Monday 18 March 2024

Now that's a BIG surprise

I was in a charity shop looking around and I saw  two plastic wallets with ship patterns, one is the Heritage pattern you can see here and the other was a page from a magazine. They had both obviously been kitted up by the former owner, with skeins of thread. The patterns are A4 size.

They were worth the price being asked just for the threads even if I never stitch the ships and I was in a mood to spend some money in the charity shop.

Underneath was a little packet with  orange Aida in it for £1.25. I did not bother opening it, I thought it was going to be some random bits and I do like random bits as you may know.

However, when I opened it, well you can see how BIG that piece is! And although it does not show particularly well here it is a light olive green and then changes to the orange. The edge notes the piece as being African Sunset. I wonder if it was created for a particular pattern. Does anyone know?


Well if it is or not I have something to look at and consider. Hey its so big. The BIGGEST piece I have ever had!

Sunday 17 March 2024

Sunday stitching and a half

 perhaps that should be a half and a Sunday Stitching. I only did a little bit last week because I had a talk to give on Mothers Day (although not on that theme) so I did not get around to taking a picture or posting about it.

Although as I am still working on the half stitch it feels like this upper section is going quite quickly.


And how the finished piece might look is becoming clearer. As you can see I was working in a much paler shade today.

Saturday 16 March 2024

Gifted Gorgeousness link up March 2024

 as hosted by serendipitousstitching where we basically share anything gifted to us or that we are working on (or have completed) that is intended to be a gift.

Earlier this month a friend retired from work and then began "a sort out" she contacted me as she was divesting herself of some sewing items. Four full kits (three cross stitch and one tapestry) via Facebook Market place but would I be interested at a mates rates price?

Oh most tempting, but tapestry is a no for me, and of the three kits, well one had the potential of getting done whilst the other two were very nice but more resistible.

So I replied would she split them and said which one I was interested in, she came back with a yes and a most reasonable price and offered to drop it off. I countered with a lets meet for a beverage of our choice with maybe a cake!

So that is what we did, although without the cake a she had a dinner out planned for that evening and that was all to the good for me as I am on a diet for my health. 

There has been a Starbucks in my town for quite a while now but this was my first visit (well I don't drink tea or coffee and neither do a lot of my friends) and added on to that it has been awhile since I was out like this the prices surprised me almost as much as them not taking "real" money.

There was chatting and laughing at shared stories as we caught up, and then out came the kit and I reached for my purse only for my friend to say she had changed her mind and decided to gift me the kit I wanted and one of the other cross stitch kits as well. So I guess I am finally forgiven for winning the chocolate truffle category at the craft fair or the decorated egg competition at work.

So here they are my gifted kits. In reverse order.


Two of the kits were cat pictures and of the two this one with the little quilt was my favourite (the title of my blog will give you a hint why) so she chose the right one of the two.

Plus I do like cats, and my brother loves cats so this will be a good stitch to do.

Perhaps it will be my next big Sunday Stitchings, I have been doing mostly smaller things for that recently, it might be time to go big again.



And then this one was the one I very much liked and by the same designer as the BFF SAL 14. This is a 22" by 9" piece. 

It took me two hours to card the thread from the bundles.

It is going to be a big project and I am sort of waiting to make a proper start until I have at least finished the planets on Millennium. Well that is the plan.

It falls well with my fondness for Chinese historical dramas.

I will note however as mentioned as a chat subject in BFF SAL posts as the result of cookies or AI algorithms I have discovered a Korean Quartet who's music is delighting me no end.

Both with the arrangements/ interpretations of old favourites, covers of songs that were OK in the original format but amazing with this group to songs in multiple languages that are new to me. You Tube has never been so visited by me. So I bought a CD.

As a gift from me to me. So I can have their music for sewing to. I did my ironing to videos and other than ironing for the quilting its the most fun ironing has ever been.   


So fair warning, I may get a tad carried away and add links to you tube for my new obsession as I explore my newly discovered fan girl persona, and embrace being a Soopbyeol (mind I do wish it was something a bit easier to remember how to spell like that other group's Army). Of course those same cookies and AI s are now presenting me with other artists of the same nation and they are not half bad. The Rose are on in London this month, too late for me to arrange anything but there are still tickets if interested.

Now at the moment I am obsessed enough that the thought of doing a Forestella cross stitch is appealing (ETSY has no patterns yet, yes I looked, they have ones for that other little group...BTS , it has taken me ages to recall those letters in the right order and not mix them up with a sandwich ) Mind it would certainly not be of this album cover, too much white!

And on that note I will leave you with a link to one of those familial and loved pieces that I now prefer this version of and something my friends and family might wish for from me on the subject of this group.

열린음악회 - 포레스텔라 - The Sound Of Silence.20190106 (youtube.com)

If you got this far don't forget to pop over to serendipitous stitching to see who else and what else is in this months link up


Oh and as always comments are appreciated from real people or robots or AI's

  chinguga doeja

 친구가 되자

I would say try not to laugh but I am giving myself the giggles as I try to learn Korean. It has such a nice sound and the letters look so pretty!


Thursday 14 March 2024

BFF SAL 14 A Bit of Dirty Harry?

 Once I finished the backstitch on the main part of the design it was time to chose the colour for the black work.

I had my eye on a skein of random thread in a bag of mixed threads I bought at the charity shop. The  shade I was particularly drawn to was not however a full skein. Not a named brand, so as my BFF pointed out using it was taking a bit of a risk.

So "do I feel lucky" well in this instance yes I do and yes I also have a plan if it does run out. 


I like how it is looking so far, and I was getting into a nice rhythm as our evening came to an end.

I think the fact that we have our next project planned but it is not one we are eager to do, its just going to be a nice little time filler whilst we look for the next big BFF means we are both happy with however long this takes.

So far we have four disenable differences, material count, and colour. the lightest shade of the petals and now the colour of the blackwork.

We may also approach blackwork a little differently, that remains undecided and is also part of the plan should I have underestimated the thread available.

To see the progress on my BFF's version of this case Click Here to go to her blog.

Oh and I remain delighted with the music of Forestella so perhaps I will see what is classes as traditional Korean embroidery just out of interest.

Friday 8 March 2024

BFF SAL 14 still backstitching

 and discovering ninjas.

I normally fill them in as I find them but I left my thread bag in the other room and just had the back cone with me.

So you can probably spot the missing stitches, I will fill them in later.

I am still contemplating what colour to do the blackwork in (that always sounds funny) and I will have some time next week to still be thinking about it whilst I finish off the backstitch.


As is our want more often than not my BFF and I have diverged on our approach, to see where her whim of the day led her CLICK HERE to visit her blog and update.

Monday 4 March 2024

A little kit

 I bought at a charity shop. Usually when I get little kits this way they are the unwanted cover kit from a cross stitching magazine.

I picked this one up because 1) it was there, 2) I could see it came with a little bell and well that might come in handy  3) I like to buy at least one something when I visit a charity shop and 4) it was 50p

You will note missing from that set of reasons was me actually liking it or or having much thought about getting round to stitching it anytime soon.

Indeed by the time I had bought it and come out of the shop, other than it having a bell I would have been hard pressed to tell you what it was a pattern of!

My Dad asked me what I had and I fished it out to show him and as I did it dawned on me there was a heart on it. Oh! I had been looking for something to sew for the Secret Stitching Sweetheart blog hop on Valentines Day, which was not that far off. Unlike last year when I was well ahead on my themed blog hop stitching this year its going to be a bit tighter to the wire.

But this was (as is the host for the hop) very serendipitous.

When I opened the packed it was to discover the kit contained sufficient materials for three repeats of the pattern ,including bells and little brass safety pins.

I expect that is is a Christmas design at heart (LOL) given the top image is a bauble. However to reflect the time of the year I was stitching on I changed that to a gold metallic heart.


And as I had some metallic thread pulled anyway  the red heart received backstitch of gold. It makes up as a badge to be worn. That's what the little safety pins are for. 

I was a bad girl and did not read the instructions properly and I started stitching in the middle of the fabric out of habit. That is not what the instructions called for which meant I could not follow then for the finishing and had to do it my own way. OK that's a bit of a habit of mine anyway so not a major irritant, and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

I've not made the other two yet. I am not sure if they will be variations on the double heart or if one might get the bauble.

I have tried Googling the design company, they have a lot of very nice things. I wonder if this little kit came over to England as a holiday purchase some time in the past. I also wonder if the finished badge is traditional to the country or origin, does anyone know? The kit says it was printed in Denmark.


Sunday 3 March 2024

Sunday Stitchings

 more half stitches, and I was finding it much quicker going this time.


It certainly fills up the white space a lot faster than a full cross.

That being said still quite a was to go as of yet.



Wednesday 28 February 2024

BFF SAL no where near

 finished yet.

Its that moment when you get all of the cross stitching done, the split second between the satisfaction of that and the dawning of the knowledge there is still the backstitching to do. Yes the back stitching , I was feeling indecisive about the colour of the blackwork, to backstitch first.

And you make a start, thinking well it is just around the edges of things.......well perhaps not.


It took a little while to get into a rhythm with the backstitch, although I tend to use the Holbein method as much as possible. 

It takes a bit less thread and I find it more interesting to stitch that way.

I was just getting properly into it when it was time to stop.

Which it typical.

I did find a couple of ninja stitches as I went, sometimes it feels like the real purpose of backstitch is to find all the missing stitches and mistakes.

Pop over to my BFF's  blog Click HERE blog to see how her version is progressing.



Sunday 25 February 2024

Conference stitching

 not general conference, stake conference however we were still watching it streamed via the internet so it felt like time to get out Millennium once more as see if I could progress either the Earth or the comet?

To be honest although I managed a couple of dark blue edge stitches  on the comment and quite a few on the Earth it is very hard to tell what progress has been made.


Hunting ninjas on the over one, and the lighter shades is being somewhat challenging. especially as the other projects that I am working on at the moment are smaller counts so of course bigger stitches. This over one feels incredible small..

At times it does feel like the title of the design refers to how long it is going to take me to get it completed rather than a reference to the design.

Thursday 22 February 2024

BFF SAL 14 nearly almost

 but not quite there.

More filling in on the vase tonight, but not all done yet. It will be next week then it is onto the wide border which is blackwork in style. It is not however on the pattern black, but a beige / gold shade.


I am not sure if I will go with that in this instance or not. Next week will tell. You can pop on over to my BFF blog by clicking here she was working on the flowers and filling in sections. When she said she had missed a full section of the white? Section of white I asked? There are only three stitches of white in the flower!

This prompted her discovery as noted in her blog. And I like it, it looks good and I am a little sorry I did not make the same ohps, but then we are working on different fabric so it might not have worked out quite as well on mine as it has on her pink.