Being Good, Blocking

Last Saturday, I had colds so I stayed home the whole day being good by finishing all the backstitches on Morning Lake.  Isn't it funny that I had to be sick just to finished it?  :-D

Here it is being dried:

Now, all it needs is some ironing and then framing:

And I also have some progress on Tropical Fruits, not much, but still progress as they say :-D

Last week's:

As of April 4, 2011

And this week's:

As of April 11, 2011

Also last week, I did post this photo of my doily project which was unwashed and unblocked:

Last Sunday, I washed it and blocked.  Kim asked what blocking is all about.  You can find here the explanation.  But in short, it is the method of “molding” or "stretching" your finished work into the shape that you desire.

I used this styrofoam as my blocking board where I cut my needle organizers from:

Here's the doily being blocked while still wet after washing:

I thought blocking is as easy as 1-2-3.  But it is not.  I think I've spent more than 30 minutes trying to get the perfect shape and yet, to my eyes, it is still not what I wanted.  I counted all the pins I used, it's 96 pieces!

Here it is now on the table and you can now see it's true shape unlike when it was not blocked yet:

With lights on

Without lights

 My mother put the candles as decoration.  Maybe I will try to look for candles with contrasting colors.

Thanks for reading this week's update.  Take care everyone!

Clothes Clips, Styrofoam, Clipboard

Yes, you're reading it right, clothes clips.  And what do clothes clips have to do with stitching?

I don't use hoops, scroll frames or lap stands.  I just stitch in hand and here's how I do it:

With this way of stitching, I can't do without these:

Mini wooden clips that I bought from the bookstore

And when I found these at the supermarket, I almost jump with joy.  Because it's so hard to find these nowadays.  All I see are those plastic clothes clips which I used before but they slip from the fabric.

Regular-sized wooden clips

I laughed when I saw in the label "Strong Lumber Clip" because the words "strong" and "lumber" is, for me, synonymous to muscles and masculine, so much the opposite of "cross stitch" which brings to mind the word "feminine" and "slender or nurturing hands".  Sorry for the babble :D

Now what about the styrofoam?... 

I use plenty of needles when I cross stitch because I don't like the process of re-threading a needle everytime I change colors.  And before, I just stick the needle to the bobbin like this:

Then I saw in the forums that some people use this Pako Needle Organizer 

and they said that it's a big help specially when you're dealing with confetti stitches.  So, I thought that I will need it when I start doing my HAED (Heaven And Earth) and Golden Kite patterns.  But everybody knows how much colors a HAED or Golden Kite chart requires.  So, if I will buy this Pako organizer, I would probably need two.  And it cost around $20 each.  So an idea came to my mind.  Instead, I bought this, again, from the book store:

Styrofoam, 1 inch thick, around $.50

And these are my needle organizers that I cut from it:

Needle organizer for Homebound

Morning Lake needle organizer

I just taped to the styrofoam the symbols page and voila, instant needle organizer.  So there, I was able to save around $40 or more.  And there's still more to use for future projects.

And last but not the least...another thing that I can't stitch without - my clipboard!

I'm so happy when I found this at the Japanese store.  I like that it is bigger than the average clipboard that you can buy from the book stores.  Its size is:  15 inches x 11.5 inches.

This is all for now.  Thanks for dropping by and happy stitching weekend everyone!