Sprite Stitch Board!

hi. my first post. i started this 20th march 2012 i stopped 22 august 2012 when i had my baby i restarted it 20th december 2013 as i had to finish it didnt have much to do. and on 19th Feb i finally finished 8 months worth of stitching 41976 stitches 165.3meters of cotton i feel very proud of it all i got to do now is find a frame to hang it on my wall.

QUESTION: i want to clean it as the adia was white its now not but afraid the colour will run. any tips please

Turned out great, congrats

As far as cleaning, I think what most of us do is submerge the piece in cold water with a little dish washing liquid (Fairy is a good brand, but any will do) and let it soak for about 10-15 minutes, then rinse the piece until all the bubbles are gone. That's usually enough to get the aida clean again, and it won't make the colours run or anything like that. Check out the Techniques and Guides section, there's a ton of stuff on how to care for your finished piece, like how to block and iron.

Our very own Eliste has an excellent set of guides that take you from the last stitch of your project to the final framing. Here is the first guide, the one on washing. The rest of the guides can be found in the sidebar on her blog. I follow her methods religiously to great benefit.

staceyknight wrote:hi. my first post.

Hi! Did you used to post here as muggleborn? I remember this stitching when it was a WIP.

Well done on the finish, though!

blackmageheart wrote:

staceyknight wrote:hi. my first post.

Hi! Did you used to post here as muggleborn? I remember this stitching when it was a WIP.

Well done on the finish, though!

yes ages ago but I had to make a new account cos I couldn't remember my username or password and I couldn't retrieve it sos this is my first post on this account. Muggleborrn so that was my username thanks lol it took me ages to remember the name of the webpage. As I had been on it in over a yr. At least with this account I receive e mails

Ally wrote:Turned out great, congrats

As far as cleaning, I think what most of us do is submerge the piece in cold water with a little dish washing liquid (Fairy is a good brand, but any will do) and let it soak for about 10-15 minutes, then rinse the piece until all the bubbles are gone. That's usually enough to get the aida clean again, and it won't make the colours run or anything like that. Check out the Techniques and Guides section, there's a ton of stuff on how to care for your finished piece, like how to block and iron.

im cleaning it atm........... im very nervous

Are you uing DMC floss? Just to ease your nerves a little, they are really colorfast. I took a pretty bright piece the other day and washed it with dish soap and cold water, then dried it with a white towel to see if it'd run at all, and it stayed just fine. I've also accidently washed bits of floss in my washing machine before on hot (dang leaving string in pockets, it gets so tangled ) and the color was fine. The string was a hot mess, but the color held! So soaking it will defintally be fine, as all these lovely people have tried and tested

SheWhoRoars wrote:Are you uing DMC floss?

yeah dmc.

i dont it the colour didnt run but it dont really look much better either

If its still looking dirty to you give it another go, and get a bit rougher with it (no scrubbers, just hands). The fabric should be fine, stitches tend to be pretty robust, and the colours are unlikely to run at this point. One lady I know puts her finished pieces through the washing machine (on gentle). I'm not that brave, but I will get stuck into a patch if its dirty. Just avoid anything with whiteners, fragrences etc as they can do long term damage.

staceyknight wrote: QUESTION: i want to clean it as the adia was white its now not but afraid the colour will run. any tips please

I'll be honest, I think the aida probably wasn't as white as you think it was. From what I can see, the color is very uniform all over the aida that is showing. White doesn't get dirty uniformly, it goes in the cracks and folds and gets darker in just certain areas. You may be mis-remembering the color from before, and I doubt continued washing will actually get a significant difference without adding something like a lightener in which WILL change the color of your threads.