The Framers Forum

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are set for enjoying the New Year celebrations.

I am now almost ready to start on my Winter bedroom project with involves lots of sewing of soft furnishings but also the creation of 6 pieces for the wall, all of which involve cross stitch.

The question I have at this moment in time is about one of the pieces that I want to cut a multi-aperture mount for.
I will be covering the mount in some navy, two tone, naturally washed taffeta with a natural crease.
I also want the mount to be slightly raised above the surface of the stitching.

Here is very roughly how I envisage the finished piece to look:
And here is a photo of one of the crosses I stitched in totally different colours for another project years ago:
I intend to work them with one strand of floss over one thread of a 32 count linen but with the borders with two strands or a coarser thread over two threads as in the picture above.

I decided that I would like to stitch them individually rather than all on one large piece of linen.
There are two main reasons for this:
[1] It's a lot easier for me to take the piece I'm working on with me to work on anywhere.
[2] I am imagining it to be easier to pin each piece to its own piece of foam core than to try to stretch and pin the whole thing with so many straight horizontal and vertical lines of stitching.

So what I am asking here is if there are any reasons anyone can think of why I would be better to stitch it all on one piece of linen?
The only reason I can think of against this is how I will fix them in place.
I am thinking of using the 'No More Nails' tape, but on areas of the back of the foam core that the linen is not touching after having been laced across after the pinning round the sides.

Here is a link to my FB album where you can see more if it helps

If you're going to do a multi-aperture mount then it will be far easier the way you are planning to do the pieces, individually. To cut a multi aperture mount and expect all the apertures to fall perfectly over each design done on the same piece of fabric would be a bit of a nightmare.

It would make life much easier when it comes to lining up if you left out the stitched borders; the mount aperture bevels would provide a border and you could colour those bevels if you liked, or make it a double mount with the bottom mount separate for each and reverse-bevelled, each bottom aperture could be a different colour.

As for mounting, there's no need for any adhesive, you could do individual sink mounts, in fact you'd have to make each piece flush at the back, which is, basically, a sink mount.

I like the layout, forming the same shape as each piece, but I'd lose the white band.

Happy New Year

Thanks for that Robo and Happy New Year to you too

I am assuming that by a 'sink mount' you mean making a foam core section up from scraps with spaces to hinge or tape the embroideries into?
That is rather than cutting all the pieces from one piece of foam core and then trying to squeeze them back in (like my wash line for cheats!) as I can't see them fitting back in with the fabric round them.

Very happy that it's best to do them separately and will lose the borders as you advise
Thanks again.

Yes, with foam board scraps, temporarily tape the designs to the back of the apertures, butt the foam board strips tightly up to them then you can remove the tape (or not) and a piece of mount board backing, fixed to the foam board strips, will hold it all in place.

I never lace over foam board, mount board is better and causes less bulk.

FWIW I think it would look a lot better all on the same piece of fabric - padded - with a single aperture mount or even no mount and a spacer (would keep the stitched borders in that case) - it's very nice fabric and not for the faint-hearted, shame to hide it - would make for a far less complex job too.

I tend to think card mounts and needlework don't really go together. It's not a drawing or a watercolour. Needleworks have more 'presence'.

All that decoration on the mount (attractive in it's own right no doubt) visually fights with the stitchery.

If I were doing it I would have the work stretched on a board as per usual and then build up a liner that would provide sufficient spacing. Not too wide - maybe 1" - 1.5". A bevelled plain one covered with the same material as the stitching is on with maybe a gold fillet. Or a painted liner.

A wider frame in proportion to the liner.

Just my fourpenn'th.

The only visible "card" is the white mount which I am now considering leaving out.

The multi aperture mount is going to be covered in a navy taffeta that has natural creases.
I am going to stitch a Brer Rabbit design onto this same fabric for another of the pieces in the room:
And the outer mount is going to be covered in the Black Watch Tartan fabric that I am using to make the curtains and the valance for the bed from.

The reason I want to use the tartan fabric on all of the pieces is because they are so eclectic and I want them all to fit in with the feel of the room.

The reason I went for the white is because I am planning on using some of Wilson Bentley's snowflake images in two other framed pieces and in the making of both of the bedside lampshades.
I have changed the black background to blue and am gong to experiment to get the right blue for the printer and then use the T-shirt transfer paper to iron them on to white satin or taffeta.
I thought the other small touches of white in the mounts would work well with tying in the snowflakes but seeing that it could maybe take away from the embroidery now.

If I took out the white aperture mount then although I am using card all that one will see is fabric.
I do love the suggestions but although the framing might be a little less complicated it would take me much longer to stitch them because I wouldn't want to risk taking it around with me so much.
And of course, if the worse should happen and there was an irreversible mishap or mistake then the whole thing is ruined and I'd have to start again.

Still thinking on this one and probably will be until long after the curtains and other soft furnishings have been made up and the Brer Rabbit is stitched!
Thank you so much for the suggestions

Oh, so sorry. I thought the entire thing was a mount. So much for visualisation.


Carry on.

LOL
It is difficult to create a good 'visualisation' image.
I used the Main Line site for the frame too!

If you click the link at the bottom of my first post you can see that the tartan is a bit more subtle than my image would lead you to believe also.