Blackwork Moon

At the risk of sounding nerdy (heh) I've always had a thing for the moon. When I was young I remember seeing "harvest moons" where the moon was big, low, and large in the sky. When I got a little older, I was fascinated by the moon landing (a made-for-TV movie about Apollo 11 was my favorite movie ever). Lately I've been enjoying exploring the moon from a visual/aesthetic perspective.

Pattern/Technique: Blackwork Moon by Lucie Heaton. Stitched with glow-in-the-dark DMC floss on charcoal evenweave linen.

Lessons: Glow in the dark floss is made from many fine synthetic fibers, so it isn't twisted as tightly as cotton DMC floss, and doesn't produce the same fine lines as cotton floss. Also, because it's synthetic it can't be ironed (or at least, I didn't risk it after finishing the piece).

Evenweave linen is loosely woven so it's actually quite transparent and requires some kind of backing fabric so that the wall / frame isn't visible.

What I'd do differently: I knew that keeping the piece in an embroidery hoop for a long time would crease it permanently. The next time I work on a cross stitch piece I'll probably release the hoop after each session so that I have the option to frame it and not have creases.

I'd like to try making this with conventional floss (I think it will look a bit cleaner than the glow floss because it's more tightly twisted) on a standard aida cloth (more opaque).

One thing I won't change: I was careful to weave in the beginning/ends of each thread and I'm pleased with how clean the back of the piece looks.

Alphabet Sampler

There’s a variant of the 80/20 principle that states that it takes 20% of the time to finish 80% of the work, and the remaining 20% of the work will take 80% of the time. And this piece is the embodiment of that principle. It took a few weeks but I’d finished everything except the last row of letters. And then I ran out of steam and it languished for months. Being on vacation finally brought the brain cycles I needed to get over that last hump and now it’s done. Whew.

Pattern: Alphabet Sampler kit by Purl Soho in Flax.

New skills: Myriad embroidery stitch techniques

Lessons: Ironing the finished piece with a pressing cloth will flatten the backing fabric without distorting or flattening the embroidery floss, or causing the dye to run.

Getting even stitches takes lots of practice but one can use the grid of woven fabrics like linen to cheat. If using this method it’s important to start with a squared piece of background cloth.

Remove the embroidery hoop at the end of a stitching session. Keeping the cloth in the hoop for long periods of time may distort the cloth permanently.

Clover chacopens are awesome, just be sure to test it on fabric before use.

Use a good quality hoop, like Frank Edmunds. Darice hoops are prone to cracking under repeated tensioning.

Be careful to not move the iron while transferring an embroidery pattern (go up & down, not side to side) or the transferred lines may be fuzzy or shifted. Transfer marks will fade over time—keep this in mind if you aren’t going to work on a project for a few months. :)

What I’d do differently: For my first large embroidery project I’m pretty happy. I’m also just glad it’s finally done.

Care: Spot clean