What is the most complicated piece you’ve ever completed?

I’ve done quite a few pieces that I would consider complicated.

The one I did, and swore that I would never attempt again was Mary Hickmott’s “Horus”, that took me about 6 months to do. Needless to say, I saw another kit of this at a show I was at last year, and for some reason brought it. One day, perhaps!

Another one, that I ended up giving to my cousin for her 40^th birthday, as an alphabet based around oak trees and acorns. I sadly don’t have a photo for this but that took me about 5 months to do and I almost gave up on it several times.

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When you start a new work do you look for something small, do you look for another huge project or do you consider your UFOs?

It really depends on what I’ve just finished. The vast majority of my projects are large and often take months to complete. When I finish a large one, I like to sit back for a while and do nothing, especially if I’ve been working to a deadline, and am all stitched out.

Sometimes I am in the middle of a large item and just want to have the feeling of actually finishing something – ANYTHING! I then grab something small – I have a pack of items from Tante’s Zolder that can be made into lavender sachets for instance – and can do in around a day. When I have enough of these completed I then pull out the sewing machine and make them up.

I’m trying to make sure that when I’ve finished another big one, then I at least *look* at my outstanding WIPs and do at least a few stitches on them before considering starting another large piece of work – I only have 3 outstanding at the moment!

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What items do you consider essential to your needlework that you keep in your stitching bag?

I dont have a stitching bag per se….current WIPs are kept in clear rigid A4 plastic folders from the local stationers as this allows me to keep all the bits for the project together, whilst allowing me to see what the project is. I also have a cloth bag that sits beside my chair in my living room that contains other projects, spare hoops etc, plus a square tin box (that I think contained sweets or biscuits at one point), that now contains those small items that will always go missing if you dont corral them in one place – boxes of extra needles, pins, those big reels of standard black and white cotton that are used for doing emergency fixes on clothes, that kind of thing.

Meanwhile – essential needlework items that I always have with me however I carry my WIP. Needles – lots of needles! I prefer sharpes, but you dont always get those in the shops so I also have embrioidery and tapestry and longs and the odd shorts too.

Scissors. I have one pair of biggish sharp tipped scissors that I always carry with me and the odd pair of small scissors that are taken on random occasions.

Hoops. I always have at least one hoop, and the size varies depending on the project. I dont always use it, especially if i have swathes of the same colour to stitch, but they are very useful when you have small numbers of stitches to do here or there.

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Do you have any projects that you have scrapped and started over? What made you start over from scratch?

I’ve restarted a couple over the years, but couldn’t name them off the top of the head. Generally it’s when I’ve found a mistake and there’s too much work in frogging it, meaning it’s quicker to start over.

The most memorable one I started again was the Lavender and Lace “The Wedding”, which I originally started on Linen for my older brother’s wedding. I decided part way through that I hate working on Linen, in this case because I had so much trouble working “over 2″ that the result would never work.

I ditched that attempt for several years, until my younger brother announced his engagement. I then attempted the same image, this time on Aida. The finished result is here.

(want to know where I get these prompts? Go here)

Are you starting something new to celebrate the New Year or participating in “Guilt Free January?” If so, what are you planning on starting?

I didn’t start something new on New Year. However, I did start Celtic Christmas a few weeks before. My plan this year (as in every year!) is to attempt to finish some of my WIPs before I start any new projects. I have The Quiltmaker, and Beautiful Balloons to finish this year, as well as a couple of others that have been lying around for ages. I should really finish at least one before I start another.

And no, I didn’t know what a “Guilt Free January.” was – I found it off another SBQ Blogger who didn’t either. Apparently, it refers to some practice of declaring that no matter how many WIPs you have, you can start new projects in January without feeling guilty about it. And no I wont be doing it!

[want to know what I'm talking about? look here]

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

I received one – a friend gave me a needlebook with scissors in the back. Pretty and very useful, partly because I dont have scissors that small and there are times I seem to be endlessly frogging!

I never otherwise get stitching gifts from my family or friends. I’ve never asked for any (my stash is simply to big to need any) and think that they would be simply to scared to buy something that might be wrong!

(Want to know where I get these prompts? Go here)

Have you ever helped anyone else learn to stitch? Have you ever helped anyone learn a new stitch or technique?

I tried to teach my mother how to stitch several times. She can get the basic understanding ok, but then gets bored quite rapidly, so gives up. She wants to go from start to finish as quickly as possible, without doing all the boring stuff in between!

My niece is 4 at the moment. She has seen me stitch, and came over to ask me what I was doing (“I’m making a picture using all these lovely colours”), but at the time she wasn’t interested in learning to do what I was doing. Maybe someday she will!

I know only the basic stitches, and am very conservative as to what I stitch (I am awful at fractionals, in no doubt partially because I hate working on linen). I do have magazines and books that show me all these other stitches and I am working myself up to learning how to do them. Sooner or later I may even teach someone else how to do them too!

I did help teach someone to knit recently. She knew how to Knit 1 etc., but had never got the grasp of casting on, and always had had trouble when finishing one row of what to do next. I quickly taught her how to do the latter, which gave her so much more confidence, as she had worked herself up too much for not being able to do it.

(Want to know what I’m talking about? Look here)

Do you do anything special to your threads before putting them through your fabric to make them more manageable?
To be honest, no. The main thing I try and do is make sure that the thread is of such a length that the likelihood of it breaking is reduced.

I know some people put in beeswax or petroleum jelly to stop it fraying, or onto their needles for the same reason, but I’ve never done that, mainly as it strikes me as too messy!

The permalink to this SBQ Prompt is:
http://blog. blondelibrarian. net/archives/ 2007/12/a- finished- row/

” What tips would you give to a new stitcher to help her stitch faster and neater while still keeping it enjoyable?”

Don’t run before you can walk – whilst it’s great to be working on the large, impressive designs, you need to start slow, with the right sized smaller designs.

Don’t be afraid to experiment on fabrics and find the ones that work for you

Ensure you have good lighting. You need to see where you’ve been and where you’re going. Ties in with….

Do your best to keep all your stitches going in one direction. Sounds daft. Sounds simple. but it’s more complicated to achieve than you would think. Once in a while, you’ll stitch a whole bank of stitches, then look back and go “D’oh!”.

Don’t get too worked up about the back of your design. Most of the time the item will be made up into something else (framed, as a cushion etc) and you’re there to enjoy yourself. If a person is rude enough to look and then comment on the back, then they’re rude enough to be told to go stitch it themselves.

(want to know where I got this prompt from? go here)

When you have to frog out stitches, do you reuse that thread or do you start over with a new strand?

It really depends on how the frogged thread looks.

Krenick – never. I had to pull a load out for the recent Wedding picture and it looked vile when being stitched and 100% worse when coming back out.

If the thread is still realtively neat and tidy – say I’ve stitched in a virgin area and simply been off a few squares – then it gets used again

I dont have any specific tools for this – just a needle, a pair of scissors and a lot of patience!

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