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I love it all: embroidery, canvaswork, quilting, crochet. So much to do, so little time.





Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pristine

Hey Blog Buddies,
Feeling somewhat guilty for all the new starts on my 2013 To-Do List, I decided to rescue this poor hardanger table topper from my UFO pile.  I started it in 2006, worked on it for a couple of months, and it's been folded up in a project bag ever since.

This is Pristine by Cindy Valentine Designs.
The design is almost two feet square,
and as you can see I have a fair amount done.
It's the largest hardanger project that I have ever started.
Back in 2006, I cut a thread from the ground
that I wasn't supposed to, and I freaked out.
There were also several smaller mistakes
(which I have yet to run across),
and so I decided to cut the fabric up
and save what fabric could be saved for smaller projects,
but fortunately I never did.
I'm older and calmer now.

After a bit of searching, I found the cut thread and
unwove it--not all the way--but to a place where I could anchor it.
Satin stitches are good anchors.
Then I took a thread from the very edge of the ground,
running in the same direction as the cut thread,
and wove that in its place.
You really can't see it, and it wasn't as hard to do as it sounds.

Next I decided to do the rows of satin stitches in the center.

I can see the look of horror on the faces
of those of you who do hardanger.
Why is she doing satin stitches after she started to cut?
Wellll, I believe what I was thinking in 2006 was
that I was just going to leave the center plain.
But now I want the satin stitches in,
so I'm taking a chance that it won't
loosen the ends of the cut threads.
(Kids, don't try this at home.)
I was hoping to have the center satins done
by the time I went to my next rotation piece,
but these satin stitches are taking a lot longer
to do than I had anticipated!
Isn't that always the way?


Here is a close-up of the corner design.

This will probably be a multi-year project
so I'm not going to bombard you guys with
photos of white-on-white hardanger
which will probably look virtually identical.
But I am hoping that this piece will stay in my rotation
until it's completely finished.

That's it for today.
Hope you are having a good day,
with maybe some stitching time thrown in.
Thanks for visiting!


7 comments:

cucki said...

So beautiful xx

Anonymous said...

It's beautiful! I for one will enjoy seeing updates on this - I love the white on white!

Karen said...

It's gorgeous! I also love white on white and look forward to seeing the updates.

Minnie said...

I will enjoy seeing the progress on the Hardanger so please share. Your work so far is beautiful, I have only done a few very small sections on a mystery SAL of Hardanger and I was scared to death to cut, nothing fell apart so for me that was a success.

Julie said...

A very pretty project, I always panic when it comes to the cutting bit! I don't do hardanger very often.

Chris said...

So glad that you are continuing with this piece. It is gorgeous!

Dani - tkdchick said...

I've tried hardanger, and its not my cup of tea but that is stunning!!!