Jo's stitching 2022

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you Mabel,

It is finished:



And a couple of close ups:









Time to choose another one to do

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Beautiful work, congratulations on such a stunnng finish! The close-ups show just how much attention you have given to the details.

[Garnet]

CONGRATULATIONS

She is so beautiful, so many different stitches, the detail is fantastic and your stitches are so beautifully neat and even throughout.

I hope you feel very proud of yourself and put her somewhere where you can see her every day.

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you

I've just gone to frame this piece to firstly find I had ordered the wrong sized frame But I am trying to tell myself this is not as bad as it might have been as with the beads it would never have fitted anyway.

Is it time to learn how to make picture frames

Jo

[rcperryls]

Beautiful, stunning, perfectly stitched. An amazing finish. I agree that you should be very proud of this project.

Carole

[fccs]

Holy moly, she is stunning. Exquisite! And your stitches are absolutely perfection. Beautiful, beautiful work!

[Serinde]

Exquisite. And so much detail. Well done!

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you Ladies

I am still playing with how to frame this piece and have slept on it. Yesterday I considered using the pair of frames I purchased for these two pieces for my Robin and Wren pieces. I still have the Kingfisher to make in this set (and possibly more if I find out about any ). Originally I was waiting to finish the last piece before having them all framed together but these frames were an option. After an hour or so worry around the problem they have been put away again and I am back looking at this one:



The finished piece is not the same size as the DMC kit claims: it is 1/2" narrower and the frame I purchased is 16" by 12" with a 12" by 10" mount.
Assuming I Leave out the clear plastic so that there is sufficient space for the beads etc. The options I can see are:

• Add an additional 2" of stitching to the piece

• Consider only having vertical framing strips either side like shown above. Initially I think this looks horrible but possibly people will be focusing on the stitching and not notice the bars and of course any men will not even notice there is a new cross stitch piece on the wall

• The extreme option is to cut the frame down: this is something I have never done before. I have a frame that arrived broken that I could possibly try this out on.

• Or should I wait and frame both pieces at the same time

As you can tell I am getting no where fast on this.

Jo

[Serinde]

I think this is too beautiful a piece and represents too much work to compromise on the framing. I'd wait until you can frame the piece the way you truly want to showcase it.

[Garnet]

If she was mine, I would wait until I have completed the other piece so you can see the two pieces side by side. You may want to have 2 matching frames to unite the pieces, and you may find whilst this frame looks good with Enchantress it may not suit the other.

Personally I dislike the mount at the sides only, it looks unbalanced to me, but that is only my opinion, it is your opinion that matters and if that is what you prefer, then go for it.

Like Serinde says she is too beautiful to compromise, she deserves to be framed to the best advantage.

Would a professional framers be out of the question ? (yes, I know they can be horrendously expensive)

[Steam.Jo]

I am toying with the idea of waiting until I have completed the other piece.

Yes I would have taken her to our local framers except that the one we all loved moved away during Covid and the other one did not survive lockdown. The next nearest will be over 20 miles away and no one has used them.

I still might experiment with that broken frame to see just how hard making frames is. I can after all make working engines and have all the tools so is it really that hard. The problem is that they are normally in that "brown stuff" (wood) which does not work right. Maybe this plastic stuff might be kinder If I find it easier to work in it could be just a case of buy a bigger frame, cut it down on two corners, re-join those two corners and then cheap frames here we go and of course all the local Ladies will be hassling me to do it for them as well.

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Whatever solution you go with, I agree with what others have said - that this is a phenomenal piece of work that deserves to look its best. If you are going to cringe every time you look at her in her not-quite-right frame, then wait until you can find the right one!

[rcperryls]

Whatever solution you go with, I agree with what others have said - that this is a phenomenal piece of work that deserves to look its best. If you are going to cringe every time you look at her in her not-quite-right frame, then wait until you can find the right one!

I totally agree. Better to wait to find the right one for such an exceptional piece of stitching!

Carole

[fccs]

Whatever solution you go with, I agree with what others have said - that this is a phenomenal piece of work that deserves to look its best. If you are going to cringe every time you look at her in her not-quite-right frame, then wait until you can find the right one!

I totally agree. Better to wait to find the right one for such an exceptional piece of stitching!

Carole

Yes!

[Squirrel]

That is a lovely update for sure.

[Steam.Jo]

I experimented yesterday with "repairing that broken picture frame" and success it is back together and usable.

This morning I contacted the company that does these ornate (plastic foamy ) frames to see if they will do them to non standard sizes. If not I know know that I can cut them down and make up a usable frame, so the worst price will be around £30 for the pair I am still challenged as to why it is cheaper to buy these with a mount than without

Jo

[wendywombat]

Beautiful work, congratulations on such a stunnng finish! The close-ups show just how much attention you have given to the details.

Just caught up with this
Fantastic finish.

[karen4bells]

Beautiful work, congratulations on such a stunnng finish! The close-ups show just how much attention you have given to the details.

Just caught up with this
Fantastic finish.

This is truly a masterpiece!!! Very nice finish!!

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you for your kind comments on my Enchantress I have ordered two frames which I plan to cut down to fit this one and to fit the Woodland/Autumn one. They should be here on Monday

In the meantime I have started on a new piece that I will show you what it is and where I am tomorrow on my weekly updates

Jo

[Steam.Jo]

The sun has been out a couple of time this week so I have made some progress on my bunny out in my conservatory:



Of an evening when it gets cooler/dark I have decided to do the "Covid/Millennium" sampler:



My plan is to use the centre panel as is from the original Millennium piece but to replace the outer border.

I feel that the "cute" headline endangered animals around the edge is a bit tacky so my plan is to replace it with Covid memories. So I have found the Covid vaccine badge and converted that into a cross stitch pattern (much better than a syringe to remember the vaccine by ) and was thinking that could go centre bottom. Now I am looking for small stitching pieces of nature, so I am thinking: Bat (originally blamed for Covid ) , wheat seed heads (Ukraine), some ground feeding birds (bird feeding went up during lockdown), spring and early summer flowers (which were in bloom during and when we came out of lockdown), and inter leaved with dead Oak Leaves .Each of the images will need to be around 20 stitches by 20 stitches.

Jo