New Pyrography Tool

 I bought a new tool, with a temperature display and two pens that I can alternate between. 

The thing to do with a new tool is have a practice, test the new tips (it came with lots of tips) on scrap wood and see what kind of marks they make. 

That would be the smart thing to do. However, I am ever impatient and feel that having made the effort to get the "stuff" out that I should have something to show for it.

When I did the -prague-castle.  for the lady at work she then gave me a bag with a few different styles of boxes from The Works.

One of which is an oval box about 5.5 inches by 3 inches. Which was just big enough to fit on a dragon design I had saved from a magazine. So that is what I did.

I managed to try four different tips, reminding myself how much I enjoy doing this and that I should work out designs to go onto the may a wood item I have collected for that purpose.

I am rather pleased with the way the burn went and am pleased that the tool works for me. I liked being able to set the temperature exactly. I liked the pen rests that safely hold the pen whilst it cools. I liked having a pen cooling whilst I could work with a different nip at the same time. I liked the size of the tool and the grip which stayed comfortable and cool throughout.

I also liked the length of the wire on the plug (no need for an extension cable, as with my other tools) I look forward to investigating the other tips. 

I might have to add a touch of colour on the sphere the dragon is holding to remove the wolf's head effect. (does anyone else see a wolf?)

BFF SAL 14

 We chose a book we both own as the source for this BFF. Two companion designs, I knew which I wanted to do but my BFF was not sure if she would work on the same one or go for the companion design.

The pattern calls for Rustico 14. I am using 14 count but the Natural from Home Bargains, The same material I used for the previous BFF SAL.

After a quick thread check my BFF decided to do the same design as myself. We started in the same place (the middle) and with the same colour.

This is my progress for the evening.

two colours in.

Click Here to see what two colours in from the same starting point looks like for my BFF.

The Cat's Whiskers

 I was not sure what to use for whiskers on my cat, and he needed whiskers.  Then my mother said what's that on the floor? I expected it to be a bit of thread, its often an escaping bit of thread  however it was a bristle (new carpet brush, think it fell out when I was unwrapping it) and it was just what I needed. 

So cat has whiskers, and a collar and tag.

I think I am through meddling with him and can move on to my next felting project. Which I hope to be a progression in my learning and in developing my style, maybe.

Sunday Stitching..another colour completed

 Still growing with subtle shades and still being a great accompaniment to and focus for listening to the talks at Church. Talks reminding me to prepare for Conference next weekend.

I anticipate that my stitching for that will be on one of my angel projects and this one will have a week off.

BFF SAL A Bakers Dozen

 served. We did wonder if the last few cakes and backstitching would be completed by the end of our evening. Possibly not so we had agreed that we would finish them this week in extra time if need be.

Why? Well we thought it would be fun to have our cakes finished before the 2023 Great British Bake Off  airs on Channel Four (Tuesday next week).

A funny thing happened, as soon as we removed the pressure of finishing by a set time (9p.m) the stitching went smoothly and we were both all finished with six minutes  to spare!

Oh the backstitch was fun on this, it makes so much difference turning "should have gone to Specsavers" blobs into cakes and roses.

Click Here to see my BFF's interpretation of the same source pattern "Which Cake" by Durene Jones.

We have a plan for next week from a book we have in common, but more on that next week for BFF 14 

Gifted Gorgeousness September 2023

 Pop on over to serendipitous stitching to see what it is all about and find the other participants.

Got this little sew card from my BFF.

This is sew cute and I am delighted with it. It will get to live as a card for a little bit till I get a chance to check the loft for a little frame. 

Sunday Stitchings..more of the same

 colour as I was on with last week. And the last in this colour completed. Which made me double check the instructions that this should have been two strands, yes that was correct.

Why did I check, well I have so much of this left in the kit I wondered if I had missed something and it was meant to be three strands.

I guess it is a generous kit.

There is not much impact at the moment, some patterns have a slow build up and take time to develop. I am enjoying the process.

BFF SAL A Bakers dozen The Bird Cage?

 dotting about with a few stitches here and there to form the cakes and their toppings was being less than soothing this evening.

But still progress was made. You will recall that I am altering the colours to use up some random threads. This is leading to some interesting colour choices.

At the moment without backstitching and with four cakes to a level it feels a bit gaudy and busy, I am hoping that the backstitch will calm and tone it down. 

My mother thinks it looks like a bird cage with lots of little birds in it. I have nine complete cakes, three with icing and no cake, an interesting technique I don't think will work in the real world.

Click Here to see how this SAL is developing over with my BFF.

Sunday Stitching's Stake Conference

 This felt very much like being at Church but more comfortable. We are not able to travel to the Stake Centre due to my mothers health. But since CV19 pandemic set the pattern for utilising tech and livestreaming via the internet we can still participate.

So why did it feel like Church, well I sit in another room with comfortable lighting and listen  on speakers.

Setting the meeting up on lap top for my mother in one room I sat and listened and of course sewed in another room.

So today my stitching were to talks about perfection as a goal not a barrier or requirement.  The possibilities of  JOY in any circumstance.

As conference is longer than a normal sacrament meeting I got a bit more done. All in one shade which was good for listening. 

BFF Sal- Variations on a theme 1..Christmas

 not quilt Elgar's Enigma but the answer to something that has been puzzling my BFF and I. 

The Best Friends Forever Stitch a Long has been about for some time now. We started in 2020 although it has a slightly different name to start click here to see that first post and project. 

Since then we have finished 12 BFF SAL projects. Some more joyfully than others. It has not always been easy to find something we both wanted to do at a particular time. Occasionally out shared evenings have been designated to random sewing till we could settle on a joint project.

We have in the past toyed with the option of choosing a theme rather than a pattern, but that was being just as tricky.

However we have now decided that we will add a themed stitch into our BFF Sal sessions, but with a little twist. The Themed stitch will be on the first Wednesday of the month only. What ever project or projects we chose to work on will not be limited to our two hours shared time. And the theme runs till we mutually decide on a different one.

So as you will have guessed we are starting off with Christmas, and within that also a little bit of the single colour stitching we previously found we enjoyed.

My selection is from Cross Stitch Gold issue 123 and is by  Durene Jones (fast becoming our go to designer certainly more BFF contributions than anyone else so far)

It is original red on white, but I thought this would look nice white on green. There are four designs in the set, I may do all of them whilst we are on this theme, I may not. They might all be white on a colour, or not. No rules, just some sewing and a lot of chatting.

I started tonight and have all the corners in, which was a relief.

Click Here to see what my BFF has chosen for out first themed evening.

Sunday Stitching..sand?

 I think that sand is what has been added today. Only worked in the one colour.

it is growing.

Felting = Temu = Quilt Top

 So the felting kits Bunny and Cat got me thinking about something I could felt to my own design (mostly) and I was looking for some more colours and bits. Probably due to how much of a bargain the kits were some of the online prices for bits came as a surprise.

which led me to Temu and a set with a nice range of colours, little bits but enough for what I envision and well once you start putting bits in a basket other things fall in with them.

Some out of curiosity more than need or even want to be honest.

A pack of 50 squares in an assortment of colours arrived. On checking there were 51 bits. They were not perfectly cut square but close enough for the price.

I decided on nine patches alternating with bigger squares.

Five of the nine would be from the assortment. with the four being of the same material in the nine but each nine would be a different set of four..

So ten sets of five, sorted into the groupings by my mother.

Ten sets of four, I decided which went with the chosen five and stitched them all up.

I roped my Dad into deciding the layout of the nine patches and bigger squares.

And sewed them up.

Popped on an edge from my scraps (left over from the backing on the sampler quit) and this is the top

The colours are not showing up all that well in the picture, it has washed them out a bit. It was very relaxing just putting this together.

I have the backing sorted (same as the big squares) but it may have to wait a bit before it gets quilted.

Other bits from the same place may well fall into  my ordering basket, I have quite a few of the "cut for the 4 squares" bit left. 

 

Hark the Herald angels update

 Starting on the over robes.

starting with red heart white, there is shading to be added. However it is nice to be starting a new section. Still a long way to go, a nice bright light in the dinning/sewing room will be a big help.

Fingers crossed that this spurt of interest lasts long enough to get all the robes done.

I have delightedly realised that the boxes of threads gifted me by Mrs Jackson are numbered Anchor. I did originally plan to restrict myself to DMC light effects and Anchor thread for this one, but colour matching , shading and not recalling I had boxes of Anchor it is more of a what ever goes goes project.