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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Toy Chest Etui Embroidery: Needlebook


In the suggested layout of the pieces of the Toy Chest Etui, the first two pieces were the covers of the needlebook, which will be constructed as a magic wallet.

The threads are Gloriana silks, used as a single strand. On 32 count linen, this is quite a challenge for me.
It takes a while to get into the swing of such fine and accurate counting - and I can't do it without additional magnification.

I began this piece using the magnifier attached to my floor light. It was quite difficult to position the frame and the magnifier to give me the clarity I need to do this work.

Eventually I tried a magnifier that attaches to my glasses. I had purchased one of these, but not tried it. I notice in classes that some women use them a lot. It looks a bit odd. If you talk to someone wearing them, their eyes look huge.



My own reading glasses have a 2.5 magnification built in. I added a clip-on 2x magnifier and found it worked really well. It takes a lot of concentration, and I need to rest my eyes every half an hour or so, but my accuracy has improved.


Even so, the photos revealed a row of missing stitches on the right hand acorn that I will fix before construction!

4 comments:

Katherine said...

beautiful stitching. i have never tried anything so fine

margaret said...

that is certainly very fine linen you are working on but the finished box will be wonderful. I use a magnifier that I wear around my neck, like you the one on my floor light I find impossible to get in the right position.

Karyn said...

that stitching looks so fine! You seem to be managing it quite well. I think I would get halfway through it and put it on the to-be-finished later pile.
I think the whole project looks so very nice. Good luck with it

Monica said...

It's amazing how the camera reveals hidden things! It's a handy tool.

Everything looks to be coming along well. Happy stitching!