I am showing tonight's progress "on point" at the request of my BFF as she is hoping you will see something in the dark green that she sees.
I expect my next post will be next year, hope you have a good one.
Don't forget to pop over to my friends BFF and see her update. CLICK HERE
as my BFF notes on her update (click here) I was not feeling all that well however my waiting on the star for her to finish the backstitch was nagging at her.
So I have so far changed the material, the colours, the pattern either inadvertently (fat bottomed sheep) or advertently (the big onion or rather lack thereof) so I guess the star would be no different.
First the colour, it is gold on the pattern but after that sky adjustment the gold did not have much impact so I changed it to a metallic blue.
The star was the "new" technique we were trying on this BFF SAL.
You start with the straight lines then draw them together into the star with a central stitch.
This is how it looked with just the straight lines on it.
It felt a bit too square, I did pull it together with the middle stitch to check.
And nope yet another thing I was going to change. I wanted the star to point downward a bit more.
So I took it out and started again and made it a little less symmetrical.
The middle stitch over the middle is quite prominent so I think it would need a reasonably deep mount (same as if adding seed beads) not sure yet about how going to finish this.
Once I had done that well a few little single strand stitches in the blue on the path in the places the pattern had gold. I have followed the pattern more than not.
And well I was on a meddling roll and added some iridescent thread to the sky and the swaddling. E3747. I only realised when I was making a note of the number for the blog that I had two..why because on one the iridescence is more blue toned and the other more green.
Not sure that it is all that visible in real life never mind on the photographs but I feel better about it with the additions.
So here it is
green , green and green
good job I like green.
We were both rather tired this evening but it was nice to be tired with company.
Pop over to my friends blog to see her progress click here
Just realised this is post 100 for this year, first time I have reached that number in a single year! Must be all the BFF updating.
I thought I would give it a try. I drew it out, and out and out again to get it in my head. Lap size I thought for a try and whole cloth so there would not be seams to interrupt the flow.
I had been planning on making a couple of lap size quilts with patterned edges and appliques. So I thought some more and decided to do the appliques afterwards needle turn.
You may (if you have visited before and if not Click here and here ) recognise the material from the edge. I am still using up bits. Bits are inspiring. Big bits small bits, oddly shaped bits.
These are off cuts from making blouses (not me I don't do clothing sewing) and the shape made me think of petals.
Planning on green middles, I hemmed the first one, but the fit was tricky that way, I did not tack hem the others just stitched them in.
Pinned on and ready to sew
Oh this year I have the first door and the first day in the Advent Calendar hosted by Jo over at serendipitous stitching
For those of you new to the advent, each participating blogger is assigned a day, asked to post a picture of something Christmas themed and answer a question. Click here for the link to previous years advents and hops
So I shall start with a little bit of Christmas themed stitching with this tinsel adorned cat by Durene Jones, aptly named Christmas cat.
Now we still have that tree, but after years and years of enthusiastic folding and unfolding the branches are not as securely held as once they were. we had a few years with a fibre optic tree but getting the bulb replaced when it wore out was not successful, and too may bendings to fit it into the box was making it rather lopsided.
As the years have passed something smaller and simpler has become the norm, and lights have joined the decorations both old, handmade and each year at least one thing that is new. I no longer attempt to put everything we have on there every year. Sometimes we have a colour theme sometimes not.
The top used to be a star, but recently it has been a cross stitched Fairy, and last year the elves perched up the top as well.
Now I am adding a picture of our tree from last year with the lights as well this years tree is still in the loft and that is where it will stay till Christmas Eve as traditionally in our home we do not decorate until then (other than my Christmas Embroideries which go up today). (maybe I will pop back on 24th an update with this years alongside the fishes)
Yes those are hoops in the background , quilting hoops not cross stitch.
Don't forget tomorrow to go over to serendipitous stitching for the link to door 2.
I wish you all the joys of the season and that all your Christmas preparations will be complete in time for you to relax and enjoy the day.
The countdown has begun!
For those popping back to see fish here they are.
I don't know what the box they originally came in looked like.
This is the box that they have been kept in as long as I can recall.
Here they are in the box.
And not quite last this years tree, more lights and a silver and gold theme not for any design reason but because I have a cold and they were the easiest to reach as the little ones are the new to us this year baubles.
And on the top, well this year it is a bow, for my brother however it is a fairy, a mouse fairy, a once was a real mouse now a tree topper mouse fairy as there is a taxidermist in his wife's family.
Being random was just too random for me at all so this week we started with another joint project.
Now I have worked on something similar before but it is a new experience for my BFF.
I will let her tell you more and just leave a picture of my progress this evening.
I did that extra little green bit so that next week I will have options for what colour to use and where to jump off from.
CLICK HERE for her much more interesting update.
An the answer in part to that ?
that might have stayed that way but for a spurt of sorting.
The thought that had been in my head relates to the a-little-finish-bff-4 and what else might find its way onto the window sill.
Little books, I like books so that was a pleasing thought. I had been checking out the toy sections in the charity shops and the bric-a-brak in the hopes of spotting something of the right size to buy but as usual once you are looking for something in particular there is nothing there.
I did consider making a little pile of books from DAS but I was not convinced that the result would look right.
Then I was doing a bit of sorting and came across my 2018 mini diary (LOL no its not that mini that it could be used) and I decided to pull it apart so the paper components could go into the recycling bin.
As I did the cover peeled away in one piece and set me thinking.
It was quite soft, flexible and already had a fold for the spine. And the colour would pick up the pinks in the cross stitch. Hmmm. Mulled a bit and then thought might be able to make two.
Initially I was thinking closed books, well a bit of cardboard wrapped with the diary cover that would look like books to put on my little window sill.
However, whilst I was contemplating that I got to Deborahizing (as my BFF calls making things more complicated or embellished or time consuming than you have to) and wondering could I make proper little books with pages. Nah! well maybe ? Ok lets give it a go!
First step cut out the covers so I know what size I am going to be working to.
I could have made more than two from the stuff available but settled on the two. And whilst my intention was to have then the same size as usual my measuring is not a strength and they turned out slightly unique!
Next step see if the edges would turn down and would double sided sticky tape be strong enough to hold them down?
So the pages, I have some very thin paper. Copy paper in fact. The kind you used in a typewriter with a sheet of carbon paper so you could produce a copy of your letter as you typed it. So it is quite old.
So cutting rectangles, I have a sliding blade paper cutter so I used that (although trimming later was done with scissors)
Rectangles cut, and then folded. Put together in sets sewn together and then sew the sets.
More double sided sticky tape and in go the pages.
and I have two little books.
to pop on my windowsill . Of course as with their much bigger cousin BFF SAL 3 the problem now becomes what do I write in them!
And of course my BFF has many an idea for other windowsill items and so far she is out Deborahizing even me with those suggestions.
click here to see how my BFF framed her version of this piece.
My BFF was filling in bits here and there of various characters having completed the BIG onion, which I decided was not for me.
I managed to fit in my two hours of dispensation time and worked on my plan to fill in the onion space. Directional single strand half stitches in shades of blue.
Another one of my random variegated threads it took some time to get the stitches to be shading in as I wanted them and be sort of random at the same time. Random is very tricky.
I am not sure how much I like the straight line bits but I don't dislike them enough to take them out and perhaps the next step of the star will settle my mind on that score.
Once the sky was done I moved on to the shepherd's crook. The pattern has it as backstitch in three strands and was a bit fancier and curlier than my mental image of a useful work a day crook. So mine is three strands couched and a simpler shape.
So I am all set to do the "new" and fancy bit, the star. However, as you will see if you pop over to my BFF's blog she has done the onion which took time so she is not expecting to be ready for the stars by out next session so I am going to paus till she is. And maybe do some other crafting instead.
CLICK HERE to see my BFF's progress and that BIG onion.
you may recall (and if not then click here) the SAL my BFF and I worked on where we each ended up with a different cropped section of the image.
I had cropped mine into an arch reflective of the original full sized design. That arch shape from the outset made me think of an arched window Especially given the arched windows in the design itself.
Then I remembered having a rather deep frame , in a grey that would complement the shades in the design.
The deep section was before the glass not behind and that sent me thinking some more. Of what would be on the windowsill of my view through the arched window. (Yes I am old enough for that turn of phrase to make me think of Playschool )
Flower pots?
Out with the DAZ..which amazingly is the same block that I used to finish off my nativity in 2015 and it is still good.
Plant pots made, painted and varnished, I had thought to make a mini topiary out of some green stuff.(you know the kind you use to scrub pans) But then I recalled some flower bits in the loft. A double win as they were an OK size I did not have to make something and something else came out of the loft.(the first being the grey frame)
So after all that explanatory waffle here is the result.
For something that is so different from the initial starting point I am rather pleased with the final finish and with the chance to do something a bit different for me.
I can move the flowers if I like and I guess there is also the option, in the future should I be suitably inspired, for other things to take a turn on my windowsill.
You may have been expecting an update on BFF 5. We had both had a bit of a stressful day on our normal SAL day and we ended up with a brief chat and no sewing. Given the subject matter of BFF5 and the speeding up of the timeframe we are allowing ourselves 2 hours out of Skype time and will either post as we finish those hours or next week with the normal posting.
A small update..click here to see how my BFF framed hers.
Wow it is that time already? Indeed it is scary how time passes so fast, almost like magic!
If you are a blog hop regular you can skip this paragraph, if this is all new to you then read on. The hop is hosted by Jo over at serendipitousstitching she gives participating bloggers a letter to post alongside their themed stitching and if you hop from blog to blog collecting the letters and hopefully enjoying some spooky or magic stitching and leaving comments (we bloggers like comments) along the way you will discover the phrase for this year. So if you did not start over with Jo and you want to join in you might like to click on the link above and start at the beginning. That's assuming I am not the beginning as I don't know where my letter comes at time of posting.
This year I had 99% of my stitch for the blog finished nice and early, very early but not as early as my BFF which probably spurred me on.
This is from Cross Stitch Crazy's Fantasy Collection Designer Chart Book. The individual design does not have a title listed but comes under the heading "Cast a Spell" and is by Shannon Wasilieff.
If you have visited with me before you will be aware that on occasion ( OK quite often with smaller designs) I change things a bit from the original. In this instance instead of the 10 different colours charted for the dress, hat and ribbons I used just 2, but variegated thread I had in my oddments box.
The hair was supposed to be 3 shades, I blended two in the needle (some call that tweeding) instead.
Left off a potion bottle and wand, added to the purple smoke (originally 1 shade I again used variegated).
And....(I chuckle yes there is an and) on the original in the middle of the purple smoke was a bit of green...but that space was just too serendipitous not to make better use of and that was the last 1% of this project that had to wait till Jo sent me my letter.
And here it is conjured up for you by this rather bonny witch.
Letter collected (comment left ?) time for the link to the next blog on your journey to discover just
CLICK HERE to visit needlepensword. and keep on collecting. Don't forget to go back to Jo at the end and comment your answer (you can't check it straight away as she will moderate comments and not reveal it or peoples guesses till the hop is over. Good hopping...
The spot where a star will go!
I have planned out in my mind what is happening at the top of my version of this as I am not going to do the Big Onion (well that's what that particular design element looks like to me) so to see that you will have to view my BFF's blog.
So to do my sky I need to know where the star is going, it wont be in this shade, it is due to be metallic.
But that is for next week. This week I almost finished the backstitching. I would have finished but the colour I have used for the backstitch does not work well against the colours used for Joseph. It was not right for the ram's horn either but the dark blue I used there was also not right for Joseph. I have another option in mind but ran out of time.
Pop over to my friends blog to see how she is approaching this and how things are going with the big onion (.CLICK HERE) or perhaps you will get to view her new obsession in the crafting of wool.
Top altogether I have made one attempt at marking out the quilting, changed my mind, washed it out and been distracted by other things.
So there has been quite a pause on this project.
That is OK there is no deadline for this.
in the same general theme of things not being quite as expected for containers of sewing supplies. Think the Danish biscuit tin to threads or buttons.
So this is a box for bottles..wine bottles. I don't do wine. I don't do alcohol at all. I do however love a box so when this caught my eye in the charity shop it came home with me.
And had a bit of a make over, with some foam scraps and material scraps to pad it out it became the box I keep my big scissors in. The ones I use for cutting material. My pinking shears and yes my screwdriver also live here.
and I do like using it a lot.
I keep trying to figure out a way to fit the lid better, perhaps to hold smaller scissors or snips.
this evening the first plan was to finish the foreground and path then make a decision about the big onion.
The path and sides near as my meandering view of the pattern completed I added some "off pattern" single strand half stitches to blend them in a bit as all that white was not working for me.
My BFF felt this addition was really procrastination so I would not have to make that decision.
She is right and ironically the step to backstitch before progressing on the design that she considered last week I took this week as further avoidance of the onion.
So here it is with one wider bottomed than called for sheep and one shepherd appearing out of the blobs.
As anticipated the backstitch is making a lot of difference and I am hoping that looking at it, staring at it even before next week I will make that much put off decision. I am strongly inclined towards leaving off the element of the design that is irking me. However, what to replace it with is still just a nebulous thing.
It is funny, although there are elements of this that I do not love and I have had more than one happy accident when working on it I am enjoying the process. And the freedom for chat.
To see how my BFF's interpretation of the design has gone CLICK HERE
I stated this project many moons ago and thought that I would work on it at least once a month during IHSW- International Hermit & Stitching Weekend.
i did manage it initially then I would forget and miss it, only recalling when Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching would post an update on her blog.
The addition of a Facebook Group would I though fix the dodgy memory, and it did but somehow the potential Hermit (me) had thus far other things planned..ohps!
But this month, this month I have sewn. It may not have been an amazing amount but putting away the threads from the face and getting out some of the threads and making a start on the solar system feels like something significant.
I do hope that this is not a one off and I will be a November Hermit.
and time for the path up the right side and down the left and ohps...something not quite right.
The ram (yes the blob on the left is a ram) is not quite where the ram should be. It is too low, however you will not be surprised that the result of the ohps is a bit of design modification not some work for the frog.
So my path is a little different to my BFFs, but then I am not inflicted with inkblot syndrome at this point (which let to a mad internet search for the title of a spoof western I recalled with inkblots being used to analyse a gun toting outlaw as my BFF hates a mystery)
I remain conflicted about the big onion, I have a bit more path to add before I have to make up my mind.
CLICK HERE to see my BFF's progress.
oh and it was Evil Roy Slade..that picture we were looking for.
the main characters are in. (with a small dispensation for me to finish off Joseph)
and once more the distance provided by the photograph makes them look more like figures and less like blobs. Mind I can see Bambi's mother in Joseph's robe. I wonder if the back stitching will take it away or if it will always be there when I look at it?
So next week it will be either path or the big onion.
Click HERE to pop over to my BFF's progress ..which looks oddly oriental to me...I think it is the path on hers that does it.
Second angel face completed, close up this face did not look to be working as well as the first however I was not too worried as I anticipate the backstitching will make quite a difference.
Yet again a bit of distance and it looks so much better. If a little pensive.
Having the cross stitching on the angels including the hands and faces done feels like a milestone.
The Solar System awaits and the image that drew me to this pattern in the first place.
The Earth.
Week two and I am still using whatever thread bits that look reasonable.
I normal prefer to work touching stitches and not make the counts across empty space to the next area.
In this instance I have been doing the opposite and making the count of faith.
Why?
Because I am still in a funny mood with this and want to stitch the bit I want to stich next whether it is connected to the last bit done or not.
I have a start on all the characters depicted except the Toffee Cow. I will be doing the Toffee Cow next week for certain.
I am still being a little indecisive on the colour to do Joseph's robe (my BFF's husband was passing when I mentioned that and commented "its many colours" to which we both responded "wrong Joseph!"
So here it is so far
and to see how my BFF is approaching the same design Click Here
so a new start after the little break from joint projects.
This should be on 28 count evenweave, in a cream shade.
I am using 14 count Aida in white.
It should be particular set colours.
I am using my box of random whatever's.
And the first grey blob (my starting point) should be one stich thinner.
Ah well we will just have to see how it turns out in the same yet different comparison to my BFF who intends to stitch as best she can to the pattern.
for once we started in the same place (grey blob at the bottom) but the same starting place has not resulted in same approach to the stitching.
For details of the pattern and a glimpse of the right colours pop over to my BFF's blog CLICK here for LINK
for a small thinking hat. To make it match as close as I could get to the original thinking hat I made that I altered the original design to match.
Between that and the backstitching I am very pleased with the result.
And yes it is still giving me the giggles.
However, it does feel as if it is missing something, the original has grass and a flower. I am thinking something psychedelic or a cat or a combination of both. But small and in style with the rest of the piece. I may be looking and chuckling at it for a bit whilst I contemplate that.
I will note it is not a portrait likeness, there are various differences to the person it makes me think of, perhaps it is is the attitude, as much as the "look"
so here we are for September and time for the link up to Jo's monthly blog link to host page
The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.
So this month I am sharing a gift I received from my BFF. A patchwork bag.
