More light blue half stitches. Not easy to see in the picture
There should be General Conference Stitching next week so this project will most likely take a rest and I will try and finish the Earth, or the comet or maybe I will be on a roll and finish both!
And the Forestella for today. Well chosen on multiple levels, including for the lights at the beginning
Happy Easter
Welcome to this years Easter themed Hop, those of you who have visited with me before or who have come here via the host's blog will know what is happening. But just in case you are new to my blog and the concept of the hop here is a little explanation and a link to the Host Hop so you can start at the beginning.
CLICK HERE link to Serendipitous Stitching.
Each participating blogger will post something Easter or Spring themed and a letter. Hop around the blogs in the order the links appear on the host blog, or by following the next place to go links on each blog, collect the letters to spell out a phrase then finish back with the host and comment the answer.
I have been Easter Hopping for some years now and if you are new to the hop concept you can find my previous hop posts by clicking on the hop label at the bottom of a page. Or there is a HOP's tab at the top of the host blog page with hops from past years and the relevant links.
That explanation got a bit longer than anticipated, in complete opposite to my stitch for this year which ended up a lot smaller than anticipated.
I was a tad late with my stitching this year you you have this very small bunny with a touch of gold from a very large spool of blending thread.
And here is the letter you came for presented by my Easter blackwork bunny.
Just in case it is too faint to see for you that's a P
And to get to the next participant Click Here and I hope you have fun hopping at some point over the weekend.
Comments are always welcome on any post at anytime.
Oh and just to close here is the themed Forestella (well one of them performing solo) that feels appropriate for the day. I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you for stopping by.
in working on this, a bit more of a pause than I had anticipated as for some reason this year I am late getting started with my stitching for the Easter Hop, so as my BFF was feeling a little behind on the SAL I started this evening stitching my hop piece which will be getting posted later.
Then I went onto the SAL for the last little bit of the evening.
I finished outlining the edge as I had black in the needle from the Hop stitch and having the edge in did feel like it speeded up the blackwork.
I even managed to get a bit of blackwork in.
My BFF made good progress and there was much laughter over a mutual friend's issue with her car car alarm going off, stopping and resetting during the night. At 3 a.m. she could not stand it any longer and told her husband to get up and go to work (he has his own business with an early start but not that early) so at the least the faulty alarm would be ringing at an industrial estate and not in a residential area disturbing her sleep and that of the neighbours.
So up he got and off he went and she snuggled back down to get a few hours more sleep......and the car alarm went off!
Yup, it wasn't their car after all. She did call her husband to let him know but he was halfway to work by then.
So in the end neither of them (nor the neighbours) got much sleep.
For my BFF's update CLICK HERE
And the Forestella song for this post?
Well I went with the Background of the video for the link rather than the song title. This is the first one I came across and it is rather jolly. Although I must admit to not speaking Spanish and originally having no idea what they were singing.
Forestella cover "Despasito" (original-- Luis Fonsi) (youtube.com)
Don't forget to pop by over the Easter weekend for the hop.
at the charity shop...not quite literally but very close.
Put it this way for the not so princely sum of £1.50 I think I will never need to buy gold blending filament again.
Indeed I may look at every pattern wondering if a bit of gold filament might be a suitable addition.
I am not sure how much is there as there is nothing one the cone to say, but the smaller (and the small is relative) bobbin of green thread also pictured here holds 5000 meters ! (Oh it was a £1).
Although nether of the above are silk. LOL
as I worked across the top of the blackwork I realised I had made a couple of mistakes putting a top line in where there was not supposed to be one. As I turned the corner a couple of things occurred to me. Firstly life would be much easier if I was not having to watch were I was going to for the edge.
That was solved by stitching in part of the black edge.
The next thing was if working left to right had felt comfortable but working down over wasn't, there was nothing stopping me turning the piece so I was still working left to right.
So I did both, and it was making things go much faster.
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My BFF noted that whilst the blackwork felt like it was going fast it also felt slow, as if there was not as much done as it felt like there should be. I understood that and then I realised that feeling had gone away once that black line went it. It stopped it looking like more needed to be added on.
How much longer on this project for me may depend if I have to go back to add the middle section to the large circular parts of the black work. In the original they are cross stitched squares in a slightly darker shade. Roni has changed them to blackwork squares.
I am not sure which , if any of those I will do.
To see my BFF's progress CLICK HERE
And yes there was still more conversation about Forestella so in line with my BFF's post here is a link to a solo performance by KoWooRim
I was in a charity shop looking around and I saw two plastic wallets with ship patterns, one is the Heritage pattern you can see here and the other was a page from a magazine. They had both obviously been kitted up by the former owner, with skeins of thread. The patterns are A4 size.
They were worth the price being asked just for the threads even if I never stitch the ships and I was in a mood to spend some money in the charity shop.
Underneath was a little packet with orange Aida in it for £1.25. I did not bother opening it, I thought it was going to be some random bits and I do like random bits as you may know.
However, when I opened it, well you can see how BIG that piece is! And although it does not show particularly well here it is a light olive green and then changes to the orange. The edge notes the piece as being African Sunset. I wonder if it was created for a particular pattern. Does anyone know?
Well if it is or not I have something to look at and consider. Hey its so big. The BIGGEST piece I have ever had!
perhaps that should be a half and a Sunday Stitching. I only did a little bit last week because I had a talk to give on Mothers Day (although not on that theme) so I did not get around to taking a picture or posting about it.
Although as I am still working on the half stitch it feels like this upper section is going quite quickly.
And how the finished piece might look is becoming clearer. As you can see I was working in a much paler shade today.
as hosted by serendipitousstitching where we basically share anything gifted to us or that we are working on (or have completed) that is intended to be a gift.
Earlier this month a friend retired from work and then began "a sort out" she contacted me as she was divesting herself of some sewing items. Four full kits (three cross stitch and one tapestry) via Facebook Market place but would I be interested at a mates rates price?
Oh most tempting, but tapestry is a no for me, and of the three kits, well one had the potential of getting done whilst the other two were very nice but more resistible.
So I replied would she split them and said which one I was interested in, she came back with a yes and a most reasonable price and offered to drop it off. I countered with a lets meet for a beverage of our choice with maybe a cake!
So that is what we did, although without the cake a she had a dinner out planned for that evening and that was all to the good for me as I am on a diet for my health.
There has been a Starbucks in my town for quite a while now but this was my first visit (well I don't drink tea or coffee and neither do a lot of my friends) and added on to that it has been awhile since I was out like this the prices surprised me almost as much as them not taking "real" money.
There was chatting and laughing at shared stories as we caught up, and then out came the kit and I reached for my purse only for my friend to say she had changed her mind and decided to gift me the kit I wanted and one of the other cross stitch kits as well. So I guess I am finally forgiven for winning the chocolate truffle category at the craft fair or the decorated egg competition at work.
So here they are my gifted kits. In reverse order.
And then this one was the one I very much liked and by the same designer as the BFF SAL 14. This is a 22" by 9" piece.
It took me two hours to card the thread from the bundles.
It is going to be a big project and I am sort of waiting to make a proper start until I have at least finished the planets on Millennium. Well that is the plan.
It falls well with my fondness for Chinese historical dramas.
I will note however as mentioned as a chat subject in BFF SAL posts as the result of cookies or AI algorithms I have discovered a Korean Quartet who's music is delighting me no end.
Both with the arrangements/ interpretations of old favourites, covers of songs that were OK in the original format but amazing with this group to songs in multiple languages that are new to me. You Tube has never been so visited by me. So I bought a CD.
As a gift from me to me. So I can have their music for sewing to. I did my ironing to videos and other than ironing for the quilting its the most fun ironing has ever been.
So fair warning, I may get a tad carried away and add links to you tube for my new obsession as I explore my newly discovered fan girl persona, and embrace being a Soopbyeol (mind I do wish it was something a bit easier to remember how to spell like that other group's Army). Of course those same cookies and AI s are now presenting me with other artists of the same nation and they are not half bad. The Rose are on in London this month, too late for me to arrange anything but there are still tickets if interested.
Now at the moment I am obsessed enough that the thought of doing a Forestella cross stitch is appealing (ETSY has no patterns yet, yes I looked, they have ones for that other little group...BTS , it has taken me ages to recall those letters in the right order and not mix them up with a sandwich ) Mind it would certainly not be of this album cover, too much white!
And on that note I will leave you with a link to one of those familial and loved pieces that I now prefer this version of and something my friends and family might wish for from me on the subject of this group.
열린음악회 - 포레스텔라 - The Sound Of Silence.20190106 (youtube.com)
If you got this far don't forget to pop over to serendipitous stitching to see who else and what else is in this months link up
Oh and as always comments are appreciated from real people or robots or AI's
chinguga doeja
친구가 되자
I would say try not to laugh but I am giving myself the giggles as I try to learn Korean. It has such a nice sound and the letters look so pretty!
Once I finished the backstitch on the main part of the design it was time to chose the colour for the black work.
I had my eye on a skein of random thread in a bag of mixed threads I bought at the charity shop. The shade I was particularly drawn to was not however a full skein. Not a named brand, so as my BFF pointed out using it was taking a bit of a risk.
So "do I feel lucky" well in this instance yes I do and yes I also have a plan if it does run out.
I like how it is looking so far, and I was getting into a nice rhythm as our evening came to an end.
I think the fact that we have our next project planned but it is not one we are eager to do, its just going to be a nice little place holder whilst we look for the next big BFF means we are both happy with however long this takes.
So far we have four disenable differences, material count, and colour. the lightest shade of the petals and now the colour of the blackwork.
We may also approach blackwork a little differently, that remains undecided and is also part of the plan should I have underestimated the thread available.
To see the progress on my BFF's version of this case Click Here to go to her blog.
Oh and I remain delighted with the music of Forestella so perhaps I will see what is classed as traditional Korean embroidery just out of interest.
and discovering ninjas.
I normally fill them in as I find them but I left my thread bag in the other room and just had the black cone with me.
So you can probably spot the missing stitches, I will fill them in later.
I am still contemplating what colour to do the blackwork in (that always sounds funny) and I will have some time next week to still be thinking about it whilst I finish off the backstitch.
As is our want more often than not my BFF and I have diverged on our approach, to see where her whim of the day led her CLICK HERE to visit her blog and update.
I bought at a charity shop. Usually when I get little kits this way they are the unwanted cover kit from a cross stitching magazine.
I picked this one up because 1) it was there, 2) I could see it came with a little bell and well that might come in handy 3) I like to buy at least one something when I visit a charity shop and 4) it was 50p
You will note missing from that set of reasons was me actually liking it or or having much thought about getting round to stitching it anytime soon.
Indeed by the time I had bought it and come out of the shop, other than it having a bell I would have been hard pressed to tell you what it was a pattern of!
My Dad asked me what I had and I fished it out to show him and as I did it dawned on me there was a heart on it. Oh! I had been looking for something to sew for the Secret Stitching Sweetheart blog hop on Valentines Day, which was not that far off. Unlike last year when I was well ahead on my themed blog hop stitching this year its going to be a bit tighter to the wire.
But this was (as is the host for the hop) very serendipitous.
When I opened the packed it was to discover the kit contained sufficient materials for three repeats of the pattern ,including bells and little brass safety pins.
I expect that is is a Christmas design at heart (LOL) given the top image is a bauble. However to reflect the time of the year I was stitching on I changed that to a gold metallic heart.
And as I had some metallic thread pulled anyway the red heart received backstitch of gold. It makes up as a badge to be worn. That's what the little safety pins are for.
I was a bad girl and did not read the instructions properly and I started stitching in the middle of the fabric out of habit. That is not what the instructions called for which meant I could not follow then for the finishing and had to do it my own way. OK that's a bit of a habit of mine anyway so not a major irritant, and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.
I've not made the other two yet. I am not sure if they will be variations on the double heart or if one might get the bauble.
I have tried Googling the design company, they have a lot of very nice things. I wonder if this little kit came over to England as a holiday purchase some time in the past. I also wonder if the finished badge is traditional to the country or origin, does anyone know? The kit says it was printed in Denmark.
more half stitches, and I was finding it much quicker going this time.
