Finishing Made Easy: Sew Those Corners Down

The next step in finishing the Byzantine icons into ornaments is to sew the corners together so the raw edges stay turned under. Take a piece of finishing foam that has gold lame stuck on one side and put it, gold side facing out so it can been seen through the holes of the NP, under the turned down raw edges. [You may have to trim the edges of the lame covered finishing foam with your scissors--not the good embroidery ones!--so it fits well inside the needlepoint cover. Trim a little at a time, an edge at a time, until the finishing foam fits snugly without bending the NP front.] Bend the raw edges down again over the finishing foam, but this time once they are just where you want them, use banker's clips (or straight pins or clothes pens) to hold the corners shut over the finishing foam. The photo above shows my banker's clips in action. Because the Byzantine icons are small pieces I didn't need quite so many clips for them.

What I do next is sew the corners closed so they stay put. After all, I can't leave the banker's clips in place!

You might want to use glue here instead of hand sewing, but I find glue messy and I think it isn't as strong as regular sewing thread. However, my friend Pat who does magnificent finishing uses glue a lot for her ornaments, and of course ornaments don't get the wear that a pillow would. Note that instead of sewing thread you can use a ply or two of DMC cotton floss. It doesn't matter what color you use, what matters is that the corners are neat and tightly sewn in place. You might want to use a thimble to push the needle through the layers of NP canvas. I aim for the holes but occasionally miss, especially since there are layers and they don't always line up their holes.

The photo shows the two icons with their corners turned under and sewn together. You also see a loop of Kreinik gold metallic which is how the ornaments will hang. Once you get the corners of the front turned and sewn, make a loop and stitch it securely to the top of your ornament at the back. The felt covered pieces of finishing foam which will be the rear of each ornament are at the top of the photo. You don't need to do anything with them right now. Just get the fronts ready for the next step which I'll describe tomorrow.

It took me almost an hour to sew the corners down for the two sets of fronts and then attach the hanging loops. I am a slow stitcher and I am interrupted as I work, so you may not need as much time. Remember, finishing is a slow process. Turtles do better finishing than racing rabbits!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Rosalyn Cherry-Soleil on Needlepoint as Art

Don't miss this interview with Rosalyn Cherry-Soleil talking about her needlepoint art.
http://www.stitchamaze.com/about.aspx

Her website is full of photographs and more details about pieces she has stitched or which are in progress. Explore and enjoy. Of course people who subscribe to Needlepoint Now magazine will have read her articles about her work and inspirations over the past year.

Thanks for doing this, Rosalyn. You don't know how inspiring it is to see an artist at work using our own needlepoint canvas!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Finishing Made Easy: Cut It Out

The first thing I did when I had all my supplies together ready to assemble the ornaments was make a black and white xerox copy of both designs. I cut out the paper copies so that they were the same size as my icons. (The photo above shows the pet guardian angel paper copies lying on one sheet of finishing foam. The second photo below shows a paper copy being cut.) Using a loop of Scotch tape, I stuck these paper templates onto my finishing foam and cut out the foam to the correct size. I did that twice as I need two piece of finishing foam for each ornament. The needlepoint goes over one piece of finishing foam and the black felt backing goes over the other.

So for the Red Madonna I had: one NP canvas, one paper copy, and two pieces of finishing foam. Ditto the Blue Angel: one NP canvas, one paper copy, and two more pieces of finishing foam.

Because I bought self-stick finishing foam, I peeled off the backing and stuck two foam pieces to the black felt, then cut out the felt with a little margin all around the edges. These two pieces of black felt will make the back side of my ornaments.

After than, I took the two remaining pieces of finishing foam, peeled off the paper backing and stuck them to the gold lame fabric. This time when I cut out the gold lame, I didn't leave any margin sticking out. These gold lame covered finishing foam sheets go behind my needlepoint with the gold lame facing out so that you can sort of see it in the empty holes of the gold background I didn't stitch. This adds sparkle to the Christmas ornaments and also hides the innards of the ornament from view.


The next step now that the finishing foam pieces are cut and glued to the fabrics, is to cut out your needlepoint, leaving a margin of about a half inch all the way around. (For my 14 count canvas I cut to within 7-8 threads of the stitched area.) With rectangles, this is really easy, unlike the pet guardian angel shapes which you see above. Those have curves which have to be clipped, etc. For your first project, I'd recommend a square or rectangle ornament as those are very easy shapes to cut out and then turn under. MAKE SURE you do not use your good embroidery scissors to cut the needlepoint canvas. That will dull the blades very quickly.

Once you have trimmed your needlepoint canvas, using your fingers press the raw edges under. The edges will stay sort of turned under on their own once you mash them. At the corners it is often easier to mitre the corners. That just means you turn under the corner so it looks like a triangle on the back side, then fold the top and side edges together. This website shows you how in Figures 1 and 2.
http://books.google.com/books?id=mgivU2XxDvUC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=embroidery+how+to+mitre+corners+in+finishing&source=bl&ots=asqEzVSBwf&sig=gqQ0nlckzThFfhSWhNmT3bQe7AQ&hl=en&ei=qeY4SpmmMYOHtgfDqZ3jDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2

Or Tiny URL
http://tinyurl.com/lny3rv

That's enough for today. I estimate all the above takes about 60-90 minutes for two ornaments but I've done this many times. Your first attempt will take you longer, particularly if you are constantly interrupted as I usually am or if you have to pull together all your supplies from all over the house.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow