Embroidery Update

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to spend my free time working at my cross-stitch picture.  I had blogged about this project previously, and here's how it's progressing.

 

 

 

Embroidery progress as of 23 March 2012

Using the clip-on magnifier has been really helpful to me and my eyes.  I've discovered that I shouldn't spend most of the day stitching because this leads to some eye strain.  So, gone are the days when I could spend 6 hours stitching. 

This is the second time I believe that I've worked on linen and I'm reminded again that flecks of the fabric or linen particles tend to come off while stitching on it.  The last time I embroidered on linen it did this and I searched online about this to try to find out if this is normal.  My search yielded no information, and so I still don't know if this is 'just a feature' in working with linen.  The linen fibers coming off don't seem to have a detrimental effect on the project.  It's just weird finding flecks of the linen fibers on the base of my scroll frame, on my clothing, or finding them poking out among the floss and having to pull them out from the stitches.  If anyone out there in cyberspace-the cloud-wherever has had this experience please post a comment and let me know.

Avoiding the genealogical sin of getting behind in processing your research

Last year I spent a lot of time and money on my genealogical research.  Now I’ve reached the point where I think many people doing genealogy find themselves--recording it, reading through what’s been collected, and filing it away.  All of this is to process your research findings. 

At times, this is something I’m very good at.  I’ve taught myself that when I’m out researching to write down the full titles and authors of books, microfilm, or whatever I’m looking at so that I can keep track of what I’ve looked at or not.

During 2011 I really got into ordering microfilm at my local Family History Center and now I’m seeing the value of taking more of a hunting and gathering approach to genealogical research.  Tracking down or hunting for records is definitely the most rewarding task for me, but it’s very important to process the documents that you find when you’re out in the world looking at and making photocopies of these documents.  Many times, I’ve found myself so eager to read these documents that I put off processing them properly.

Recording your research findings is crucial in performing genealogical research.  Typically, this involves recording a document or record in your research log, putting the information gleaned into your genealogy program, citing your findings both on the document itself and in your genealogy program, and then filing the document away in the proper file folder.

For me, the system of fully processing a document has come to include transcribing it.  It’s my belief that it’s very important to completely read through the documents that you’ve found.  Sometimes this may involve making a transcription of the record so that you can fully comprehend what the document is saying and its purpose many years ago.

It may seem pointless to transcribe records handwritten documents, but I’ve found this to be especially helpful to me in processing a record that I discovered.  Sometimes I find the handwriting on old documents to be difficult to read, so I’ve taken to transcribing them as a way to make them easier for me to read.  At times, the information in the documents is pretty every day, mundane stuff; however, it does provide a window into the ancestor’s world.  This helps to flesh out the personality of the person, their life, and their environment.  Learning certain things about an ancestor and the area in which they lived could open up new and previously unknown avenues of research that would’ve remained hidden if these so called mundane events hadn’t been transcribed. 

Embroidery Projects

Now that my miniature project is pretty much complete, I can devote more of my free time to genealogy, embroidery, and knitting.  One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to finish embroidering a picture that I had purchased all the way back in 1995 at a needlework shop that of course sadly no longer exists. 

I had originally purchased 3 patterns during that shopping spree, with the strong intention that I would complete them and give them to my mother and two sisters.  Since then I’ve completed two of the three, which are being enjoyed by their recipients.  The last picture is Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s ‘Once Upon A Time’, it’s being stitched on 32 count linen.  Since making my resolution, I’ve worked on it some and am hoping that I can devote more time to it.  I feel that I’ve made some progress with it, but that it’s taking longer than the other pictures that I completed for my mother and sister. 

Picture of Once Upon A Time from the pattern

While making each of these pictures, I learned something new about the embroidery process.  The first of the 3 pictures, Damask Roses by Mirabilia, was stitched using an embroidery hoop on Aida fabric.  I remember making many mistakes with that pattern and having to frog a lot of it and then restitch those frogged portions.  By the time that I was ready to stitch my mother picture, Garden Verses another Mirabilia pattern, I had a large scroll frame that was a Christmas gift from my husband.  That made the stitching easier since I didn’t have to deal with an embroidery hoop which I felt smashed the stitches.  Also, I decided to photocopy my pattern and then mark with a highlighter the area(s) that I had stitched as a way to help me keep my place. 

For the ‘Once Upon A Time’ pattern, I made a photocopy of it so that I can mark what I’ve stitched.  This time I’m using a colored pencil instead of a highlighter because I didn’t bother to enlarge the copy of the pattern.  Since I’ve begun embroidering this picture, I’ve noticed that my vision appears to have changed since 1995 or even since the early 2000’s which was the last time that I stitched on 32 count fabric.  I’ve started using a clip-on magnifier to help enlarge the fabric’s weave and my stitching.

What I've stitched so far

I had originally received the magnifying glass when I needed it when I was stitching a miniature rug on 32 count linen one over one.  I have yet to finish that rug, but it’s on my resolutions list after completing the picture for my sister. 

I have many embroidery projects to complete or even begin.  Soon after accumulating these, I said to myself that I wouldn’t buy another kit or pattern until I had finished all of them.  Since then, I’ve pretty much organized the patterns with corresponding fabric and floss if it didn’t include it.  I’ve also developed one pattern that was created from a picture of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  I recently was given most of the floss for this project, but found that I needed to obtain the fabric. 

One normally doesn’t consider knitting and embroidery to be similar hobbies.  However, at a recent session with my knitting group, one of my fellow knitters brought in their embroidery supplies to give away.  Amongst the patterns and embroidery floss were several packages of various embroidery fabrics.  Some of the fabrics were of a high count and would be useful to use for my Hanging Gardens pattern or could be used in making embroidered miniature rugs.

Completion of Diner

I had been putting off completing my diner because of my apprehension in bending the aluminum tube.  This tube would serve the purpose as a footrest for the diner patrons sitting at the counter.  Earlier this year I blogged about my tube bender issues, and this weekend finally got up enough courage to use it. 

I decided to take small steps in getting it bent.  The tube bender instructions mentioned heating the tube and then bending it.  Once the tube is bent to meet your specifications you’re to submerge it in cold water.  I filled a large tub that I use for hand washing with cold water.  Then plugged in my hair dryer.  With the tube inside the tube bender, I aimed the hair dryer at the specific point where I wanted to bend it.  I tried bending it many times, but was unsuccessful in getting it bent.  My husband suggested heating the tube with the hair dryer and then bending it against the kitchen counter. This didn’t work, so my husband very kindly took over.  At last, we resorted to heating the tube sans tube bender over the gas burner of our stove.  Heating it over fire turned out to work better than the hair dryer.  My husband was then able to bend the tube with the tube bender while wearing winter gloves, to protect his hands from the heat. 

There was still more bending to be done, and I suggested using vice grips on the tube encased in the tube bender, which worked out really well.   When the tube was bent to the proper curvature, it needed to be cut down to fit around the counter. 

My husband and I discussed what to cut the tube with.  We came to the conclusion to use my dremel with one of its cutting wheels.  Then came the task of finding a way to mount the tube to safely cut it.  Neither one of us owns a vice, which would’ve been really useful in cutting the tube.  My husband went through his pieces of scrap wood and found some large pieces that could be clamped together with the tube sandwiched in between.  It seemed like a great idea but it had one minor flaw, our largest clamp was just a hair too small to fit around the tube and wood scraps.  Another search through the wood scraps turned up two thinner pieces that could be successfully clamped with the tube in between.  We rested this on top of a large block of wood on our kitchen floor.  I tried cutting the tube while my husband stood on our make shift vice, but was only successful in making a few dents in the tube that seemed to resemble small scars rather than anything else.  Just a note for those of you sitting in the comfort of your home reading this post-yes, I was wearing safety goggles.  The torque of the dremel was too much for me to successfully cut through the tube, so my husband took control of cutting the tube.  He wore safety goggles while cutting and I waited in the next room.

Installing the tube on the counter

The next day, was the day to finish up the diner project.  I cut up and glued small pieces of foam core board to the reverse side of the counter so that it would have shelves.

 I already had wire that would be used to affix the tube to the sides of the counter.  Kath Dalmeny’s, Dollhouse Style mentions using thin pieces of silver cardboard or strips of aluminum.  I didn’t have the aluminum strip and didn’t want to deal with the hassle of trying to superglue tiny pieces of cardboard to the tubing, so I opted for using gray colored wire instead.

I twisted a small part of the wire securely around the tube and then cut away the excess.  Then I repeated this process in increments along the piece of tubing.  In total there were 5 pieces of wire that were twisted around the tube.  Next came attaching it to the counter.  The directions in the book never say how far from the bottom of the counter to affix the tubing, so I had to make a guess.  Hopefully, if the publishers of Ms. Dalmeny’s book decide to make another edition or printing, the instructions for installing the tubing around the base of the counter will be more specific. 

At first, I poked holes in the sides of the counter about 5-10mm from the bottom of the counter with the pointed part of a safety pin.  I tried to poke the twisted wire through the hole made with the safety pin, but couldn’t get the wire through.  I tried widening the hole with the pin, but to no avail.  I have a very small hand drill that I used to increase the hole made with the pin.  This made a larger hole and the twisted wire fit through it.  At each point where the wire would go through the sides of the counter, I used the safety pin and then the small drill to make the hole large enough for the other pieces of wire. 

When I had it all attached to the counter, I discovered that my tube was a bit too long at the curved end of the counter.  I considered removing the tube to cut it, but really didn’t want to deal with the hassle.  Instead, I opted to take a pair of vice grips to the overhanging end and bent it back around the counter.  This wound up working really well, I did have to realign the tube—but it wasn’t a crisis.  I glued the pieces of wire some more on the backside of the counter and then let it dry for a bit.

Signage Creation

While waiting for the counter to dry, I made signage for the diner.  I had painted the surface of an oval shaped sign with white acrylic paint.  There are 3 trim pieces that fit in between the top edge of the walls and the top section or roof of the diner. A couple of these trim pieces had square area that I could envision painted white and have the diner’s name on them.  I painted a square of white acrylic paint to these sections.  The smaller third trim section would have a clock face on it.  When I was planning the diner, I bought a small clock face from my local miniature store.  I glued pieces of Velcro to this trim and to the back of the clock face.  The clock runs on a battery and I wanted to be able to easily change the battery, attaching the clock with Velcro seemed to be my best option.

Previously, I had experimented with different fonts on my word processor.  I found one that would work really well for my diner.  Several years ago, I had made a sign for another miniature store by printing the shop’s name on a clear label that I cut down to fit the sign and stuck onto the sign.  This time I did pretty much the same thing.  I tested out different sizes of the diner’s name in the font I had chosen before printing it on the labels. After printing out the labels, I set them aside to dry and returned to other aspects of completing my diner.

Once the counter was dry, I glued it to the floor with tacky glue.  Then I noticed that the stools were too tall for the counter.  I used my easy cutter tool to cut the stool legs so that they would be shorter and more to scale.  To test out and make sure that I had the stools were the proper height, I set a miniature doll on the stool.  She seemed to be the right height for the counter, and so I knew that I had cut the stool’s legs correctly.

With the counter glued down and the stools now the correct height, I returned to creating my diner signage.  I cut out around the diner’s name from the clear label.  Then I separated the paper backing from the label and stuck it onto my sign.  I did this for each of my signs.

At last, I put the roof on my diner and then inserted each of the trim pieces around it to hold everything in place.  I set on a shelf and then plugged it in and sat back to enjoy my hard work.