I started the Sunday before last and did not get around to posting it, then missed a Sunday due to ill health and here I am back again.
So what did I choose, well a kit, with pre-carded thread, material to size, a needle and best of all no backstitch.
Its on 14 count so nice and east to see and the pattern is printed quite large.
So week one, colour one
week two ? Well I did some more in this shade and then moved onto the next colour at which point realised I had made an error, you know the kind, one stitch out which not spotted until later equals many a stitch out of place by one. Actually looking at the picture above I made that one stitch mistake the first week and almost everything I did this Sunday had to come back out.
So as to be able to sew again next Sunday I needed to get some help from The Frog and then take the project back to the point it would have been without the mistake.
The frogging and resewing took less time, than figuring out where the mistake was!
I have not cropped this picture so it is possible to get an idea of the finished size. I can see what it is going to be, but then I already know that. Any guesses?
There was a chat at my mother's group meeting about recycling and she came away with a free bag. One side with a pink decal covering the specific recycling it was promoting, the other side was blank.
Oh the possibilities of a blank space.
I happened to have a stencil I'd not used yet, you will be unsurprised by the focus of that design.
Used T-shirt pens and chose the colours to echo the printed side.
The added bits in Korean are via Google translate and hopefully I got it right. It has no particular significance it is just a space filler that felt right.
It was quick, it was fun and unlike on my mug the lines for the lettering stayed in their own lanes and did not merge. It will be useful and it filled in a moment of "want to do something crafty, don't know what and have very little time" so all good.
Oh and the "official side" just in case it is of use to anyone.
in my previous post a-relief-society-crafting-trip about painting underglaze on a mug I noted I would not know how well it went until it was fired.
Unlike my stitching projects where mistakes can often be corrected by unpicking or Frogging, what you get after firing is it.
So, I worried that the blue background might be too dark for the black lettering to show up. That was not an issue, it came out much lighter. I wondered if the little stars would show up, they didn't but that was not too disappointing. However a related issue is, the thin line of silver that made the F for the FS logo went the way of the stars and so the F , which was already a stylised letter is no longer an F.
Other issue is that two fine black lines in the lettering on the handle have merged to one thicker line. I have not as yet braved checking what that may have changed the word to!
On the positive side the motley effect of the blue, although not intended is rather pleasant, and the silver pale lilac on the moons are also effective and perhaps most importantly the mug is usable.
It does give me a reason to add another link to another performance of the song, just the three group members here, the fourth is serving in the Korean Army till May 2025.
Mind the title of the concert is a reminder there are no stars on my mug, sigh !
it has been three weeks since last my BFF and I managed our virtual sewing session, well we have missed three, this is week four. One week went to my being too tired after a trip to the office, week two to a holiday absence and week three to an important coming of age birthday. Not either of ours, sadly we passed those sort of landmark birthdays more than a little while ago, and the milestone age we are currently experiencing sort of together, as no two women meet this the same, is not feeling like something to celebrate just now.
We were both finding the sewing bug a little absent, but we did sew a little something. It was also a quiet week for things to chat about, I filled empty spaces with my fangirl observations and a laugh about my managing to mention Forestella at work in a group meeting with the big boss!
So this weeks progress, a tiny bit of a different shade of green, some white, some yellow and ok look a biggish bit of blue.
I needed that bit of blue, I'm not feeling this one yet, which might explain why I have used none of my allowed off screen time to try and catch up, that and I need to go thread shopping, which will help resolve that big empty space in the middle. It does look better in the picture than it does to me when I am working on it, so that's something I guess.
This is the second pre-printed bought panel I have hand quilted. It is a different mindset to quilting a patchwork top. In some ways it is freeing as it is just following lines and in others , well you have to decide which lines to sew or not.
In addition, when it is a pictorial image and the quilting will show on the back extra care is needed.
My BFF likes the back for hand quilting, and I would note that when gifting this the recipient saw the back first and was delighted with that before turning it over to the coloured side.
It was nice to gift this, I do have another panel the same but I am sure that the hand quilting placement will be different as I expect my choices of which bits to quilt and which to leave will change.
I may have mentioned before that I did ceramics in my school days and at times I miss it. However, making things with clay once upon a time and painting glazes onto premade items is not the same thing.
So this activity was new to me. Some of the sisters had done this before and of the experience one said "I'm not into crafts or crafty but this was a lot of fun".
Unlike other craft things with Relief Society which are held at the Church and led by a sister who "does" that craft, this was a commercial venture.
Premises in the next town over, we car shared to all get there, minimum of ten people for a booking.
Once there met by the friendly owner operator and shelves of premade pottery items we could then decorate. Prices depended on what you wanted to decorate and there was quite a range to choose from.
I chose a mid sized mug. I wanted something that I could use and which would not just be ornamental.
The process was simple, use the brushes provided and paint the various colours glazes on your chosen piece. You might know this already, the colour the glazes are pre firing does not match how they will look after firing. To help us with that each table had a tile with all of the colours and their names on it to help us pick.
Now I have issues with over complicating things, you may have noticed if you have visited before. So when it comes to something like this I find it hard to strike a balance between something that meets my need for that but can be completed in the time frame. The same thing makes me bad at Pictionary as I want to be all artistically complicated when I should just keep it simple.
I made some small preparations (given I did not know what shape I might have to work on as that varies) and via You Tube Videos made note of the Korean lettering for Forestella , Soopbyeol, and hijo de la luna and courtesy of google translates, for my name. I was not sure what I would do with them, I also sketched out the Forestella FS logo, the version without leaves. Oh and I took along a set of very thin brushes, I did not know how fine the ones provided might be. I heartily dislike blunt pencils and trying to paint with too thick a brush and if I did end up trying to do lettering well a fine brush would be useful.
So little mug chosen I sat with a Disney style princess and a squirrel, well those were the choices of my table companions. Also chosen by the group were sloths, popular I think three of them, a snail, a unicorn, a campervan.
I am quite proud of myself as I did manage not to overly fuss. I decided on a silver/lavender moon on a dark blue background, with the FS logo in the middle in the same glaze and then the name of the group and of the song in black. How well that will show up on the dark blue should be interesting. Added my name and soopbyeol onto the handle. And I was done without having to rush at all, I resisted the inclination to try and add a figure sitting on the moon, just as well my crescent moons were challenge enough on the night.
This is my mug standing on the tile showing the anticipated finished shade. That very dark blue at the bottom is how my light blue should look.
The FS turned out quite well considering I was working freehand and from a sketch.
It takes a couple of weeks before they are collectable, I would guess depending on how long it takes for the shop to have enough pieces to make a firing financially viable. So we wait to see how things turn out. Will my lettering vanish, or be there if you look but not quite as prominent? Will my silvery stars show, how will the mixed silver and lavender come together on the moon and the FS? Guess I have to wait and see.
So whilst we wait, a version of the song, there are several by the group on You Tube as it is unsurprisingly a popular inclusion in their concerts.
firstly a return to blogging this project. It has been a couple of weeks since the last update. I have sewn, but not blogged. Not sure why sometimes my focus goes elsewhere.
All for the cross stitching is finished as is all of the first shade of the backstitching.
The thing is, I am not that fond of backstitching (except when it could more readily be classified as blackwork, weird but true) and this has bitty backstitching and French knots left.
I don't think that lends itself to Sunday Stitching, so this will get finished off separately at some point.
I will do a finally finished post when that is the case.
I will have to decide what the next project will be by next Saturday so it is all set. Not sure if that will be something small like a cover kit, a return to the Country Companions book I was working my way through or another big project, maybe even bigger than this one ?
Oh the other returns, well they were people, the son of Mr andMrs Family Friends who grew up here but lives far off theses days. Some people who have been a little unwell and missing for the time I have not been posting. Others away and now happily spending time with us again it was a nice way to start July at Church.
I just came across this Song today so adding the link but with no particular connection to the image above or the day.
