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.