Sunday Stitchings 14.06.2026

 and Branch conference.

Last of the shading under the kittens is done so turning back to the brighter colours with a touch of pinky red

One over one

 and two skeins used, the third started and the edges are done.

I so wanted to start the sections that go into the empty squares, but had to keep with the edge designs first.

There is one mistake in the outer pattern,  I can see it, I thought it might hide but nope I can see it. I am contemplating if I can overstitch the one X that is in the wrong place with a shade matching the fabric and then add the stitch into the right place.

Maybe by the time the full thing is finished I can revisit that thought, it might have hidden itself by then?

Adding the album version of this Forestella song as I just happen to be listening to it whilst drafting this blog.

 

Sunday stitchings after Saturday craftings

 so Sunday and more grey. 

and a bit of "what now" laughter at myself, all that stitching and this is th first time I noticed the griding on the pattern is five by five as well as the ten by ten.

the Saturday before was a display and share craft evening at Church. Two hours there abouts from 5 ish to 7 ish.  I only took two quilts to display as I was not sure of the space I would have, and three cross stitches that were easy to grab, no taking them off the wall.

As got the demonstrate and share so visitors could take something away.

I did felt needle cases. I did the demo one and there were four made. Well three made their own and the fourth was a little boy who told me he was not allowed to touch pins or needles, so he designed and I sewed. 

The blue in the middle is mine, with cut out felt flowers, to the left the flowers are pre- formed ribbon flowers I bought and to the right three cut felt flowers and letter beads that were the little boy's mother and father.

Other crafts on offer were candle making, cross stitch, sewn cards, crochet and a drawing class. 

BFF SAL 24 a bit of everything

 brown to start till my eye were fed up with that. Then green, that is the last of the green done and then onto the light pink.

to see my BFF's progress (once shared) Click HERE

We anticipate a RAL for next week. 

Sunday Stitchings 31.05.2026

 More brown, a touch of black and some pale grey foreground shading.

The kittens are very close to being completed. However there is quite a bit of blanket to go.

No BFF session this week

 so I decided to fix the miscount on the RAL stitch, and add one more colour.

Not sure when I will pick it up again but there is no urgency to this.

Sewing one over one

 makes the thread go a long way. This is one full skein into this pattern. Using Variegated thread.

It runs from a dark grey through a brown to a purple red and a mid then light brown.  Not that it is showing up all that well here.

 

I have ten skeins of this thread and am interested to see how much it takes to finish. The pattern came with estimated thread requirements for different stitch counts. 

for 18 Count it suggests  18 skeins

for 16 Count add one to make it 19

and for 14 count you need 23.

If I have measured correctly (by stitching a row and measuring it) I am working on 30 count (might be 32 as neither my counting nor measuring are perfect) and I am hoping 10 will be enough.

Sunday Stitchings special 24.05.2026

 why special? Well most people were on the tech option today as there was a special multi stake conference for the UK and Northern Ireland.

A live broadcast via You Tube. 

It was slotted for two hours but was not quite as long as anticipated. However, it did give me a bit more stitching time than usual and after a few stitches of grey I felt up to doing some brown.

Two shades of brown and it feels like a lot of filling was achieved.

Because of the self imposed "when to stitch" time restrictions there are still several weeks worth of stitching to go I think.  Still I am already contemplating the question of what next, is there going to be a designated next at all.  Originally the Sunday stitching was something to take to church and work on in the Relief Society room whilst listening to the talks and avoiding the migraine inducing lights in the chapel.  Things have changed due to my parents health and attendance is via Zoom at the moment.

So I control the lights now. That an all my crafting stuff is available to keep my hands busy so my brain can focus.

Not the time to decide just yet but soon?

Charity Shop Frame

 and mount for £1 and I thought maybe I know what might fit in that.

Brought it home and fit it did.

And now it is on the wall.

You might recognise it as BFF SAL 14 (and currently on number 24 , just wow!) Click HERE for details of the finish and pattern. As that is quicker for me than typing it in again.

BFF SAL 24 brown

one of the missing browns.

Oddly my BFF and I were working on the same shade, the symbol sounding like a yoga pose, the downward triangle.

The initial stitches went in as fillers between previous stitches, that was nice. Then they moved into areas that did not have that framework. That was a little bit more work. There are still stitches to go in that shade but my eyes were tired of them before our designated time was up. 

There were two stitches in "sideways lollypop" which symbol  lead to the earworm of the Oh lollypop lolly lolly pop song.

Being a good friend I shared!

Click HERE for my BFF's update.

Little legs or high sofa

 whichever it is I find that I need a little foot stool to be comfortable.  Finding one the right hight was proving difficult so many years ago my father made one for me. From a wooden cutlery tray,  four knobs a bit of wood, foam, hinges and some brown velvet.

Perfect.

After many years of use reupholstering was required.

A stapler gun later (a pink one as it was £1 cheaper in that shade than it was in either green or grey) and a new cover was in place.

I keep my seed beads in here, well and random other stuff like tassels. It rather needs a sort out.

But for the moment I am happy to have my foot stool back.

Sunday Stitchings 17.05.2026

 A little more grey and a little bit closer to getting back to the brown and towards finishing the first kitten.

I am wondering if a local cat shelter might like this?  It is quite large and not my style for my home.  My brother and his wife whilst liking cats have rapidly reducing wall space so I think on this occasion its not "them" enough to gift.

So either as a fundraiser or perhaps I could add the name of the place. I might investigate further and ask when closer to a finish.

BFF RAL May 2026

 as my BFF was out and about for work again this week.

I could have used an ongoing project for my RAL but instead I decided to start a little kit.

At the point I stopped I had just spotted a mistake so now I need to figure out fixing it. It is just a stitch out but that can be enough on a small pattern.

    

It came with the needle but I think I might need to swap to something a bit pointier as there are a lot of  fractional stitches and the material is rather stiff.

Click HERE for a link to my BFF's post.

Sunday Stitchings 10.05.2026

 A very light grey was the thread choice for todays stitchings.

Adding to the black and white kitten. Such a pale grey that it was hard to tell the difference from the white whilst sewing. However, it does feel like it has filled things in a tad.

I would note that this kit notes the thread contained in it is DMC. It came pre-carded with each thread numbered on the card 1 thought to 25. The pattern has symbols, the key notes the number on the card relating to that symbol and provides a description of the colour, black, white, light grey ect in  several languages. What it does not do is provide the DMC number for the thread.

I am going to assume this is to stop the pattern being passed on and sewn more than once. Well unless you are very good at colour matching or, or you consider there are no factional stitches and no backstitch and so ? So it would lend itself to being stitched one over one on a very small count? And there looks likely to be sufficient left over to manage that. The thing is cute as they are the kittens are I think for me a once and done stitch.  Most of the time that is true of patterns even when I enjoy them a lot and think to myself that I might do them again to date repeats have only occurred for birth sampler patterns. It was a thought though. 

Oh and a Forestella link as I am becoming rather fond of this particular song.

BFF SAL 24 Not Brown

 that was the essence of my colour choice for this evenings session.  The result two shades of pink and a touch of green.

I now have jump off points for the top two flowers.  This evenings chatting was a little odd as I was sure there was something I was going to say to my BFF, something to tell that could wait for our face to face chat, not important enough to need immediate telling via Messenger, and I could not recall what it was at all.

Normally we would address this by listing off  the potential topics, was it work, or crafts, or food or family. Might it be Church or shopping? And at some point we would hit on something to jog my memory. Tonight, nope still no idea what it was.

Click HERE  to pop over to my BFF's blog and her evenings stitching.

Ah well, at some point it will come back to me I guess.

Oh and next week we anticipate a RAL.

Sunday Stitchings 3rd May 2026 +

 as I think that I misses posting the last progress picture at all.

Some grey some white and this is where I am upto.

There is less to go than has already been stitched but reaching that point where time slows and progress does as well. 

Here is a link to one of the tracks on Forestella's new album. I did not immediately recognise the  piece, probably because I have only watched the film it comes from once.  Do you know it? 

Oh and a little investigation and the lyrics are a constructed language.  If you are new to my blog and to Forestella then there are other links to you tube content for the group on my blog, just pick the Forestells links, or do a you tube search there will be lots to see and hear.

BF SAL 24 pink and

 a touch of light brown.

And a relaxing chat.

Click HERE for my BFF's update.

A little trip

 to the Charity Shop.  It came after taking my mother for Covid Jab and that new one, then whilst we were there a quick visit to the Stray Aid charity shop. It is large and most of the area is navigable in a wheelchair,

I spent £4.50 on the items as shown below.

The cover kit  bottom right is missing the pattern I will need to try and figure it out from the picture.  The frame is Laura Ashley. Tatty Teddy came with the storage box, the threads material and needle (which is threaded and the piece has been started. And the DMC pattern, I might have left that but my mother noted she liked it.

There are projects stacking up so when they will get done I am not sure but for a bit of retail therapy it was a reasonable amount of expenditure. 

Varigated thread

 always looks so pretty, always tempts me and yet often I have no idea what to do with it, there was a time that the result would be embroidered knots.

However, at the time I bought the knot work tree  I also bought a sampler. The pattern is set for completion in a single colour.

I thought that it might fit in the top of my new box.  The design is 300 by 300. An although the box is not exactly square it feels right.

So I am stitching  one over one on linen. Starting in the left bottom corner.

Another visit to the loft

 that resulted in something quite different than the item I went up there for.

I was looking for some heavy white material with a touch of grey to fix the lid of my washing basket (post of its own of I find it and get fixing) However, it was not to be found.  It has not been found in several places already and may continue not to be found all over.

Whilst looking I got my eye on a jungle themed panel I was given by a lady at work and some other bits and pieces, which I think were from Nikita.

Had them for quite some time indeed, hmm sounds familiar. But all of a sudden I knew what I would do with them all.

I cut the panel up  into six blocks that each had all nine jungle images in them. 

I had a bit more of the lighter toned material and it made for the sashing between the panels and for the middle and sides. The darker material did the bottom and top.

I had four small pieces of the sashing material left over. (they might go into bits-a-quilt repairs or the next bits-a-quilt. Or they might sit in a bag awaiting for some other project. But as you can see there is not much left at all.

Oh I also have four strips, each with three sets of  animals on them . Two with the lion at the top and two with the elephant. 

I will decide if they are to be a coordinating cushion or form a decorative back. I think that will wait until I have decided what to use as backing...in a little bitty. Or potential several very large bitties to be honest.

Oh and Forestella released a new album today with a new song at the same time.

BFF SAL..24, week whatever it is

 loosing count, of the weeks and the days but happily not the stitches this time.

I started off with the pink I finished with after last weeks corrections. Then it was back to brown as I finally got around to checking if the two shades I was missing ( I hope it was just the two) were in with Millennium. They were.

Click Here to pop over to my BFF's blog and see what she has been up to. Mind at the moment the link will probably take you to her most recent crafting zone until she gets the SAL posted.

Oh and if you are visiting and don't see your flag on the right and want it added, you need to click on the flag counter. It looks pretty, which is why it is still there. However, it does not count the number of views to my blog from different countries, rather it counts the number of times it is clicked on from my blog and where those clicks originate.

The follow button works, as does the comment via e-mail and the normal comment option.  A quick Hi would be nice so I know if any increase in views are from people or robots. 

Although at the rate AI is going it won't be long before "they" are capable of leaving comments. 

BFF SAL my turn

 for an ohps and unpicking.

I was doing the pink tonight, first the pale pink, a bit of green to create a second jump off point for pink.

Then onto a darker pink which was my finish point for the evening which I held up for my BFF to see.

Oh, she said that pink looks so much darker on the white!

I had thought that it was rather bold.

Oh dear, the key has the colours for both this design and one for a Robin...there are two reverse R symbols, one with the opening solid and one open.

Yes, I used the wrong one, so out it had to come.

And then as the rules allow  back in with the right shade.

I had mentioned that I was enjoying this one sufficient to consider stitching it twice, I had not meant on the same piece of material.

Click HERE to see my BFF's progress.

A simply mad idea?

This project had less than auspicious beginnings in very late 2025.

A very blustery day as Winnie the Pooh would say and the wind snatched the gate and slammed it shut  in such a way that it twisted the catch jamming it shut. It had to stay that way whilst I took a trip to A&E with my dad in an ambulance. As I fixed the jammed catch the next day the wind played again, another slam and the gate post split.

So a new post and a new gate were required.

An opportunity with the new gate to create access to the garden for hedgehogs.

I asked for a hole to be left in the new gate.

For ease and as they forgot until after the gate was hung the hole is simply the bottom of one of the lats cut off. 

It should be sufficient for the intended purpose, but it looks a little unintentional, like a broken bit.  That nagged at me and I thought perhaps I could add a small sign over the top of the hole to indicate its purpose.

Hedgehogs welcome, so it was obvious why the gap is there.

"hedgehogs can't read" my mother pointed out.  That logic did not take the idea out of my mind.

Indeed having not immediately done something simple my mind then began to Deborahize it. 

Not just a sign a frame like a little doorway, with the notice over the top.

Sketched it out then being me started doodling, little plant pots and plants coming up from them and then remembered!  I remembered buying a bag of little wooden shapes, there were plant pots, leaves, flowers oh even butterflies in that set. It became something more doable, and perhaps an achievable family project. Something my parents and I could do together.

A trip to the loft and a little strip of thin wood that looked promising for the frame. Found the wood shapes where I thought they were (always a wonderous win) and at the right width to go on my wooden strip.

Choosing which leaves and flowers to add, My mother took over that part of the planning. Quick photo to keep the order in mind.

Back to the loft to get the one long bit of wood into three bits as per the sketch.  Glue them together.

My mother coloured in the shapes using water soluble pencils. She found it a bit frustrating as the colours on the pencil was not quite the colour that appeared.

There was a slight design deviation during the colouring process which came to light when I glued the shapes in place.

I added the words..

Then off to the loft, half a tin  of clear varnish was sadly solid, the gold tinted varnish was not going to work. None to buy in the local shops so I had to order some on line.

I would note it might have been wise to check that it was going to fit the space, given I had done a quick measurement of it on a bit of brown paper. Sometimes I am not wise.

Fingers crossed then

Varnish arrived project delayed a bit more, more paternal health concerns. Then a lack of energy for clambering into the rather cold loft.

First coat on, then well its cold and a bit damp in the loft so more time for that to dry than suggested on the tin.

A couple of bright and sunny days then snow..even colder in the loft but had to go up to get the containers down to put the Christmas decorations in so second coat done. With hopes it might be dry by the time I actually get around to putting the decorations back up in the loft.

Nope still too cold for a speedy dry, but then the gate is not itself dry enough at this point for attaching the sign (which still have my fingers crossed for it fitting) and with the first named storm of the year approaching with some snow on the ground more waiting it is then.

And waiting  equals contemplating, glue it on or screw it on? ?

And more snow, and rain and wind and it being very cold, so extra contemplation time.... and a TV program with David Attenborough about the wildlife in London, and people cutting holes in fences between gardens for hedgehogs and calling it a hedgehog highway . And oh, they have little signs up over the gaps saying that. So perhaps not as mad an idea as I thought. 

The way the weather is going, and it is the time of year for poor weather the gate might get painted , we are onto the third named storm of the year and still in January.

As is oft the case the initial hurry hurry has become ah no rush perhaps better wait for the better weather and being able to get the gate painted first.

February comes and goes with lots more inclement weather, March comes with a couple of promising sunny days and then back to the wet weather. 

even more of the hurry hurry has faded even with my mother asking about it.

April and I have the green paint for the gate, which only leaked a little bit (I bought it off the internet and some reviewers had a less successful and much wetter delivery). I am waiting foe some sunny days to dry the gate so I can paint it and for it to dry.

So sunny days, not many, but very warm and the gate is dry and perhaps enough for the paint to dry, and my brother visiting because of my Father health and my Mother decided that we should paint the fence together as he is taller and could paint the top.

.

 

All nice and green, now and it dried fast. Fast enough to get the  sign attached. Drilled some holes, not necessarily all in the right places. Glue and tacks (which my brother had to knock in as all that painting apparently weakened my arms )

Hopefully now we have the sign up and the weather is getting better the hedgehogs will come a visiting.

And that the sign stays in place a good long time, it being a family effort in design and make and placement, and my poorly Dad managed to pop outside for a moment and provide quality control. He deemed it  as  quite smart looking.

Oh and it fit, crossed fingers were successful. And yes the path ended up with its share of green paint.

I expect the slugs and snails that live in our garden will be hoping the sign is a failure.

BFF SAL 24 week three

 more green, peach and pink

comforting chatting and a lot of yawning ping pong.

we finished a full nine mins before our usual stopping time as sewing when you are nodding off is quite difficult.

CLICK HERE for my BFF's update.

Dragons for a Fully Finished Friday April 2026

 is something that comes up on both Facebook groups and I have a feeling there is a blog that promotes that as well.

So my dragons, from the WOX and designed by Anne Stokes, the backstitch on the teal dragon was somewhat slower going than on the blue. Nothing to do with the change in thread , it just was.

The eyes were supposed to be French knots but instead I just did little black stitches and a teeny stitch of gold blending filament. I may have mentioned before that I have a Little BIT of gold blending filament.

I had decided that behind the warm toned linen I would put some gold card. Actual I started out thinking I would use some dark gold sparkly wrapping paper. and that looked rather good the sparkle came through in a delightful manner. But, you could feel that but coming couldn't you, I was a bit concerned the glittery part would come off the paper and do weird things to the fabric over time. So time to hunt for the gold card, I was pretty sure I had some, and indeed I did.

If you have visited before then you know I save stuff, I make do and mend and recycle where I can. Therefore it will not be a surprise that the gold card had a life before adding to this piece.  It was the top of a box of chocolates from Thorntons that a former team leader and his wife gifted me many years ago.  Thanks Ian and Sue, the box has extended the life and usefulness of that gift past the consumption of the chocolates.

The wide frame I has was rejected and became the home for an earlier finish, as per my earlier post and this thinner frame with a touch of gold felt as if it fitted both the frame and its intended destination much better.

I like the changes I made to the material used, the colour of the knotwork and the thread count that let me use an 8" square aperture for it,

I think it goes well with -la-sacpigliata- Knot, just a Tree, my Anne Stokes print my BFF gave me, the dragon mirror my pen pal gave me, the Korean lady candle sconce and dragon mirror I carved.

The shapes and colours and of course dragons together make me happy.

BFF SAL 24 week 2

 I would have posted this yesterday, but it might have looked like an April fools, that my BFF and I are doing the same pattern as they are looking quite a bit different so far.

I started with the pink and a recount or two as it did not look to be curving as anticipated. However the curve did appear so I guess it was ok.

Onto the green which looked rather brighter than I thought, double check the number and the right one so I guess it is OK.

As I am sort of cross country here and not filling in sections as I go I am trying to make sure I double check the negative spaces as well as counting the stitches as I go.

Looks to be working so far , so I guess its OK.

It looks guessable to me but I have some elements un-started that Roni has begun. Pop over to her blog for her update CLICK HERE all is well that ends well and she is OK.

Forestella are due to release a new song soon, I know the title and at this point would prefer not to have a project that it goes with...Armageddon! The lyrics might be something that lets me tie into a project for sharing. So I guess that will be OK.

Very useful is an OK.  Although sometimes "I'm OK" is a bald faced lie.

My Dad

 was always driving me places, including places to buy material, wadding, thread and assorted craft related stuff.

I made him a cushion for the car. well for him to have in the car, you never know when one might come in handy.

The centre diamond was in a satin that was as close to the colour of the car as I could get it.

And why the diamond?

to match the make of the car of course. The car is long gone but the cushion well it is around somewhere. If I come across it perhaps I will take a better picture of it.

In its Frame

 this is the cross stitch my BFF gifted to me and which I started in 2023 as a Sunday Stitching project.

I finished most of it that way, then had the backstitching to do in around July 2024.

Can't recall if it was posted after that and I can't be bothered just now to see if it was.

And then it waited to be framed. It needed a square frame.

Of course none of the ones I had already were suitable.

Then another project was started, The Dragons I have been calling it, Dragon Heart I think is the correct name and it also needed a square frame.

I bought a pack of two that looked promising but when the time came they were not suitable for the dragons and another more recent frame purchase was.

However as I had the frames out, the thought struck me that the Leaf Lighthouse as I think of it might fit,

And it did, I think it looks well here.

I will post the framed dragons a bit later. Had I used this style of frame for them I think I would have painted the frame.

Oh I forgot

 about this.

Came across the picture whilst clearing out some files.  Can't recall if this was for her current garden or one at a previous residence? 

BFF SAL 24 we begin

 on different material but I think the same count this time. (or perhaps not , see her comment below)

I have gone with 14 count white.

Started in the middle and this is my work for the evening.

There was a point it looked a bit like an elephant, then a cat, then maybe a kiwi. Roni thought it had a moment of being a bear cub but now I think it looks like what it is.

There is a phrase from my childhood that my brain offers up in an Australian accent, that the actions of the person to whom the phrase is associated makes its use feel uncomfortable. Yet still when referring to guessing what something might become from scanty visual information that is what my brain offers up as being the thing to say.

as usual we are not saying at the moment what we are working on as some visitors like to guess as we go. Using both my and my BFF's images as a clue as we tend, totally without discussion to stich different bits even when we start at the same point.

CLICK HERE to visit her blog or use the link under my blog list on the right to see her evenings progress.

It was nice to have some thing that was normal routine in this week.

BFF SAL 23 finished and gifted

 My BFF and I both started with the needlebook. I did a bit of drawn thread at top and bottom then started stitching it to the blue felt. I was halfway across the top when I realised I was stitching it on the wrong part of the felt for it to close as a book,

I was mid sentence when it dawned on me and the exclamation of "I am sewing it on the wrong way up" flowed out into the conversation...I will let Roni tell you her reaction to that Click HERE. 

So I unpicked it and started again. However, it was perhaps fortuitous as it gave me pause to consider how to attach the ribbon.

I used crossed stitches with sewing thread and found it very therapeutic, if somewhat slow.

Roni and I agreed that we would finish both the needle case and scissor keeper off screen. I had intended this as a gift and all of a sudden instead of posting it the opportunity for an in person hand over if I finished faster occurred. Plus we have a solid plan for BFF 24

So here they are, with added beads, and initials. Changed the ribbon to go with the little silver L

Snowdrops

 

I rather enjoyed this one. It has the possibility of being a repeat project. I have felt in the stash, and ribbon and well everything I need I guess. 

Ah ah..Halfway there!

 and wow its like putting on glasses in the morning and the world comes into focus.

The blue on the blue worked and I only found four edge ninjas on the way around.

On to the teal and fingers crossed, tempted to use the blue as it is now a known quantity but going to stick to the plan and teal it is. Now the blue was Moon thread, the Teal is Gutermann so might be just a little bit different.