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Lesson Info

Custom Wall-Hanging Project - Alternative Basic Cross Stitch

So the next stitch in the pattern after the oblong stitch is the basic straits touch hee hee so this is a basic straight stitch we talked about it in the intro course but we're using that same seven count so you're going to want to count out seven from that ob long stitch to start and then you're just gonna count seven down and you're just going to go keep going right next to each other like there but in our pattern straight stitches is right here this is what we're going to be doing next it's just right up and down next to each other the's air feeding they're they're meeting the of long stitch at certain points so you're sharing holes with the oblong stick but I'm in the streets did terrell in my o doing every other one are really doing everyone you're going through every hole there's going to be in a natural separation you'll see as you go going through every hole will be a natural space in between but kidney brings up a good point you now would be a time if you wanted to put a littl...

e bit of a variation on the pattern would be instead of sharing the same hole with the ob long stitch you could start one down and that would give you a little bit of a space and that would change it up a little bit so I'm gonna count out seven from my obelix touch one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and I'm gonna make a place porter myself for the hole and then I'm going to go down seven one, two, three, four, five, six, seven then I'm going to come back up through the next hole and down on the straight stitch is a great example of how something really simple with repetition and color choice can make a really big impact in a pattern. Some of you might be familiar with jonathan adler he's a ceramicist and makes these really beautiful home to core items, but a lot of his pillows use a straight stretch, which might be described in his catalog as barg yellow or florentine our other names for when you straight stitches to make different patterns, she has a running questions you're also deep into it right way meditating great so I'm going to show you on camera is something that just happened here I don't know if you can see this this might just be me because I'm super nerdy, but um can you see how this one stitch is like a little bit higher then the others? Sometimes that happens where the holes of the canvas for whatever reason will separate a little bit because their individual threads that air sort of fused together to create the holes, so when that happens I always take it out because it ends up bothering me later and then you might just need to put your needle through to change the hole a little bit like I just made the hole a little bit lower by separating the fibers that usually makes it look even again some people it doesn't bother but for me I would notice it until the end of time. Okay? And that one looks much better if you can see now, it's even but this keep you weapon thiss my actually so it looks like going back there's like a little bit of least could you do stuff to it? Tio kind of hide it like if you did like attacking type of job oh, I see right here you can pull it are about just the access. Maybe we'll tail that's kind of you can always play around with the back and see that one already got better okay to pull it through? Yeah, you just need to pull it through the back so it's forgetting I totally get if something we're looks on the front if something looks weird on the front just always go to the back and just play around with a need a little bit and pulling it through and that usually does the trick come inspired e of course, so another way to add variation to the section if you wanted tio would be to skip a stitch in between or to skip a space in between the stitches so instead of going right through to the next hole, you could do something like this where you could get is that what you do let's take a look at what kid needed yes, exactly so she's still following a pattern of a larger pattern of seven by seven across, right? But you're just skipping in between so one way you could do that would be to do just a straight stitch where the oblong stitches me, I'll sit down and I'll show you that on camera so you can see that would be one way to bury it so instead of going in and filling in each space, you would just create a stitch where the ob long stitches me like that and you could follow that all the way until the end I'm gonna go back and fill the men just so that what im doing explicitly matches the pattern that you might be following. People ask me a lot when I'm teaching a class about ah home decor project like this what's the best way to keep all this stuff clean if it's hanging up in your house right? So don't hang anything that's made of fiber in your bathroom I hope that you all recognize that that might be like towels are fine, but something like this would not do well in a steamy you know like don't put this in a sauna or in a bathroom over your thiss material this finished project should never be in a bathroom or above a stove it's best in you know like a living room or bedroom is a good choice outside your front door. Probably not the best toys out of direct sunlight would be best and just try to be aware of it when that part of your house needs to be dusted, you might just want toe finally take your hand brush off the wall hanging as well and if you have something in your family that's an heirloom, I have pieces that my great great grandmother did that I've put behind glass just simply because the fibers get so old after a while they get delicate, so if you have something in your family that has like super sentimental value like that, you can work with someone at a framing studio to get it appropriately behind archival glass or archival matte board paper all things like that and people who run professional framing studios they know about all that kind of stuff all the way to hold it, get a grip yeah, I wanted to kind of show that the hoop is it can be a finishing element, but it can also be a temporary part of your work so by doing something that doesn't fit the whole hoop can emphasize that and you said you said that you sometimes do free hand like you don't use a hoop discerning advantage or disadvantage to doing it that way for my jewelry pieces they all start about this big this is about three by three inches, so my eight a cloth is about this big there's, not a hoop in the world that I could I'm sure I could have one custom made, but I'm not that interested and this the fact that eight of fabrics it's stiff enough that this size holds up really well to me putting a needle through it? When I did this piece for this class, I didn't use a hoop, I did it freehand and I'm used to doing that, so it was floppy and that doesn't bother me because I'm used to it, but I think sometimes it's nice to use a who gives you a little bit more sturdiness. One of the things I love about needlework and has been super convenient for me as a product based art form and running a business and being a stay at home mom and doing it all at once all the time is that without a who it's completely portable, so I have I always have like a kit bag in my tote that has my needle book a small pair of scissors whatever color is I'm using at the time whatever pieces I have to get out of production that week, I always have fabric pattern a little you know, zip bag and I've done that mom waiting for the kid in the car thing you know, done a lot of needlework while sitting in the car waiting so if you're traveling, I know we can't really use needles on airplanes anymore, but if you're traveling and you wanted to take a piece with you, you could pack a hoop, but if you can't it's totally doable to do something without it you have to block needlework I mean need a point you have to block usually even if you use a loop but how is it with cross stitching? What do you mean by blocking? Um well, usually the thread um pulls the fabric out of proportion so you have to, you know, block it to make it square and sometimes depending on um, how out of proportion it is, you might have to try a couple of times to make it square. Is that so with with this, the reason why that happens with needle point is because the stitches going in this you're using a diagonal stitch for the entire pattern, which is what's warping the fabric, pulling in a certain drugs with cross stitch for every stitch you go this way, you're using an opposing stitch oh so it stays are squared should stay pretty square yeah what do you use to wash your old linen seuin oh that's a really good question I'm super careful I don't the linens that I have that heirloom I don't I don't use them there kind of a cabinet way a samples and stuff they were you know they were in such amazing shape that I didn't have to really do much though that's life other than air them out they were kept really clean but I've heard you know I've heard some people use will light things like that well I uh yeah I I say like the less the better especially if it's really important to you there are people that do and I'm not sure if they have a specific name but there are people whose skill set is restoring fiber are cleaning needle point and things like that if it has historical sentimental value tapestries and museums and things like that so my first step would either be to reach out to someone who does it professionally or google something like that and then contact someone who lives in your area uh I I just I personally wouldn't play around with trying anything because you never know yeah depending upon the temperature or the acidity that the fabric was around it can interact in a million different ways so people that have experience with archival types of preservation would know interestingly enough um, I was behind the scenes at the museum of natural history in march, and I was in their library there archival library, which is amazing, and the librarian was taking out these books of prints that air, you know, really, really, really, really, really old and super valuable, and the librarians there don't work gloves because the pages of the books are so used to being touched by skin and the oils in the skin that they are better preserved, with the oil's touching them, then being pulled apart by the fibers of gloves they're not used to latex isn't paper. Yeah, but a lot of it has high cotton content, so wearing like a cloth glove that a lot of us would wear today toe looked like a wedding album or archival photographs. They actually pull apart the fibers of the paper simply because they're not. They haven't been exposed to anything that new, but oil on our skin is pretty much been the same or less for really long. I think it in cotton gloves. Yeah, cotton would be the obvious choice for something archival like that latex is is to foreign and two new, but even the cotton gloves will pull apart certain fibers of paper.