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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

I am frustrated. My County Fair will not allow me to enter my Peacock finish because it is not on Linen or Aida. I stitched it on Jobelan Evenweave. Has anybody heard of this before? I researched 15 or so state fairs and only one (Deleware) has rules that would exclude non-linen evenweaves. It seems to me that almost all my projects would be excluded. I might do a sampler in linen or maybe something designed to look classic or old. It seems like these folks are behind the times. Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to dump on linen but the unevenness is something that I would never use on an HAED or most the projects I do.

I want to take another unscientific poll. Please reply with the type of fabric used on your last 10 projects.

13 comments:

Rahenna said...

Hmm, my last ten finishes were:

1. linen
2. evenweave
3. linen
4. evenweave
5. linen
6. aida
7. linen
8. linen
9. evenweave
10. evenweave

That's kind of skewed in favor of evenweave, though... several of those are small ornaments stitched on leftover scraps of whatever I had handy. My usual choice is linen simply because most of my evenweave is 28 count and I prefer 32.

I DO like linen, but I'm VERY picky about what I'll use. I HATE the very thin, see-through stuff that's uneven and stiff. Zweigart seems to be my go-to brand for linen since it's nice, easy to get, and not terribly expensive.

Keebles said...

1. Monaco
2. Lugana
3-10. Aida

This is my first foray outside of Aida and it's been a learning experience!!

Daffycat said...

I favor Lugana, Jobelan...sometimes Monaco and linen is in a distant fourth place.

These people are crazy. I'm sure the rules are MEANT to exclude the stamped-type stitchery. Regular (blended fabrics) evenweave is NO DIFFERENT than linen except the product used to make it.

I imagine if you said it was on linen they would not be able to tell the difference.

Caitlin @ Naughts Cross Stitches said...

that is really wierd! I just bought some linen to try and I don't like how uneven the threads are I prefer evenweave it makes a neat finish. Have you asked them why and where it is written in the rules?

I mainly use Aida or Luguna.

Virpi said...

My ten last projects were done on linen 6, evenweave 2 and aida 2. I think that kind of rules aren't fair.

dulcinella said...

It's kind of weird. The choice of my fabric is highly consistent with the type of design. I wouldn't dream of doing a HAED on linen. You won't see much of the fabric when it is finished, you make it much harder on yourself and it is very expensive. On the other side, I love to work on linen and will almost always use it for designs that leave a lot of fabric open. I also like to work on it much more than on Jobelan ( although that too depends on the brand of linen). I'm sorry for you that you can't enter the competition, but it is their loss...

Minnie said...

To second dulcinella it is their loss,I am still a big Aida fan mostly 14 -18 ct. My last ten finishes were 6 Aida and 4 linen. However I have five wips on evenweave and 3 more on Aida. It all depends on the design as to what works best.

SoCal Debbie said...

My last ten finishes were 2 evenweave and 8 Aida. I would rather stitch over 2 on 28 ct evenweave rather than 14 ct Aida if there are lots of quarter-stiches.

Your peacock is so gorgeous, it's a shame that everyone going to the fair won't be able to see it.

Joysze said...

How weird... and yes frustrating!!!

My last 10 finishes... hmm... mostly linen cos they were PTP hand-dyes, but a couple of the Chatelaines were on evenweaves... and on yes... 1 animal baby on aida.

Ewa said...

let me think...

Monaco
Aida
Aida
Lugana
Evenweave
Belfast linen
Hardanger
Evenweave
Evenweave
Evenweave

I'm an Evenweave junkie. My Chatelaine is on Belfast linen which I'm not loving but not hating, either - I have found some unevenness in it and some "patches" I guess you could call it. Not a huge fan of the Lugana though the Hardanger has been ok. Evenweave is my favorite, though.

Sorry to hear about the fair. That's very disappointing!

Lija Broka said...

14 count aida for all (excluding I think one that was 16 count, and I do have one current on an 18 count aida to make me little less embarrassed). Can you raise it as a concern and demand the reasoning for this silly rule?

Chris McGuire said...

Thank you everyone for your feedback. It turns our that the coordinator at the fair was very helpful. She asked that I send some suggestions for divisions for next year. I suggested making the linen division allow evenweaves also and I suggested adding a sampler category. I did not think it was fair to have contempory pieces going up against samplers. Samplers are an art in their own right and should be judged head-to-head in my opinion.

Thoughts?

Anna van Schurman said...

Most of my projects have been on linen. (9-1)

Linen is a type of evenweave fabric. Although most of your commenters don't like the "unevenness" of linen, that's not what the "even" in evenweave refers to. Evenweave means there are the same number of warp and weft threads in a fabric; that is, it is square when you stitch on it. (Linen used for clothing has different warp and weft than that for stitching. And if you ever stitched on clothing linen, you'll get elongated exes.) Linen is differentiated from other evenweave fabrics in that it is always natural fiber. And the slubs, but that's what you get in nature.