A different take

 on the description of random numbered threads.

You may have seen my posts with the castle and dragon sampler using variegated thread or my Christmas gift box which contains non DMC thread that has DMC compatible numbers.

Some was gifted to me and some I bought from TEMU. 

Usually I have bought either the variegated sets or toned sets of teal or skin tones.

I did however also get two packs of " random assortment"

Here they are.

At fist glance looking like an OK selection of very usable colours, I did not notice the issue until I was putting thread onto bobbins.

Can you see it?

enlarge it perhaps and take a moment.

See it, it took me a moment as well. Then it made me laugh. At some point in the future when I have a desire to do "something" yet not perhaps to sew I will get my  DMC threads out and do a colour match so I know what numbers to put on the bobbins so I can add them to the not DMC  storage box.

A Finish !

 Flowers of the Month Picture is done, well the stitching is done.

Ta Da!

The finished size is 14" by 18" (the kit suggests the matted size would be 18" by 22") it may wait awhile to be finally finished.

I did consider adding some little green beads as I have a tube of them but I have held off, impressed with myself.

The musical link is a little different due to the events of the weekend past. To everything there is a season.

The Double Guilt within the Satisfaction

As I work on this long-paused project, I’m struck by a double layer of guilt — the kind that comes from not working on other projects that are also waiting. Why double? Because this one involves both cross stitch (Millennium Comet and Earth) and embroidery (Hark the Herald Angels), meaning two beloved pieces are being side lined. I genuinely want to finish them; they have a place, a purpose, a future. Yet here I am, stubbornly pushing through a project I haven’t been enjoying much, and honestly, I’ve no idea what I’ll even do with it once it’s done.

However, I know that once it is done there will be satisfaction at finally getting it finished. I have even started thinking of a little Deborization on the project (So far I am resisting that).

The stitching on the last empty month finished it was time to turn back to the edge where many a lazy daisy stitch was required.

As I worked them I realised there were places that the stalks for the lazy daisy leaves were not all there. I had missed a few. In going to add them I recalled I made an error when doing the stems in the first place, using the wrong colour. Fortunately I had some of that thread left. 

I kept sewing longer than I should thinking to finish this section and just have the names of the months left to do. With a contented sigh I put the threads away and took a picture.

Ah! still missed one! Can you see where it should go?

It will just have to wait till the next outing to get done. I have put the needle in the spot as a reminder so as not to get excited by how near to completion this is and going directly to the lettering.

As for the Forestella link well this is a long one as a compilation.  I wonder if the popularity of  the Netflix K-Pop Demon Hunters will inadvertently lead to more people finding  them through the auspices of AI algorithms. I however don't have that particular subscription so have not seen that animation.

What Knots

 well they are knots of some sort, I did not follow the directions this time. I tried something a little different that felt more logical to me. Although I will note that the instructions on the pattern are the correct ones. Its just me not getting on with them yet. 

To be honest I don't think it worked better than the set method however, nor do I think they were worse.

Either way they are done, and unless there manages to be a ninja Bullion Knot then they are all done with.

There are I think two  French Knot s left, on satin stitched berries, so next is the currently empty square that is for October. July and August are now done.

And a Forestella link,  well mainly because it is the piece I was listening to as I drafted this post and as it is also a season.

BFF RAL after all

 I was all set to put the project with many an odd stitch and very maddening pattern away for the BFF and start a new SAL.

However, that was not to be, Rudolph was not quite ready so neither was Roni.

So, I thought I was done with June and July only to realise June had over 30 lazy daisies to do and July, oh July has over 30 bouillon knots.

This evening June got the daisy stitches (and yes that particular perfume advert did earworm us a bit, Roni more than me but still. Then I moved onto some stem stitch and more daisy in August.

yes August, and the poppies

but what about July, and whatever those yellow flowers are supposed to be ?

Well I could rationalise that I was in the swing with the stem stitching a daisy stitches, I could but that was not the reason My Stitching Brain having been promised a nice new start of proper cross stitching was already in a bit of a sulk at having to do this project instead was certainly not going to put up with having to do Knots.

This is the current position. With work still to be done on July and August. September is done however, October is completely blank at the moment and November need veins on the leaves.

All the months need their names and there are more lazy daisy stitches than I wish to contemplate and channelling Han Solo "don't tell me the numbers" there or the chances of them being done any time soon diminish. I should not have counted the number of knots required in July and will have to work on forgetting I did so I can sew them!

Still it has been some reasonably constant progress.

I looked the pattern up, well the kit, it came as a kit and you can buy the kit on E-Bay if you felt a strong desire to suffer experience the pattern for yourself!

I have some hopes that these threads, sorted ready might get put to use next week and  SAL 20 start , but we shall have to wait and see as Roni may explain on her blog of this evenings delights

Click HERE to see what Roni has to tell about the evenings goings on.

now normally this would be a Forestella link but this tune was playing in my mind about our SAL's and RAL's so her it is. 

Many Knots

 supposedly of the French type. Not exactly being cooperative, but I am plodding away at them. Red knots, brown knots and shades of yellow knots.

So far they are still preferable to going back to the lazy daisy stitches. 

BFF RAL Knots

 There was more stem stich to do, but that was not what I was feeling for this week. So I decided to do the Fancy stitches one month at a time and see how it went.

So first French knots.

Then bullion knots, someone told me they were easier than French knots! Perhaps for them not so much for me!  The third one was the only one that went well. Nine of them done then onto more French knots, surely they would feel easier now?

Sadly not, but I got another set done. That was three squares finished apart from the lettering.

I managed the few knots in the fourth and that was enough for the evening.

I think we are still RAL for next week, perhaps I will get something more done before then.

CLICK HERE to see what my BFF worked on this evening.

BFF RAL selective amnesia

 that is the only explanation for me picking this up again today. Well that and an optimistic thought that having managed some finishes recently of slightly bigger projects , Crowned Cross and The project that is slated for seasonal sharing perhaps I could get another project sorted.

At first glance there is not a lot left to do, but and it is a big but what is left is special stitches. Ah yes that's why I paused. 

I have it out so what looks the easiest, there are stems to do, ah stem stitch on the sixth month, the sixth flower. I did get that done, lazy daisy leaves, no not feeling that stitch. I procrastinate by looking for anything else in the colour in my needle. Ah yes there is and joy it is just backstitch on the poppies.

That felt like a lot of effort, but it has got me started.

However there was a lot of muttering about the chart and the key.

All of the stitches are identified by a shape, with the symbol of the colour to use with a line pointing to the section to be completed with that stitch type and shade.

It is eye boggling, and that is also something I forgot!

having picked it up again I might manage to keep going to a finish or perhaps not.

Maybe it will be my project for next BFF RAL.

I wait to see.

CLICK HERE for my BFF's update. 

A little something

 to keep my hands busy and use some "oh interesting" purchases and bits.

Firstly, some little hessian bags.

Secondly some un-numbered gifted thread

Then some little plastic flowers and a pearl (I bought quite a few looking for the right size and now I have many available for adding wherever).

And done.

I have some of everything left so I might repeat it next time I have the hand figits but don't feel up to working on any of the bigger projects.

Into 2025

 and not a single stitch was added to Hark the Herald Angels in 2024, not even after I found the Christmas Card. The Earth and that comet did get some stitches but it feels like they will take the Millennium of the title to get done. The tie quilt still has not been started, the illusion quilt not quilted. The year in flowers has had no growth and so many things are still in the thinking stage.

Isn't it oft the same that it is the unfinished, not started, stalled (let us not think about the two knitting projects, shhh) that tend to be thought about?

I have finished things, the evidence is in a years worth of blogs, but at times I loose sight of the done, the completed and see only what remains.

And I begin a new year less in celebration of achievements and more a glum consideration of the things on this years try and do list that were in the same place last year.

So what did I do today?

A little bit of white on Hark the Herald Angels whilst listening to  Forestella.

I shall leave you with an update picture and the
first of this years Forestella videos.

Conference Stitching

 ended up being the 3 angels, and adding to the white. 

Still a long way to go with this. But the single colour stitching was very good for focusing on the talks.

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.

RSN Stitchbank project

 I came across this on my Facebook feed and thought it was an amazing resource, so I thought I would share it here as well.

They are collecting stitches and making them available. They have 250 so far, you can access an image of the stitch from this link

Click here for link

and then if you click on the stitch, it will let you see it sewn, show you the method and have a little video of how to do it.

Hope you find it useful.

Down the Rabbit Hole

 sometimes being a crafter an idea gets hold and you just have to go with it even if where it leads you feels a bit like being Alice after a white rabbit.

Some years ago now at work, a charity day was planned and the theme was Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

With prizes for the best hat.

I found a hat in a charity shop that had a little ceramic tea pot on the crown and a cup and saucer on the brim and a black bow and feather to the side. A perfect starting spot.

I added playing cards (which had been a serendipitous inclusion in a sale brochure for ace bargains or something like that) . Sadly I was unable to attend on the day and the hat was relegated to the loft., it has been keeping the Christmas decorations company.

So when the theme resurfaced but this time as a Relief Society activity at Church the hat also resurfaced.

It should have been a simple case of re-sticking the playing cards which had come loose but a conversation about the rabbit and the pocket watch had me thinking how to add one to my hat (a pocket watch not a rabbit at this stage). A real one would have been far to heavy, that little tea pot and cup are heavy for a hat to begin with.

If you have visited with me before you know I like to reuse things when I can. So the bottom of a Cadbury's Little Pot Of Joy looked just the right size. Cut it off with a craft knife, covered it in tin foil and then a nice sticky label with the clock face on. Foil covered tooth pick for the winder, some random chain and pocket watch for hat.

I was rather pleased with the look of it and the drape of the chain over the tea pot down into the cup.

You would think that would be sufficient, sensibly that would be quite enough for one hat. 

However, this is me, and I started thinking that the side with the cards was a little bare at the bottom and needed something to balance it out. I thought about it, jam tarts perhaps what did I have that would be a quick tart? Most things I thought of were too heavy or would take too long as at this point there were only a few days to go.

What about Alice, I contemplated using a peg and some paint and paper, but that sounded stiff and I could not get my mind to play it through. 

So it became make a little doll Alice. Wadding trimmings, old tights, scraps from the quilting.

And a little doll, not Alice just yet. This is the first time I have tried this and I was quite pleased with how the wadding in the tight fabric moulded into the head and face with some sculpting stitches.

The arms just made with rolled tight material contracted a little and felt a little short in proportion  but given this was without a pattern that there were arms was a good start as far as I was concerned. I did push a little bit of wire (recycled from a used up ring bound note pad) into the arms as an afterthought so I could position them.

I did consider adding the hair using embroidery floss, but then a little ball of pale yellow wool caught my eye and I thought that might be just a bit quicker. Time becoming an ever more important factor now as this was now the evening before the event.

I am sure that sewing on the wool was indeed faster than the thread would have been, not so sure about brushing it out , styling it and getting the Alice band in place. I used white ribbon as I had some very thin white ribbon which did double duty for the bow on the apron and the Alice band.

The legs were scraps of white around more wadding scraps .The shoes were drawn on with black permanent marker and that was by far the quickest and easiest part of this process. The legs also had wire pushed in to make them less floppy. Here she is on the hat.

On the day, the hat stayed solidly in place on my head, Alice stayed put on the hat (used double sided tape to hold her on) the chain on the watch moved a bit and the watch came unstuck and was repositioned into a loop of the bow. (Thank you BFF)

As you make have guessed from the previous paragraph my BFF was also in attendance, with her own embellished hat. Not sure if she will blog about that herself, if so I will add a link when she does. And if not perhaps I will update with images of her hat.

We had a lot of fun, riddles to answer, a getting to know you game, lovely food  and some interesting spiritual lessons referencing some of the lessons Alice learned on her journey.

The new experience of making the little face was enjoyable, the hair less so (and it is a good job she not  made to be viewed from behind). Indeed as she was intended only as a decoration the join of the legs to the body is basic, there are raw edges under there and on the back and the wire is by no means invisibly secured. She is certainly not meant to be a toy.  However some of the techniques I may try again at some point with less time constraints and a more durable finish. Should the right project arise.

And as for the hat, at least it got a day out in this incarnation before heading back to the loft, and there is space on the back of the hat next time this theme comes up and I head back down the rabbit hole of I could just make rather than settling for it as it is!  At least that is one thing I know about myself.

In celebration of 10 years

of Serendipitous Stitching...not that I have been along for the ride since the beginning (my loss) and you can see how Jo is celebrating by following this link she has given us the opportunity to celebrate along with her by answering these ten question for ourselves.

 1. The tenth project you completed

On dear, I have no idea what this might be, before I started blogging myself I was not by any means a record keeper...hmm this may not go well... can I add something I think I completed when I was 10 instead..(I might have been just say 11) 

2.    The tenth blog post you made

Oh I think I might be able to answer this one...well as relates to my craft blog at least.

It was some of my school stitching proof-positive and the sorry fact I did not know you needed to separate the threads! 

But if it was truly the tenth blog post ever, well then that would be am-i-seated-comfortably from my first (not sewing or craft) related blog.

3.    The tenth blog in your blog roll (or your reader or however you follow blogs)

Ah well that would be Jo over at Serendipitous stitching....how serendipitous it that! 

4.    A designer you have stitched more than ten designs

Oh dear, no don't think I can do this either yet, I may well get there with the Country Companions Designs but I don't think I am there quite yet. 

5.    A project that took/is taking more than ten years to complete

Hmmm...from thinking about it, or buying the pattern or making that fist stitch...probably, currently Teresa Wentzler's Millennium.  Mind if you include finishing time..well there is a project I have not as yet shared  

that has been waiting to be framed longer than I have been stitching Millenium...oh the shame! And I think it may wait till it is framed to get blogged about. Oh I know..this one 

which also leads into the next question....

6.    A design on the theme of "ten"

Thank goodness for the advent!

7.    The tenth colour on your current project.  Do you use this colour a lot?

Current project...well the most recently picked up and sewn on  has 520 dark fern green. I don't think it is one I use a lot as the number did not immediately invoke the colour of it in my mind.

8.    Your tenth WIP for WIPocalypse, WIPGO or whatever list you make

Not something I am actively doing. I have a little book I put things "to do" in, call it my to do book (yup very inventive title that) but it covers more than sewing or even crafts, so not sure the tenth waiting to be completed entry qualifies.  Do I have ten WIPs..hmmm let me think I have four cross stiches on the go at the moment, Millennium, the Celtic cross, just started..the Country companions which will be my Sunday stitching if church attendance gets back to normal and the flowers of the the year (been awhile since that came out to play) four quilts, the sampler with the top done waiting for a quilting design, one sandwiches ready to quilt and two bits a quilts with a ways to go, then there are the Sunbonnet Sues  (hmm than makes nine and the embroidery of Angels OK I will count that as number ten and take the opportunity to do a little update. 

working on those draped sleeves and wanting them done so I can start on the robes (angel faces in Millennium may well come first)

9.    Your tenth finish this year (or last year if you haven't finished ten so far this year)

Hmm not sure, trying to check back on the blog and I keep loosing count of finishes mixed up with the ongoing projects.

10.    How has your stitching style changed in the last ten years?

I had not given that a lot of thought....well other than knowing now to separate the threads I think what I see in my head still challenges what my hands and eyes can accomplish. But perhaps I am not the best judge of what has changed or indeed stayed the same...if you have visited the blog and seen my projects past and present perhaps that is a question for you to answer, go on the comments box awaits.

So there are my ten answers such as they are, if you did not come here from Jo's blog pop on over there and look at her ten...they are much more impressive, the link is at the top of this post. Oh and no picture of me at ten either. 

A new Year..2021

Looking back at my post this time last year, well 2020 certainly was not what any of us expected was it.  As for the projects I expected to be focused on and was hoping for lots of progress..well

If you have been visiting then you will know that the project with two angels..Teresa Wentzler's Millennium did not progress to the over one sections, I am currently stuck up Mount Everest!

So the hopes for this year..to get out of the mountains and onto the angels hands (yes the night sky is more tempting with colour which is not shades of beige however I feel that the hands and the faces too might be a better starting point. I may change my mind, there is time to change your mind about things when you are wondering in the mountains.

Ah yes and the project with the three angels?

I must admit I am just sharing little snaps shots of that as I go, I have not done an "as it is being sewn" for one of the embroideries before and they feel more personal than the cross stitches and indeed as I make choices about how to stitch each section, what colours to use and fret about if something is working or not , well I would rather wait I guess till a section is all done.

So I will note that the wings are completed, the instruments are mostly done (strings and straps will have to wait until robes are completed). Hands and forearms are done and I am busy with sleeves. 

There was a bit of a sleeve in the last update.  I am hoping to get the sleeves done in my current pick up of this project (I only have one set left to go but the bigger more flowing of them) and there is a chance that may happen as whilst my BFF is using out weekly craft sessions to  work on her time bound project rather than our joint one, I am using the same time for my Three Angels.

So here is a little snap shot of wing feathers and sleeve.

Now I had originally thought to use more of the DMC light effects than I have and I had intended to limit myself to Anchor thread. I have a random collection of it from years of  buying it here and there from market stalls and charity shops.  However, as the sleeves came along I felt that was maybe going to be a bit too limiting. 

My BFF gave me the thread left from her rare favour sewing of Madonna and Child which was a kit and the threads were Anchor. She gave me the whole kit, I had not used any of it when a post on Facebook in December 2020 caught my eye, someone was looking for just that pattern. I offered to post the pattern out, then realised the kit had no key, just the symbols next to the thread on the pre wound thread card.  Ah well, I had not taken the thread off yet and as it had cost me nothing and given the time of year and the subject matter passing on the whole thing felt right, and the added bonus well although the Facebook sight the post was on was a national one the lady wanting the pattern lived in the next town to me and worked in a village even closer so change of plan from posting to a meeting.

We met at the gates of the Catholic Church in my town (it is quite large and a good landmark for making meet arrangements) mask on I waited, my friends who do am dram were walking Dolly the dog and stood chatting with me whilst I waited.  Up pulled a car, a quick wave a socially distanced pass over of a plastic bag and the kit was on its way (to be sewn as a gift), my friends said it looked amusingly suspicious.

So I do hope we have a better year ahead than the one behind, in general and in the completion of projects.

The no stitch stich along

well no stitching on the joint project that is.  My BFF needed some extra time on a to be gifted project so we paused the bluebell woods.

I had intended to start a similarly themed project also intended as a gift but my head was not in starting from scratch.

So I worked on something that has had little teaser updates here and there in other posts.

Still just a little look at last nights addition.

Things went quite quickly with the project when I first started then things slowed as the world changed and as the light in the dinning room got gradually dimmer. Which I did not fully realise till the dark night were well in.

I really enjoyed working on this last night it has been awhile since I was doing something other than cross stitch or quilting when working with thread.

Here is The Link over to my BFF's blog.

Lawn Bowls Season over

and my dad is packing away his gear for another year.  I have previously shared a humorous piece I stitched for him bowls-season-openfire.

That was not the only bit of stitching I have done for him.  Much earlier I hand stitched his club crest and attached it to white towelling making a neck scarf for those rainy matches as he hated drops or rain getting down his neck.

It is about three inches square.

I took a picture of it before it went away till next April when the season starts again next year.

I remember stitching it on the weeks my dad was doing a 3 - 11 shift and keeping hidden till Christmas.  I was very pleased with the way it turned out...I still am as it has worn well I made it well over 30 years ago...

Getting to be all about letters

So last Sunday I gave up on the cross stitch I was going to have for my Sunday Stitchings.  All week I have been intending to sort out a pattern for this week...and not a thing was sorted.

So Sunday morning and no stitching is ready.  If I sit in the Chapel to hear the talks the lights bring on headaches of large and debilitating proportions.  If I sit in the other room, which has the talks on speaker but have nothing to occupy my hands my mind wanders and I don't concentrate as well on the topic being covered.

No sewing = wandering mind.

I grabbed a piece that could be termed embroidery and  in the spirit of solidifying the "stop the cottage" decision from last week, used one of the blue shades from the  abandoned cottage kit for the project which at the moment consists of letters.

I am only showing the little bit I am working on as I am not quite ready to share this in full as yet.

At the same time the "to sew or not to sew" question of the sleeping dragon has been resolved.  Whilst sorting through wadding to ascertain if there was enough for the pink quilt (there is if I cut it in half and sew it back together....yes that sounds mad but very quiltery) I came across a piece of 2 oz wadding just the size for the dragon.  So, I sew and as I work on yet more letters, quilted ones I am once again asking that time old question...who's stupid idea was this, and once again the answer is...mine!

Ah well hopefully once it is finished I will be pleased with my choice to quilt, at the moment I am wishing that Mr Pratchett had written a sightly, no a lot shorter amazing paragraph about dragons!

The talks today, well they amounted to don't get scared by the big picture and all the things that need to be done.  Focus on the good you can do today and the good you can do tomorrow.

So I shall try not to look at all the words I have to sew, just the letter I am stitching and perhaps the one after that. 

Graduation portrait two

So on to the second graduation portrait, I had set myself a high standard with the first which made this one daunting, it had to reach the same level.  I found my first bit of procrastination in trying to find the shield/motto for her university.  A more modern institution to her husband's, I never did find one, I guess it did not have one.

Then it took a little while to sort the material for her dress (I went with satin) and the colour of the hood, they were so close in tone.

Sort out the order for assembling tack it down and start the detailing.

The eyes on the first portrait went too well, I was nervous it would not work out this time.  I worried without cause, I feel that the eyes here turned out exceptionally well.  Therein I had a problem, I worked on the eyes early on, a mistake, those eyes were full of mute accusation. Why because she had no mouth.  Not for a short time for a long time. Everything else was getting stitched.  Hair, tassels, hands, rings (more metallic thread) collar bone everything and anything not to do the mouth.  Teeth, that is what scared me, and open smile with teeth.  First attempt was carefully unpicked, as was the second and third.  I just could not get teeth to work, there would be months between working myself up to another attempt, or was it years.  

It was easy to let other projects elbow their way it, take priority be started and finished and still those eyes watching... 

At last I reached the only logical conclusion, don't do the teeth, let the eye and brain of the viewer fill it in.

I think it worked. I think it became an equal companion to the first portrait.  A fitting reflection of the  equal partnership in this marriage. 

So now I had five blocks, what was I going to do with them. That required some thinking and staring at the blocks,the engagement,the wedding,graduation lion,and graduation portrait  and some more thinking and staring.  I will leave you thinking about what you would do with them and tell and show what I did in another post later.

(addition 2024 as I have discovered a Korean group and become very fond of their music both as a group and their sols endeavours so here is a link to a song with a title relevant to the hardest part of this  block for me, the song lyrics however have nothing to do with the post at all!)