Framing in a hoop

Framing your embroideries in a wooden hoop is an inexpensive way of displaying stitcheries you made or bought (or if you are lucky: received in a swap!) If you have been following this blog you know that  I have an ever changing (and expanding) embroidery gallery in my living room. And most (except that awesome swap piece in the top of the gallery) of the pieces are framed in a hoop. I'm not exactly an expert hoop-framer so when I had to glue a commissioned piece in a hoop last week I got a little nervous. Probably because I once almost messed up an embroidery that was meant to appear in a magazine by spilling glue on it.  I know there are glue-free options to frame in a hoop but for some reasons those have never appealed to me. Possibly because I'm too lazy. :)

Anyway I think I have now found a way of framing in a hoop that I feel more comfortable with (but still involves some glue!). It's not a revolutionary new approach so I'm not going to call it a tutorial. Just sharing how I framed that little sleepy hedgehog you see pictured above and maybe the information is useful to some of you. :)

After ironing the embroidery (on the 'wrong' side) I put some batting (or wadding, used for quilting and available in craft and fabric stores) between the inner ring and the fabric. This gives your piece a slightly padded look and makes a nice neutral backing for your embroidery (so little stray threads etc are less visible).

I cut away fabric (and batting) about 1-1.5 inch all around the hoop.

Then on to the 'scary' glue bit. I use very little fabric glue (Guetermann creative HT2 available in craft stores over here, not sure about other countries!) on the inside of the inner ring. The batting also doubles as protective layer for any small glue accidents you may experience.

Carefully fold the fabric to the inside of the hoop and gently press the fabric against the glue on the ring. The inner ring is pushed slightly forward so the back 'sinks' in the outer hoop thus making the piece not too bulky on the back.

To finish the back of your piece I find the most easy thing to do is to trace the outer ring of the hoop on a piece of felt, cut the circle out and glue it on the hoop.

So I'm curious: how do you frame your embroideries? To glue or not to glue? In proper frames behind glass? Let me know!

P.S. the little hedgehog I framed in the hoop was one of my earlier patterns and is no longer available but this pattern  (on special offer now) is perfectly autumnal too :)

Hoops!

Basically I have got 4 types of hoops. The one I forgot to include in the picture is one of my regular (round) plastic hoops. I find there is a lot of difference in quality of these plastic hoops. I received my favourite one in a swap from Georgia but can not recall what brand it is! 

The hoop in the front of the picture is a so called Flexi Hoop (Anchor manufactures these). The inner ring is plastic and the outer ring is flexible. I bought a bunch of these on Ebay when I just started out in embroidery and I'm still quite fond of using Flexi Hoops. Especially the one in the picture. I also have smaller oval Flexi Hoops but they tend to pull the fabric a tiny bit too tight and this can distort the fabric. My large Flexi Hoop on the other hand doesn't keep the fabric taut enough but could be fine for framing. Except that I'm not crazy about the rubber woodgrain look. ;) And apparently there are also square Flexi Hoops available but I haven't tried those yet.

Everyone knows the Classic Wooden Hoop, posing here behind the Flexi Hoop. Ideal to have on hand when all other hoops are 'taken' and for framing too. I have heard that these would not be good to use for embroidery as they could leave marks on your fabric. Hasn't happened to me yet but I'm not too fussy about these things anyway.

Yesterday the latest addition to my Hoop Collection arrived: a Q-snap! It's a square frame (you can see it in the foreground of the picture) and mine is rather huge (11 by 11 inch) because I ordered the wrong size by accident!  Will let you know how me and the Q-snap get on when I have a chance to try it out. Do let me know if you have any tips for using this particular hoop though. And I'm also curious what kind of hoop you all are using!

Right now I'm still working on the Phat Quarter Swap piece (the one in the Flexi Hoop) but I'm already thinking about next projects of course. My partner in the Phat Quarter Swap (who is actually not the person I'm stitching my piece for) was Jessica and she sent me these adorable two embroideries!



You can read all about it if you click on the photo.