Finishing the Blue Bow

Yesterday I finished the last of the background stitches on my little Blue Bow canvas.  I forgot to tell you that the center of the bow was done in skip tent stitches so that I could add size 11 crystal hex beads (Sundance's color H250 ) attached with a doubled strand of my blue silk to the center.  This makes it a little jewel-like.  As I've said before, I think this design would be gorgeous completely covered in beads and then made up into a pin to wear but since I want it to be a name tag for a special present, I wanted a little less glitz.  Skip tent with beads is the perfect way to add just a little gleam to a piece.  Here's a close up of yesterday's photo so you can see the beads in the knot.  Again, these are clear beads.   The color comes form the thread that attached them to the canvas and from the painted canvas under the clear bead.

To finish the piece, I carefully cut the design out, leaving one bare thread all the way around.  In the photo at the top of the page, you see the cut out canvas lying on the blue Ultrasuede that will back the piece.  Yesterday I put Joann's Tacky Glue all the way around the outside on top of the bare canvas thread, then put a length of Kreinik #12 braid (color 3228 gold) on top.  The Kreinik has a loop already tied in one end to hang the tag with.  This dried overnight while I embroidered my mother's name on the Ultrasuede to make it a real name tag.

I glued the Ultrasuede to the back side of the needlepoint canvas, right sides facing out and left it to dry with a weight on top.  Once it was secure, using my sharpest embroidery scissors I cut the glued  name tag away from the main piece of Ultrasuede.

I think it turned out very well.  Mom can hang it on a perfume bottle on her dresser, use it as an ornament next Christmas, or just use it as the zipper pull on one of her tote bags.  SharonG suggested I put a pin on the back so she could wear it but I finally decided with the loop it wouldn't look right.  So I didn't.

I am very pleased with this quick little projcct.  It makes an outstanding gift tag!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow