"Not For Us Alone" and Frames

After taking a week off to recover from my vacation and also coddle a cold, I picked up my stitching again. My box from Ohio containing Dan's Christmas ornaments hasn't arrived yet, so I put some time in on Amy Mitten's "Not For Us Alone," a mystery sampler that I mentioned here: http://lilywork.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-camera.html

Since I last posted, I had received my Handi Clamp scroll frame, and I spent about half an hour attaching the piece to the frame. Now that I've done it, it should take me 30 seconds in the future. The plus to these scroll frames is that you don't have to baste your fabric to the frame, or mess with split dowels. The downside is that the little clamp can make a dent in your linen, so the manufacturer recommends putting quilt batting at each end.

After attaching the fabric to the frame, I got busy and stitched. I did rice stitch for about two hours. If you compare the two posts, you will see that I didn't get a lot done. I'm not a particularly fast stitcher. Not only that, but I kept counting and recounting to make sure I wasn't off at all. See, I often tell people that once you count your way to a starting spot, you really don't have to count all that much for the rest of the project. You just work your way out from your beginning, keeping all your stitches touching, and no problem. And that's true most of the time. This, however, is a mystery sampler, to be worked in a certain order. And it's also a kit, with a limited amount of thread, so I can't just rip it out and re-do it--I'll run out of thread. That's why I rarely buy kits. Well, one reason. (The other reason is that the fabric in kits is often Aida, which I hate, and the supplies are of poor quality.) But I really love Amy Mitten. This kit is worth it.

By the way, the thread I used today was a hand-dyed silk named "Gravestone." I just love Amy Mittens thread color names!

After my stitching session, I decided to attach my project to my Gazelle floor stand, which my mother-in-law gave me (while stitching, I was reclined, watching TV, which is my favored stitching position).



And then I got to thinking about the various frames I use for holding my stitching. I can and often do stitch in-hand. I've never had any problems maintaining tension doing this, but it causes the linen to wrinkle and it's very hard to get wrinkles out of linen. Especially after you've finished stitching and you can't use the steam option on your iron because you used overdyed silks and they'll run. No, much better to use a frame and clean hands.

It's a toss-up as to whether I use stretcher bars or q-snaps more. Stretcher bars are light and cheap, and you can mix and match sizes to get the best fit for your fabric. It can be a little time-consuming to attach the fabric with rustproof brass tacks, spaced just so. To the left is a project attached with those tacks, as well as empty stretcher bars. And to the right you can see how the bars come apart for the mixing and matching.









Q-snaps are pretty light, as well, and very quick to set up, but they are not cheap. My recollection is that they are about $10 a set. Another concern is that the clamps can supposedly "run" your linen--like running nylons. I've never had this happen. only heard of others' experiences. To the left is an assembled q-snap, and below you can see how the clamps come off.










I also use scroll frames frequently. They are especially good for larger projects: you can just roll up your extra fabric. In fact, for me they are the best for larger projects. They are neither inexpensive nor superexpensive. The downside is that they only provide tension top and bottom--not side to side. This can be overcome by taking quilting thread and sort of attaching the fabric to the sides, but then every time you need to scroll to a different section, you have to cut the thread and re-do it. Since "Not For Us Alone" will require much rescrolling, I'm not bothering.

One thing I never ever use on my counted stitching is a hoop:

Hoops, while being very cheap and providing excellent tension, leave marks on the linen. Some stitchers use them anyway and wrap them with muslin. I suppose you can use them if the hoop is large enough that any marks would be under the frame (assuming you frame the piece), but I only ever use them for things like stumpwork, where tension is absolutely required and the marks will be covered in the finishing.

Finally, my favorite option for holding my work: The Slate Frame. This has very taut tension, provided by the pegs on the four corners. However, it is the most expensive option: Mine cost about $60 and the first one the saleslady showed me was over $80. That one was beautifully finished wood with inlay--a piece of art in itself. But as I have not been able to collect these, as I have all of the others, I can only put one project at a time on it. This project is one of my 30+ UFOs: The Mermaid's Sea Chest by Lauren Sauer. The link takes you to a photo of the incredible finished project. Now that I've pulled this one out, I feel really motivated to work on it again. So many projects, so little time!