Project: Patriotic Heart
Designer: Gay Ann Rogers
Type of needlework: Needlepoint
Photos: 6
Gay Ann's website: http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html
Gay Ann's blog: http://gayannrogers.blogspot.com/
Gay Ann's Classroom at SNS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SNS_GAR_Classroom/
Shining Needle Society: http://www.shiningneedlesociety.com/
Comments: Gay Ann has a series of little hearts that she has been designing through the years and this is the first one of hers that I have stitched so far.
I have quite a few more waiting in the wings, all absolutely lovely.
For the finishing, I decided to do a "hard" one as I wanted the heart to keep its shape. With a soft one, it would not have been the case.
A few things that I want to say is that I have many finishing books but have not been able to find instructions as to how to finish a heart this way.
I found some instructions for a soft one, which I immediately discarded, another one with a heart opened at the top for someone who wants to put something inside, a bit like an open stocking, but did not want that either, so I had to use the little bit of experience I had in finishing to make this happen.
Because of the shape, I had a little bit more problems than I normally have. I have been wondering why nobody has thought of showing us how to properly finish a heart the "hard way" and not just the "soft way" as I was able to find finishing for all sorts of things I had not even thought about. Lots of good ideas for future projects but none to help me with this current one.
I have put two layers of padding on the front of the heart and only one on the back. Have found some blue silk dupioni silk for the back, the same color as the thread used for the stitching, so used that. Had never made a cording before that looked like a candy cane but with three colors instead of two, so there was a bit of trial and error there, but finally managed to put something together. I decided to use the same cording and make a bow and then undid the lower part of the cording to give it the look that you can see in the photo. My learning curve has gone up a little with this project, which is what I always want to see happening
After having done the finishing on this project, I realized that I only have ONE item to finish and I am done. Everything that I have ever stitched has either been framed by my framer or finished by "little old me" (grinning). That is a great feeling actually. While I was looking at all my finishing books, I got an idea as to how to finish the last one. Hush, hush on this one, you will have to wait and see (grinning even more).
(Photo showing the beginning of this project)
(This photo shows a nice progression)
(A bit more done here)
(Patriotic heart having been stitched)
(Another photo showing the finished Patriotic Heart)
