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Wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, great-aunt and friend....and fur-kid mum I love Quilting, stitching, photography, cooking, baking, gardening, blogging and making new friends...stop by and say hi!

Wednesday 4 May 2016

NEWFOUND OLD DISCOVERY

It has been so easy motoring through my Flowerville BOM and I really thought I would have it up to date by the time I next posted on my blog.....but.....I didn't take into account that I would run out of embroidery thread for the last few bits.....so I am on to A Country Tea Party sooner than expected.


One of the reasons I procrastinate over ACTP is that I have to do more work and trace the design onto the supplied fabric......it's time consuming, awkward due to a design flaw with my light box (I should write to them about that!) and makes my hand ache badly (an issue I have with my right arm) but worst of all...the # 1 problem I am having is that the quilt shop handling the BOM does not supply enough fabric for the stitching.  I understand this is a way of saving money but it doesn't help me!! Have a look at this ....

  1.  shows how close I have to stitch to the edge to fit the design in.
  2. shows how badly it frays and I can't get those edges into a embroidery frame...no matter how small.
  3. top and bottom is a good measurement but the sides are barely cut to the size the designer suggests after stitching.
I knew I was going to be faced with these problems again and the issues start right from the moment I tape the fabric down onto the light box. I thought I had some sort of webbing tape that I could iron on to stop the fraying.....when I was looking for it, I found my box of abandoned cross stitch pieces...sometime last century, I used to make small gifts and cards...these didn't make it. The reason I am telling you this is because one of the pieces still had masking tape on the edges which I used once when I was without a sewing machine.  It was an Aha! moment for me.


Now, I know many of you use your overlocker to stop fraying. I don't have an overlocker but I have used other methods. Sometimes, sort of successful and sometimes not at all.


  1. Fray Stop is a product I have used before and it works adequately but it is messy to apply, you have to wait for it to dry and right when I needed it, my half bottle had dried up!
  2. No overlocker, no problem if I have a sewing machine....or so I thought! First I tried zig-zagging close to the edge...what a mess and it somehow managed to gather the edge of the fabric too.....so I tried a straight stitch like I used to with my Aida fabric....no good! It had to be close to the edge which left my fabric misshapen.
  3. I gave the masking tape ago and Voila! It worked a treat.
Here's how I did it...
  1.  I used what I had and my masking tape roll is just over 1" thick. I cut a strip just longer than the long side of my piece of fabric.
  2. I carefully stuck it down the length...covering about a 1/4" of the edge. Pressing the tape well onto the fabric and the cutting board to avoid slippage.
  3. Then I trimmed the masking tape right up to the edge of the fabric with a ruler and rotary cutter. Carefully pull both up and repeat steps 2 -3 on all sides....this way I only used one strip of the masking tape.
  4. I had cut the tape longer than the fabric and I folded the excess to the back.
I found it gave the edges a lot of support as well as stopping the fray when I taped it onto the light box.  It was easier to tape down and keep taut while I traced. I am not worried about it being there when I finish stitching as I have to cut it down by at least 1/4" anyway. Here is a picture of how it looked after the tracing was complete.


No Fray! See that grey arrow between the 13 & 15" inch mark.  It is not fraying that it is pointing to but rather the whisperweft that I iron onto the back of all my embroidery pieces before stitching. Here is a close up to prove it.


I was so excited by my newfound old discovery....that I traced all 4 of my BOMs waiting in the sidelines....no excuses now! I will let you know how it holds up after it has spent time in the embroidery frame.

p.s....I never did find that webbing tape!

 
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6 comments:

  1. Hi Cath thankyou for this great tip,your work is always beautiful ,hope you have a lovely day :)

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  2. I've used all of those methods at some time or other over the years. I like the fray-stop liquid best for counted cross stitch, but I can see how the tape would make using the light box easier. I just love seeing your embroidery, so I look forward to the new blocks. :)

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  3. I'm glad you have found a solution. Another trick my mum used was to stitch a wide binding to the fabric to be removed later. This was the method she used when putting stitcheries in large tapestry frames. I'm looking forward to seeing how your stitcheries progress now you are ready to go.

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  4. A great solution to your problem. Hopefully all will go well for you now. I hate when the BOM's do not have enough fabric to cover what we need from start to finish of a block.

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  5. They shouldn't be allowed to send BOM in that kind of state, unfortunately they do and I have also had it happen to me. Looking forward to your new blocks :)

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  6. A very simple, but ingenious solutions, to a very vexing problem.

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