Sewing Memories | ||||||||||||||
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It caught my eye because of its coloring — so much like a sepia-tone photo. The entire piece uses only eight shades of floss, all in the off-white, grey-brown and beige color families. The chart calls for a 28ct Tea-Dyed Monaco fabric. I didn't have any of that fabric handy, so I took a piece of white Monaco and did the tea dying myself. If you'd like to give that process a try, read the page in Needlework 101 called Tea Dyeing Fabrics. As you can see, almost the entire 84 x 84 area is solid stitching. The main design (quilt, sewing machine and cabinet) are stitched with full crosses. The background is two shades of floss in half crosses. It was intense stitching! And it didn't help that I miscounted in the bottom right corner of the piece about three times and had to do quite a bit of ripping. Perhaps I should have gridded my fabric first to avoid that problem! There was also a good deal of backstitching on this piece. To make the process somewhat simpler, I did the backstitching in sections as I went along. But because of needing to keep track of the multiple quarter stitches, some of the backstitching was also a challenge and time consuming.
Once the stitching was completed, I then had a new challenge. I wanted to finish this piece in a unique way. First I scoured the local thrift shops to see if I could find a wooden jewelry box or interesting frame that I could refinish and mount this stitching in. I found a number of interesting pieces, but nothing with the correct dimensions. So I headed over to Wal-Mart and Michael's to see what unfinished wooden pieces were available. I finally found a wooden box with a lip on the lid that was the correct size. Unfortunately, the clasp that held the lid shut was broken. So I asked the customer service folks if they had another box in the back room. No such luck. But they did allow me to buy this one at a 40% discount. Nice! I ended up removing the broken latch and sanding smooth the holes that the small nails left in the front of the box. My next step was to figure out how I wanted to finish the box. Stain? Paint? Decorative painting? I finally settled on a simple decorative finish ... an ivory base coat with a forest green splatter paint technique. I painted the box inside and out, then coated it with two coats of a glossy varnish. Next, I used cardboard and a deep-brown felt-like fabric to make a lining for the inside of the box. That was sort of a hit-and-miss process and went together fairly smoothly. I got the fit so snug that it didn't even require glue to hold the lining in place. It looks sharp!
The very last step was to create a label to put inside the lid of the box. As you can see, I created this piece for my best friend, Virginia, in honor of her birthday. I enjoy making special gifts for her because she appreciates the work I put into them. So the piece is complete — and only one month late! I think she'll forgive me my tardiness. ;)
StitchWorld X-Stitch
Keepsake Decor Memory Box
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This is the piece that took most of my time and attention for the last two months. I'm so glad to have it completed!
Then I mounted the stitchery to a piece of foam core. I used a method much like you'd do to mount stitchery for framing. I then sewed the ecru cording around the edge of the stitchery and snugged it into place in the box lid. Again, the stitchery fit so well that no glue was required. (We tested it by turning the box upside-down and shaking it, trying to make the stitchery fall out. But it held!)