Friday Finishes #24: Humming Bird

Today’s Friday Finishes is a unique take on framing a finished piece! The first of its kind I’ve ever done.

Name of Piece: Item 4241 Hummingbird

Designed by: There is no designer listed.

Distributed as a kit by NeedleMagic, Inc. under their Stitch ‘N Frame series.

Kit Contains: 18 ct. Aida fabric, embroidery floss, needle, hanger, graph, and easy to follow instructions.

Finished Size:  Roughly 3 in. by 3.75 in.

The Story: I was super excited for this mini kit when I found it. (Notice the trend of how I seem to get excited about mini kits very easily.) I had never seen a mini kit on a hanger like this before. I wasn’t sure how it was meant to be framed. How do you stitch a kit and then get it to hang off a hanger like that without any sewing? The cover model clearly didn’t have any stitches to hold it in place. I was excited to stitch the piece and see how it was meant to be done. It would be an adventure!

Time To Complete: A few days off and on!

Review: Remember how just yesterday I was complaining about the quality of threads in NeedleMagic kits, because of the Love and Dolphin finishes I’ve done? And remember how I said the problem was because of the low-quality thread they use, yarn instead of floss? Well notice above where it says the kit contains embroidery floss. Yes. For some reason, NeedleMagic kits do yarn for some projects and floss for others. In any case, I had zero problems with the thread on this one, and the stitching was easy.

The framing ended up being that you start 7 rows down from the top of the fabric before you count to the middle for your first stitch, to give you enough room to fold over the hanger. Then you fold over and stick a piece of masking tape on it when you’re done for the frame. I was wary about the tape; people say that tape can ruin a finish after so many years, but I couldn’t think of anything better to do for the moment so I did it. Haven’t had problems so far. It also wanted me to fray the edges, which I did for once. (I usually dislike fraying the edges even when it wants me to, but I did it for the sake of the effect on this piece.)

Final Verdict: This is one NeedleMagic I would recommend you can stitch as-is! I don’t get the vast quality difference in their mini kits, but I don’t think I have very many of them left to go before I run out. I’ll have to reserve judgement until I do more of their pieces.

Have you done this kit before? How did it go for you? How did you like it, or not like it, as the case may be?  Leave a comment below or head on over to our Facebook page and tell us how it went!

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Friday Finishes is a segment where I catalog and review all the cross-stitch pieces I have ever completed. Some of the pieces I no longer have information on, or I don’t have pictures because I gave away the piece as a gift and forgot to take a picture, but I’ll do my best to be as informative as possible! Check back on Fridays for more.

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