Link-up for Fully Finished Gallery SAL - May 2019

Hello all!

It's the 10th of the month so time for another Fully Finished Gallery SAL. I hope you've been working hard over the last month, ready to show your fully-finished goodies?

The aim of this SAL is to encourage all cross stitchers to fully-finish at least some of their completed cross stitch projects and proudly show them off via this gallery. These might be projects which have been gathering dust for weeks/months/years and/or projects which have recently been completed; it doesn't matter.

Whether you are a regular fully-finisher, an ad-hoc fully-finisher or a reluctant fully-finisher, you are all welcome. There is no need to sign up and no commitment required, just pop in when you have one or more fully-finished cross stitch projects to show.

If you are unsure of anything, the FFG SAL 2019 page at the top of my blog may help, or just ask.

Over the last month I have fully-finished three pieces; my two small monthly projects and another piece from my Box Of Shame:

1) A Very Merry Spring, stitched for April's Smalls SAL and finished off with card, ribbon and backing fabric.

I can't say I'm 100% happy with the backing fabric but it was the best of the rest as my originally-chosen pretty pink fabric (shown below) looked gorgeous when laid under the stitching but actually looked awful when fully-finished (it doesn't look too bad in the photo but, trust me, to the naked eye it doesn't match!) I'm on the lookout for a more suitable fabric and will swap it over once I find one. But for now the above green will do, and as some have commented, it's nice and bright for spring.

2) May in Emerald, stitched for my Year of Birthstones and finished off as a cardboard-backed hanging ornie to match the other months. I'm happy with this one!

 

3) Snowman, a freebie from Durene Jones, stitched in 2016 and sitting neglected since then because I didn't like the snow! Here's the original piece, where I thought I'd be clever and add jewel-effect thread to the snow to make it look all multi-coloured sparkly. But it didn't turn out how I pictured it and looked blooming awful!

So I sat and frogged the snow and restitched it adding silver metallic thread instead. Much better, I'm sure you'll agree? It gives it more of that look when the sun is reflecting on it and it's just beginning to melt.

So now the Snowman has now been finished off as a well-stuffed ornie using matching backing fabric and white barley twist cord:

Now it's over to you to show what you've been finishing this month!

Please link-up using the URL of your FFG SAL post and not the home page of your blog, adding a thumbnail of a finish and either your name or your blog name as the caption. The link-up will remain open for 10 days, closing at 6am UK time on 20th May.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

And please don't forget to follow other links and see what fellow fully-finishers have been up to; you never know, other projects may give you an idea for your next finish!


Once the link-up has closed I shall update the FFG SAL 2019 page with the number of entrants and entries.

For this month's Featured Finishing Idea I'm going small, quite small. These are little frames I found in Poundland in the UK. There are six in a pack (three each of two designs) and so far I've found three different sets: winter blue/whites, Christmas red/greens and pastel purples. They're not bad quality for the price, and if you don't like the front the backs are plain. I've included a thread bobbin in the picture for size comparison:

The Christmas frames in the middle have an aperture size of just over 4.5cm by 6.5cm (1.75 x 2.25 inches) so (without patronising your intelligence) 14ct would allow a stitch count of about 21x28, and 36ct over one about 54x72 stitches. 

Then I realised I'd seen them somewhere before... very similar frames were previously used by the wonderful Serendipitous Jo for some wedding ornies. Jo has given me permission to show her finishes and link back to her original post here where she gives more details.

Jo backed her wedding ornies with felt, added decorative ribbon and hung them on hooks (also think 12 days of Christmas or advent calendar perhaps?) but two ornies could also be displayed back to back if the frames were stuck together. Quite an easy finishing technique, providing you have small enough projects that fit!



That's it for this month. Next month's link-up will go live at 6am UK time on 10th June. Hope to see you there!

Happy fully-finishing,
Rachel x