Monday, November 30, 2009

A Cozy Quilter's Christmas...



This is a stitched and scrapped wall hanging made for a sample at the store last Christmas that I now am able to bring home and hang up.  (We had a few more patterns this fall to sell, so I took the sample back to the store until the patterns sold.)  But now it's hanging on a door and I'm very pleased to have it up!

The pattern is from Crapapple Hill and was originally for a pillow, but I didn't want to do all that hand stitchin' and hand quiltin' and have someone sittin' on it!  LOL  I did it as a wall hanging for a 12-inch hanger.

This was my first time using crayons to color in motifs in a stitchery, but it won't be the last!.  It was very easy to do!  I recommend Crayola Crayons.  After coloring what I wanted, I layered the colored area with 2 paper towels and pressed with a hot iron until no more color came off.  I did this before stitching.  I know some people do it after stitching.  Of course, don't do this if you transfer you embroidery design with the blue water-removerable, disappearing pen (the heat of the iron will make it impossible to remove the disappearing pen completely and ruin your day!).  I like to transfer with a brown Pigma pen, so it worked fine.


The scrappy stars and top border were all red and neutral in the pattern, but I like the sparkle of adding green as well.  Striped binding is my favorite! 


It was my first experience with Weeks embroidery floss (a lovely varigated one for the writing - everything else was DMC), and I nearly died when I was gently spritzing away my blue quilting lines and the words just started to run a bit on my background...YIKES!!  Fast action on my part (and a little bit of white Crayola crayon) "stopped the bleeding" and my blood pressure returned to normal.  I had no idea that the Weeks floss was so prone to running.

For those of you experienced in using Weeks floss, does soaking the skein in vinegar or Retayne help to make it colorfast??  My heart won't take another experience like this one!!

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

3 comments:

  1. That's adorable Teresa, I love the way the tree is stitched. Gorgeous.
    Lizzie
    XXX

    ReplyDelete
  2. Teresa,
    Your wallhanging is so cute. I like to color and set it before I stitch only because it will flatten the thread.
    I use Weeks all the time but I just put the skein in a cup of hot water and let it sit for an hour or two or whenever I get back to it. Then I lay it on a paper towel to see if all the dye is out. If I still see some I will put it in the cup with clean water. And check it again. Give that a try. I have never used the other things you mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm having knots in my stomach just reading about this ..... I've had one too many experiences with pens. I don't know anything about this floss, but thanks for the heads up.
    Lovely quilt and nice for you to be able to hang it up.

    ReplyDelete

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