Cross stitch related - finishes + craft related : light board

My last week of any year is devoted to a serie of things, like cleaning my home, cleaning my address book, etc... My way to try to survive to this very sad memories I have. 

One of the things on my list is to select 10 to 20 projects that are unfinished and try to find a way to make a progress (whatever it is) on those.

This year I chose 24... yep... I need to make some real progress on this whole mess of stitched charts

this is the first I decided to work on, it was stitched, but missed the wheels, and connecting thread (my idea, the designs were ment to be done one by one, but I chose to do them all in a row). So, I placed buttons for the wheels, the twine... and now I'm wondering what I can do to finish it. No idea at all... :-(

I also selected those old stand-ups. In fact, as I maybe previously said, I'm VERY disappointed by the attitude of this designer. Now I no more want to stitch a thing from her. But I have many of her designs stitched and want to finish those. I just refuse to see all this work lost. But for the other charts, ALL are to be sold or given away, including a couple of stitched pieces... For the stand-ups, the last one were better finished, I had more experience, but for the oldest ones it's not really pretty. They started to wrinkle, they are really in a poor shape. Big job to unmount and rebuild... argh

I also selected this round robin - for those who don't know what it is, you take several stitchers, each of them take a fabric, choose a theme, and start stitching on it, then pass it to the next. After the fabric went to all stitchers, it goes back to the owner, with a part stitched by all the participants. Most of the time there is someone dishonest (several sometimes too) who is keeping one or several projects, and people never see them back. And for all those who play the game, many stitchers just stitch a ugly little thing, so round robins end looking like trash. But for this one I got some very nice stitchers, and only 2 who didn't play the game. I managed to get back my fabric after doing a very long trip to tell eye in eye my feelings to the girl. LOL. Then, another participant to whom I got the fabric from the same cheater offered to thank me by stitching another portion, and I did the last one.

I first had plan a very nice frame for it

but sadly the size stated was not respected and it's no more fitting. Now I wonder how I can frame this huge thing. No frame in local shops can match. Asking for one made just for it is way too pricey (something like 150€ LOL, never never never)...

Let's see if I can find a solution... I have a big broken Ikea white one, maybe I can find a way with it...

Now on the next one, I have the same problem I always face : designs being american, they use "standard frames" that are not matching the "standard french" ones... ARGH. No regular frame is matching a project. So I usually have to find a weird old frame, or make some funny/silly adjustments... For this one, I had a nice old frame, totally rotten LOL. I painted it, and was quite happy with the result (a kind of brown with a metallic shade in it). But then it was too large.

That's why I used this old good trick : attaching it to a larger cardboard, covered with fabric and tada...
But for this, I always wanted to have a light board, it's really useful to help you center the stitching on the cardboard. I first wanted to get a nice one. Very professional they said. Sure... looking at the price I chuckled. Then there was a cheap one at Action, but of course not in those of my area (!) grrrr.... they NEVER have the interesting things. For once, it was a good thing because people later complained they are not strong enough for the lightening, and people saw basically nothing. That's how I got the clever idea of the year : using 2 small LED lights by Action, they no more sell those, they replaced them by longer ones, but those small ones were perfect. I found 2. I simply place them under a piece of recycled plexiglass and that's it. For less than 6€ I have the perfect light board, and it's not mounted, so I can even use the lights when I need them, or the plexiglass, when a real light board would have take space and have no other use. LOVE it !

I even tried with 3 lights, but it was really too much LOL

So, I remember someone asked me how I lace the back of the stitched piece over a cardboard base, here is a picture. I use a very strong thread, that is almost like the one used in the kitchen to attach pieces of meat. I had the chance to find maybe 10 years ago a big spool of this thread on a flea market, for nothing or so, I'm so glad I got it !

then I use fabric that I glue (yes !) on a recycled cardboard (calendar), with PVA/vinyl white glue. I use few of it, spreading it with a paintbrush until it's almost dried, and then apply the fabric with my hands, pushing gently (not firmly) all directions to flatten it perfectly. Then I glue it to the back and it's done

the back is doubled with a clean cardboard, and I use a kraft that is like a stamp, that you simply water a little bit

I also usually use not only stitching threads to make a cord to finish projects. I can use whatever I find, like this garden twine, and twist it with a pencil

here are a couple of instructions if someone need those

Simple one, with a pencil
click here

and if you have a bunch to do, I suggest using a drill

click here

So, then, it was time to gather all the parts and

Voilà !

23 other projects to come...
argh
LOL