Sinister Craftiness

After finishing the christening gown on time for its great occasion, I knew I wanted to enter the gown in my largest local state fair, the Puyallup Fair.   I hoped it would do well, but I was also worried about setting my expectations too high, because a piece so large and showy would be under extra scrutiny from the judges.  And after the success at the Evergreen State Fair, my expectations were high indeed.

The night before I planned to take the gown to the fair, I began to iron it, only to discover that my iron was dirty:  it had left a large brown stain down the front of the gown.  Disaster!  At this point I honestly stopped caring about the fair; my top priority shifted to restoring the dress for my brother and sister-in-law, no matter what had to be done or how long it would take.

Martha Stewart’s web site offers easy instructions for cleaning an iron, which worked perfectly; my iron was soon sparkling clean again and I resolved to clean my iron regularly (or at least before the next fair).   However, my first efforts to clean the dress stain only made it worse, so I chose to take a break and start again in the morning.

The next day I soaked the dress in OxyClean for an hour, hand rinsed it, then soaked it in Linen Wash for about half an hour, and rinsed thoroughly again.  To dry the dress, I rolled it in towels to remove most of the excess water, then ironed it until it was perfectly smooth (and mostly dry), and finished by hanging the dress outside in the sun and breeze.  Much to my relief, the dress was as good as new, no sign of any staining.  Maybe even better than new!  It’s good to know that the dress is washable (at least by hand; I wouldn’t dare put all that lace in a machine) in case future babies who wear it are not as tidy as my niece, or if it meets with another accident.

Fortunately the fair was accepting entries all weekend, so the dress was able to enter the fair after all, and the wait for the results was on.  We celebrated the Evergreen State Fair results with a traditional fair scone slathered in raspberry jam; would the Puyallup Fair yield a Scone of Victory or a Scone of Consolation?

As it turned out, the line for scones was so long that we gave up and returned home sconeless … but not ribbonless:

• First place
• Best in Category (gold ribbon; Needle-Made Lace class)
• Reserve Grand Champion (lavender and white rosette; Lace/Open Work division)

At this fair, Hardanger embroidery is entered under the Lace/Open Work division along with bobbin lace, needle-made lace, tatting, lacy crochet and lacy knitting, which creates quite a bit of competition for those Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion rosettes.  I’m thrilled about the ribbons it won, and they’ve done a nice job displaying the gown.  (A cute baby to show off the dress never hurts!)  I look forward to reading the judges’ scorecard at the end of the fair.

Dear Evergreen State Fair,

Flattery will get you everywhere:

The ribbon roundup was as follows:

• First place
• Award of Excellence (green and white rosette, given at judges’ discretion; Open Class Needle Arts)
• Best of Division (purple rosette; Hardanger division)
• Class Winner (purple and white rosette; Hardanger colorwork class)
• Sweepstakes (green and red rosette; Open Class Needle Arts)

However, the centerpiece was displayed backwards!  I was warned that this often happens with Hardanger pieces, but when I turned it in, the entry desk pinned a label to the front, so I thought it was safe.  Somewhere in the process, the label was removed, and here we are.  It’s a little embarrassing to have all the strings and things out for the world to see, but I guess it’s a good way to stay humble.   Since I haven’t posted photos of this centerpiece before, and to show off its best side, here are a few beauty shots.

The pattern for this centerpiece can be found in the 2010 Nordic Needle design contest book.  I stitched it on 30 count Legacy Linen in Baltic Green using DMC perle cotton.  As can be seen in the photos, sometimes this linen looks green, sometimes blue.  Either way, it’s lovely.

I thought it might be interesting to post the criteria on my scorecard to give a general idea of what judges are looking for at county and state fairs.  The Evergreen State Fair scorecard was more detailed than the Puyallup Fair scorecard I received last year, but overall both are similar:

1. Workmanship (40 points)
   Even stitches/tension
   Consistent direction of slant
   Proper gauge of thread to cloth
   No split threads
   No hoop lines
2. Degree of Difficulty (20 points)
   Complexity
   Balance of all components
3. Suitability (20 points)
   Thread/cloth appropriate for intended use
   Appropriate choice of color
   Durability
4. Presentation (20 points)
   Finishing/no tag ends
   Blocking, mounting, hemming, matting, and/or framing
   Cleanliness
   Attractive to the eye

Hopefully this list will be of use to anybody considering giving their local fair a try.  I’m finding these ribbons quite addictive; right now I’m searching my pattern books for 2013′s potential blue ribbon winner …

Meanwhile, the christening gown I made for my niece is at the Puyallup Fair — look for a report very soon!

I knew the petticoat lace would take the longest to finish of all the gown pieces, but I didn’t realize it would take quite so long!

My niece arrived on her February due date after a long and difficult labor.  The baby was fine and perfectly healthy, but mom had a significant amount of recovery to do, and the baby blessing day was postponed accordingly.  That worked out quite well for me, as the last piece of lace was nowhere near complete.  Finally, after four months of work, I finished the petticoat lace last weekend:

I rushed it over to my sister-in-law and her mother, who spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning putting the finishing touches on the christening gown for that Sunday afternoon.

Little Miss seemed to approve of her gown; after all, it was like wearing a silky blanket.

She also liked to stuff the collar in her mouth and chew on it.

As cute as my newest little niece is, this is a stitching blog not a baby blog, so it was time to give her back to her Mom and Dad, and get to work taking photos of the gown.

All that glorious, frothy lace … so much work, but so worth it.  The gown was an absolute pleasure to stitch; I loved the pattern and the materials.

One last photo of my niece and her proud mom:  welcome to the world, little one!

Occasionally I’m asked if I make mistakes while cutting the Hardanger embroidery, and if so, if there are any mistakes which can’t be repaired.

To which I reply, Oh, yes!  Fortunately the Janice Love books have many suggestions to restore almost any kind of cutting accident back to neat, and I’ve usually had great success fixing little cuts here and there.

But while I was working on the christening gown collar — in fact, while I was cutting the excess fabric away from the finished collar, back before Christmas — I slipped and cut into the blanket stitches, front and center.  The collar began to unravel, and there was no good place in that area to reinforce or redo the cut stitches.

I want this christening gown to be perfect, and the collar is a focal point of the gown, so there really was no debate:  I had to start a new collar, and I was now the sadder but wiser owner of a “scratch and dent” or practice collar.

One month later, the second collar is done, and I’m so happy to see that it turned out perfectly:

What about the scratch and dent collar?  From certain angles or placing an object over the unraveled area, I think it will do well as a doily for taking pictures of other stitching projects.  It’s a good reminder to be careful when working on the cut parts of embroidery:  always use a bright light, sharp scissors (I love my Dovos), and take rest breaks whether you think you need to or not.  I was in a rush to finish the collar (it was so close to being done!) and haste combined with fatigue made me clumsy.  For the second collar, I cut a moderate section away from the excess fabric, took a break, then returned to the job.   It took longer but half a day of cutting was better than spending another month to make collar #3.

Now I hope I’ll have time to finish the petticoat lace!  The petticoat follows the same designs as the collar.  My little niece or nephew is due mid-February so the gown won’t be needed until March at the earliest.

Wow!  The sleeves took much less time than I thought they would!  With the over skirt and both sleeves complete, my sister-in-law and her mother will be able to work on the dress over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Taking a picture of the sleeves proved a bit difficult.  Unlike the over skirt, the embroidery stops with a margin on both sides (to sew the sleeve together) which makes the sleeve look, well, unfinished.  This photo shows both sleeves, embroidered ends facing each other.  The pattern photo shows what the sleeves will look like after my sister-in-law and her mother have worked their sewing magic.  I’m excited to see the pieces put together!  Meanwhile, I’ll start working on the dress collar, which has more openwork than the sleeves.  Each piece of this gown is prettier and prettier.

Thanks for visiting!

The over skirt of the christening gown is the simplest to embroider, and would make a nice enough gown on its own if I weren’t able to complete any more pieces, so I worked on it first.  Total stitching time for the skirt:  about three weeks.

I’m using 32 count Monika evenweave (a mercerized cotton/modal blend) by Ubelhor of Austria.  I love this fabric!  It’s perfectly suited for a christening gown:  silky soft with great body and a wonderful drape, holds the shape of the pulled and drawn work exactly so, and irons like a dream.  Wonderful!  I bought it from Nordic Needle where I was lucky enough to catch it on sale plus a storewide shipping discount.  The pattern is stitched with DMC white perle cotton in #8 and #12.

Next:  the sleeves.  The embroidery is more detailed than the over skirt in that there is more openwork, but of course there’s much less to do than on the skirt.  We’ll see how many weeks it takes to embroider the sleeves.

Thanks for visiting!

I’m working on a few Hardanger projects right now.  First, I’d had a table runner pattern from Lillill Thuve’s Vakre Hardangerdesign kitted up for ages, but hadn’t started it.

I began it, but a fiddly part of the center motifs slowed me down and I’ve put it aside for a while until I’m more interested in it again.  I’m realizing why I hadn’t gotten around to starting it.  The fabric (Dublin) and the thread (Watercolours) are a delight as always, but there’s something about the pattern that just isn’t doing it for me.

The pattern that’s really captured my interest right now is one of the winners of the annual Nordic Needle design contest.

I love the pattern, the stitches, and the colors I chose.  I’m using 30 count Legacy Linen in Baltic Green, which looks antique green or blue depending on the light.  Love, love, love Legacy linen:  it’s stiffer than Dublin, but full, feels great in the hand, and so luxurious.  I had really wanted to stitch this centerpiece in silk, but the Baltic Green color proved tricky to match up:  if I found a shade of Trebizond or Soie Perlée that worked well with the linen, I couldn’t find a matching Soie Gobelins, and if I found a suitable Soie Gobelins, neither Soie Perlée nor Trebizond looked right next to it.  The expense of silk, that pesky hobgoblin, also looked like it would be a factor in this medium-sized project, so after tidying up all the spools I’d pulled out of the drawers of the LNS, I chose a shade of DMC perle cotton which is a great fit for the fabric and didn’t break the budget.

I completed the surface stitches in two weeks’ time and am currently slogging through the eyelets.  This pattern features a lacy edge, or as I call it, Zombie Hardanger.  The cutting phase will be messy and scary, but well worth it.

But wait; there’s more!  My sister-in-law (the owner of this birthday biscornu) is expecting her first baby, and we’re going to make a christening gown.

I’ll be using another pattern from Nordic Needle’s design contest to embroider the fabric, and my sister-in-law and her mother will sew the dress.  My new niece or nephew is due mid-February; once the fabric arrives, we’ll get started.

Hardanger doily, Diana Craft Journal 1997
Cameo Rose Belfast linen (32 count)
Stitched with Trebizond and Soie Gobelins

Two years ago I stitched this lovely little Hardanger doily from a pattern in the 1997 Diana Craft Journal, and took the pattern up a notch by stitching it on 32 count linen with long filament silks.  That doily was a gift, and this summer I got around to stitching another one to keep.  I managed to finish it in time for the local state fair, where it won a second place ribbon:

This is the first time I’ve submitted anything to the fair, but it won’t be the last.  Those ribbons are addictive!

Halfway through the year, and halfway through the Crazy January Challenge:  the Victorian Rose Sampler by Victoria Sampler is finished!  This pretty design can be finished either as a bellpull or a small framed sampler, plus an additional sugarplum ornament which I’d like to stitch in time for Christmas.  The finish was fun and relatively quick, so now I’m motivated to dig more VS bellpulls out of my stash.

Hardanger brikke “Elise”
from Hardangersøm med variasjoner by Lillill Thuve
Antique white Dublin linen (25 count)
Stitched with Caron Watercolours “Delphinium” and Anchor #8 perle cotton

Back in April I posted about a knitting/embroidery exchange with Knitika, and at long last it’s done!  This little centerpiece measures 14.5″ (37 cm) on 25 count linen.  This is my second time using Dublin linen and I really like it for Hardanger:  it’s soft and supple, with a nice drape to it.  Plus it’s very close to the count of Hardanger fabric, so I can be lazy on the math when calculating supplies.

A closer look at the embroidery:

In exchange Knitika made me not one, but TWO pairs of handwarmers!  I’m so spoiled.

The pattern above is “Aragorn” and the pattern below is “Dashing“.  I don’t know yarn, but I do know these handwarmers are made of awesome. (Knitika, on the other hand, does know her yarn, so check out her exchange post.)

Both pairs are so pretty, so soft and toasty warm.  My hands are very happy.  Thanks, Knitika!