Going dotty

 with the filling in and the single stitches here, there and everywhere.

Although it is very satisfying when a section gets that last stitch.

I consol myself that there is less still to stitch than has already been done.

Wind, wind wind the bobbin

 I was doing a lot of that to get the threads into my new box.

Something I usually find soothing, but then usually I am not doing this many at once.

Or thinking " I could be stitching dragons" , it needed doing, so do it I did.

They look pretty sideways in and thread showing. 

And just in randomly as they were wound.

However, I do prefer them stored in number order and thought I might try them numbers up to see if I like it that way.

It is not the full set of numbers and the gaps in the sections are reflective of that.

Still it will be a good basis for any patterns I chose to use this thread for, repeats of cover kits or cards that much as I might hope otherwise might not be kept. That sort of thing.

I have shared this Forestella link before, the title fits and I am rather fond of this one

Sunday Stitchings 25 Jan 2026

 More white.

I know, hard to see.

BFF SAL 22 has a light stick?

 Last week I finished having unpicked everything and restitched it and with some off screen get back to where I would have been time.

at the mid point of this evening  my BFF said she was taking a picture as hers looked oddly invisible. So I stopped and took a midway picture as well.

 

At this point I had just finished stitching the small section of green. Roni having finished the larger lower section spotted there was more green but oddly small upper and lower larger had different symbols but only one green identified as green in the kit!

So with the reason for that discovered I proceeded to the large green before I forgot and followed suit. Then the sections the pattern calls grey but the thread looks more like an oily green.

The eyes are in the same odd shade and at this point I realise I have made an ohps with the nose.  I am not fixing it I am going to work around it.

As for the purple and green item, at the moment, without its backstitching the thing it most looks like to me is a K-Pop / Korean Group style light stick. The purple makes me think of BTS whilst the green of the most delightful Forestella and they are both expecting to release new albums this year.

If you have visited with me before (or looked at the labels list) you know which I will most likely be buying.

CLICK HERE to see my BFF's progress and play spot the difference.

The dragons and a thought about approx.

 which is of course short for approximately meaning in English not completely accurate but close.

But first the dragons update

it is getting to that oddly slow stage. There are less stitches to do than have been done and yet it feels like it is taking forever to fill it in.

Right the reason for the concerns about aprox. I am getting set for that All Our Yesterdays project and unusually for me have the frames I want to use before I have started the stitching. So I need the stitching to be in the right count to fit the frames. Which state they are 4" by 6" (approx.) and 5" by 7" (approx.), Now here is the thought about that word in brackets and the definition of  close.  When looking at 4" I would not consider 3.5" as being close. Indeed the approx. measurement on each frame is a half inch out on each side. It will make a difference.  

A half inch might not sound much, and if the measurement was in feet or miles that half inch maybe would be a slight figure and be classed as close.  but when it is the equivalent of an eighth of the promised measurement, that's not close! And goodness knows I am challenged quite sufficiently  by my own measuring deficiencies without outside assistance. 

I am just glad I checked and did not believe the big numbers without wondering what impact the little word in () would have. I would have ended up with completed pieces that did not fit in the intended frames and have to buy more and hope they were telling the truth!

Sunday Stitchings 18.1.2026

 All went smoothly with the zoom link to the Church meeting.

I filled in a little bit of red, spotted one stitch of white needed in the left kittens whisker and then well I had white loaded into my needle!

hmm perhaps a close up.

Lots of jumping off places for other colours. However, also still sections of reachable white so options for next time.

New Forestella song to enjoy. 

Gifted Gorgeousness January 2026

I am not sure at this stage if the originator of this particular themed link up will be hosting it this year. Due to circumstances certain hops and linkups had to be paused last year.

I did note however that more than one blogger  still posted on the 15th of the month any items either gifted to them or intended as gifts even without the link being available.

I expect we all received something craft or stitching related last month so January might produce a few posts in the blog world on this theme.

For me, a gift from my father, one he spotted and chose himself for me. 

I am fond of a box

This is a very nice box. And what will I put in it? Well I will put in it those numbered threads I was previously gifted inside a very nice cardboard box. I made a few cardboard bobbins, but that was irksome so I bought 100, that should do the trick .

And the drawer at the bottom, variegated threads may well find a home there.

I have plans for the top but after the dragons and the All our Yesterdays projects I think.

Click here to pop over to jocondine for her GG2026

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BFF SAL 22

 and another cover kit, we looked at the pattern before we settled on this one. It met out current criteria for a SAl.

Not too big, not to much dotting about and not too much backstitch, even if it isn't just outlining backstitch.

Added to all that we had previously considered a Toffee Cow (they will always be that to me because of the Highland Toffee from my childhood with a picture of this breed of bovine on the wrapper) of much greater complexity.

I had already sorted the thread for this so I did a bit of bobbinating, well one skeins worth whilst  Roni sorted hers then we made a start.

Just not my night for it, I made a single stitch mistake on the bit in the middle. I was going to leave it and just work around it. Then I realised I had my thread card turned around and ended up using the wrong brown. So out it had to come, back to the point I went wrong.

and then start stitching again. To finish the night here.

As per our ohps agreement I can have the time that did not equal productive stitching back off camera.

So about 1:20. .

CLICK HERE to see my BFF's much smoother start.

Joining up

 well sort of, worked up from the tail and met up with the working down from the head and it joined in the right place.

Still some dotty filling in to do on the tail and the wing struts. This is confetti filling in and so will be quite slow.

 

wondering about the backstitch now, not sure if the one strand of  normal DMC will be too thick and I think there is maybe a bit much to do with my usual alternative. Plus the availability of the darker strands is reducing and even if I do find sufficient not sure dark brown will be dark enough.

Emerging from the cuboard

 the second of two booklets with threads I bought longer ago than my brain is willing to acknowledge.

The first was a booklet of Country Companions Designs and I discovered quite quickly that not all of the shades of threads in the keys for the patterns were in the kit.  I reiterate I had no expectations that the thread that came with it would be sufficient to stitch all of the designs in the booklet. I had however thought that there would be at least a length of each shade needed.

As noted that was not the case so I approach this one with greatly lowered expectations and the assumption I will need to dip into the thread stash.

Here is a picture of the booklet, which as you can see is All Our Yesterdays.

And the thread bundles, and there is quite a lot of thread there just a question mark over what might not be there when I need it.

It is making an appearance as I have something specific to stitch for. But the specific something will be a gift so it won't get any updates at all till it is all finished and gifted. I don't think the intended recipient is a visitor to the blog but just to be on the safe side.