A bit more 415

well it feels like a lot of 415. Including that used for Fred it has taken almost a full skein of thread.  It has moved the hair on a reasonable bit but still the full character is not fully evident.

The hair is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. 

 

The eagle eyed may spot a correction or two from the last update, but I am not going to point them out.

I am sure as I move onto the next grey that ninjas of the previous colours will pop up, that is what usually happens.

Now this portrait has one more shade in it than Fred, it is for the collar of the dress. 3865.  And I don't have it in my stash.  So as an initial work around I took a look at my colour card to see what it was and to see if I could find a reasonably close match.  Also asked my BFF to see if she had it and could do a closer colour match.  Which she did (she did offer to pop past my house on the way to shout to her mother through the window and pop it through the letter box, but given it is not vital it is the exact shade I declined) and I have a couple of options.

I remain undecided and intend to leave it till last, there is the possibility that white (of which I have a copious amount) will work, it is not next to any of the other instances of white on the pattern.

Lockdown SAL side two

second colour.

I finished the blue for the edge and then contemplated where to go next.  As mentioned on my BFF's blog (she posted first this week) the middle looks busy due to the backstitch and I was just not quite getting my eye to focus on and see one symbol in isolation from all the rest.

I was trying to see it all at once and that is just confusing.

My friend asked was the blue the same as on the first one and yes it is, well then perhaps we could just do the "easy side again" what! No! 

So as this is a by agreement project, we are doing the second half of the pattern and as we have both started on sections that are different there is no turning back now.

I contemplated doing the leaves in the corners.  However as felt I wanted bigger bits of colour so I started with the fill colour for the corner and then with my eye focused on that symbol completed the rest in that shade.

As you can just about see I have started (top left) on the next corner filler stitches and I think I will do the same there, stitch them all in.  I feels rather nice knowing where I plan to start next time.

Now my friend thinks this looks like a Pokémon, as that world is not something I was ever into, not when they originally came out nor when they arrived on the mobile phone I can't comment on that.

I still think there is something death star about it. 

Ok time for links.  This is to my friends blog so you can see how she has chosen to tackle the other side and how she feels it is going My BFFS Blog

And if you are new to the Lockdown SAL a link to the first blog with the pattern details.

Stitch a long start

Adding the black

has a rather odd effect.  At this stage were it not for Fred I would be worried this was not going to work out.

                                                       As it is I go forward trusting in Fred.

No black yet

still working on those first two shades of grey. A lot more hair on this celebrity means a lot more stitches.

This looks something like a negative

with the second shade of grey started.

oddly this is rather pleasing as it is.  I think I will do more of the first two shades before I move onto the black.  There are bigger blocks of colour in this one, and no tweed!

Another portrait adventure

begins.....

                                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                   






There is a lot of 762 in this one and I wonder if there will be enough to finish.  Indeed I wonder that about most of the shades required

 Still it will be interesting to see how far I can get or indeed what threads may be available if I do run out.

I expect guessing this one, after the last will be easy, but at what point it will look like her is another matter.

Lockdown Sal a finish and a start.

So side one is finished with the last of the backstitching completed, and side two is started. 

This time I am working from the outside in.  The middle just felt too busy and my eyes did not want to see the separate symbols.  I may have a better eye for the pattern next week.

Funnily enough this empty square looks so much bigger than the completed one.  It is of course a trick of the eye (the count has been checked and double checked) I am sure it will stop looking so big once it is not so empty.

Here is the link to my friends blog LINK

I see him now

I do hope that is true for anyone else looking at the finished cross stitch.

It does look a bit better with some distance from the piece so that the shading works rather than looking at the individual stitches.

Funnily enough, although I was sure I had closely examined it and found and eliminated all the ninja stitches, as soon as I took a picture of it the missed stitch in the corner of his eye jumped out at me.

I regularly use the digital camera to check on the look of quilts I had not considered it as a tool for the cross stitch before. 

Fred Astaire from Cross Stitch Crazy 211 January 2016

So as I am happy with how this has turned out I will now turn to the companion piece and then hopefully frame as a pair. 

Nearly almost finished

and I begin to see the celebrity. Well I hope I am seeing him and it is not just familiarity that makes me think I see him now.

There have been so many varied suggestions as to who it might be I am still not all that confident.

Only one more shade of grey, white and assorted ninja stitches remain to go so I expect the next update will be the finished design and time to decide if it is sufficiently representative that I can trust in the pattern for the companion design. 

From across the room

and sideways, after the addition of yet another shade of grey (and a few extra of the earlier shades, that were either missed before or were not reachable sooner) if I squint a bit, it maybe sort of looks a bit like who it is supposed to be.

I have been sharing these posts on Facebook cross stitch groups to check if others can see the celebrity this supposed to represent.

Yesterday several people did indeed suggest the correct name. I would take more heart from that were it not for the fact that there were as many incorrect suggestions as there were correct and quite a few not at all sure who it might be.

I find that completely understandable and just hope that as it progresses it gets clearer.

There is a companion design but there is no way I will do that one if this is not readily identifiable once finished.

Does the black help?

Nope, don't think that it does all that much

What do you think?

Second shade of grey added

and the basic of the pattern is a bit clearer, but not I feel as yet identifiable. There is still a little of both theses shades to go but I feel like doing some,if not all of the black next.

 

Serial Starter?

I know I often have several projects on the go at the same time but Don't usually jump from one to another quite this much.

Doing a bit of a tidy of patterns I came across a couple pulled from a magazine and not slotted into a folder.

I had a thought about what I could do with it, and if it turned out OK who it would go to.

So here is it so far.

Now I am not going to say what the pattern is just yet, I an just going to share it as it progresses and hope that it will become apparent as the stitches are added, sufficiently so that you will know.

As I only have the pattern and not a picture of it sewn so how effective or should that be realistic it is going to look completed I do not know. 

Fingers metaphorically crossed.

So far and yet so near..Lockdown SAL

once again my BFF and I meet...via Skype that is for our weekly crafting session and our stitch-a-long.

And after these few weeks we try to treat it as normal and we try to talk of things other than the reason our crafting get togethers have become tech rather than face to face based.

It is not always easy, and to be honest it is not always necessary  but still we do it, and sometimes it works and we laugh and for a few small moments forget, so that when we remember we can do so calmly and make good safe choices.

Mind, the title of this post could just as easily be a reference to the progress we have made on the SAL itself.  In that on this first half we have come so far and are yet so near to a finish we can taste it without being finished. Fully aware there is another half to go which is the more involved part of the pattern with less of those soothing blocks of colour.

Mid way into our evening we had both anticipated completing the cross stitch elements and that move over to the other half, which raised the question backstitch this side before moving on or wait and backstitch both sides together?

My friend felt that would be way too much backstitch all in one go and given her concerns about the colours of the tulips it might be nice to see what the back stitch would do to the image.

I did manage to get started on the backstitch, and I nearly almost got it done, at least it gives a good idea how the tulips will look. And as my friend alludes on her blog ensured the leaves look like leaves.

My friends progress is over on her blog, she tells me that mine looks a different colour to hers over Skype, now I would think it was the difference in laptops changing the tones, except we have the same one?  So to check out her progress click on this LINK here.

Oh and I figured out why my blog options had changed, there are two options now and one is supposed to result in posts which look better on a mobile (that is the one I was on) I have reverted back as I like the text options a bit more on the original version.  Happy to know how to change back and forth should I decide to do so anyway.

Sunbonnet Sue Three and four

in a change to previous posts on this project both images are of finished ladies.

So this is Three finished, rather pleased with the way this one turned out, I think the blue hat added a certain something.  Now possibly, one or two of my visitors will also be aware of the sampler quilt blocks which are the origin of the scraps used here and therefore  may be wondering where the blue came from as it has not featured in any of those blocks.

Sunbonnet Sue

Well the answer there is a little preview of the next stage in the sampler quilt, the sashing.  The blue is from the bits being generated by the sashing, I will share the top once it is finished.  In the meantime the blue looked so nice on number Three I used it on number Four.

Sunbonnet Sue

I also much preferred sewing the tulip without leaves.  I was not sure if there would be more than four, even though there is still plenty of fabric bits remaining.

However as I have been enjoying this process and in the main (leaves aside) finding it relaxing, and II will have the sewing machine out for the quilt sashing I may well sew up a few more skirts and see how that goes.  

Sunbonnet Sue, Two and three

well something a bit individual happened with the bonnet to hat relationship.

So whilst the bow on the hat looks a bit better with the greater contrast and the placement of the little flowers I would not say this was either fully an improvement on the first one or a backward step.

Lockdown SAL.

Tonight there was no drama, just nice steady progress, OK once I had turned the volume on so I heard the Skype ringing and my BFF realised I was not just ignoring her, oh and part way through when her husband was trying to show me a picture of dragons on his phone, which I could not see and he sent it as a Facebook message and I managed to turn off the Skype and had to redial. Other than that, no stitching drama!

Finished off the pale blue into the corners, then oh the soothing filling in of the lilac. As it was fully surrounded by other done stitches there was no need for the pattern just the pure joy of cotton in needle being pulled through fabric...bliss.

And I was so very relaxed with that I even got to add new colour, three new colours to be exact.

So here is my update.

I think I will stick with flowers before moving on to leaves.

Now at he time of posting this my BFF has not posted her update so I can't give you a link to the exact post. (She has been busy today arranging a hymn sing on zoom for her social music deprived congregational friends) so if you just click on the link for her blog, Life outside the washing basket down on the right somewhere you can pop over and see how she is doing.

Update...BFF's blog is at link

Sunbonnet Sue number one and two

an update.

Finished the first one and happily as normal the marker pen has washed out. Equally as happily the green fabric marker pen in the Tulip leaves did not.

There are lessons learned in doing this first one that I hope will make the next easier to do. 

I am happy with the way the tulip turned out, the tucked under hems have given it a certain 3D feel.

As mentioned in my last post I have altered the boot shape and having pulled out my fabric dye pens for the leaves it occurred to me I could get some black the same way, so got my black boots. 

The edge of the skirt was easier this time around and that made it easier to give the edge a better scalloped effect.  The hand felt less fiddly too, Funnily enough I have paused at the same point, with the bonnet and tulip to go. .

Sunbonnet Sue number one.

made a start on the Sunbonnet Sues using scraps from the sampler quilt. As I have to match the templates to the available scraps and of course make sure that I am using them as frugally as possible (feel free to wander around my blog to see why that is a given) the colours are not fully planned out.

Still it is putting me in mind of paper dolls from my childhood, sorting out the little paper outfits and deciding what they would wear. I can't say I was as fascinated by them as some of my friends but they were a convenient craft / play item for taking places and keeping me amused when visiting relatives who's conversation was to me at that time uninteresting. I wish they were still here and I had the chance now to listen to their stories, ah the opportunities we miss..

Anyway here is my progress so far

I had planned on doing the boot black, but the scrap of black I had was too thick and too prone to fraying to use so I thought my fashionable Sue might have boots to match her jacket. The position of the boot is a bit off however a bit off is how it will stay.

How quickly we forget, it took me all of the boot and at least half of the skirt to get back into some sort of rhythm for the needle turning.

Mrs Jackson had not turned the hand on her example, I think the attempt for knuckle definition on the template is a bit ambitious so now I quite understand why she did not bother.

Oh the backing fabric is also form Mrs Jackson, there were four pieces in pink with tacked hems to prevent fraying and as they were just a nice size for the Sues that felt positively serendipitous.