The gold border is done and the piece is finished. But it was not a fast finish. The details are often what make or break any project. My grandfather and my father and my brothers all do wood working – beautiful wood working – as a hobby. Taking care, measuring and going slowly were lessons I learned as a child. It’s hard for me to always remember them since being patient is not my normal mode of operation. (Except with children – with them I can be patient forever – that’s why I’m a teacher!)
Susan O’Connor, in her book Flowers for Elizabeth, suggests using a combination of fly stitch/detached chain stitch for the outside border. She combines it with a zig-zag chain stitch, which I tried but found too heavy for the piece.
When doing anything that is geometric and symmetrical, I usually don’t trust my eye 100%. I measure.
The points are 1 cm apart. and So the point of the “V” in the fly stitch was stitched on the dot and where I places the detached chain stitch in the combination. It worked beautifully and was worth the minutes it took to measure once and stitch far more times than twice!
Next I needed to block the piece. I don’t have a frame yet (I’m getting one this summer when I come home to the USA) so I stitch on a hoop. It’s big and deep and first rate but it does leave wrinkles.
When it comes time to block my finished pieces, I lay them on the ironing board and pin them down on the sides and the ends, stretching the fabric a bit as I go.
I then spray the piece with water and leave it overnight. Unpinning it seems to take forever (no patience, remember?) and I’m excited to see how it looks. It always looks so much nicer when it has been blocked!
Here is a photo of the completed project. I will post more photos, pdf with dimensions of the whole piece and a thread chart next time. Now I’m going to start planning the Italian Ceramic Sampler Project. Whee!
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