Tangled Thread

Needlecase- spiderwebs!

by Deb on June 6th, 2006

During the last few days that I’ve been working on Lorri’s Needlecase, I stitched my first ever Hardanger spiderwebs. They were a lot of fun, even though I seem to still have to learn the trick of getting them centered in the squares. Speaking of tricks, I’ve tried being extra slow and careful when snipping out the threads, and still I have little nubbins of thread poking out around the edges. I’m not sure what to do differently so that I have beautiful smooth kloster block edges. I am a bit paranoid of snipping the silk floss by accident, so perhaps I just need to get my scissor closer to it…

I examined the pattern more closely, and was relieved to find that the centers of the blocks with the woven bars will have crystals attached. I had been thinking that they looked messy and unfinished, and was worried that maybe I had done something terribly wrong. It took me FIVE of the Rhodes Butterflies before I figured out how to count properly to find the starting position. Five. So, three out of the eight butterflies are nicely centered in their shiny gold squares… I am leaving them the way they are. It will be a good reminder of the value of counting twice and stitching once, as well as something to look back on as a beginning hardanger project after I’ve stitched oodles of them. :) I just have to do the rest of the woven bars and spiderwebs and attach crystals, and this center motif will be completed.

After that, I have two more sections on the needlecase body, plus the inside motifs (one to hold needles, one to hold scissors); as well as the scissor fob. I have been thinking about what kind of fabric I want to line this with. I don’t really like the floral cloth used in the model, but if I found a floral that calls to me I will have to use it. I’d actually like to find a nice piece of heavy silk that compliments the colors used in the stitching. Anyhow, on to the progress pic ;) I put a dark lilac colored oven mitt behind it so the hardanger would show nicely.

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POSTED IN: Counted Cross Stitch, Works in Progress, hardanger