Have you ever noticed, how it's mainly older people that say that time flies? I definitely don't remember saying it when I was younger, so I guess I'm getting older, as I really think that time flies! In a blink of an eye, this HAED competition will be starting in a couple of days time.

I've hardly done any preparation for myself, the cloth I ordered on eBay arrived a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't touch it until yesterday. Eel has been bugging me to update our blog, so I decided that it was time for me to prep my cloth.

I took it out of the packaging (I decided to go with a 22ct Hardanger), and it was really creased all over. I've learned that just ironing it isn't good enough to remove the creases, so I dampened the creases with water, and that did the trick. It was pretty difficult ironing it, my ironing table isn't that big, so every time I ironed the top, the middle would get creases from the edge of the table! It still isn't perfect, but I figure that it will get crease-y when I stitch anyway, so as long as I remove the major creases, it should be OK.

The cloth is really huge, much bigger than anything I've ever done before. I put it on my legs, and Terence remarked that it could be a blanket! Here's a pic to show you how large it is, I've added a thread to the picture, so that you get a better perspective of the size.


I also gridded the first row and column of the design using a water soluble pen. Normally, I don't grid (in fact, I've never gridded before!), but seeing how this design is 400 x 537, I thought that I should grid it. It will make less opportunities for mistakes, and I always seem to be quite mistake-prone. Reading the HAED forums gave me a few ideas about gridding, some do it with normal sewing thread, but I think that would take way too long, and I always look for a short cut. Some use fishing line (?!?), but the comment I found the most useful was water soluble pen! I already have one, so I decided to go with that instead.


I've gridded it in blocks of 10x10, I think it'll take me quite awhile to finish the first row, which is all I've done so far. I also gridded the first column, to make sure that the cloth I have is big enough. So, I'm more or less all set, and ready for the 1st of May. Bring on the competition!