How I prepare a piece of cross stitch for framing

Once again I want to stress that this post isn't a how to.  There might be a better way to do this - if there is I would like to know about it - but it is how I do it.  You can take your piece of cross stitch to a framer just as a piece of fabric and they will prepare it for framing for you, but it costs a bit more.  As I don't have unlimited money, I have always done this stage myself.

You will need:
Your washed and ironed finished piece of cross stitch; heavy rigid card which won't bend too much when you work with it (preferably preservation quality mount board to keep your work in good condition long term), a pen or pencil, ruler or tape measure, a set square, a craft knife, lots of pins, a strong thread and a needle with a big enough eye to take your strong thread.

Step 1: Put on the TV or some music.  This is a bloody annoying job and will probably have you swearing it some point, so you might as well have something good on in the background (or, at least, that is my experience).  My choice was an audiobook that I am listening to; a ghost story called "Eloise" by Judy Finnigan (I'm near the end, and want to know what happens next).

Step 2: With a tape measure, work out how big you want to cut your card.  Ideally you need to measure your card so that it is a little bigger than your finished design, but it will need to be a couple of inches either side smaller than your piece of fabric.  You will need to have a decent amount of fabric at the back of your design for the stretching - if you have too little you might risk ripping and fraying the edges.

Step  3: With the set square to make sure that you get straight right angles at the corners, measure your card and cut it with the craft knife.

Step 4: Here come the pictures to try to show you what I do next.  I centre the material over the piece of card and start to hold it in place by sticking pins through the material into the edge of the card.  I tend to use the holes in the aida as a guide to keeping it straight.  You need to do this for two opposite edges of the card and material.  I normally start with the longest edge first.



Step 5: When you have pinned both sides in place, making sure that the material is quite taut and not wrinkled up, then you are ready to start stretching it.  You need a very, very long length of your durable thread (I used a crochet cotton) threaded into your needle and, as you don't see the back, I don't worry too much about tying off the other end with a knot.  Then, from one end of the material and not too close to the edge, you need to take the thread across the width of the board and back again catching the material on either side.  Keep doing this about an inch apart until you get to the middle.  This is the bit that normally makes me swear as, working with a long length of thread, I invariably get tied up in a knot at some point.  Do this again from the other side of the material until you can meet in the middle.

Step 6: Starting from each end, you need to pull the threads tightish - not so tight that you are tearing the edges of the material - and again meet in the middle.  Tie a knot in the middle to join the two ends of threads fairly tight.





The other side should now look like this.  If you realise that it isn't quite centred, at this stage it should still possible to wriggle the material a bit to centre it a bit better.



Step 7: I always find the corners tricky.  I try to fold the material under to make a corner fold, and at the end I go back and oversew this to fix it in place.  It's a bit trial and error until I get the fold right.














Step 8: As with the longest edges, you take a long length of thread and sew across the card to draw the two opposite edges of material together.  As before work towards the middle with one length of thread, and do the same with another length of thread to meet in the middle.  Tighten up the thread and tie the two ends of thread together in the middle.




The back should look like this.








Step 9: Oversew the corners to fix the material in place in a neat fold.  You might also want to iron this afterwards to flatten the corner down a bit.







The finished front should look like this.











I have heard of others who bypass the whole threading thing by just fixing the material in place with high quality tape.  I've never done this, as I am always wary that the tape might lose its adhesion or discolour the material (although I suppose in practice, if it does, it would be behind the frame and not visible).

And that's how I do it - although it is quite hard to clearly describe, so apologies if it doesn't make sense.  Hopefully the pictures will help to make up for any deficiencies in my written description...

My previous projects

I posted yesterday to say that I was going to take some pictures of my previous projects.  I realised that I didn't actually have as many in the house as I thought that I did, as many I have given to friends as presents.  This is what I do have, and apologies for the quality of some of the photos as I find it hard to photograph glass without a bit of reflection.

First the cross stitch.  There is a bit of a Tigger theme going on here.  The framed cross-stitches I also did the stretching myself (the next post will be on this, probably next weekend when I hopefully have time to do it).

Next is a bit of tatting that I did quite a few years ago and mounted on a wide ribbon to use as a bookmark.  I do have another which was longer and mounted on red ribbon which I now can't find - it is probably in a book somewhere which I started and didn't finish.  I never really got past novice status at this.  Tatting is a form of lace making when you pass a shuttle of thread around a thread held taught over your other hand to form the lace.  I sometimes get problems with my wrists, so I don't tend to do this any more as I started to find it painful to hold my static hand in the same fixed position for a period of time.

Lastly the glass painting, which again I'm a novice at and haven't done anything too complex.  The first is a pair of wine glasses with a simple celtic knot design on them.

The last example of glass painting is on acetate.  I made my own invitations to our wedding with a simple, stylised bit of painting on acetate which I stuck into aperture cards.  I thought that I had kept one for ourselves, but I've not been able to find it.  However, I did remember that we were given a photo album as a wedding present which had an inset on the front cover, and I did a mini version of the same design to put into the inset.  This is the design below - it needed to be something simple because I needed to make about 75-100 cards.  The rose design for the invitations was done freehand, whereas for the glasses above I had a drawing of the design which I stuck inside the glass to trace around with lead lining.

And that's your lot.  I'll write on this blog about future projects, and if I find any other past projects I will also put pictures of those on here....

In case you missed it, this is the post from my other blog that kicked this one off..

I thought that it might be quite nice to do a post about what I like to do when I am not working, reading, blogging, cooking or cleaning.  My problem is that it feels like that doesn't leave me a hell of a lot of time for other stuff - but, when I do get time, I also like doing cross stitch to relax.  If you are a friend of mine, or if you have come to this blog through social media like Twitter, you might already know this.  But if you have found this blog by serendipity or through a random search gone awry, then you probably don't.

This is really just an excuse to put up a picture of something that I have recently finished doing.  This photo is pre washing and ironing - hence the hoop mark - and I am planning to stretch it (which I hate doing) for framing.  I bought the kit in Aberystwyth for my 21st birthday (I'm now 37), but I would like to stress that I haven't been doing it for quite that long (as some of my friends would have you believe).  I will admit though that I have been sewing it for over 10 years: part of the slowness of this is due to also doing a PhD during this time while supporting myself by working, however, since I finished the PhD a few years ago, I haven't had quite such a good excuse for a while.  It's just been hard to find the time.

This is it:

I've also finished a bookmark with Tigger on it recently, and I have been doing the following project for a while which I hope to finish soon:

There is a twist on a phrase which says that those who can write, those who can't review.  I think of cross stitch as a similar outlet for me: I don't have the creative vision to design something to sew or to come up with a novel to write (although, like many, I have aspirations to do so), but I can follow a pattern.  And it's a nice feeling to have made something.

I am just starting to do another cross stitch project which is a bit smaller than the puppies.  I hope that it will take me less than 10 years to finish.....

My blog mission statement

Hello all.

You might know that I have another blog called "Stuff and Nonsense" which is largely about books.

I've been feeling a bit stale about blogging recently.  I feel like my blog posts have started to become a bit samey and I've felt in a bit of a rut.

However, I posted today about a couple of cross stitch projects - my main craft that I enjoy - as a side line (I'll repeat that post on this blog for others who might come to it fresh).  This made me think that perhaps it might give me a bit of a kick up the blog if I also start something new.

This is it.

I like making things, and occasionally I'll try something new.  For Christmas I tried making some beauty stuff for friends, which was a first for me (bath bombs, a soap, a lip balm and a scrub).  I also tried making some cleanser and a moisturiser for myself, which was slightly less successful.  I made invitations for our wedding by using glass paints on acetate to make an insert for cards.  I used to do tatting a bit, but I find that I can't do that much anymore because assuming the position (steady there) makes my hand hurt.  I have a quilling set from a friend that I have yet to try.

This isn't going to be a how-to, and on occasions it might even read almost more like a how-not-to.  It will be about things that I have tried, things I enjoy and things that might be a pain in the arse to do (post about stretching a piece of cross stitch ready for framing to come).  It will be about how I have done things, and if anyone thinks that they have a better and easier way to do something then I will be very happy to hear about it.

In the next post I will repeat the post from my other blog that started this off.  In this you can see the piece of cross stitch that I have recently finished which will be the object of an upcoming post about how I stretch a piece of fabric ready from framing and how much doing it makes me swear.

I'll try and post again tomorrow, which will be largely photos to show what I have made before that I happen to have in our house - the most notable exception will be one of the larger pieces that I have done before (a blackwork dressing table runner, stitched in white and gold on dark blue material) as this is in my parents' house.  This will in effect by my crafting resume so that you can judge my credentials to blog on crafty stuff....