BFF SAL15 The hokey cokey

 I put some green stitches in and then I took them out, in out in out...

 I kept getting my symbols and shades mixed up. At this point all the stitches are in all the right places in the right colours.

Although the camera is telling a slight fib as the roses look more purple and less red in reality.

Click Here  to see what is making my BFF feel like James Dean. 

Sunday Stitchings

 I have been working the pale blue half stitches however, today I felt like something a bit more relaxing so I did some of the fill sections that the pale blue had outlined.

It was very pleasant and made such a difference, the progress is much more visible here. 

The attached song is not what you would call relaxing, the title feels fitting and I find the music compelling.  I might even manage to watch the film at some point.

#Forestella

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Floating blocks an Illusion Quilt

 I have always liked the effect of this pattern and the way it can be used to emphasise the patterned pieces.

It always looked rather fiddly, and I was not sure what I might use.

Then along came TEMU and pretty sets of pre-cuts that sort of floated into my basket. 

I got a few sets of pink, because they were on the offer so very reasonably priced.  I tend to use the mental check mark of would I buy it at that price if I saw it in a charity shop? And if I answer yes then I get it.

I was fairly sure that my very local fabric supplier (in the instance AKA the stash in the loft) had some black and some shade of grey. Indeed that was the case. So following some simple instructions but measuring to the pre-cut blocks  I gave it a go.

It turned out to be less difficult that I had anticipated and even with my interpretation of a straight line I think it produced the desired optical illusion of the pink blocks floating above the grey.

It will join the blue Flimsy waiting for the next stage to becoming a quilt. And would I make this design again? Well I think so, and maybe sooner rather than later as there were a few pre-cuts that made there way into that virtual basket. I could even be tempted to cut up some of my fancy material that has been waiting for the right pattern to show it off, although that might wait till the next question receives an answer.

How to quilt them, well that still requires some contemplation. I shall bask in getting this far successfully for a little bit first. 

BFF SAL 15 a new beginning

 As you may have noticed from the last BFF post I had the threads on a card last week but not grouped.

We had a few moments discussing which was dark and which was light. Mainly because the darkest shades are for backstitch only and the palest of the shades on each (green and purple) are so pale as to be tinted greys. 

Once we had that figured out we made a start, and as usual we each went our own way.

This is my progress for the evening (including two ohps and redo sections) and it was fun. Bitty but fun.

CLICK HERE to see my BFF's progress.

It was funny but until she pointed it out I had not occurred to me that the pattern we have picked is once again by Durene Jones. She does appear to create patterns we both agree on.

Flimsy

 that I see from Facebook groups is the term for the completed patchwork intended for a quilt but not yet sandwiched.

To be honest I have previously most often worked with heavy fabric (curtain weight) so even before quilting flimsy they were not.

However, I have more recently been using lighter fabric and so that tile is more applicable.

I am still in the "want to sew" but not anything complicated. And pre cut stuff is my go to of the moment.

This top is from 2 packs of patterned blue material from Temu. The solid blue squares and the navy blues (the horizontal and vertical are different shades)are from my stash. Some of it is left over bits from the Quilt as you Go blue and white quilt.

I am not sure how I will quilt it, lots of thoughts on that and not even sure if I will hand quilt or machine. There is time as I have a plan to just make flimsies for the moment and then sandwich and quilt later.

I have made a start on the next one and trying out a pattern I have liked but not used before.

Last Sunday Stitching

now that is not last as in final finished and there will be no more , it is last as in this is what I did last week.  Isn't English a joy.

So the plan for last week was to work on the Millennium earth and comet, which ever of the two or maybe even both that wanted to play nice!

I did get it out, I did do some stitching on it. But some really means not much, my eye was not in for the one over one stitching and the subtle blending of shades particularly in the comet was not helping I was getting lost.   So this is how it is looking at the moment, not much difference from the last time.

There was more conference to watch than there was stitching done here so I switched to my normal Sunday stitching project . More half stitches, well in the flow with those on this project.

 

Still in the pale shade that is not the easiest to see on the picture but it is creating jump off points for the rest of the half stitch area so there will be so  nice relaxing just to fill bits.

There weas no stitching at Church today, but that's fine. There is no rush with this project.

I was back in Primary (our Church children's section) to day and our lesson was about how we can be better. So todays Forestella link is for a sone that feels appropriate for both the long termed project and that lesson.  I do like how this sounds in this version.

BFF 14 Got it licked

 All I had left to do was backstitch inside the inner black edge and round the word.

Easy!

I  however chose to do that with two strands of gold blending filament. I wonder what inspired that choice?

I liked the way it was looking but it is certainly a lot slower to work with than normal thread.

As I worked my way around the edge and we chatted I sent my BFF pictures of a finished quilt top (sometimes referred to as a flimsy in quilting groups) and some finished blocks for another "flimsy"  in progress. They will get their own posts at some point hopefully with more colour representative pictures. But talking about quilting projects brought to mind a post I had seen on Facebook with the lady noting she had been told when threading to "lick the needle and not the thread" she had tried it and it worked. Of course it might be safer to say wet the needle not the thread! As licking the needle on a sewing machine sounds like it requires a contortionist or a rather long tongue. Anyway I tried it, the wetting not the licking and it worked. And just as suddenly I thought I wonder if the same would be true of a cross stitch needle?

It was, for me and for the blending filament , it surprised me that it worked.

So here is the picture.

Sadly after all that you can't see the sparkle from the gold filament, I might try another picture later in natural light to see if that can capture it.

Just as a reminder the pattern is from this book 

We have decided on BFF 15 and I am all ready to go

surprisingly we also know what we are going to do for BFF 16 but we feel a little stitch in between larger projects is a good reset. We are amazed that we have found so many "joint" projects and continue to do so.

CLICK HERE to see my BFF's update.

 

BFF 14 Nearly almost

 but not quite.

I have all of the blackwork completed. What a relief that it all joined up where it should. I was a tad eager to finish and made a mistake adding a bit that was not in my plan, so that had to come out. That little bit of reversal did not impact on where I finished for the evening.

Int the original pattern there is a further element to the edge in the original pattern in a different shade and full cross stitches. I was never sure about doing that and now the blackwork is done I am happy with it the way it is. So no more will be added.

Mine is on the right and the picture in the book on the left.

I did contemplate the inner truth here, do I like it better without or do I just not want the bother of stitching it? I like the more open and lighter feel of it like this so it is a decision I won't suddenly regret.

For an update on my BFF's Click HERE

And for todays Forestella link