Blackwork

time to do something with the floor.

I drew an outline of the fire place bottom and the edge of the table and skirt and I tried to work out something pattern based with diminishing sizes..nah! Currently and possibly for some time yet to come that was beyond my skill level.

As was anything that would attempt perspective on the vertical plane.  So horizontal it had to be.

Initially I thought I would transition from the very light grey, to light grey to a darker grey as it moved to the front.

I changed my mind as I sewed.

I changed from stitches that covered one square in the first rows to covering two squares then three then four before I increased the space between rows and continued increasing the stitch length. only the last two rows closer to the bottom were in the mid grey stage.

I rather like it which is a relief. Added a few little stitches  in the mid grey at the feet of table, chair and lady stop them floating around.

I also filled in the fire place.

Just a quick reminder( or if you are visiting with me and this project for the first time) the starting point for this is Holbein Embroderies Blackwork design BW131 The Needlewoman. There is no comma in Emboideries on the pattern and as it is their company name I am not messing with that, I have messed with or embellished or added to whichever way you want to put it on the wall and now the floor.

Next in line for my meddling is the underskirt, which funnily enough is the bit I had thought of doing in  extra to the pattern in the first place.  But I am still not quite sure what...back to the graph paper.

Sunday Stitchings

 a touch of red, however without all of the required stitches to complete them these boots certainly don't look made for walking.

I am looking forward to doing the middle of the sunflower, but that takes a bit of planning as the colours are not amongst the thread that came with the set so I have to pull them from my stash in preparation and I invariably forget as I have other things to have ready for church.

BFF SAL four a second double dip

 once again I am starting by sharing my progress after the two additional hours we allotted ourselves.

those teal shades in the mountains are some of my favourite colours but oh they were getting on my nerves as the shades and symbols were so close to each other.

But it was progress all the same.

And at the close of the evening, and indeed with quarter of an hour to go.........

It is finished. Now there are rather more deviations from the original pattern than I might normally be happy with. The most obvious one being the crop, but there are wanderings in the colour placement as well. I am just happy to have the stitching finished. 

My BFF had a little more left and felt it would be best to do that outside our skype session (click here for her update) so a nice cup of hot chocolate and a chat about what to do next. Lots of options were discussed and whilst we have enjoyed working on the same projects at the same time this last one was a bit of hard work as evidenced by our divergence from the original design.

Oh yes we promised to show you what it was supposed to look like and what it is called and the designer. (I have completed one of her designs before and loved every stitch) so I feel the issues with this were all due to our original expectations. Although oddly I think that this may well get framed before the earlier stitch..oh my it has been 14 years that the other piece has been waiting and its not the oldest piece waiting..must get some finishing done.

So here it is  Sheila Hudson's original.

                                                                     

I am still drawn to that tree but it is just not to be.

Ah and what did we decide to do next? Random anything craft related that strikes our fancy. A bit of this and that and whatever till one of us finds something that we think we might both enjoy. We like the idea of some black work, or may be something neither of us have tried before.  But nothing to big or involved, we need to recover from not fully anticipating how annoying we would find trying to stitch this beautiful design. 

Little update and my BFF has also finished her stitching and what's more found a link to the original real world view that inspired the full piece..follow the link to see CLICK Here

Blackwork mirror mirror

 on the wall,

is done, metallic as per the pattern( well almost as I used a different one for the dress to the frame), with a bit of an addition for the glass.

So that is all the metallic as per the pattern done.

from the pattern all that is left is the hair. However, I have not been following the pattern exactly as you may know, I added the wallpaper and have extended the sides by two stitches and the top by twelve so it will fit the mount for the frame that I plan on using. I still feel that the underskirt needs something, what that something should be I have not settled on yet.

I wish that I could think of a way to do the floor that would give it depth.  Maybe something will occur to me soon. No rush this is for me so I have no deadline.

BFF Sal 4 a double dip

 so I did fit in my two extra hours this week, although it was squeezed in as I had a paper watering can to make for the children's group at Church (as a large envelope) which took a little longer than expected.

Anyway delays aside this is where I got to after my extra two hours.

Made a start on the hills in the background and set up a nice area of sea that can just get filled to allow for chatting time during the Skype session.

And indeed there was chatting this week, quite a bit of chatting about quilting oddly enough, and also trying to decide on a term for those stitches that you suddenly can't see on the pattern as you are in the middle of sewing it. That moment when you know it is time to stop. We played with a few but have not settled on any one that said just how we felt.

So tonight's progress 

I thought I would work on the mountains and finish the blue sea, instead I worked on the foreground and finished the sea. 

Now at the end of each Skype session we hold up our project so we can see how each other's piece is progressing.  If you have used Skype you will know that there is a small picture of you in the corner of the larger view of the other person. So as I hold up my project I can see a tiny picture of it on the screen at the same time. Oddly mine looked so much better tiny!

What do you thing..better small? 

I think that will speak to viewing distance when it is finished and framed and finding a place to live.

As for my friends progress, I am once again struck by the impact of the tree and am a bit regretful that there is so little tree in mine. However, not regretful enough to stitch it LOL.

We are continuing with the two hours stitching off Skype time and the two hours on to keep this moving.  My BFF did tentatively ask what would we stitch next ....

Pop on over to my BFF's blog to see how her extra time and Skype time has gone...and admire that tree.

Click here for link

Stitching Friends Summer Blog Hop 2021

Last year Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching hosted a Stitching Friends are Friends Who Count HOP, as her summer hop. The theme and the process of  finding new blogging friends was so popular it has remained the theme for this years summer hop.

Here is the link to Last Years home page and participants list if you missed it.

So this is how it works, participating bloggers are assigned another blog to read and get to know the blogger and then introduce on their own blog. Then share something that they think their new stitching friend will like, either something previously sewn or something seen in a pattern . With a little added twist that who the post is about won't be revealed till the end, just in case you want to try and guess.

Now I will link to individual posts as I go, so if you do want to play the guessing game leave the links till last.

So on to my introduction, this blogger started blogging in 2014 spurred on by a stitch along of what must rank as her most stitched designer Just Nan. Her first post however was not from that designer but was one of the recurring themes of her blog, a sampler featuring one of the recurring themes of mine, a dragon. And I must admit one of the few samplers that I have ever strongly contemplated doing and from a designer I have sewn.

So I think she might like this one 

Dragon Dreams ICE bucket challenge brr chilly. 

This blogger has the skills to deal with chilly, she knits, wearable clothing type knits. My own knitting is less impressive and considerably slower. I have no recommendations for knitting other than to say don't knit like me.

Her warming skills are not limited to the wearable, as she also quilts, projects large and small, quick and those that have taken just that little bit longer as she mentioned in her contribution to Jo's Tenth Blogaversary . I have been there with some of my quilts but the one that took the longest was also dragon themed. 

Oh and there are cakes of various kinds but most importantly as far as I am concerned there are chocolate cakes. Maybe I will take a closer look at those.

Turning back to the sewing,  she might like this free Durene Jones  biscornu from Durene's  Facebook page.

as this twisty odd mathematically inspired shape is another one of her favourites. She is an enthusiastic participant in Jo's blog hops, in other themed stitch challenges and exchanges (which I note often appear to include chocolate of some sort)  

So if you have not guessed who it is by now her is another clue, something else I am also fond of, the Celtic Knot, and which this blogger loves, or at least the title of her blog would would suggest that is the case, once you have translated it from the language of the country in which she currently resides. 

Now before I reveal my allocated blogger just a reminder if you did not come here from Jo's blog of the link to the home page of the hop for this year pop on over to serendipitous stitching for the links to all the 

And the blogger I have had the delight of introducing ? It is Mary from La Coeur Celtique Click Here to jump to her blog rather than to any individual post, or pop back to the beginning of this post and take the links to individual posts if you have not done so already.

And remember, stitching friends are friends who count.

BFF SAL 4 ....the sound of stitching

 it was a quiet night, even with the filling in stitching there was more concentration than conversation.

The red thread was a bit of a surprise and a bit too vivid till the pink was added to tone it down.

Filling in the blue was nice. We have given ourselves another two hours of non Skype time before next week. I expect that will get us both much closer to a finish.

Check my BFF's progress CLICK HERE

Sunday Stitchings

 after getting the petals done last week I was rather looking forward to completing the middle or maybe the leaves.

However, I did not remember to sort the threads out the evening before so I was left with the threads that came with the book of patterns (some of you may recall not all of the colours came with) so it was a brown and two shades of blue that were included that went into today's progress.

 So nice to see the top start to take place. Now to try and remember to get the threads not on the card ready for next week.  Although I think there is some of the on the card shades still to be sewn so not great disaster if I forget.