At the end of July I wrote about trying out Hardanger. I had to stop after the kloster blocks because I did not have suitable scissors for the cut work. Well, I have found a pair that work and after a few tense moments, made my first cuts. I was having a terrible time trying to get the point of the scissors into the fabric, and then I decided to take the project out of the hoop. Eureka! Why don’t any of the Hardanger tutorials, either online or in books, tell you to do this? Holding the fabric loosely helped immensely. After the cuts were made, I used tweezers to pull the threads out. At first it was very difficult to know what to yank on and what to leave alone. But then I used my fingernail to rough up the cut areas and this made the cut threads stand up. After a few threads were pulled, I had the hang of it. Here is what the heart looked like with just a few horizontal threads removed:

It was quite hard on my hands to do all of the cutting. During the process I was not sure I would want to attempt Hardanger again. After all the threads were removed, this is what it looked like:

Now the needleweaving can begin. I found the needleweaving to be not only easy, but relaxing and fast. It made me rethink my position on not doing Hardanger again after this project.

After the needleweaving is complete, the empty spots will be filled with Dove’s Eye and the edges will have a buttonhole stitch done around them. This will allow the heart to be cut out without falling apart.

You can get the scissors I use from crossstitchers.com

XXX
Carrie