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Crafty update.

I'd forgotten how often we saw Magritte

mucha mosaic
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Crafty update.

colubra
5/24/04 11:35 pm
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mucha mosaic
So esmerel was very very helpful today when I was going off the deep end from tearing out my hair after tearing YET ANOTHER strand of embroidery floss.
Thank god for esmerel.
I am now doing this beast with the more traditional 3 strands of floss, and it's looking much much much neater than the 6 strands that the pattern insisted it wanted. Sure, that looks big and puffy, but it's also just a right royal bitch to do, and the stitches need to be a hell of a lot more perfect for it.
For those wondering what I'm on about,


--I'm doing the letters in purple, otherwise, this is where I'm going. The somewhat blotchy appearance of the blue-white background can be attributed to the fact that this was me cutting-and-pasting around with an extant pattern to make it say what I wanted it to, to see if I COULD do that before I bought the pattern.
I'm about 1/2way done with God, and I have all the leaves to the left of the G in God done, as well as all the leaves above the od.
  • Current Mood: artistic
  • Current Music: 'America is Not the World', Morrissey
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  • enzeru
    5/25/04 12:12 am (UTC)
    Yay! There is a great need for more ironic cross-stitches in the world. ;)

  • alemya
    5/25/04 12:18 am (UTC)
    One of the first things my grandmother taught me about cross-stitch was that the floss companies had an agreement with the pattern makers that said you HAD to use six strands. She was a great advocate of only using 3 strands...and her pieces never suffered for it.

    I thought she was paranoid, until I tried it. Three. Always better. ;)

    That looks awesome! Congrats on the project and have fun with it. Will there be matching pillowcases in the future? ;)

  • mamamoira
    5/25/04 12:19 am (UTC)
    Woo hoo! Are you doing this on the traditional Aida canvas, or are you being daring and doing it on linen? What kinda frame are you using (if at all)? And yeah, back when I was doing cross-stitch a lot, I rarely if ever used more than 3 strands of DMC at a time; there's a rough gauge based on how big your grid is, and usually I was doing at least 14-count, typically 16- or 18-count, which generally calls for only 2 strands. But even when I did the bigish 12-count (or was it 11?) baby blanket thingy, I only used 3 strands and it still came out looking Just Fine.

    There are, of course, lots of little tricks to make some things easier, but you probably already know many of them one way or another.

    • colubra
      5/25/04 08:25 am (UTC)
      it's on 18-count aida: I'm not daring enough to do it on linen. The G in God is over 20 stitches high for pete's sake!
      Apparently the original pattern-maker is a sadistic bitch who wanted to break people's wrists. She did, in fact, specifically state 6 strands for 18-count.

  • justthisgrrl
    5/25/04 08:37 am (UTC)
    Six strands? Three strands? Eeesh! I must do all my cross-stitch on smaller canvas. I hardly ever use more then two.

    One thing I have found, though... double pointed needles. The 'eye' is in the middle of the needle, which means you don't have to turn the needle around as you go in and out of the fabric. It puts a whole lot less twist on the floss which reduces knotting a good deal. They aren't very good for French Knots, though, so switch to a regular needle for those.

    You can get them at JoAnn's. I haven't seen them elsewhere yet, nor looked on the web since I can get them locally. They come in packs of three for $3 which makes them more expensive, but so worth it. The largest size (26) is usually good for 10/12/14/16 count Aida. The smallest size (22) has a tendancy to snap in the middle under continuous pressure.

    I believe the manufacturer is 'John James'. They come in a white and orange package and are made in England.

  • esmerel
    5/25/04 09:13 am (UTC)
    happy to help. ;)

  • junglebay
    5/25/04 10:32 am (UTC)
    I love cross stitching but I was thought to do that with only two strands otherwise no one would notice the cross pattern. Especially when you do a stitch per square.

    *Points to nuns* Blame them.

    • colubra
      5/25/04 11:15 am (UTC)
      I love cross stitching but I was thought to do that with only two strands otherwise no one would notice the cross pattern. Especially when you do a stitch per square.
      I'm with you here: 2 or 3 strands. The pattern said 6 strands for 18-count aida fabric, believe it or not (nobody else seems to believe it either). I'm much happier having switched over to 3 strands.

      *Points to nuns* Blame them.
      I do. Often. ;)

    • colubra
      5/25/04 11:17 am (UTC)
      I love cross stitching but I was thought to do that with only two strands otherwise no one would notice the cross pattern. Especially when you do a stitch per square.
      I'm with you here: 2 or 3 strands. The pattern said 6 strands for 18-count aida fabric, believe it or not (nobody else seems to believe it either). I'm much happier having switched over to 3 strands.

      *Points to nuns* Blame them.
      I do. Often. ;)

  • feyandstrange
    5/25/04 09:56 pm (UTC)
    (clutches head and moans)
    I leave town for a week and you start doing cross-stitch? damn.

    ...sorry, it looks like a lovely project, and you should talk to Jace about help on it as well, because he cross-stitches.

    It was just a blow to have you doing stuff I associate with great-aunts right after my father pointed out to me that my great-aunt is, in fact, a gay man trapped in woman's body. Flippy limp wrists, "dining experience", strange young-enough-to-be-her-son foreign friends, season tickets to the opera, art fag-hag and all.

    Christ, I need to get out of here before the genes from that side of the family express. But I love the cross-stitch idea, and the pattern.
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