Monday, October 4, 2010

Oh Stitching, Where Are You Stitching?

I'm in the midst of a mystery. I stitched an ornament, and I've lost it. I've looked everywhere and it's nowhere to be found. It's just a little unfinished ornament from the 2004 JCS Ornament issue, and I have no clue what I did with it. If I keep this up I'll have to attach little homing devices to my stitching, so I can keep track of it!

French Country Star
JBW Designs
2010 JCS Ornament Issue
Belgian 32 count linen/Crescent Colours Apple Fritter


Meanwhile, after the lost ornament I stitched this one from the current JCS Ornament issue. I love JBW's designs with the little motifs, and it was a quick and fun stitch. A word of warning - if you are going to stitch it, there is an error in the chart - the top right point of the star is one row off in two of the motifs. At least I think it's an error - the odd thing is that the model picture is stitched as it's charted, but it doesn't make sense since everything else is symmetrical.

So now I need to finish this, and that brings me to my Achilles heel - cording. I have never been able to figure out how to put cording around anything without it unraveling at the ends or the join showing. What is the secret to doing this? If you have any tips for me I would deeply appreciate them. Not knowing how to do this is really playing havoc with finishing what I've made, and I would love to be able to get past this.

Okay, back to looking for my little lost ornament...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps your lost ornament is keeping my two lost skeins of silk floss company somewhere.

As for cording, I usually tie off each end with a small length of floss, then the ends get tucked into the open seam before I close it. You can hide the tucked-in ends at the bottom seam, or you could attach a hangar at that spot to hide it.

But others have far more finishing experience than I do, so I'll be interested to see your other responses to this question.

Kathy A. said...

Well, I checked every nook and cranny - it's not here ROFL. Just go looking for something else and it will show up. Good luck

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

I'm going to stitch this ornament, I think it is cute! :)
I also have her new Angel one too, it's on my list (of course) :)

Cording, take a length of thread or floss or whatever and tie off both sides prior to the cut. Cut in the middle then take a needle and complimenting thread color and sew the end. (you can slip off the tied part after this is done.) do it to both sides of the cording. Put the cording around the piece, when you get to the ends, place them end to end OR you can lay one side slightly above the other and sort of hide the end under the other side of cording. A dot of glue on the ends with hide them if you are abutting ends, if you are laying side by side, just make sure they are glued down so they don't hang loose. I never tuck inside a finish...it makes it look bulky and obvious in my opinion although that seems to be the main way people do, but if you look at my finishes, I do it as I described and you can't tell where the end is :)

Sally said...

Your JBW ornament is gorgeous.

I was going to mention gluing the ends of the cording but I see Vonna has already explained it beautifully :)

Carol said...

Hope your ornament turns up!! I seem to lose more and more things every year myself :)

So glad I could read Vonna's advice on cording--I tend to put a dab of glue on each cut end, but if you look at my ornaments, most of them have little bows hiding the "not perfectly matched" cording!!

Siobhán said...

Great job on the ornament! I hope you find the other one. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Oh, it is frustrating!! :P

I am so bad at finishing that even reading Vonna's very well written comment is still confusing me. Good luck!