ragdall
Global Moderator
Posts: 1,687
|
Post by ragdall on Jan 18, 2009 9:49:13 GMT
What are you working on now? What have you completed?
|
|
|
Post by maryinkentucky on Jan 19, 2009 16:01:08 GMT
Today I'm finishing the last border on the nephew #3 quilt. He's the one who moved his wedding from October to next March! I checked with the machine quilter, and she's not busy this time of year, so the quilt should be finished by the time we have a wedding shower the first weekend in February.
|
|
ragdall
Global Moderator
Posts: 1,687
|
Post by ragdall on Jan 20, 2009 6:32:26 GMT
Well done, Mary. What a lucky nephew to have you for an aunt.
|
|
|
Post by maryinkentucky on Jan 21, 2009 19:27:00 GMT
Here's a picture of the nephew quilt. I'll get a better picture after it's quilted. The machine quilting lady will pick it up tomorrow, so it should be finished by the time I go to the shower in February. (Even with having to spend almost 3 days putting the binding on it.) I was concerned about the borders being too wide, but you really can't see them in this picture. The second picture is the Mariner's Compass wall hanging. I'm handquilting it, so you can still see all the basting threads and uneveness around the edges. Note to self: NEVER attempt something like this using templates. I was impressed that Jennie made a New York Beauty wall hanging (similar type of points). I think I remarked that I would never attempt that without doing paper piecing. Well, duh, now I'm sure!
|
|
ragdall
Global Moderator
Posts: 1,687
|
Post by ragdall on Jan 22, 2009 1:42:16 GMT
Oooh! They're both gorgeous! You are so talented. My friend and I took a short "quilting course" at our church a couple of years ago. The goal was for each participant to make four placemats. We each managed to finish one and mine looks terrible! I can't imagine the time and effort you must have put in to finish each of those quilts.
|
|
|
Post by dmcg on Jan 23, 2009 11:13:17 GMT
|
|
ragdall
Global Moderator
Posts: 1,687
|
Post by ragdall on Jan 24, 2009 5:14:37 GMT
Dave, Your daughter does gorgeous work! Is she an adult or a teen? Did she design the "Una Bella Serata" piece, or is it from a kit?
|
|
|
Post by dmcg on Jan 24, 2009 6:59:45 GMT
She is twenty two and a student. She's never had a television, and didn't really watch it when she lived with us, preferring either to read or embroider (or draw or, or or ...).
She designed the "Una Bella Serata" piece herself, and it is the most ambitious self-designed piece yet. Up to now, her own designs have either been modifications of things like samplers or pieces that were small enough that she hadn't invested too much time/effort in - maybe a few weeks. This piece is, I believe, round about 250 stitches every square inch, and as I say it is around 36 x 18 inches - that's a LOT of work if you don't like the result!
|
|
|
Post by maryinkentucky on Jan 24, 2009 23:18:20 GMT
Yes, those are quite stunning!
I don't understand the "Una Bella Serata" piece. Is she transforming the poster (as seen in the link) to a counted cross-stitch piece? I think you mentioned some software some time ago. What does she use? Or how does she do it? Can she transform a photograph into an embroidery piece?
And are you sure about the 250 stitches per square inch? In quilting, if you can manage 10 stitches per inch, they are pretty small. If you could manage to cover a square inch, that would only be 100 stitches. (unless of course you were doing a satin stitch, then that is almost solid thread!)
As much as I enjoy hand quilting, I think I'd get out the ole machine for that job. Does anyone here do machine embroidery? Several ladies in my quilt guild have the machines and software and cards to do some pretty neat designs.
|
|
|
Post by dmcg on Jan 25, 2009 8:42:15 GMT
The embroidery material states it is 16 stitches to the linear inch. Knowing something about maths and nothing about embroidery, I naively assume that is 256 to the square inch. I am perfectly willing to believe I've got that fundamentally wrong!
Yes, there is a program from Stoik she has that can take a photo and transform it to a counted cross stitch, allocating thread colours and she has made use of that. However, like all these things it has limitations. One is that the the writing on the bottles becomes pixellated to the point that it is unreadable. Another is that you have to make judgements about the number of thread colours to use, and that either leads to hundreds of colours, many of which you use only two or three inches of, or too few colours so the whole thing looks 'blocky'. One solution to that is to divide the thing up into different areas and use different sets of colours for each. But that gives a new problem in that you have to avoid visual edges where on two sides of a 'cut' you have used slightly different shades of some colour. So the transformation of the image to a counted cross stitch is a significant task in itself.
|
|
|
Post by dmcg on Jan 25, 2009 9:21:07 GMT
I've just had a quick check. If you look at the angel, she is carrying a green wreath. That is 1.5 cm top-to-bottom, as near as I can measure it through the glass. That should give you an idea of how many stitches to the cm it is.
|
|
|
Post by maryinkentucky on Jan 26, 2009 15:34:17 GMT
The embroidery material states it is 16 stitches to the linear inch. Knowing something about maths and nothing about embroidery, I naively assume that is 256 to the square inch. I am perfectly willing to believe I've got that fundamentally wrong! ~~au contraire my dear math friend, au contraire~~ I just checked one of my old counted cross stitch samplers, a UFO (unfinished object) from my youth when my eyes were good - AND - the stitches were tiny, 20 per linear inch. I would have to have a magnifying glass to work on it now. Also, in counted cross stitch, you count all the x's, and they are connected. Thus, it's a continuous surface of thread. In quilting, on the other hand, because you only count the stitches on the surface (a stitch on top, then a similar stitch on bottom), you end up only counting half the linear stiches that are actually in the material. This kind of stuff interests us math oriented folks, and is probably no interest whatsoever to "normal" folks. The bottom line, she is doing beautiful handwork.
|
|
|
Post by dmcg on Jan 26, 2009 16:31:37 GMT
Thanks for that. I'll pass the complements on.
I wonder why they quote the material in stiches per linear inch? Maybe it's because moving from 10 to 20 doesn't sound as daunting as moving from 100 to 400!
|
|
|
Post by sandrainsydney on Jan 29, 2009 1:36:48 GMT
wow! marvelous work - & on linen, too - working on aida cloth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aida_cloth is simple compared to counting individual linen threads! I've only once worked on linen - my.opera.com/sandra%20in%20sydney/albums/show.dml?id=309776 - scroll down to the fan & posy - & nearly went mad - lots of different pinks & ecrus & other shades & miss your count & next bit doesn't fit! The fan was made from a 1988 pattern & finished within a few years. I gave up fine embroidery about 14 years ago when my new born niece didn't get her pretty girly bear (lots of browns, beiges, ecrus, pinks - all on 16 aida) sandra - currently working on much larger embroidery images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=sashiko&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi+ small quilted panels + simple knitted coathanger covers + not working on lotsa' UFOs. ps some of my UFOS went to cover the 2 zipped CD carriers I use to carry stuff like scissors etc to Craft group - pics above & next to fan .
|
|
|
Post by Pip Freeman on Jan 29, 2009 12:37:43 GMT
Brilliant work from you all, how do you have that sort of patience?
Dave, your daughter is so talented, is it just a hobby or is this her subject of study?
|
|