Showing posts with label Sweet Hearts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweet Hearts. Show all posts

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Is it Valentine's Already?

I guess it's time again to trot out my neverending redwork project, Sweet Hearts. I did manage some work on it after Valentine's Day last year. I finished up the first of the couples:


...and made a fair bit of progress on the second couple:


You can see there is a lot of fine detail left on the second couple. This year I have accepted that there will have to be a lot of back stitching, and less stem stitch than I would prefer, in order to finish all those details. My issue with the back stitch is that it does shadow through the fabric more. The hearts in the first picture are back stitched, and you can see the white centres of the hearts are a little darker than the surrounding fabric. It is more obvious in real life!

But, this year I've been relaxing a lot more about things than I have in the past. If it can't be helped, then it can't be helped. So, shadowy back stitch it will be!

Here's the over all progress to date:


There are only two now that have no stitching at all. I'm embarrassed to say that a couple of the pieces are starting to yellow! Hopefully a good wash at the end will even things out. The final layout will have sashing, so that should minimize any aging on the fabric as well.

I'm still quite enthused about my final plan for these, so progress may be slow, but it will continue!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Another Year on Sweet Hearts

Back in November I realized with a chill that on Valentine's Day, 2013, I wrote that I hoped to have all nine of my Sweet Heart redwork designs finished by Valentine's Day, 2014. I knew then that there was no way that was going to happen! Not after I'd spent so much time on Best Friends Forever. But I made a push, and finished this little guy, who may well be my favourite:


With the spats on the shoes and the striped outfit, I'm pretty sure this is a boy. But he feels quite familiar all the same...


Yes, that's me on the right!

I've realized that I stitched all the singles first, and now I have all the couples left. In general, the couples had more detail, so I guess I started with the easier ones. The first couple is well underway:


And here's a layout of all nine to give you a sense of where things are going:


I really do want to finish them and move on to the next steps with my plans for some pieced and applique borders. Too many projects! In any case,


Saturday, June 15, 2013

Two More Sweet Hearts

Yesterday Sharon over at Lilabelle Lane posted her work so far on Best Friends Forever, a new Rosalie Quinlan stitchery and quilting pattern. I immediately loved it! I think this pattern is in my future.

But, it inspired me to get out the redwork project I do have, Sweet Hearts. Two more blocks are now finished:



That makes three of the nine done. As a tv-watching project, redwork makes a nice change from Texas Star, so maybe there will be one or two more soon. We'll see!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Sweet Hearts Update

Happy Valentine's Day!

It seems appropriate to show how far along I am with the Sweet Hearts redwork designs that I first showed last Valentine's Day. Not far at all! But at least one is done:


Adding the loop knot to my repertoire was a big help, but I was still struggling with these for a long time. I used a ceramic pencil to trace the designs, and it rubbed off quickly, so I had to guess where to stitch half the time.

Finally last fall I saw that Pigma Microns come in red, so I bought one in the smallest size, 005. Pigma Microns are permanent, archival quality pens, and I found that the 005 makes a very fine line:


Now these are finally easy to stitch! I sincerely hope that they will be done before next Valentine's Day!

But honestly, I am not sure that there is a lot more redwork in my future once these are done. Even though I love things that are red and white, I have been finding it hard to warm to this technique. We'll see how I feel when they're all done. There will be nine in all, so lots of time to change my mind...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Second Run at Redwork

I recently showed you all the problems I'd had with redwork in the past.  I'm glad to report that I think I have them all solved!  I've been going full stream ahead.  This is just one day's work while catching up on Coronation Street:


This is all stem stitch.  I have been debating between stem stitch or back stitch, but what I've found is that stem stitch is a lot easier.  It is hard to get a continuous line with back stitch, while with stem stitch if you miss the previous hole you cannot really tell.  I may still use back stitch for some of the fine details, like the fingers.  I am finding, though, that just shortening the stitch handles the details well too.

The biggest difference, however, has been working the embroidery in hand rather than in the hoop.  It is so much easier!!  I find I can get the tip of the needle to just pop up in the previous hole when I am working in hand, so my stitching is faster and much more accurate.  There is no issue with puckering either.  I am planning to take my Cottage Garden UFO out of the hoop as well, to see if that gets easier too.

And the back is now a thing of beauty, but I forgot to take pictures of it!  Next time.


Related Posts:

Previous redwork efforts - Sweet Hearts

Cottage Garden UFO - 10,000 Hours and Deliberate Practice

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Sweet Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!  Today is the 50th anniversary of my parents' engagement, so Valentine's Day has always been a big deal in my family.  In honour of the day, here is a redwork project that I have just started work on again.


I bought these at www.redwork.info several years ago now.  I have been to the site more recently, and I am not sure if it is still active, it has not been updated in years - so use with caution!

I have been on again, off again with this project.  Sunday evening I started to think about it again, and I made a new quilt design incorporating just these nine blocks.  My previous plan had been to combine these with some other redwork patterns, but the whole thing was going so slowly, and poorly, that I just abandoned it.

From the front, my first attempt did not look that bad, but it was chaos on the back:

Old block - front

Old block - back

It doesn't look like all the ends on the back matter, until you see the block against a white background:


I did briefly consider lining the blocks with red fabric to hide all the ends!  But that didn't feel right to me, so the project became another UFO.

Now that a few years have passed, I've learned a lot about how to deal with the ends on the back, and suddenly the project seems a lot easier.  I realized that it can be my elusive "tv project."  I am so far behind on Coronation Street!  CBC only keeps the last three weeks online, and I have been missing episodes because I have nothing to do while watching them.   I spent most of yesterday tracing new blocks, and I have 3 left to do today.  I am also stitching the label for Edward's quilt, so there is a lot of outlining in my future.  Which is good, because I think Audrey and Mark's secret is about to become the talk of the neighbourhood!
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