My first Hardanger!

Posted on

Ta da!

hardanger13

I am so excited to be done with my first ever Hardanger project, and that it came out so well. There are a few little “whiskers” I still need to clean up, but other than that I am very happy with it. I think I will add a hanger at the top to make it into a Christmas ornament.

Here is what it looked like when the stitching was finished, but it had not been cut out yet:

 hardanger11

The only downside to being done with this is that I have to get back to work on Adrienne’s stocking. Christmas is in 3 months plus a few days! YIKES!

XXX
Carrie


Buttonhole Stitch

Posted on

I. Hate. Buttonhole Stitches. hardanger10

My Hardanger heart is coming along great. It’s almost finished, in fact. But I am having trouble with the buttonhole stitch which goes along the edge. This allows the piece to be cut out and not fall to pieces. I have looked at numerous books, websites, and YouTube videos. So far the most helpful has been this one. My main problem was that the pearl cotton #5 seemed too big to use, and yet the #8 seemed too fine. The pattern calls for the #5, same as the Kloster blocks, so that is what I am using. But it is not going well. I did manage to make my first row and then turn an outside corner. Yay! But now I have to do an “inside” corner. I have no clue what I am doing. Back to the video. For the third time. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

[Update: December 1, 2021. I just found that the link above for a helpful video is no longer there. I have found a wonderful new tutorial video series by Epida Studio which you can view here.]

XXX
Carrie


Dove’s Eye Stitch

Posted on

Here is my Hardanger heart with a couple of Dove’s Eyes attempted. It would have been nice if the instructions had told me I was supposed to complete them as I was doing the wrapped bars, instead of after. As you can see, I had many of the wrapped bars done already. Instead of taking them out, I decided to just add the Dove’s Eyes after. I think it turned out okay.

 hardanger8

And here is the result after all of the Dove’s Eye stitches and wrapped bars have been completed:

hardanger9

All that’s left now is the Buttonhole stitches around the edges!

XXX
Carrie


Back to Hardanger

Posted on

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:

hardanger5

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:

hardanger6

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.

 hardanger7

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


Trying Hardanger

Posted on

Last night I sat down with my Hardanger supplies, Jane Greenoff’s The Cross Stitcher’s Bible, and my iPad. After consulting the book, then some websites, then the book again, and finally a few YouTube videos, I was ready to tackle the terrifying craft of Hardanger. I am using 22 count ivory Hardanger fabric that was made by Charles Craft years ago and has been in my stash for some reason (I honestly have no idea where it came from). I am also using ecru DMC pearl cotton in sizes 5 (skein) and 8 (ball). The kloster blocks seemed easy enough, but I had to keep stopping and starting again because my stitches wouldn’t end up where I wanted them to. I was going in circles. Finally I found a website with a diagram that showed how you could use the same hole to go back to the beginning of a block, so I was able to work my blocks diagonally to work my heart.

hardanger2

This morning I finished up the last of the kloster blocks and was ready to start cutting. Yeah, cutting. The part that terrifies me most. Working stitches wrong is no big deal, you can rip them out and start again and have only wasted a bit of time and thread. But cutting where you aren’t supposed to means you can ruin an entire project. I took a deep breath and decided to dive right in. And then I found that my scissors are too thick. They are pretty small, so I don’t know what kind of scissors I am going to need to get to continue working on this. And I can’t do anything else until I cut those threads. So I guess this is one more project that is on the back burner for now…

 

XXX
Carrie


Ran out of room

Posted on

stockingjuly28

I have done just about all of the cross stitching I can do on this stocking, unless I want to move my Q Snaps, which I am not thrilled about. I really don’t want to put the clamps on top of some of the stitching I have already done. I tried working on some of the backstitch, but it is AWFUL! You can see some of it (done in black) at the bottom of the yellow and purple sash of the angel’s robe). None of the stitches actually follow any kind of path. It is like working on the Margaret Sherry hedgehog all over again. So I think I might have to give up on this project for the next two weeks and just get back to it when I am home and have my scroll frame set up. Even then, I will probably just wing it – the stitches all cover cross stitches, they don’t actually go around the stitches. So I don’t think anyone would even notice if I just did the outlining freehand. I did happen to bring some Hardanger supplies with me on vacation; maybe I will have a go at that. After all, I can’t not have something to work on!

XXX
Carrie