Good News: Tomato finishing and Royals win

I think the size of the canvas was intimidating to me and I kept putting off the finishing but then I decided what the heck…it’s only needlepoint and it only took me six months of stitching time (the last six weeks were intense…to complete it). With my trusty canvas scissors I began to cut the tomato to within a 1/2 in of the stitching; then I turned and pined, clipping the curves and between the segments as I went. The instructions say wrong sides together but I am going to hand stitch mine using the ladder stitch. Someone wrote me she stuffed hers as a frame weight and I thought this was a good idea so I’m going to go mine this way too.

Big Mistake: Tried to make one long cording using 3 skeins of floss, my arms are not that long, even with the help of two other people. But I got it done and have one long humongous green cord. Make smaller cords.

Stitched the bottom segments together and made a muslin bag for the aquarium gravel to make weight. Used quilt batting to place around the quilt batting and then used polyester stuffing to stuff firm and then stitched the top segments closed. I attached the cording and sewed it in place then finished leaves and strawberry.  I lined the leaves with a ladybug material from my stash and used cording around them too. I also used a red cording to cover the seam and around the top of the strawberry. I attached the leaves using a doll needle and ribbon; I started at the bottom and pulled the ribbon through the tomato; I added one end of the strawberry cord and then stitched through the leaf canvases and used two of the buttons I painted on top of the leaves. Tied a

square knot then a bow, placed a dab of Fray Check to secure the knot and cut the ends.  And the frame weight tomato is completely finished and read for use.

 

Can you tell the difference in these two pictures?

Yes, it is different sides of the tomato, but look at the strawberry. I can wind the strawberry up under the leaves and it will be shorter when I use as frame weight.

See me smiling and doing happy dance.

And BTW, I smiled and did a happy dance well past my bedtime yesterday. The Kansas City Royals won their playoff game last night! It was by far the best baseball game I have ever attended or watched!

Congratulations guys, if I were a wealthy woman I would buy tickets (better yet a suite…need 20 tickets) for my family and we would watch you win it all.

Go Royals!

Nice way to start the month and end the week (especially after previous post)… Good news is always best!

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you find time to stitch today! I’m going to design a baseball to stitch this week-end…ttfn…sue