New tutorial links added

The latest tutorial links to be added are:

• My Mark Designs (Monique) - Ornaments using metal finishing forms
  
• House on Hill Road - inserting zippers into a cushion/pillow
• Knit One Quilt Two - button back pillows (quilted tops, but can be used for needlework)

Have a great week! :)

Gallery - Seen on the Blogs

I have tried to keep a note over the last 12 months when I saw mention of a finish made using one of our Focus on Finishing tutorials - I have since been in contact with the stitchers on my list, and have heard that it's OK to post piccies of their finishes on the blog ... so, here's a bit of eye candy that I hope you will enjoy (hopefully there will be another post over the next week once I hear back from a few more people) :)

Flanged Pillow Tutorial

Finished by Jenna
(full blog post is found here)

Stitcher's Bourse Tutorial

Finished by Terri for Melissa
(full blog post is found here)


Finished by Jeannie-Marie
(full blog post is found here)

Beaded Scissor Fob Tutorial

Finished by Dawn B
(full blog post is found here)

Needleroll Tutorial

Finished by Kim B
(full blog post is found here)

It's particularly good for the tutors to see that their classes are being used - and don't forget, if you have some finishes to share we'd LOVE to see them here too! All you have to do is to drop me an email with your Blogger details, and I can add you as an author :D

Latest Tutorials added

I've been very lazy in adding the latest tutorials I've been made aware of, but finally they're added and ready for you to share (if you haven't already seen them, of course):

• A Stitchinaddiction (Carol) - How to frame your own needlework (using pins)
  
  
• Just One More Stitch (Cyndi) - Framing needlework in a CD cover to stand up on a desk
  
  
• The Twisted Stitcher (Vonna) - Lining a Decorative Basket
  
  
• The Twisted Stitcher (Vonna) - Mattress pincushion/pinkeep

If you come across any other tutorials you think would be a good addition to the tutorial list, please don't hesitate to let me know. Also, if any of the links are no longer working please let me know so I can remove or update the link.

Have a great week :)

Blog Awards

I have been very lax in thanking a couple of people who have nominated our blog here for an Award in recent months - and today is the day to rectify that:




First of all, thanks go to Sandra, Nela and Lisa who awarded the blog with the Brillante Award.


Here is what Sandra and Lisa had to say about the blog:

Sandra: Focus on finishing: I don't know these bloggers personally (Anne and Karen are the managers), but my life has been saved thanks to its posts lol I think it's a huge reference for cross stitchers and needlepointers. Lots of useful and easy to follow tutorials with pictures.


Lisa: Anne S-not new to me, but as busy as she is continues to provide us with the Focus on Finishing blog with tons of contributions from stitchers from all over the world chock full of complimentary tutorials. "Hi Anne!"

Then Ezia kindly awarded us with an Arte Y Pico award.


With the acceptance of these awards, are some rules, which are to then nominate at least 5-7 other people for these awards. Because this is more of a 'public' blog, not a personal one, I hope you don't mind if I don't do that here ... instead I will try to continue to highlight some great blogs regularly that have some great finished items on display :)


Thanks again ladies, though, for the lovely awards - the feedback we get every now and then makes it feel worthwhile :)


And on that note I will walk away from the blog tonight, after spending the entire day working on its contents. I've copied so many posts over they've started making me complete a word verification after every post, so I think it's time to call it a night (apart from the fact my eyes are now getting blurry - I guess that means no stitching for me tonight LOL).

Kind regards,

Welcome to Focus on Finishing!

Welcome to the new-look Focus on Finishing blog!

This blog was originally set up in Wordpress, but posed a difficulty for stitchers and tutors wanting to contribute, as the Blogger platform is more commonly used than WP. Some pages, however, will remain within the original Wordpress blog, as they are maintained by me and WP is my preferred platform.

This blog was created as a resource both for stitchers who already enjoy finishing their own stitching creatively and want to develop and share their skills and also for those stitchers who would love to do so but don't know where to start.

It aims to be a place where you can learn new techniques, receive and give finishing help and advice and share pictures of your finished items with everyone.

It also aims to provide a centralised information resource of finishing techniques, with pages dedicated to both tutorial links and links to websites/online albums for inspiration.

We hope to continue to organise regular finishing classes where people can learn specific finishing techniques. All tutors who put together the tutorials do so on a voluntary basis, and I am indebted to their assistance in keeping this blog active by continuing to provide some high quality and wonderful tutorials for us all to enjoy and learn from. More information can be found on the Class/FAL schedule page.

When the blog first started back in February 2007 we tried to have regular FALs (Finish-A-Longs), where we set aside a certain time every week or month to finish up some of those stitched-but-not-yet-finished projects using any method. Unfortunately, there were no takers, so this was cancelled. If enough people would like to have a weekend set aside for finishing, I am happy to start the ball rollling once again.

If you wish to contribute to this blog as a poster rather than just a commenter, please email me (Anne) with your details (including the email address you use for Blogger posts) - I will then add you as a contributor so you can post your finished piccies etc.

When you post to the blog, please assign one or more relevant labels to your post. It is preferred the label should describe the type of finishing method you have used (eg Pinkeep, Bookmark, Biscornu, etc), and any personal details you wish to add. This means that all the posts will be searchable by category, thus making it easy to find all posts on the same subject. If there isn't a label available that is relevant to your post, feel free to create one. Please note that labels may be edited to ensure consistency and categories may be added to posts where necessary.

We would LOVE to see any finished items published to the blog where you have used our tutorials - this is a great motivation for other stitchers, as well as for the tutors that have taken their time to prepare their tutorials for your use.

Welcome again to the Focus on Finishing blog - I hope you enjoy your time here!

A Needle Case for your needle packets

Who doesn't need a special something to hold their needle packets? Since I use a lot of different types of needles in my embroidery, I like to keep them in their packets. I've made a needle case to organize my packets that will help me find the needles I need easily.

To make the needle case, you'll need:

• your finished embroidery, 12 inches long by 6 inches wide
• light weight cotton for the lining, 27 inches long by 6 inches wide
• #12 perle cotton
• a small length of ribbon
• 2 pieces of skirtex or light weight cardboard, 5-1/2 inches by 5 inches each
• a hot iron
  

I stitched a stumpwork design for my needle case but the finishing instructions will work for surface and counted embroidery, including cross stitch and crazy quilting.

Click here for the needle case instructions (pdf)

I hope you will enjoy making your own needle case and will find this tutorial useful. If you have any questions or need clarification on any of the steps, leave a comment here and I will try to answer in this section for everyone's benefit.

Tutor = Celeste

Strawberry Fob Finishing Class

Hello all,

I'm running a bit late this month but have finally cobbled together some photos and text for Strawberry fob finishing.

First gather your equipment...

For this project you will need:

• Stitched project - some suggestions: Prairie Schooler chart 100 - American Strawberries & chart 101- Prairie Strawberries (used for this tutorial), Anita's little Stitches designs, Blackbird Designs - there is a strawberry fob in the Secret Garden pattern (OOP) from the Loose Feathers series of 2006 and a Blackbird Designs also designed a fabulous quaker strawberry for the 2006 Annual Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue (I'm sure this one is still available).


• Interfacing


• Ribbon, felt


• Stuffing


• Scissors, needle, thread, pins.


• Iron

And you can see in this photo, I also made sure I had a cup of tea to work with.

Take your stitched piece and iron a piece of interfacing to the reverse of the stitching.

Make a semi-circle template, pin to the stitching and cut around. You can see I have mucked up centering this up with the "quiltish" strawberry above - this is not really a problem for this finishing technique.

Next, finger-press a small seam along the straight edge. Make this seam as close to the stitching as possible.

Fold the semi-circle to form a cone (see above). Stitch the straight seams together. I like to use a ladder stitch to do this, but you can use a sewing machine if you wish (I find it is easier to do this by hand).

I kinda hoped you'd be able to see the ladder stitch in this photo. If you pull it nice and tight it disappears into the seam. I'm pretty pleased with the join for this strawberry.

If you used the ladder stitch to join the seam, secure the thread and then run a gathering stitch around the top of the cone around 1/2 an inch from the top.

Draw the gathers together a little and stuff your strawberry - I've used hobbyfill.

Draw the gathers tighter and run a few stitches across the "opening" and pull these tight to secure your thread. You can insert a hanger at this point if you wish, stitch through it as you secure your thread.

For my first strawberry, I've attached a felt cap. I cut the felt out using the template in the pattern (Prairie Schooler pattern 101: Prairie Strawberries) and tacked it to the strawberry.

Next, I stitched around the felt using a buttonhole stitch - making sure I caught the linen beneath. Then I attached the second felt star (template from the prairie schooler pattern) using buttonhole stitch.

Attach a hanger to the top. I made a loop of ribbon and secured with tiny tacking stitches and slipped a bead over the ribbon to hide the stitches.

Another pretty way to finish the strawberry is to tie ribbons around the hanger - I learned this technique from Janie Hubble from The Cat's Whiskers Design Studio at a class last year.

Here's the other design I stitched from Prairie Strawberries by Prairie Schooler. You can see in the photo I have gathered the top and inserted the hanger. I've cut a length of ribbon and tied it in a bow around the hanger. Just keep tying bows around the hanger - pushing them down towards the strawberry. Have them facing in different directions.

When you are satisfied with the ribbons, trim the ends and you are done.

Here are the two finished strawberries. I love them! - So cute!
I hope you will enjoy making your own strawberries too and will find this tutorial useful.
Cathy.

Tutor = CathyMK