R&R Craft frame

I decided to try out a new frame - a universal craft frame from R&R Crafts.

Usually I use a hoop - I like the thought of frames but whenever I've used them in the past I've got so frustrated with them as I could never achieve any tension in my fabric. I came across the R&R frames a while back (I think they are called q-snaps in America?) but was a bit sceptical as to their claims. I had a look on the internet and found a few blog posts about them and decided that I had nothing to loose in giving them a try.

I decided to go for an 11" x 11" frame - slightly bigger than the hoop I use, but not too big as to be impossible....here it is set up with Blossom Splendour...resting on my lap...

It's a good size! It is heavier than a hoop but not unworkably so. I haven't tried attaching it to my seat stand so I don't know whether it will be too wide for that. You can fit it together and take it apart very easily and attaching the fabric and getting a nice tension is so simple! After the first use I noticed that the clips had left marks on my fabric...not like hoop marks which you can still see in the bottom left-hand corner...shiny marks. It bugged me quite a bit. I had to really agitate the fabric to get rid of them (but I can still see them!!! D: ) Anyway, I now place some scrap fabric between the fabric and the clips and this seems to have solved the weird line problem. It also gets much better tension so I would definitely recommend using some scrap fabric.

If you haven't tried a frame like this before I recommend you give it a go. They're relatively cheap (this was £11) and I've found that benefits of this style of frame are great.

Pako thread organiser

I love to buy 'stuff' for my cross stitch addiction.

My latest purchase is a Pako thread organsier. This cost £13 from a craft fair I visited in April. I was half-way through The Castle at the time, so I'm only getting the chance to use it now.

Usually I use organiser cards...but when you have a lot of colours they can turn into something of a nightmare...threads get tangled, needles get lost...ugh!

So far, this has been a dream! My threads are being kept nice and tidy - you push them into the foam segments so they are kept separate and you can stick your needles in the foam so they're not going anywhere!

The organiser comes with about 10 of the cards you can see in the middle where you write your symbols down and when you've ran out you can just use card-board from cereal boxes and the like, so there's plenty of life in this device.

Highly recommended!