Quilt as you go (part 2)

All nine strips sewn on all nine squares, the layout of those strips dependant on the material available. I had to include some of the bits from the backing material to finish up which I had not originally intended to do.

The next step to trim the edges of those strips to make the neat square.

Folding the backing out of the way and trimming off those points. OK first time consuming mistake identified at this point. I had not really left enough hem room on that backing.  I had to re measure and unpick a little to turn back a better hem size. Well I guess if I do ever try this method again that is a mistake I won't repeat!

All those trimmed bits worried at my parsimonious side however, it was quite satisfying once all 64 had been completed and the fun part of arranging the squares into the top was in sight. Keeping in mind what the layout on the top would do on the back.

I had ended up with twelve light blue backed squares with one strip arrangement and eight with a different arrangement. The rest had the dark blue background but with two different strip arrangements.

This was the layout I had expected to use all laid out ready to number the squares when I thought I would try something different just to be sure. 

This was the alternate lay out. 

 I took pictures of both on my phone and flipped from one to another trying to decide which I liked  best. Each had its plus points.

I did make up my mind and number the squares so I could sew it up at home.

but I think that will be (part 3)

BFF SAL 7 is it yellow

 The colours in the kit have no DMC reference (there are DMC numbers in the magazine but I don't think the  kit thread is branded) so in the kit there are descriptions for the colour.  One is described as yellow.

To me it looks pale peach, now I have blogged about colours before ""a question of colour" so I know there can be debate about named descriptions. That aside I have avoided the yellow whilst having an internal debate about whether I liked it or not.

Followed by the question of would it be bothering me if they had called it pale peach or am I objecting to it not being the colour I think the name means it should be?

Either way Roni told me it looked more yellow once stitched onto the blue. So I stitched the "yellow" handles on the frame to test the waters as it were.

Hmm ..well in person I remain uncertain (hence stitching all the purple and starting on the green) but the photograph maybe it does look like a yellow.

Now I have made a mistake on my frame where the cat will go, I forgot to leave the space on the inner frame and have decided I will just overstitch when I get to that part rather than un-pick it.

I have also miscounted my flower top right and I expect I will change the colour of the cat..so I shall echo the sentiments of my friend about this easy little kit. Ah well!

Pop over to her blog to hear her trials and tribulations CLICK HERE

Quilt as you go (part 1)

 a new adventure due to a convergence of  circumstances.

Firstly a video on  a quilt as you got method from Teresa Down Under that my brain clicked with and I thought I could do that.

Secondly some wadding coming back to me that had originally been intended for a quilting project at Church but which had been cut to make snow edgings for a party.

Once the snow had been cut away so I was left with strips I would normally have sewn the strips together to make some usable wadding.  However, the new to me quilt as you go method starts with squares of batting and backing.

Perfect opportunity to give it a go.

So I cut squares, 64 squares in total from the wadding. I had initially thought that the dark blue material I had would be sufficient , that was not the case however I did have some light blue which made up the numbers.

The next stage is to cut strips and sew them onto the backing through the wadding, the quilt as you go part. 

I still had blue shirt fabric originally used  with the Young Women at Church and which I had thought to use with the Young Men when they showed an interest, that did not happen.

So this looked like a good time to use up that material. I thought that it would be a random placement of the strips. 

Random is harder than it sounds.

Random did not happen.

Random did not manage to stay in place even up to the first strip. Pinned ready to sew.

Three strips on. And I realised that I would be better off not counting. Counting was not my friend ...lets just add the strips and not think about how many more there were to do.

Many many lots (OK 9 strips per square and 64 squares =576 I know a lot less than some quilts but it felt like a lot.

IHSW.. a few stitches.

 As a previous post attested it was a sewing machine out weekend rather than cross stitching. 

However spurred on by the Facebook groups post I did manage to get out my Millennium Project and  add a few stitches to the small planets and Halley's comet.

My eyes were not feeling up to the over one stitching.

However I will take what progress I can get. 

A little finishing experiment.

 this is something I have considered for some time but kept putting off as I was not sure if it would work.

Would the cross stitch be too thick to go through the machine?

It was a scary prospect for anything that had taken a lot of effort or was headed somewhere in particular.

Then two things occurred at about the same time that spurred me on.

The first, my mother needed a new bookmark (well not not really she has lots, I have made lots and lots, but one did cease to be usable and to me that is the same thing) and the second, it was time for the Secret Stitching Sweetheart blog Hop 2022.

Looking for a likely pattern for the hop I came across a band pattern by  Joan Elliott in a little booklet from Cross Stitch Crazy "Joan Elliott's Summer Collection. And fortuitously there was an edged band of Aida slipped in the booklet I forget when I put it there but it saved me searching out the right thing to sew on. The hearts on the design made it fine for the hop and with butterflies a good fit for my mother.

With the bookmark plan in mind I stitched even closer to the cut edge than ever, indeed I sewed over the edge.

The little booklet that the pattern came in includes patterned paper to use with the finished projects and I used a strip of that to back the bookmark and then I was ready for my experiment.

And out came the laminator.

I have never tried laminating a piece of cross stitch before. It went through just fine and the plastic should protect it from any ink transference from the print in the books it will be used for.

Laminated book mark

I can see various uses for this in the future, using lamination to protect stitching from dust if used as the top of a box, or to make Christmas ornaments.

 Of course my parsimonious nature would not let me use a laminating pouch without it being fully filled. So in went a tiny dragon and some strips of card, left over after I punched out many a heart for making flowers for another project. 

So another two bookmarks for my mother to add to her collection. 

Zippity doo dah

 zip a dee day...

That kept going round in my herd today because I was doing zips. Ten zips to be exact.

Four for cushions I had little panels for which were given to me several years ago on the basis they were surplus to the givers requirements and that I would no doubt find a use for them.

They have been waiting.

The other six?

I finally got around to making the cushions from the green tree curtain fabric. The funny thing is the cushions are what I intended to make when I bought the curtains and then I got distracted with the bags.

CLICK HERE for a reminder of the bags, yes it was a quite a while back.

I had the zips for the tree cushions but was having a bit of a moment recalling how to do zips.  Coming across the panels spurred me on to get this project finished. 

BFF SAL 6 Being the Hare!

 if this had been a race (and previous comments and my BFF's post title to the contrary it wasn't) then I was the hare...and lost LOL.

I don't mind a bit, it gave my BFF such pleasure and as she has Covid 19 at the moment any jollification is worth it.

As to why I was not finished first and demonstrating my superior stitching speed (LOL my BFF's opinion) well because I was demonstrating how to deboraize a project. That is make it more complicated or embellished or indeed difficult than it needs to be.

In this instance that started with the sewing into a cone. I did not like the way they had it on the pattern. I felt it would make the back a bit messy and given I have added an extra parcel so the back view would not irritate me then well the back needed to be as neat as I could get it to be.

I have done coned figures before santa and Fairy and ignored the instructions there as well and opted for the turn inside out and do a seam just as if I was sewing ordinary fabric.

And yes just like turning the first BFF SAL biscornu the turning right way out after the sewing is not as easy as one would like, and certainly more time consuming. It does however make the extra large knitting needles I purchased come in handy.

My BFF whilst commenting that from the noised I was making it sounded like I was giving birth laughed at the part way, reasonably easy going point (before it became trickier) and was very firm that I stop and take pictures of the process to share.

No head at all at this point.

The emerged face looks less smiley and more of a sneer at this stage in the turning.

What I had forgotten when using this method was that a) the previous patterns had less of an angle to the cone so had been easier to turn b) that it would not give me a point at the top and c) there were only two snowflakes on the hat not three so trying to get a third to turn out was not going to happen.

For some reason I did not take a picture at the point I recalled the correct number of snowflakes and decided to settle for the amount of hat that had turned.

The kit came with a thin white and red cord to make a hanging loop.

On the pervious incarnations of coned figures I had followed that part of the pattern which would allow them to be used as hanging ornaments but as I have never done that, they have either stood on a shelf or gone on top of the tree I decided not to do that this time and then I thought a tassel would set off his hat.

So I made a tassel out of that cord bit and I do rather like the effect. As I was doing that I was thinking it was in part going to be something in common with my BFF as she had stated early on she was not going to bother with the loop as she was not making it as a bauble. By the time I was done and showing her my finish that theory took a knock (pop on over to her blog on this project and see why just CLICK HERE 

So here he is with his jaunty tasselled hat.

I do regret a little that this is a much sharper design and as such his hair does not frame his face as nicely finished as it did flat.

So I made little video to show him off  properly as the all rounder he is but all the videos on my blog have gone funny, something to do with automated abuse and wanting to check it is from real people! So I am taking them off. Some I have loaded to you tube where or when I can be bothered. This is not as yet one of them! Ah well.

So there he is all done, extra parcel and all and just in time for Christmas..well in plenty of time for Christmas this year anyway.

                                                                    The END ?

Well no not quite as noted by my BFF we did also manage to start BFF SAL 7  (no neither of us has completely finished BFF SAL 5 but we will have by Christmas) and as usual with no discussion before hand we are approaching it differently from the start.

This feels as if it will be a short project, hopefully just long enough for us to find something a bit larger and a bit more challenging and maybe with something new for one or both of us that we both like. That last criteria is the one we struggle with more then the others but hey we have managed it seven times so far so the eighth should not be beyond us. 

Always happy to consider suggestions, especially if the pattern is a legitimately free one LOL.

Gifted Gorgeousness February Link-up Post

Time for the monthly blog hosted by Jo over at serendipitous stitching where basically we share anything crafting related that is a gift from or to you .

I noted with some delight on an update to my GG link up post from April 2021 CLICK HERE that I had a letter with picture printed in a cross stitch magazine.

My gift for that arrived in January 2022 after the GG for that month and I had already posted so I saved them for this month.

One bookmark pattern (my mother likes that) and two kits. One with a finishing method I have not tried before.  They may become Sunday Stitchings if I want a breather from the Country Companions booklet.

So pop on over to Jo's blog to see who else is participating this month or maybe you are a craft blogger and would like to join in the joining options are there as well.

CLICK HERE

Secret Stitching Sweetheart 2022

 This is the valentine hop hosed by Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching participants send a picture of a themed piece of stitching to Jo.

Jo then shuffles them all around and sends them back to be displayed on the participating blogs. We then go hopping from participating blog to blog viewing all the pictures and looking to see who received our stitch. (leaving comments along the way) and also waiting for the comment on out blog from the creator of the image being shared 

This beautiful biscornu is the picture I have received.  

very pretty in pink with beads. (maybe the next BFF should be something with beads)

The full list of participating blogs (with links) is available at JO's blogCLICK HERE  for the link. 

BFF SAL 6 a little extra time

 having finished the cross stitching my BFF told me she was just itching to get on with the backstitch so I though well well we have that urge lets go with it so we squeezed in an extra sewing session this week.

We don't discuss how we are going to proceed and just get started and then at some point mention where we are working and discover once again we have started in different places I started with the hat and worked my way down.  

I was leaving the parcels till last as the extra parcel I added would need off pattern backstitch as well.

I did not like the  mouth on the original, I wanted smile not smirk so I had always intended to change that. 

And then right at the end I decided he needed fingers.

The backstitch was mostly fun, especially the neck ruff. I did mess with the bow on the right parcel as it was not flowing for me.

And here it is backstitch all finished.

Just have the finishing up to complete when I will see how my third parcel will turn out.

CLICK HERE to pop over to my BFF's blog for her update

BFF Sal 6 Directional issues

I have had turning this pattern as I worked on it issues from the outset. Maybe because the figure in the pattern is not square on. However tonight is the first time that has required some unpicking because I have not managed to keep the bottom (and top) threads all going in One Direction!  It was filling in the white snow flakes that did it.

Mind I am getting ahead of myself as the white (not being in my needle at the end of last week) was not my starting point this week and indeed was left till last.

I started with that parcel puzzle and my box of random threads to hand. It occurred to me that I had no objections to a pink parcel but rather the particular shade of pink that came in the kit. Once I had that thought and had decided to use a more vivid pink for the parcel it felt wasteful to pull from the provided pink for just 8 stitches  for the cheeks and even for the cheeks I felt it was a little pale against the skin tone.  In my box of randomness I found a small bit of dusty pink and into the cheeks it went.

Extra parcel with a purple ribbon and gold wrappings was freestyled to fill in that gap at the back which irked me so. Blue with the red instead of the green. I was on a roll with this colour changing and it was a very productive evening for sewing as well and all the cross stitch is finished.

On to the backstitching next week and of course our minds and conversation turn to the question of what next.  My BFF resisted the google search for inspiration (well done) and we are contemplating seeing what other cover kits we may both have to tide us over until we find something we both want to do that might be a slightly bigger project (not BIG nope just a bit bigger possibly)

 CLICK HERE  to  pop over to my BFF's blog to see how her evening went.

BFF SAL 6 the parcel puzzle

 Finished off the mid brown so both shoes and hair completed, and the light brown so that was all of the skin done except for little rosy cheeks.

Paused there as did not want to thread up the needle for eight stitches of pink whilst still undecided about doing the parcel on the left pink...because if I did well the threads in the needle effect may have come into play and I would have sewn it pink out of habit and then probably regretted it.

So whilst deciding if the parcels are to be different colours (which might make deciding how to fix the omission in the design that is niggling at me) I thought I would do the white. Enjoyed doing the green around those little snowflakes and this is filling in so should be fun.

Hmm not so much did two then moved onto candy cane and...we had a bit of a discussion at this point. Is he wearing short red trousers and red socks with a white top or red and white striped trousers? Whatever his sartorial choice I stitched the white bit!  

I need to make my mind up before next week what I am going to do and if making colour changes have the threads to hand as there is not that much white left to do.

To see my BFF's progress CLICK HERE and you can see what the pink parcel looks like whilst you are there.