Gifted gorgeousness December 2020

So on the 15th of each month (or thereabouts for some of us that are a bit forgetful Jo over at serendipitous stitching hosts a day for sharing gifts either those received or those being made with a crafting or sewing theme or connection.

This is the second month in a row I have managed to post.

There are two gift starts to share here, both have been finished but not as yet reached their intended recipients so I won't be sharing the finished items till they have.

And like last months these starts are not particularly representative of how the finished items look.

and

I think the second one is easier to see than the first, but then I know what they look like when they are finished. (this link will now take you to the finished item for the second one CLICK HERE FOR LINK)

Please pop over to Jo (link at the top) to see the other participants (and Jo's) gifts.

2020 on line Advent Calendar

Whilst it may feel like it was March just last week here we are in December and counting down the days to Christmas with Jo over at serendipitousstitching  this Advent has become part of my Christmas and I hope it will become part of yours.

Jo asks that we share a Christmas stitch and answer a Christmas themed question which she sets.

So first, my Christmas themed stitch (which will link to my answer, just a little bit)

The two Robins by Margaret Sherry  from issue 301 The World of Cross Stitch, but with my colour choices as when designs are as small as this, with a few colours I like to dip into my box of random threads and bits and bobs.

Now to the question. "Tell us what your favourite book at this time of year is" Those of you who have followed the Advent in years gone past and seen my choices for favourite Christmas music or my choice for favourite Christmas  film might have tried a guess as to my answer.

But no its not that one, my answer is literally (pun intended) a particular book, this particular book.

The Children's Treasure book (Winter) from 1947.

This is a book of memories for my family, it was a Christmas gift to my mother from her father in 1947.

The stories were a mixture from famous authors we still recognise today and some less well known, they delighted her and she held onto the book and then they delighted first my brother then me.

One of the stories I liked best to hear and then to read was titled Robin, about the poor Robin that lost Father Christmas's note book and the little boy that found and returned it (thank goodness).

I have added that ring around the relevant entry in the contents digitally,  its not on the actual book.

As you can see having thought about the book it had to come out and be looked at and talked about, with my mother remembering her Christmases as a child. With my best friend ,who recalled a rather grim poem from later book in the same series which had belonged to her mother, and  we laughed at both her recollections and then the fact we still have that book and I could read her the poem over Skype and refresh her memories. 

Since I pulled the book out from its place on the shelf, in a little bit of role reversal I am reading the stories to my mother.  The book is a bit heavy for her to hold these days.

So Jo thanks for the question it brought back at least three sets of Christmas childhood memories, and that's a gift right there.

Now if you came here from Jo's blog that's great and you know what to do tomorrow.  If you are a new visitor and would like to keep following the advent just click on the link at the top of this post it will take you to Jo and all the doors to all the days of the advent.

If you would like to say something about your favourite book at Christmas in the comments that would be nice too.  Wishing you all a Christmas with wonderful recollections and the chance to make beautiful new ones to add to your store.

The no stitch stich along

well no stitching on the joint project that is.  My BFF needed some extra time on a to be gifted project so we paused the bluebell woods.

I had intended to start a similarly themed project also intended as a gift but my head was not in starting from scratch.

So I worked on something that has had little teaser updates here and there in other posts.

Still just a little look at last nights addition.

Things went quite quickly with the project when I first started then things slowed as the world changed and as the light in the dinning room got gradually dimmer. Which I did not fully realise till the dark night were well in.

I really enjoyed working on this last night it has been awhile since I was doing something other than cross stitch or quilting when working with thread.

Here is The Link over to my BFF's blog.

The time paradox

 the closer the finish of a pattern the slower the stitching begins to feel.

You have the same amount of time doing the sewing as normal, in this case to hours, give or take the chatting that happens.

And indeed many a stitch goes in, you hold it up and keep seeing not what has been done, as in earlier stages, but now it becomes more a thought of  look how much is left to go.

I know I do it, I know it is all in my head but that is how it feels.

So a tiny bit of big tree, I will get them done eventually.

It was two different variegated threads from those used previously.

Link to BFF's update

November Gifted Gorgeousness link up

 So on the 15th of each month Jo has instigated a sharing of pictures of gifts, either given or to be gifted.

I don't often manage to link up, I tend to be a bit forgetful.

Anyway this month I have recalled and this item falls into both categories.

I was given it some time ago and it resurfaced today when I was searching for a pattern for a birth sampler.

Not what I was looking for nether the less now felt like the time to make a start. It should be interesting as the kit has become separated from the pattern and I am working it out from the picture.

Now as it is intended for a gift this will be the only share of it until it is finished and gifted.

At the moment it most closely resembles the "no more Mr Nice Baby" from a certain washing up liquid's advert. 

update on the above Click Here

so if you did not visit me from Jo's blog then pop on over to see her and all her delightfully gifty stitches and links to the other participants.

click here for the link

A small session

 on the tall trees.

So we missed last week, that one was on me, there was a birthday for my mother with an 0 on the end, that came after some health issues earlier in the week.

This week whilst we did manage to get together is was for a much shorter period of time than normal , my BFF's turn to need the adjustment after a very busy day with a lot of zooming in one way or another. She may tell you more or she may not.

So here is the progress.

Here is the link to my friends blog the link

The ninth cat

that is the title of my brothers most recent album of music.  Now that is not a mainstream thing, no big record label and if you were to hear ir on the radio we would all be well beyond shocked.

He does the recording and the vast majority of the music himself, and the vocals and the writing. He even does video which he has his wife and passing friends participate in as they can.

So I find out about his most recent album, as titled above from face book which has a close up of the new cover, I click on the link and see a bit more of it before I realised it was familiar for a reason.

He has used a close up of the cat I stitched for him and his wife.

So the original   Rainbow Cat

Which they christened the psychedelic cat 

And the cover 

and the link to his music, for which I get no commission and which I take no responsibility at all, his musical influences are eclectic and so is his music..mind this is maybe a bit 60's and why they picked the psychedelic cat.

LINK for music  which has a free track preview option should you be curious keeping in mind what curiosity did to the cat! LOL.

Trick or Treat ? Halloween blog hop 2020

 here we are in this most strange of years doing familiar things which give us a certain comfort.

In  this instance the Halloween hop as arranged by Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching. Click here for link. Now if you have not arrived here having hopped your way from Jo's blog you might like to go there to get the starting point for the blog and your letter collecting.

This year I completed a small stich from a free pattern which oddly enough was gridded fifteen by fifteen stitches not the normal ten by ten! Which I did not notice till I started, it was quite odd.

I also changed the spiders silk which on the original was in full stitches to the single strand, and a bit of a change to its legs for the same reason.

I stitched it on white, but played around with the filter option on the edit to give it a little bit more spook for the occasion.

Now had I not already sewn it ready I might have tried to complete Durene Jones free Halloween Sal when it came out. You may recall I used one of her designs for last years hop.  Maybe another year I will give that a go. This year it would have been a little too much for me to have felt confident I would get it finished in time unless I worked my fingers..

to the bone, as the saying goes. The above is a little peek at an ongoing project of mine.

Here is my letter and punctuation mark (note that latter is important) punctuation is always important.

 

I hope you can see the letter and punctuation mark this tiny backstitch black cat and its ball of wool represent ...but just in case (as it was quite typically one of the less clear letters in the cat alphabet) here it is again in a more legible if less fun format E,

Now you have your letter head off to the next stop in the hop theflashingscissors to collect further parts of the target word or maybe it is a phrase this year and enter it at Jo's blog.

Good luck....

An impulse purchase

 I bought this spool of fine cord from a charity shop.

the picture shows a normal sized spool for comparison

I had no idea what I was going to do with it, there was a brown "rust" stain on the bottom which was perhaps why it was priced at 50p.

I thought why not, even if I just have it to hand when I want a bit of string it will be worth it and when the brown bits arrive, well that's string for the garden.

It has however found another purpose in a long term project, and for that alone it was worth the price.

There are times I have seen things in charity shops and think I should not get something unless I have a planned project to use them on like the The Hat rather than just adding to the stash.

Quite often I regret those strange  decisions and the items left behind.

In this instance I am pleased it came home with me.

I am not quite ready to post the project that it is forming part of...that's for the future.

The joys of nature

 lie in their infinite variation, well that's what I say every time I find I have made a small mistake in the bark of a tree or the foliage or the grass on this pattern.

Well its nature, no one is going to notice, not even me after a bit of time has passed.

So what was tonight's progress?

Well my friend and I worked separately on whatever took out fancy at first and I did

A bit more tree, these big trees take time to grow you know.

A bit of path, in the same shade as the tree.

Some big Bluebell leaves.

Some small of the very small bluebells in the light shade and then  as the spaces under the medium trees was getting on my nerves we turned to one of the variegated threads. Previously we had used this as one strand, this time it was two.

I managed to finish all of that colour before the night was done.

It has not added to the overall look of the image at this point.  Indeed the large Bluebells have lost some of their impact.  I trust that the backstitching will bring it back.

Mind I was impressed to have managed what I did due to a level of hilarity disrupting our normal stitching calm prompted by a little technological experiment. 

As the tech girl, the coding ninja I am leaving it to my BFF to give you details.

LINK to BFF's Post

 

Too tired

 to think of anything to say this week so here is the progress picture

imagine it painting those thousand words.....

oh and here is The Link my BFF may be feeling a bit more with it!

Unlike a Siberian Tiger

I am not embracing trees.

I did start out doing some tree trunk, going on up into the sky but stopped to finish my apple trees (well that's what they have become in my version) and had good intentions of going back to those big trees.

Perhaps if I had a length of the brown cut I might have managed it. However there was no brown cut and I just did not want to be working on those trees.

Or grass

or green (there is some variegated to go bottom left of the same shade as the trees top left  but noooo)

I wanted something different

I wanted blue....

BIG bluebells, that what my heart yearned for now.

so that's what I did

the BIG bluebells are made up of three shades of blue. I have completed the two darker shades, just some light bits and the flowers will be finished.

Then mostly it will be back to the greens and browns (oh and the variegated).

Now my post today skirts a song lyric or two (not sure if you have spotted them, it is tenuous ) but to find out about the one song that the pale grass brings to mind week in and out pop on over to my BFF's blog and see her progress by clicking on THE LINK

Unintentional apples

 or manzanas as my attempts to learn Spanish would have me say.

I started with the big bluebell leaves, moved back to big tree trunks then together my friend and I ventured into the medium tree tops once again with the variegated.

I was feeling a bit dotty so that's what I was doing dotting the variegated about and well, looking at it I have ended up with apple trees, green apples (we have not got up to colour in my little on line Spanish lessons). 

Initially I was feeling a bit dismayed my handling of the thread was not going to look anything like the stitched example of the design, even if I did not look at it until after the appearance of little green fruit. However, the more I look at it the more I like those unintentional apples, they are growing on me as well as on my medium trees.

My friend and I were both surprised not to get the filling in of the tree tops done, even with a fifteen minute over run of our normal sewing time. We underestimated the amount of space there was to fill.

To see my friends progress and the variegated on her trees pop over to her blog via THE LINK

Six Sunbonnet Sues

 all together going for a snooze.

there are pink blanks already cut (Mrs Jackson again) nine I think so there may be more of these little ladies ahead but I expect it will be some time before that as my attention turns to more seasonal projects as the nights draw in and the time towards Christmas reduces apace. 

Diamond Painting..progress?

 pick, stick, pick, stick, try not to get hair or hand stuck and repeat over and over and...

this is where I am up to, the picture gives me the distance to better see the developing image as close to it remains a bit disappointing.

Once finished it is going to need a large room to be displayed with sufficient distance for suitable viewing.

Oh here is an update..I was not enjoying this, gave it to my BFF and CLICK HERE to see what happened to it next

Conference stitching

 I had high hopes for the completion of Everest and its reflection (I know there isn't one in real life but there is on the pattern) but alas I under estimated the amount still to go or over estimated my stitching speed.

Although this is just two sessions of conference, Saturday and Sunday mornings. The others will be sufficient I am sure, well if I can keep my eye in whilst listening.

Finding the right neutral

Now that might sound odd but a neutral tone is still a tone and you need the right tones to make something work just as you envisage. 

I had intended to take some of my Chorley Material (link to an explanation of Chorley material ) and make postage stamp style panels, then join them up and see what size it reached and go from there to whatever happened.

So strips cut from the fabric squares, sewn together, cut into strips (of squares) and sewn together.

I was tootling along OK then something was just off, with the number of strips and the lengths. Must have cut one of the strips just that bit thinner, making the block from that set shorted. 

A bit muddled about the best way to proceed I paused, with four  sets of large blocks finished a couple of sets of four strips sewn together and several single strips. 

Sometimes when a project decides to assert its individuality and desire to be uniquely different from what I had planned the project and I need a bit of a time out.

With one thing and another that was quite a long pause this time and was only ended due to a combination of things.  A trip to the loft to look for a picture frame in the stash of frames was not in itself successful, but as I was up there anyway a bit of material stash sorting happened, and as oft is the case I came across a bag with bits and thought the weight of a large piece of mostly cream (with a green line leave pattern on it) might go with the Chorley blocks and perhaps work to get me back on track.

Down it came and was spread out on my equivalent of a design wall (top of a double bed) and the blocks and strips laid on top to get a feel for them together. 

It was a no go, it just was not working, I did have what I felt was a nice arrangement for the Chorley bits but not with the loft material.  It needed a plain material in a neutral shade. Alas I did not have that to hand and thought there was going to be another long pause.

However, the very next day I popped into a charity shop (suitably masked of course and hand sanitiser at the door) and spotted a curtain, just the one but it looked to be big enough even disregarding a patterned bit at the top,(click here to see what happened to the patterned top) the right weight of material possibly the right colour (although without a bit of the other fabric with me this was a leap of faith). And bonus it was lined (lining is always good, depending on the quality it can be lining for bags or the base for an embroidery  test material for dye pens oh lots of things. 

I bought it, unpicked it, cut off the patterned bit and back to the design bed.....this was going to work.  I did have to do a bit of unpicking and sewing on the Chorley blocks to get them to size.  With a few little bits left over which are destined for the current bits a quilt

The result of finding the right neutral on this occasion.

Now I could just say get this laid out and with a bit of contortion may even be able to get it sandwiched, but not feeling in a contortionist mood and I have yet to decide on a quilting plan.  Always much easier to put the quilting plan onto the top before sandwiching.  So it will once more wait however, I have at least the material for the backing and binding picked out, going to use a dusty lime green. 

Birth sampler all done

 It took me three attempts to get the stars to work, it was the order of the stitches that was the key to getting the lines to stay put. I have obscured the date on the sampler for the child's privacy.

it sat in the frame just nice and was off to the mother via intermediaries due to the various lockdown arrangements.

She let me know via Facebook Messenger that she was pleased with it, indeed she included it in a montage picture when she updated family and friends on her baby's progress.

In and out the Dusty Bluebells

that is the song that surfaced in my mind this week as my BFF and I were working on our tandem project.

I could not quite catch it, and asked my friend about it and she agreed immediately it was a song that had resonance with her too.  A bit of thought and we moved past it being a nursery rhyme and delved back in the past to connect with our early school days and a circle game from playtime. 

That lead to discussions of the different playtime games we could recall. Whilst we both went to school in the same town, we did not attend the same schools and there are a few years between us so there were differences to the games, the rhymes and how they were played.

In a world with a lot of stressful things going on this was a nice relaxing conversation.

Now as to my stitching progress you might be thinking I was working on bluebells of one size or another, nope.

I started, as I finished on the big trees, but that was not being fun, so time for a new colour, well a new shade at the least. More green, bluebell leaves, so maybe in and out was the right song indeed.

My BFF whilst also in the green was in a different green pop on over to her blog, here is THE LINK , to see her progress.

Backstitching

 all of the cross stitching finished, then backstitching time. Brings the details on the baby out, sharpens the points of the moon and added the name.

I usually add the date, the time and the weight, but for this one it felt like only the date would fit.  At this point the stars originally planned did not feel like the right fit.

Nor did the various options that I tried after that, my BFF brought me some soft silver thread as an alternative option.  It was not suitable but it did help me reach a decision.  

I had looked in my stash of frames for inspiration and found one that looked OK size wise, but the more I looked at it and at the picture of the nursery provided by the grandmother the less I liked it.

A trip to the shops and I was standing debating between three frames, a silver one (too sparkly) an old fashioned white frame and a simple modern frame. 

I ended up having a chat with a gentleman who was also frame shopping and he helped me decide on the simple one.

So I had the frame, just needed to add stars that fit.

 

More bits from the loft become a bag

 as previously mentioned people offer me random material and I most often say yes.  Oft they then head up to the loft for a bit of a thinking time. (the bits of material not the people!)

As regularly happens a trip to the loft for one thing unearths others and I am apt to get side-tracked. 

I was after some off white material with green leaves on it as I thought it would go with some blocks I had been working on (I did find it and then decided it did not go, sure that project will progress at some point and get a post of its own) and came across two pieces of brown material with a sequined strip on them. The remains of a NEXT skirt in pink with lining.

So, down they came, well brown bits, skirt band and lining material.  Band unpicked from the lining, (oh a handle, maybe with a brown lining), brown bits the outer bag and the pink lining, well pink lining.

So her it is, a fancy bit of a bag. 

I am not sure if I am going to add buttons to the handles where they join the fancy section, or maybe some sequins next time I have them out. 

Blue moon?

nope, not in this instance.  I was going to do the crescent moon in shades of grey to echo the moon wall decal used in the nursery. I was thinking a variegated thread would simplify the process.

However, whilst looking for a grey I came across a purple and that was an even better choice for co-ordinating with the nursery theme. 

I had a couple of false starts deciding where to have the darker shades and I also ended up altering the point to the right of the baby. (Yes I did a little bit of back stitching to get a feel for the face)

I'm reasonably happy with the way the purple moon turned out. 

In the tree tops

 that's where I spent most of my time this session. I started with big blue bell stems, then went back to those middle sized trees for the rest of the single shade leaves. 

Then a bit of large tree trunk till my BFF finished the section she was doing and we could both work on the second variegated thread together. Now this is not the shade indicated in the pattern, I shall let my friend tell you about that in her blog as she discovered both problem and solution. 

It was indeed interesting, this section is in one strand not two, but there is an area in this shade that is in two strands, that will be interesting.

Here is The LINK to my friends post so you can see how her version is progressing.

Sunbonnet Sue five and six

 it has been some months since I last posted about the Sunbonnet Sues I have been making from my Sampler Quilt scraps. sunbonnet-sue-three-and-four.html

I have indeed slowed down on them, they were just boots and skirts but I plan on getting the sewing machine out in the next day or so and may sew another couple of skirt sets at the same time I work on the main reason for getting out the machine (that's for a future gift I hope so will wait  till later to post anything about that).

So rather than have too many boots and skirts awaiting jackets and hats, I have made some progress with these.

Five is finished, six has a bit further to go, bonnet needs completing and the tulip adding.(and of course rinsing to get the pen out)

 

Birth Sampler / announcement the start of stitching

so the gown as as near the middle as anything in the design, the place to start. I had not picked the colours to use before I started, I thought I would see how the white looked and then figure out the shading as I went.

I changed the drape of the gown from the original as I went.

It was not looking particularly impressive at this point but held onto the magic of backstitch would pull that together.

The next step to add the face and hair.

On my design the curves for the head were ok but of course some of the curve was in my drawn line and not in the stitches.

I used two tones for the face to put a little blush to the cheeks, not sure that shows up.  Perhaps it is subtle enough to make a difference without jumping out.

Face and hand completed next step the hair.

I asked the babies grandmother what colour it was, she sent me a picture.

I said a mid hazel and she agreed.  Of course with babies what you see is not always what you get so it remains to be seen if this colour will remain reflective of the child's hair as time goes on.

I did once do a sampler and just used the shade on the pattern I had picked.  I was sewing pre birth of the child and she had the courtesy of being born with exactly that shade of hair.

 Then onto the moon.....

Birth sampler / announcement from scratch

 I have done quite a few birth samplers, usually by combining elements from various pattern books with a tweak her and there to make them more individual.

This time round I has something particular in mind once I had seen a picture of the nursery, I could not find it.  I was sure I had used it before, then I thought about it and it was probably 20 years ago  and I could not find the pattern.

However it was quite stuck in my head, so I decided to try and design what I wanted from scratch. So out came the graph paper.

And the coaster, well it was the nearest circle to where I was sitting when I started and I wanted a curve.

For a moon

As a seat for the baby, in  a robe. (that had some later adjustments)

 Name and my first thoughts for stars (they would not last)

but I had a plan, I had some material thanks to my friend 

Link to the material

The grass is always greener?

This week I started off as I had finished, working some of the large bluebell stems as they are the same green as the leaves in the medium trees.  I though I might then have moved to the large trees but I was just not feeling like that was the way to go.

So off back to the leaves in the tree, my friend and I working on the same area together if not exactly the same, I did not last long, my eyes did not want to get into the leaves.

Ok some tracking down of ninjas in the single strand section, four of them in all, then as one of those just happened to be the same shade as the grass well back to grass it was. 

As my friend and I were chatting about the evenings stop and start and move about and she expressed her dissatisfaction with doing leaves and I suggested she join me on the grass, she's not too taken by the shade of the grass the title of both this blog and hers popped into the conversation.

As you can see, I have a reasonable (ok its tight to those that advocate 3 inches all round for framing but for me its reasonable) margin at the sides.

The bottom, and as I started in the middle I suspect the top is another matter entirely. 

Even I think that a two stich margin is getting far too close.  And by the looks of it that will be one stitch on the right.

A bit of glue on the edge may well be called for but at least the grass down the left has confirmed the position.

Funny but there is something comforting about knowing for sure.

I am still enjoying the water colour effect if the single strand little trees and the soft tones of the design.

Now as for next week, well my friend posted her blog six hours before I have been able to do mine so the additional restrictions she though might be are at this point confirmed as coming into place from midnight tonight and there is very little chance of that changing for at least a few weeks if that.  So sadly no meeting up even for a socially distanced walk (well we had been thinking of a socially distanced walk involving food and perhaps a slight change of scene) ah well we will just have to sew instead.

So pop on over to my friends blog to see what title she took from our chatting and more importantly her progress by clicking on THE LINK

Conference Stitching, been awhile

 since I worked on this particular piece. Various reasons, it is on evenweave, it is tweeding and fractional heavy.  It takes a fair amount of concentration, I always forget when it is IHSW which I had planned long ago to use as a spur to getting this done.

I do remember to pull it out at least twice a year for General Conference which I watch via the internet, which sometimes gets me back in the swing for a few weeks.

This time it has made an appearance for the two hours of Stake |Conference, which due to the present restrictions was held as a web conference.  

Now the initial progress after two hours may not appear to be much, indeed I have to point out to my mother what areas have been worked on, any progress is a bonus.

So the middle brown of the hourglass, a bit more fill in between the angel and sword blade, more mountain and reflection and a ninja or two.  Sounds more than it looks.

But more importantly for me this has brought it out, got me started and after the conference was done, and dinner was all settled, then there was more sewing and more progress and the over one sections are becoming less of a scary thought and more of a future delight.

So all of the stitches between sword and robe is completed, and a goodly bit of sky, Everest is almost visible now.

Dotting about, BFF stitch along

I did do the house, and some medium trees and some leaves (although not the variegated ones) even some large tree trunk and big bluebell stems an leaves and basically dotted about as the thread and the mood took me. I even sorted out a few ninjas!

It was a very relaxing evening that felt like lots of progress made. 

Yes it should have been a walk week, but it rained, a lot!

Pop over to my BFF's blog by clicking on THE LINK.to see how her picture is progressing.

I can almost see my house from here!

that was my cry after a few more tiny bluebells, a bluebell hued front door and our first foray together into the delights of variegated thread cross stitching. It might be a house made of negative space but I will take what I can get in more identifiable features.

We both pulled the thread till we could cut at a point it ran the full range of its variegation from light to dark, which was quite long, longer than I would normally stitch with. 

Then the decision would we start dark or light, we both plumped for a light start. However where to start from well there we diverged.

As it has a very gradual colour change I decide to work up from the middle just above the blue bells and below the door, working some stiches across and some on the diagonal. Stitching a single full stitch at a time, It needs a change of mindset, the same as half stitches, when you are not doing a row of bottom stitches and then coming back.  Planning how you get from one section to another is another mental exercise.  Well it keeps things interesting.

I am quite pleased with the dappled effect the variegated thread has produced, I am hoping it will look like light diffused by the medium sized trees, well once I have medium trees that is.

I did get some more grass completed and the trunks for the last of my my little trees.  So next week  I think it is time for a move up in tree size to those medium trees and the variegated green leaves on the top of them that beckon to me. Oh or perhaps I will finish building my little house, many possibilities.

Pop over to my friend's blog to see how her variegated went. Link to Blog

Green, green a bit of blue

 so this evening it was back to sewing, but double strands, I was rather looking forward to that and possibly completing the grass on the right of the pattern.  Going along quite nicely I thought might get it all done about the same time my friend finished the second big tree?

Nah! Although got quite a bit done I still had plenty to do as my friend finished tree, did one thread length of grass and announced she felt the need to do blue as she just was not feeling the green!

Well I could not have her making a start on the big bluebells and just keep going with the green!  So I did a bit of blue too, on tiny bluebells.  

Fits in with the split approach so far, her "big" trees my "little" trees so the same approach to the first bluebells felt appropriate.

 

You know as I look at that grass at the bottom and I think it looks a bit like Jabba the Hutt's head or maybe Slimer from Ghostbusters.

We are both now chomping at the bit to do some of the variegated sections, so we have decided to do one of the green variegated section and to do them at the same time. 

It should be interesting to see the difference the count  size (14 for my friend and 18 for me)  makes to the way the variegation  appears. I would assume there will be faster movement in the shading on the lower count.

I also have the feeling that my centring may have been off and I might run out of material at  the bottom before I run out of pattern to stitch, who knows maybe I measure all wrong and I will do the same at the top, happily given the way the pattern is laid out I think that will still be OK.

It fits side to side at least......

Oh I almost forgot to add THE LINK to my friends blog so you can see BIG things!

From a distance

 this looks a little bit more as if there will be a viable picture at some point, close up the colours of the little tiles don't look as is they should work out at all.

I am a little concerned that the sticky will wear off before I get all the tiles stuck, I think that the one colour at the time method is not the best of ideas here for that reason. Ah well lesson learnt too late perhaps.

Gifted gorgeousness August 2020

as organised by Jo over at  serendipitous stitching

just a small post for a double in the gift category.

A friend's daughter has had her first child, actually I guess the daughter could also be classed as more friend than acquaintance, she has on occasion attended a quilting night or two. Anyway this momentous event calls for a birth sampler.

With a picture of the nursery provided for ideas and a hunt for a pattern not resulting in a find I am trying my hand at designing. I will share that later, after completion and gifting. Presuming all goes well.

But the background material was being a bit difficult I did not have the shade required, and dye pen experiments aside did not think I could get as dark a shade as required, and matching to a photo is fraught with pitfalls I was going to default to black or navy blue neither of which felt right.

And he comes the gift from my BFF a piece of Blue Spruce 14 count Aida that whilst not the colour of the nursery focus wall will tonally coordinate and go well with the colours in the design element.

Saved by my BFF, I am still tempted to experiment with the dye option but when the result is less important and less time restrictive. Now to hope I have a suitable frame in stash, although at the moment climbing up the ladder into the loft is not a pleasant thought as my hip and knee are not feeling very friendly at the moment.  I have photographs which had narrowed it down a little but a first hand check for size is important.