Purple Embroidery Flower Wreath

I finished another embroidery project.  This one is a Purple Floral Wreath, pattern by Momentoell.  I was showing my mom some of the embroidery patterns that I recently purchased and she really liked this one so I said I would make it for her for Christmas.  I used a soft green Essex Linen and a Beechwood hoop to display it in. 

I discovered a few new tips online for working on embroidery.  The first one was to mark your design on your linen with a Frixon pen. I don't usually like to use Frixon for quilting as the lines never truly disappear but for this purpose it worked well. Once I had finished the stitching I used a hairdryer on the piece and the Frixon lines disappeared.. No need to wash or iron the piece.  I don't like ironing my work as it can cause the threads to compact so this was the perfect compromise. 

Then a friend sent me a link to a great trick for stretching your linen into the hoop.  It showed how to use Double Sided tape just along the inside edge of the frame and then gently pull the linen around and secure. I have tried this with glue but it was quite messy.  I usually just make a running stitch around the extra fabric and pulled it tight but you can see the extra fabric pushing from the back into the front giving it a bumpy look.  So trimming back all the extra fabric and using double sided tape was a great fix for that and the front is very smooth.  I then add a piece of cardstock to the back to make it look neat.