New punchneedle patterns and how I frame needlework

Sleepytown Sentinels and Party Girl are two of my newest patterns for punchneedle. They were so much fun to make!

Sleepytown Sentinels

Party Girl punchneedle pattern

Sleepytown Sentinels is stitched with a combination of Valdani hand-dyed three strand floss, Weeks Dye Works hand-dyed embroidery floss, and DMC embroidery floss. 
And Party Girl is stitched with Valdani hand-dyed three strand floss and DMC embroidery floss.

Both patterns are now up on the website and I'll have some kits for both of them up soon, as well as for Happy Harvest punchneedle. All of the patterns include the pre-printed weaver's cloth.

I also thought I would take this opportunity to show you how I frame my needlework, whether it be punchneedle, cross stitch, embroidery, etc.

I came up with this method of framing my needlework so that it is archival - no glues to yellow the needlework or attract insects.

You will need a frame, acid-free foam core board and a sharp awl.

If your frame needs a hanger, make sure you attach that first before you begin.

Cut a piece of foam core board to fit the inside of the frame snugly.

 

Next, use the awl to poke holes around the perimeter of the foam core board.

Cut your mounted needlework the same size as the foam core board. 

Place your needlework on top of the foam core board and use binder clips to stretch it taut.

Use a needle and thread to stitch the needlework to the foam core board, poking the needle through the holes in the back, coming up to the front, then around the foam core board to the back and through the next hole. 

As you stitch around, remove the binder clips as you come to them.

Here is the finished mounted stitchery before being placed into the frame.

For a bit of added padding, you can add a layer of thin cotton batting between the stitchery and the foam core board, which is what I did with this piece.

Just pop it into your frame and it's ready to hang! It probably won't be loose, but you can add glazier points just in case.

If you start your Fall and Halloween stitchery now, it will be ready for the season! Happy stitching and framing!

Until next time,

Martha

Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks

Last spring I had a block I designed featured in Volume 7 of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks from Today's Top Designers called "Simple Life", pictured below:

And this Spring, I have a quilt I designed using my Simple Life block featured in the Spring 2014 Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. The quilt is called "House on a Hill" and it's a nice small 43" x 43" wall hanging stitched with a beautiful line of fabrics from Moda, Ladies Album by Barbara Brackman and Mill Book Series by Howard Marcus.

The magazine is on newsstands right now! I counted a total of 19 different quilt designs in this issue!

Until next time,

Martha

Borders, sashings and fussy cutting

Decorative stripes can make beautiful borders, settings strips and sashing and my new line of fabric, Elementary, includes a beautiful stripe in three colorways:

Cutting the strip or border to focus on a particular element of the stripe is commonly referred to as "fussy cutting".

To fussy cut your border, you will need to know the measurement of the unfinished width of the border. Using a chalk wheel, mark a line of chalk down the center of the motif you wish to use as the center of your striped border. Divide the unfinished width measurement of the border in half. My diagram uses a 6 ½" unfinished border measurement as an example. 

Half of 6 ½" is 3 ¼".   

Measure 3 ¼" away from the center chalk line on both sides and cut on those lines.  Before cutting, you can use this chalk method to determine the number of repeats you can derive from the width of your striped fabric. 

It won't be long before I will be showing you my next line of fabric with Henry Glass Fabrics - Sentimental Stitches! And it has a beautiful stripe, too! Can't wait to show you!

Until next time!

Martha