Friday, March 6, 2009

Carolyn NC's Intro

Hi everyone,
My name is Carolyn & I'm married with three grown children, mostly. DD married in Sept., DS is marrying in 3 weeks, and DD is in college. So what did we do with all of our free time since the kids were gone? Went out and got another baby - puppy, that is, so I'm back to caring for a child, more or less...haha
However, it is cutting into my stitching time, believe it or not, and what do I do? Go buy a HAED! And it's all your faults. :) JK
I've been admiring everyone's HAED stitching so much, I was dying to join in the fun (as if I have no other stitching...LOL) But enough kidding, I would love some suggestions from you all, since many of you are more experienced with HAEDs and this is my first. Mine is Secret Garden 3 - it's the colors that got me...

I may cheat on this one and stitch it on 25 ct. black lugana, but I'm a little cautious with this, having stitched on dark fabrics before - however, not quite this size. So here's my question. I'm not exactly thrilled with stitching nothing but black, but will black fabric be such a pain to stitch that I'll hate I ever started it? I plan on gridding it and marking each page. Also, because the fabric is black, will the colors come up well with two strands? Or should I just deal with it, stitch it on white/off-white and and get on with it? Thanks for your help. :)

11 comments:

Mich said...

Wauw, I love this pattern so much, due to the colours. It must be very much fun stitching this one.

I personnaly think that it will be very nice on black fabric, I think it will prove right to the nice colours sticking out above it. I would go for black if I were you.

Wendy said...

Hi Carolyn, welcome to our blog! It is so great you are joining us too! Your design looks so great and indeed the colors are beautiful.
You sure can stitch this on black fabric and your colors will come out good on the black fabric. It won't be a pain to stitch on black fabric, but you will need some good light.

Melissa33 said...

Love the colors on this one. Personally for me, I dislike stitching on dark fabric in general. But given how much black is in the background...it's a toss up. You could take a small piece of black fabric and stitch a small sample on it using both 1 stand and 2 strand to see how you like the look of it before committing to a big purchase of fabric.

Caroline said...

Beautiful design! I've never stitched on black fabric, but good luck with whatever you decide.

Cindy F. said...

Welcome girl!! I'm so glad you've joined our group! I LOVE the design you've picked out! It's amazing! Beautiful colors!!
I've never stitched on black either. It will save you a lot of stitching the black, but when you get to the other colors you may need a light UNDER your fabric to help you see better. The # of floss strands would depend on fabric ct. Play with it...stitch a few of 1 or 2. I'm so excited for you! Have fun:)

5horizons said...

You've chosen a beautiful design and black fabbie is generally a good idea for it (I'm not a fan of the backgrounds myself). I think with 1x1 stitching on 25 ct there'll be some of the fabric visble esp. with lighter colors (depends on your tension), but it may be a good thing. So, as it was said, you should really give it a test run. Personally, I find 1x1 on 25 ct coverage just perfect. I'll be checking your progress - just love the colors!

BW said...

Glad to see you here Carolyn. Your design is amazing. I would go for the black fabric myself and just make sure i had good light

Yoyo said...

Even when my eyes were in really good shape I always had trouble seeing the threads on darker fabrics. Putting light behind the stitching helps a great deal. I think it is really an individual thing and agree with most of the comments -- get a small piece of black fabric and try it before making a commitment. This design is crying out for black fabric but I know I simply could not do such a large project on black, I would have to stitch the background. Try it first, that's the best decision you can make.

Annie Bee said...

I don't mind stitching the backgrounds and would probably stitch the black as I find stitching on black is a real pain unless you have good light. Try a few samples of fabric first. If I was stitching all that black I would tend to go for a 28 count evenweave for good thread coverage.

Beautiful design and I can't wait to see some pics of your work.

Joke said...

This is a great design (I bought it some time ago, too LOL) and I think it is a major challenge to stitch it on black fabric! I for sure could never do that, it is much more difficult to see what/where you are stitching.

Terri said...

Welcome Carolyn