blzzrdqueen

Everyone does such great work. Now, do you outline your work before you do the colors? The piece I'm working on, I'm doing it all in black outline, then going to fill in with colors. And fot hose who do hand enbroidery, what techniques do you use to fill in colors and do red/blue works??

carrieg

Mary - those are wonderful! What size are they?

My SBS redwork was from a pattern book I bought at my LQS. The patterns are all ironed on. I embroider the outline only. Then the dresses have a gazillion french knots!

Aida cloth washes up fine, actually becomes softer after washing. The only thing is to make sure your floss is colorfast. I've read about people using hand dyed floss or specialty floss that ran with washing. ugh!

There are a lot of cross-stitchers who donate completed XS blocks to charity and then they are made into a quilt. Love Quilts and Cole's Quilts are a couple.

Maride

I only use evenweave because I don't like the feel of Aida, but Aida gets a lot softer after washing. To make sure my colors don't run I wash my finished piece in the coldest water possible. I sometimes use ice cold water in the bathroom sink. That seems to work for me, but I rarely use any over dyed or hand dyed. What animal babies are you making? Are they the Maurer-Stroh ones? I would love tos ee them.

Maria

blzzrdqueen

Here is the first piece I'm working on. I'm not sure what kind of flowers these are in the pattern, but I think the colors are going to start out light in the middle and get darker as I work out to the edges of the floowers. And I have no idea what colors to use for the hummingbird.

Maride

I have a question and I hope you are not offended. Why is the back stitching done before the colors? I only do cross stitching and it is always done at the end. One inquisitive mind wants to know.

Maria

blzzrdqueen

I guess it's because it's the way I was taught. My aunt taught me years ago and she told me it was always easier for her to do the outline first, gave her an idea of the size of the project when it would be finished. I'm a creature of habbit, so that's just how I've done it. But when I do counted cross stitch, I always do the back stitching last...it's only when I don't do counted that I do the back stitching first. I hope that makes sense!

Bevanger

Yes, they are the EMS ones. Here's the link for pics.

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...97883745TOrRQV

Maride

It makes sense to me if it does to you. Did I say that it is beautiful? I love hummingbirds. I cross stitched one for my mother in law that was huge. You can see it here

http://www.east-texas-treasures.com/...2993/id/363399

Also you can go here to view many hummingbirds and get an idea for the colors of yours.

http://www.abcstitch.com/subjects_ph...t=hummingbirds

Maria

Bevanger

I saw this same pattern done awhile back in Cross stitch. The flowers were purple. Hummingbird had alot of greens. Hope this helps

Queen

Here is a quilt that I made when I first got my embroidery machine. I donated it to the one room school house that we are restoring for a raffle. It ended up going to Utah and I am in Indiana. That quilt has gotten farther than I have. It has flowers, birds and butterflies on it.

Mary