BFF RAL

 it was very random this week, I thought I would start with the Millennium angels face, mistake , well yes and no, I discovered I had made a mistake in the jaw line at the end of my last session working on it.  Whilst I did feel up to sewing over one and chatting, unpicking over one and chatting not so much.

So that project went away, hopefully not for too long given I will need to start with that find the fault unpick.

So what to do..got my eye on a much relegated project that has been languishing for some time. It is a combination of cross stitch and specialty stitches or embroidery stitches. Which I have been finding annoying on the 14  count Aida.

Petals in an odd stem stitch  is where I was up to with the first of three completed, the second started and something else coming along to make me abandon it.

So goal for tonight finish the flowers.

By the third one I was free styling and less concerned with it matching the pattern than just getting something done.

I have been working this on a scroll frame however given the length of time it has been stuck on there it needed to come off and have a wash. So an opportunity to see the whole thing and assess where I am.

Lots of stem stitch, lazy daisy and French knots still to go. My mother wanted to know was it finished and had I not missed one. 

Having delved into one on a scroll frame item an taken it off for its bath, there was a second one. Now in this instance it was a charity shop purchase of a much larger scroll frame that happened to still have the project attached.

I had contemplated finding the pattern and finishing it, but on consideration I am not that enamoured of the idea. I may unpick the three little sections started (so farewell to the space shuttle) and then chose something to put into the little spaces. Not sure if the middle design will stay but the writing would go.

 

At the end of the evening there was time to contemplate if the BFF nights would continue as RAL or return to being a SAL.

We have found a pattern we both think would be pleasant to do for the coming season so our intention is to be back to the SAL from next week.

Oh I almost forgot to put in the link over to my BFF's blog CLICK HERE

Mr DeMille, I am ready for my close up

 after my last post of the angels face for Millennium back in April I noted that not every one  looks good close up and that perhaps was true of the angel.

It has been a long time since I picked it up, that is because I was debating if the last few stitches that I had put into the face had to come out or could they remain. They were the right colour but for some reason I used two strands where there should only have been one.  I think I stitched to far past the proper brain still functioning point into that dangerous just one more thread stage where the thought these stiches are not going in as easily as the others did not immediately equal stop you are sewing with too many strands. 

Unpicking when you have sewn over one is not delightful, but is doable and in this case that is what I eventually decided to do.

And the face of the angel on the left is done...hence the title of the blog.

looking so much better, although I must admit a bit of distance and the angel as a whole looks good too.

hands and face done on the left time to turn my attention to the face of the angel on the right.

It was Stake Conference this weekend, over the internet, not sure if the progress made will keep me going over the next few days or if it will wait till General Conference to be worked on again as I have other projects easier to fit into the working week and I have been trying to get some quilting projects moving.

BFF RAL (Random along)

 still got the giggles, chuckles and much merriment sewing this.

The changes to the original pattern become much more obvious at this point.

Changed the colour of the trousers to more jean tones.

Shortened the beard.

Made the "shades" darker and of course left off the pointy ears and then there is the hat.

Previous visitors with a good memory might just might understand the hat however as it is not quite finished I will leave any detailed explanations till later.

The backstitch is going to make so much difference, those buggy looking shiny Anchor Marlitt eyes will become shades for example. 

Now one of the delights of the random along is that these projects or anything we randomly decide to do on our joint scheduled craft night are not restricted to that night, either that they can not be worked on at other times or that they have to be worked on in our shared session.

So where this will be by next week or indeed it there will be something else an enjoyable question.

Now my BFF has been having a week off work and by the look of her blog a week on crafts so do pop over and see how she has been doing. We both love getting comments and having people chose to become followers.  I am not sure if the follow by e-mail still works, there were three months of warnings coming up that it would stop working by the end of that month, and the end came and then up popped the warning with a new end date. I have stopped getting the warnings so either they changed their mind and it still works or they (the producers of the widget) final got round to removing it.

Anyway here is the link to my friend.

CLICK here link to BFF

Oh and can I ask you a little style question if I may. I tend to fully justify my paragraphs out of habit as that is how I was expected to do them at work.  That has recently changed due to some report stating people found left justification easier to read...any thoughts or preferances?

Blackwork underskirt take two

first attempt unpicked time for a rethink. Something smaller but the question about regular or random. It is amazing how truly difficult random is to do.

So regular, did I try it out first or just do it..you know I just went for it. 

The new plan teeny tiny cross stiches at the point the squares in the Aida join.

And shading a little bit of shading with my teeny tiny cross stitches in three shades of grey. 

I did the darkest shade first, just  let it flow then the mid and the teeny bit of light.

I did it to binge watching The Watch on the BBC I Player . I like Terry Pratchet and have read all the Watch related books..and had to suspend 99% of that to watch the inspired by, variations on a theme, embellished version, an appropriate watching choice for my variations on a pattern stitching.

Much happier with this and so all of the fill is completed.

Well there is the hair. People have been waiting for the hair to take away the alien look of the Needlewoman.

and her gold needle of course, she had been looking for that needle for weeks and now she has it to hand.

If you visited earlier you may recall that I had a frame in mind and I extended the sides by two stitches and the top by twelve to fit in the mount which came with the frame.

Now that mount was just the paper one and I was quite OK with that in this instance. So ironed the piece and ready to frame, stretched it on a back card all ready and a draft of air into my work space and the paper mount wafted up, dropped down caught on the edge of the frame and ripped!

At least it was not the glass giving me grief (click here to link to my BFF's glass issue) but I did not have anything to hand to cut a fresh mount so it has just gone in "self" mounted. Maybe at a later date I will get some mount board and re-do. Maybe white as originally intended, perhaps black.

But at least she is framed and up on the wall and not languishing in the almost but not fully finished pile.

BFF RAL making me laugh

 I am working on a free design generously provided by Durene Jones. 

I chose it because it immediately reminded me of  the person to whom it will eventually be gifted.

I am altering a little as I go along to make the resemblance more pronounced and that is giving me the giggles.

Thinking of the gifting part and the anticipation of the look on their face gave both my BFF and I much amusement as we chatted about the planned changes and why.

It was an evening of totally relaxed stitching.

So this is my progress thus far. Not going so say what the original is or indeed who it is for at this point.

Suffice it to say it is fun.

Click here to see what my BFF randomed this week  (oh we did hold it last week but there was not much to show for it so neither of us blogged)

Blackwork underskirt take one

 I have been prevaricating this for two lots of wallpaper and a floor. There is no more putting it off.

So the underskirt was the first bit of need something more that I wanted to do but I had not settled on a fill pattern.

It was whilst looking for that I came across the fill for the lower section of wall paper in The New Anchor Book of Blackwork which I then amended for the upper section of wall paper.

None of the fills in the book felt like they fit. Then I thought perhaps if I did just the goldwork sections from the over dress but in dark grey that might work.

I rather enjoyed sewing in the little crosses and stars. That I like doing the blackwork and find it soothing is one of the reasons that this pattern has been getting its additional fills. However, much as I liked sewing this I got to this point with the bits of the skirt under the chair still to do and decided I did not like it. Too big, to solid just not right at all.

So out it had to come. Now I will be honest the thought of unpicking it did give me pause and I gave it several hard stairs trying to convince myself it was just fine or maybe would be with something in the middle of the squares to break up that big space. And then I clipped the threads at the back and pulled it all out. 

Once the decision was made the unpicking was oddly therapeutic in its own right, as the grey fluff  pile grew. 

An once it was unpicked, well back to contemplating.

Blackwork

time to do something with the floor.

I drew an outline of the fire place bottom and the edge of the table and skirt and I tried to work out something pattern based with diminishing sizes..nah! Currently and possibly for some time yet to come that was beyond my skill level.

As was anything that would attempt perspective on the vertical plane.  So horizontal it had to be.

Initially I thought I would transition from the very light grey, to light grey to a darker grey as it moved to the front.

I changed my mind as I sewed.

I changed from stitches that covered one square in the first rows to covering two squares then three then four before I increased the space between rows and continued increasing the stitch length. only the last two rows closer to the bottom were in the mid grey stage.

I rather like it which is a relief. Added a few little stitches  in the mid grey at the feet of table, chair and lady stop them floating around.

I also filled in the fire place.

Just a quick reminder( or if you are visiting with me and this project for the first time) the starting point for this is Holbein Embroderies Blackwork design BW131 The Needlewoman. There is no comma in Emboideries on the pattern and as it is their company name I am not messing with that, I have messed with or embellished or added to whichever way you want to put it on the wall and now the floor.

Next in line for my meddling is the underskirt, which funnily enough is the bit I had thought of doing in  extra to the pattern in the first place.  But I am still not quite sure what...back to the graph paper.

Sunday Stitchings

 a touch of red, however without all of the required stitches to complete them these boots certainly don't look made for walking.

I am looking forward to doing the middle of the sunflower, but that takes a bit of planning as the colours are not amongst the thread that came with the set so I have to pull them from my stash in preparation and I invariably forget as I have other things to have ready for church.

BFF SAL four a second double dip

 once again I am starting by sharing my progress after the two additional hours we allotted ourselves.

those teal shades in the mountains are some of my favourite colours but oh they were getting on my nerves as the shades and symbols were so close to each other.

But it was progress all the same.

And at the close of the evening, and indeed with quarter of an hour to go.........

It is finished. Now there are rather more deviations from the original pattern than I might normally be happy with. The most obvious one being the crop, but there are wanderings in the colour placement as well. I am just happy to have the stitching finished. 

My BFF had a little more left and felt it would be best to do that outside our skype session (click here for her update) so a nice cup of hot chocolate and a chat about what to do next. Lots of options were discussed and whilst we have enjoyed working on the same projects at the same time this last one was a bit of hard work as evidenced by our divergence from the original design.

Oh yes we promised to show you what it was supposed to look like and what it is called and the designer. (I have completed one of her designs before and loved every stitch) so I feel the issues with this were all due to our original expectations. Although oddly I think that this may well get framed before the earlier stitch..oh my it has been 14 years that the other piece has been waiting and its not the oldest piece waiting..must get some finishing done.

So here it is  Sheila Hudson's original.

                                                                     

I am still drawn to that tree but it is just not to be.

Ah and what did we decide to do next? Random anything craft related that strikes our fancy. A bit of this and that and whatever till one of us finds something that we think we might both enjoy. We like the idea of some black work, or may be something neither of us have tried before.  But nothing to big or involved, we need to recover from not fully anticipating how annoying we would find trying to stitch this beautiful design. 

Little update and my BFF has also finished her stitching and what's more found a link to the original real world view that inspired the full piece..follow the link to see CLICK Here

Blackwork mirror mirror

 on the wall,

is done, metallic as per the pattern( well almost as I used a different one for the dress to the frame), with a bit of an addition for the glass.

So that is all the metallic as per the pattern done.

from the pattern all that is left is the hair. However, I have not been following the pattern exactly as you may know, I added the wallpaper and have extended the sides by two stitches and the top by twelve so it will fit the mount for the frame that I plan on using. I still feel that the underskirt needs something, what that something should be I have not settled on yet.

I wish that I could think of a way to do the floor that would give it depth.  Maybe something will occur to me soon. No rush this is for me so I have no deadline.