Crafts – Page 4 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Halloween Wreath

Posted on October 24, 2020 by geek

Like many, my neighborhood likes to decorate for Halloween. I never have before, except for maybe putting a couple of pumpkins on my door step. This year, since like most people, I am home mostly, I decide to decorate a bit. I really wanted to create a Halloween wreath, but I didn’t like the store bought ones that are rather gaudy and mainly plastic. I decided to create a rather simple wreath mainly with materials I already have. I am rather happy with the way it came out, and here it is hanging on my front door.

Finished Halloween wreath hanging on my door

It was fairly easy to make. First, I went into my yard and gathered a bunch of twigs that were relatively smooth. As there is a large sycamore in my yard, and sycamores are famously self-pruning, so finding nice smooth twigs was easy.

Branches I gathered in my yard

Then I painted the twigs black with acrylic paint. I found some thick, but pliable wire in my boxes of crafting supplies and used it to form a ring about a foot in diameter. Then I bought some black yarn.

Branches painted black with black yarn to tie them to the wire circle I made

Next, I used the yarn to tie some of the thicker twigs onto the wire to form the wreath base.

The larger branches tied to the wire circle to form the base of the wreath

I kept adding the twigs, and I started using black ribbon to tie the smaller twigs to the base twigs. I wanted the black ribbon to visible but not the yarn.

All branches are now tied together with yarn or black ribbon

Then I embellished with orange and purple ribbon. I also used this extra ribbon to tighten how the twigs were tied together.

Stitched Fibonacci Spiral

Posted on October 9, 2020 by geek

I finished my big COVID-19 stay at home project! I love and am fascinated by the Fironacci sequence, so I decided to stitch it. I love the way it came out. I used a different color and different stitch for each square. I calculated where each of the spiral stitches needed to go, rounding as close as possible. One nice thing about stitching on a grid, is that it makes it easy to figure out where the spiral goes. I used an evenweave linen fabric to ensure each stitch went over the same width of thread. For those who want the particulars, I used a 28 count evenweave stitched over 1. For those who really want more particulars, I have placed the design pattern I devised in a table below. The entire pattern is 377 by 610 squares, which is about 13.5 x 21.7 inches or 34.2 x 55.3 cm.

Below is a table of the pattern I used. Size is based on stitching over one on a 28-count linen. Colors are DMC. Stitches and their names are from “Stitches To Go” by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson.

area	sequence	size (in)	stitch	color 1	color 2	color 3
0	0	0
1	1	0.036	diagonal (/)	815
2	1	0.036	diagonal (\)	326
3	2	0.071	cross stitch	817
4	3	0.107	2 parallel lines	349
5	5	0.179	criss cross hungarian	606	608
6	8	0.286	arrowhead	740	741
7	13	0.464	shadow square	743	744	745
8	21	0.750	double stitch variation	307	973
9	34	1.214	reversed scotch	700	701
10	55	1.964	cameo	909	911
11	89	3.179	dutch	995	996
12	144	5.143	chinese rice	796	797
13	233	8.321	lightning	155	3746
14	377	13.464	floral	208	209	3837

Facial Tissue Box Cozy

Posted on March 28, 2020 by geek

I have been wanting to make a cover for the facial tissue box that sits in my half-bath to match the blue theme in there. I originally had made one with cardboard that I painted the same color as the wall. It was a nice idea, but it simply didn’t work, mainly because of the seams with the pieces of cardboard. I then had the idea to make a cozy out of fabric. I have been wanting to start embroidering things, so I thought this was the perfect project with which to start.

I tend to save fabric that I like. For example when a piece of clothing gets a stain that won’t come out or a hole or something, then I save it. For this project, I used an old blouse that had a stain on the front of it for the fabric. Then I just used matching embroidery thread. I stitch various stitches to join the seams and also just decorate the sides. It is certainly not my best work, but it was quick and easy, and I was able to practice embroidery stitches. I clearly still need more practice with the stitches.

Blanket + Doorknobs = Window Treatment

Posted on December 15, 2019 by geek

Previously I made a unique window treatment in the form a wooden dowel with antique glass doorknobs glued to the end of it and a shawl or tablecloth. I still am not sure what the textile is meant to be. It could be a tablecloth or shawl or something else entirely. It is very pretty, and I like it. However after having it up for several years now, I decided I needed a change. The textile was too thin for a curtain in that it let too much light in, and I am not completely positive how much privacy it brought. Also it was just barely able to cover the window.

Last year I bought a tablecloth or blanket in Mexico that I love. I wasn’t sure what to do with it though. I finally decided it would make a perfect new window treatment for my window. I hung it up to replace the other textile. It was perfect for privacy and size. Now the problem became that it was a bit too heavy and causing the dowel to sag a bit too much. So, I bought a cheap curtain rod that would provide more strength and not sag from the weight. I removed the rod’s plain ends and glued the antique glass doorknobs to it. Now I once again have my glass doorknobs and a unique curtain to go with it.

Cross Stitch Hanging Padded Board

Posted on January 16, 2019 by geek

After my blog post asking for help as to how to finish a cross stitch in a manner that mimics one I had professionally finished years ago, I received some good suggestions of how I should and should not do it. After a bit more experimenting, I have now finished two cross stitch works that I did years ago, so now I am posting how I did it.

Let me start with why I did not just have a professional do it. First, I figured I could do it myself. Second, I found a local stitching shop to inquire about having some stitching work I had done finished. They said that to do what I wanted done would be about $75. This is probably not an unreasonable cost, but I have twelve that need to be finished, and that would have cost a lot of money. Years ago, I took a stitching class, and we did one for every month of the year.

Cross stitch samplers with each one themed per month

Here is a closer look at the January one.

January’s heart with the pattern that was used

I wanted the pieces finished on a padded mat board that could be hung using cording of some type. I used the Halloween one that I had professionally finished as a model for making decisions on the hearts. Unlike the Halloween one, I decided just to use a plain, off-white muslin as the backing for all the hearts. The back won’t normally be seen, so I decided just to go with something simple and buy one big thing of cloth that I could cut into pieces for all the heart backs. Next, examining the Halloween one, it looks like they used DMC pearl thread for the cord border. The problem with pearl thread, is that it does not come in that many colors, and I wanted to use cording that matched the pieces. I decided to just use the floss that was used for the pieces themselves, and I will show how I did that below.

I decided to make the pieces one inch wider on each side than the stitching. This worked out to a piece that is 5.5 inches wide and 7.5 inches high. To start, I bought framing mat board, and I cut two pieces that were each this size, one piece per side of the finished piece.

I used an xacto knife to cut the mat board.

Next, I used low loft batting for quilting, and I cut two pieces at this same size. I did not use fusible batting, and this became a good thing later.

Next, I cut a piece of the muslin. I cut the piece about an inch larger on each side than the finished piece, so two inches wider and two inches higher than the finished piece.

Plain, off-white muslin from the fabric store

I started with the back piece. Very importantly, I ironed both the batting and the fabric first. This is one of the reasons it worked out well that I did not use fusible batting. I laid the cut muslin down, then centered the batting on top of it, then I laid the mat board on top of it. After the first piece I quickly realized, it is much easier to first glue the batting to the board, then to center the batting/mat board on the fabric and then to attach the fabric. I used a plain glue stick for this. I used glue that did not contain acid.

Muslin, then batting, then board centered

Matting sandwiched between the muslin and mat board

Then, I stretched the fabric and pulled it around the back. I then glued it to the back of the board.

Fabric was pulled taunt then folded over the back of the board then glued

Next, I moved to the cross stitched side. I again ironed the cross stitch fabric and the batting piece. I cut just a little bit of the excess fabric, but I left as much as possible in place. I then laid it face down, measured an inch from the farthest edges of stitches, and made tiny little tic marks to help me center the batting and mat board.

I centered my measuring tool then made tic marks on the back one inch from the edges to guide placement of the board.

As I said above, I found it worked better to first glue the batting to the mat board. I then centered that on the back of the stitched fabric using the tic marks. Then I very carefully pulled the fabric evenly taunt and glued it to back of the board.

Stitching centered on the board with the top and bottom glued to the board

Finished top piece after fabric is pulled and glued to the back

It does not look that good from the back, but this will be covered up. Something I realized after doing the first one, is to not glue the excess fabric from the folded over sides on the top of the piece. The reason is that this fabric makes a good anchor to attach the floss that I used for the cording to surround the sides and to hang the piece. I used thread to attach the floss to the fabric.

The floss is doubled and attached to the excess fabric at the top using thread.

I then braided the floss. I explained how I did that in another blog post. I braided enough floss until I had enough to cover the perimeter of the piece and then to make a hanger.

Checking the length of the braided floss

I then knotted the end of the braided floss and stitched it to the back of the excess fabric on the top side opposite where I attached the start of the fabric.

Then I finally glued the back piece covered with muslin to the front piece with the stitched fabric. I used a glue stick to glue them back to back. Then I used thread to stitch the top of the of the two pieces of fabric together to close the gap formed because of the matting and the boards. At the same time while stitching them together I also ran the thread through the braided floss to attach that. I used a slip stitch of sorts to make the thread as invisible as possible.

Two sides glued together and using thread to bring fabric edges together with braided floss

The excess braided floss was then used as the hanger for the piece. Finally the finished piece looks thusly.

I think the most time was probably spent braiding the floss, but other than that, it was fairly easy. If you decide to do something similar, take your time, and as always, measure twice, cut once. Now I only have ten more to do.

Edited to add: I finished the entire set of twelve!

Braiding Cross Stitching Floss

Posted on January 16, 2019 by geek

I wanted to use DMC floss that matched my cross stitch pieces to edge them. Floss is not that thick though, and I needed a cording of some type that would be thick enough to cover the edges. Each of my stitched heart pieces used several different colors of floss, so I decided to make use four different colors and make a four thread braid. Even using all six strands within the floss thread and using four different floss threads still did not make the braid thick enough, so I doubled everything. [If you are not familiar with DMC floss, there are six separable strands within the floss. Cross stitching normally uses two strands.] I used two threads per color, but I used the two as if they were one, so that I still braided them like a four thread braid. As explained in another blog post, I attached the threads to the cross stitch piece using thread. I used one long piece of each color thread that I attached at the halfway point.

Threads attached to the piece. Notice the order of the colors.

I used a braiding method that I learned at summer camp decades ago for making friendship bracelets. I started with the left most threads, again treating the two same color threads as if they were one. The left most threads were cross over the middle two threads.

Left most threads (dark pink) is crossed over middle two threads

Next the thread that is now the second to the left is crossed over the thread that was the left most thread and is now the third from the left thread.

Second from left thread (pale pink) is crossed over the thread that is now to its left, the dark pink thread that was initially the left most thread.

Next work from the right. The right most thread is crossed over the middle two threads, so now the initially right most thread is now second from the left.

Next the thread that is now second from the right, is crossed over the new second from the left thread.

Second from right thread is crossed over second from left thread

The above four steps are just repeated over and over again. Left most crossed over middle two. New second from left crossed over new second from right. Right most thread crossed over middle two. New second from right crossed over new second from left. Repeat. Repeat.

One final piece of advice. If you are using a lot of thread, either make sure the thread hangs freely, or keep it flat and pieces together. Otherwise the threads will start getting tangled on the opposite side of where the braiding is being performed.

After even more several braiding steps. Keep the threads separate to avoid tangling.

Finishing a Cross Stitch Project

Posted on January 3, 2019 by geek

I used to do a lot of cross-stitching. Then I became too busy with school, work, home renovation, etc. I finally have all that behind me, so I am working on stitching projects again. As well as picking up stitching projects to finish, I realized that I had a lot of stitching projects that are actually finished, but now I need to have them framed or finished in a way that they can be displayed. Hence this blog post is to show a prototype of a way I am experimenting with finishing some projects and to seek opinions and advice about this manner.

First, here is the model. Years ago, I cross-stitched this Halloween design. I then took it to the store I frequented for all my stitching needs and paid for someone to make it into this hanging piece. The piece is edged with twisted floss or thread with two tassels at the bottom and hanger at the top. Both the front and the back have a very slight amount of batting or some other cushioning behind it. The piece is also very stiff. There is definitely a board in between the pieces. Best I can tell, each piece of fabric (front and back) is attached to their board.

Finished cross-stitch

The back fo the cross-stitch was finished nicely with a matching fabric that I picked.

Back of finished cross-stitch piece

The piece is finished really nicely with cording lining where the two pieces meet. I could not photograph it, but there is some stitching between the two pieces of fabric. My best guess is that it is just a whip stitch. I can’t quite tell if it is just between the two pieces of fabric, or if it goes through the cording also.

Side view of finished cross-stitch piece

The only part that is somewhat separated is one corner, which is where I presume the cording is glued in between the two pieces.

Side view of corner of finished cross-stitch piece

I tried to make a prototype to duplicate my Halloween piece using some extra fabric. I cut a piece of fabric into a six inch by six inch square. I then cut a piece of low quilt batting into a four inch by four inch square and laid it on top.

Prototype square of fabric with smaller square of batting

I then cut a four inch by four inch square of framing mat board and laid it on top of the batting. I searched craft stores for a board to use. Poster board doesn’t seem to have the stiffness I need. I think non-corrugated cardboard might work, but I couldn’t find any. Framing mat board seemed to be the best compromise of stiffness and thinness.

Prototype square of fabric with smaller square of batting with mat board on top

I stretched the fabric and folded it over the board. I used a glue stick to attach it to the board. I cut a bit of the fabric in the corners to lessen the thickness of the corners.

Excess fabric stretched and folded over back of mat board

This is what the square looked like after from the front.

Front of finished square

I then made a duplicate square, and I glued the backs together. From the side, the piece now looks like this.

Side view with two squares glued together

I think the prototype came out ok. First, I used low batting, which was to be the least puffy batting that I could find, but I still think it is slightly puffier than my Halloween model. I can’t decide if the mat board is too thick, but it does have a nice stiffness. After looking at the side of my prototype, I think the whip stitch might be needed to bring the two pieces of fabric together and eliminate the noticeable gap between the two pieces. Covering the sides with cording will definitely help also.

Now I am seeking advice and opinions. I have searched the internets, and I can’t find directions for how to make this type of finished piece I want. Has anyone seen this type of finishing before and knows how it is made? Does anyone have advice on how to make my prototype piece look better?