Sunday Stitching..Ohps

So last week before I got started I spotted a mistake and took it out.

This week I started with the pink in the ear and then moved happily on to the hands.

Counting along from the three little brown stitches...it al

l went in so nice I was enjoying it and listening happily to the talks.

On to the white and the ear was done, then to the bottom of the face and it should touch on the pink of the hands.

Oh no it is not matching the white to the pink, re check the white..it is ok.

Ohps! it is those three little brown stitches they are too far across to the right so all of the hands are in the wrong place!

It will all have to come out.

Funny thing is I don't mind, it is almost as if having enjoyed putting them in so much that taking them out to do it again is almost a happy thought!  Odd I know but there it is, that's how it feels.

Oh yes and the embroidery project I did say I would post a little updated bit.

I went back over the gold thread with invisible thread as the couching done with the gold was getting cut by the edge of the needle as the various blues were going in.

It is very odd stitching with that stuff, as being invisible it is hard to see!

Apart from moving the angels about so they all fit this will also be my interpretation of the colours as best I can with the available shades of metallic thread.

Gifted georgesness link up January 2020

Well here we are at the 15th of the month already and I have received a couple of gifts I want to share and joining in with Serendipitous Stitching's gifted-gorgeousness-sal-. feels like a good place to do it.  Even if both are not cross stitch or even sewing related.  But then I do tend to do a variety of things on my blog..and so

The first a Christmas themed Christmas gift from my pen pal

The carrot button for the nose is very cute and this hanging decoration will be coming out every year from now on.

And the second, well it is a fun little item from my BFF.

the tooth pick is to provide scale (LOL as in the size not the other kind associated with dragons)

So it did require an addition...chocolate.

Not a lot of chocolate as it is not very large.

A little pot intended for the melting of a certain brand of wax wrapped cheese came in handy.

I melted just two squares of chocolate, I think half a square would have been enough for this test of my gift, but then I would not have had the excess to eat.

pour it in the mould.

and wait....not a patient person...put it in the fridge and wait....

then

carefully peel it out of the mould.....

the claw on the wing I did manage to fill did not come out, well I had not got chocolate in the other so that evened out.

The tear drop area in the loop of the tail was being stubborn, would it snap?

And

dinky chocolate dragon.

a few air bubbles here and there, perhaps the chocolate needed to be a bit runnier.

So if I wanted to make decorations for a cake or cakes well it works but I would need to keep them chilled as it is so delicate it started to soften and melt just at normal room temperature.

So it briefly decorated my tongue, and then it was gone.

Me being me I am of course wondering what else I might safely use in my mould that might be of a more lasting nature! 

Still it was fun and I got to eat chocolate and it made a jolly accompanying gift to a book, The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burges which formed part of my gift.

Totaly fit for purpose....

Sometimes you have something in your stash that is quiet, it is just there waiting to be properly seen.

This bit of fabric arrived with other bits and pieces from my friend Nikita and I guess I did not look at it as closely as some of the others so the dog material the skinny bits were just that bit pushier and came forward for projects.

The others were waiting patiently in the bag for their moment to shine.

I was doing a bit of  random sorting, you know the kind pull out the material think oh yes I was going to make or ah I had forgotten about having that or in this case a second closer look at the detail on the design. (sorry as it was gifted scrappage I do not know the name of the design here, if anyone recognises it please provide details in the comments). 

The material

The first to catch my eye and set me thinking was the rainbow.

Rainbow

my BFF is very fond of rainbows, we would look for them on our walks or camping trips.

Perhaps something for her? That set me looking at the other motifs. I spotted one of her favourite beverages (not one of mine) but that was OK as I was thinking of a project for her.

Cup of tea

Then I saw one we do have in common and have shared on many, many an occasion, both joyful and sorrowful.  In celebration and commiseration, in this country and abroad.

But mostly just because we like to.

Hot Chocolate

Ice Cream

Another couple of our shared consumable items of interest. Yeah, ice cream. I prefer chocolate, she likes strawberry but we both agree on mint choc chip. Not sure that is the flavour represented here however it is an acceptable addition.

And cake, there has been more than a little shared cake, although the cakes being shared were not always little...the chocolate fudge cake in Dublin springs to mind.

Cake

Trips away, they get a little something to represent them too.









My friend might note that for most trips I am the one with the most luggage trying to be prepared for any contingency and weather variation.

Holidays

Although on that very first trip neither of us was prepared for the rain that came down so suddenly and so hard it bounced when it hit the ground so those drops that missed us on their way down got us on the way back up.













there are motifs for that too:

Singing in the Rain

We have sung in the rain, in the car, at the folk club and at Church and on occasion just because a conversation has managed to land on a song lyric we both know.

Our birthdays are fairly close together and before life got very busy we used to try and think of something different to do to celebrate together.

This motif reminds me of that.  Getting up at four in the morning to go on a dawn chorus walk. When we got back we sat on the couch for a moment whilst her husband (nice chap) went to make us a cup of hot chocolate and we fell asleep before the kettle boiled!

Then there are these two so perfectly fitting little images

this material had to be made into something for my friend and then more I realised it was so delightfully utterly

representative of both of us it needed to be made into something for us both.

Given the size of the bit of material there was really only one choice of what to make.

well not quite a handbag I am not quite up to a hand bag, but bags those I can manage.

gave one to my friend

with the joy of shared memories of

using this bit of material up was so much fun as it brought back so may memories.

There are other little motifs and as I see them they bring back other memories or make me think of how my friend and I are similar and also how we are different.

Sunday stitchings..Tom and

I had to do a little correction before I could start this week. Happily the five stitches on the wrong place were easy to take out and there was enough thread to sew them back in the right place.

I have been working on the Hark the Herald Angels too but I have not taken a picture of that.

Perhaps next week.

Sunday Stitchings 2020

I never did do any Christmas stitching's I just moved onto the next Tom Mouse.

Not that there is a lot of Tom as yet.

also a little update on my new embroidery project.

I had quite forgotten just how tricky metallic threads are to work with.

This is going to be interesting!

Possibly in a Chinese curse sort of way.

I can make something with that!

The title to this post is a phrase that often pops into my head and is the clarion call to many inclined to hoard and prevents items that enter my house from leaving again.

Now this is not always a good thing as often the something never occurs to me, (well not until after the item has eventually been thrown out) and sometimes it is a good thing and I can make a castle at short notice.

Sometimes the phrase strikes me in a charity shop and some odd or broken item will come home with me, the prospect of a new function before it...occasionaly the idea is immediately applied and sometimes it lingers.

This is a project that has been lingering.  Not sure what this little item is supposed to be.

set with stones on the front

A little tab on the back (sort of a clip, but not sprung) now I bought it for 50p with that "I can do..." thought in my head but with no fixed idea of the what!

I began to think that with a top of some sort perhaps it would be a neat container for my cross stitch needles.  How to get a top, a stopper.

Carve one out of wood. 

It sort of worked, and fit at first, then it shrank a little and was loose. A strip of soft leather inside the tube tightened the fit up just enough but I was not happy, it was missing something.

Wait a few weeks, or maybe more and I spotted a bent adjustable ring in the same shop.  Another 50p came out of my purse with the thought, that might go with that other thing I bought.

Of course it was round, my needle case to be was more rectangular.  But as the ring was not solid, and had been a bit squished in the first place it felt ok changing its shape further with pliers.

Out came the grinding tool to make a groove in the wooden top that the manipulated ring would slide into.

You may have noticed the red bead has come off, this is not progressing as smoothly as I had hoped at this point.

Pause!

Why?

It still felt like it was missing something. Not sure what but something.  I couldn't decide if  I should paint the wood silver or just varnish it . Whatever I decided needed to be done before the ring was glued on.

So. well it waited and waited and waited some more.

Then when the inspiration for the  Bee box struck I decided that was what was missing. Something that said me, and in this instance a bee. The same bee I was going to put on the box.  It fit nicely.

Now after my experiment with the box the question of what to do with the wood was sorted, just varnishing. 

The varnish made quite a difference to the little wooden lid.  I am quite pleased with it. Much better result than the box, must be the way different wood reacts with the varnish

So glue the bent ring to the wooden stopper and the red stone back on, oh and the blue one that fell off as well!....

and

 all finished and the something made.

Now I have to try and remember what safe place (shwoosh doors to an alternate dimension open at that phrase I am sure they do) I put my gold plated cross stitch needles that I thought would go in here!

2020 a new year and a new decade

so am I sharing a finish? no sadly I am not although 2019 did have some finishes, a few bags a few Sunday stitching projects bits and bobs here and there you can look back at the posts for 2019 to see them all.

What I am sharing is a progress image a year on from last New Years Day post I am happy with the progress made and hope to keep up the momentum this year.

However, there may be a challenge to the time spent on this particular project from another that has been waiting in the wings for a long time as my nearly-almost-started project from December 2018, has actually been started.  Material in hoop and thread in material started!

 a little detail of the progress so far as proof. 

Hoping it will not take as long to finish as it did to get to this point, or indeed as the previous one in the set took.

And which have I worked on today?

So far neither. I made a pie.

Corn beef, onion and potato and I made the pastry myself....I am not much of a cook so fingers crossed it is OK.  There were scraps left over very like when I make a quilt or perhaps to some they would be orts but as with my sewing bits....I made a little one..

It looks a bit better than the big one to be honest. Mind on occasion that happens with the crafting too, the projects made from bits have a better impact than the well planed.

After posting this I might just turn my hand to a bit of sewing but which set of angels, the two or the three will be singing Halleluiahs I have not as yet decided.

Hoping you all have a great New Year and a great new decade with lots of finishes and the only knots the ones you choose.