was an enjoyable quick project. Which leads me to a question - I'd like to fringe the edges and mount it on felt to make an ornament. How do I affix the stitched piece to the felt without using glue, which I'm afraid will show through the linen when it's dry? Is there some technique I should be using? I'd appreciate any suggestions.

7 comments:

Michele said...

Hey you .. I came to your blog after I emailed you .. of course you can ignore my want to SAL in real with you since you are almost done and I'm not as far along .. I love how yours is turning out!!!!

and hanging my head in shame .. I did not catch the motifs close the the letters thing .. I'm a tad slow at times! lol

love the ornament you stitched! there's a couple of ornament pictures on my blog of stitching back with felt .. they hand stitched it on .. I love the finish .. take a look and see what you think :) One was finished by Nicole and one finished by Chris.

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

Love your finishes :) The ornament is cute. The only way is eithr to place a piece of mat board between the felt and the stitched peice and then backstitch along the sides of the mat board or just sew it to the felt and then fringe.
Good Luck!

Kathy said...

Very nice stitching. I have seen OZ stitched and did not notice the correlation of the letter with the character. Guess I am slow too.

Red ornament is very nice. You have been busy, even if you don't think so.

I have no advice on the finishing you want to do.

Kim B said...

I love the Wizard of Oz! What a great piece Michele! I had to laugh when you said your mom loves that movie too because my mom HATES the Wizard of Oz! She said she watched it as a child when she was too young and it scared her half to death. She has never liked that movie. Kind of how my sister feels about Pinocchio... The women in my family have strange movie issues (myself included)!

I'm no help with the felt mounting, but I would love to know how to do that finishing too :)

Sally said...

Your Wizard of Oz piece is looking fantastic! Also love your ornament. I think red ornaments are so pretty.

staci said...

I'm so glad you posted as I've been thinking about you :)

Really lovely stitching! Love that WofO sampler, it's so delightful! And I love your red ornament finish too!!!

Teri said...

I love the little red winter ornament. So pretty!