These are some techniques for finishing up small projects, like the monthly complimentary Celtic knots. They make nice gifts and decorations.
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for a small notepad or pack of Post-It (r) notes. Can be modified for any square or rectangular motif. |
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(I’m not going to bother writing my own instructions here, since there are such lovely directions already on the web in several places. I've linked to one.) |
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Yeah, I know it is dangling from a corner and looks like a diamond... but it was square to the fabric grain. Stay with me here. |
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Finishing a Self-Backing See, this really is a diamond motif (look at the skinny trees!). You won’t even need backing felt or fabric. |
- Select a color that transitions between two or more color families (not just shades of a single color)
- Your floss should have several inches of a color before changing to another color to avoid a spotty/patched look.
- If possible Start stitching in a section that doesn’t have any crossing paths.
- Complete each full cross stitch before going on to the next stitch. (Don’t work a line of half stitches and come back and cross them later - this muddies the overdyed colors.)
- Work your cross stitches in an order back and forth across the width of the path - not along the length of the ribbon.
- When it is time for the ribbon you are stitching to “duck” under a crossing ribbon, keep stitching the same ribbon! Don’t stitch any of the crossing ribbon - count carefully across the gap, and resume your path. This is probably the hardest tip because it requires careful counting, but the color continuity is very important to the illusion that one ribbon weaves over and under.
- When you are out of thread, start your new thread with the same colored end you left off with. (i.e. your thread changes from blue to purple to red and you just finished with red stitches... Thread up with the blue end in the needle and red end at the fabric.) This makes it look like an unbroken path. If you are concerned that this gives you too many stitches of the same color in an area (red in my example) you may trim a few inches off the new end, but be sure to leave enough to give a graceful transition to the next color.
