Serial Starter?

I know I often have several projects on the go at the same time but Don't usually jump from one to another quite this much.

Doing a bit of a tidy of patterns I came across a couple pulled from a magazine and not slotted into a folder.

I had a thought about what I could do with it, and if it turned out OK who it would go to.

So here is it so far.

Now I am not going to say what the pattern is just yet, I an just going to share it as it progresses and hope that it will become apparent as the stitches are added, sufficiently so that you will know.

As I only have the pattern and not a picture of it sewn so how effective or should that be realistic it is going to look completed I do not know. 

Fingers metaphorically crossed.

So far and yet so near..Lockdown SAL

once again my BFF and I meet...via Skype that is for our weekly crafting session and our stitch-a-long.

And after these few weeks we try to treat it as normal and we try to talk of things other than the reason our crafting get togethers have become tech rather than face to face based.

It is not always easy, and to be honest it is not always necessary  but still we do it, and sometimes it works and we laugh and for a few small moments forget, so that when we remember we can do so calmly and make good safe choices.

Mind, the title of this post could just as easily be a reference to the progress we have made on the SAL itself.  In that on this first half we have come so far and are yet so near to a finish we can taste it without being finished. Fully aware there is another half to go which is the more involved part of the pattern with less of those soothing blocks of colour.

Mid way into our evening we had both anticipated completing the cross stitch elements and that move over to the other half, which raised the question backstitch this side before moving on or wait and backstitch both sides together?

My friend felt that would be way too much backstitch all in one go and given her concerns about the colours of the tulips it might be nice to see what the back stitch would do to the image.

I did manage to get started on the backstitch, and I nearly almost got it done, at least it gives a good idea how the tulips will look. And as my friend alludes on her blog ensured the leaves look like leaves.

My friends progress is over on her blog, she tells me that mine looks a different colour to hers over Skype, now I would think it was the difference in laptops changing the tones, except we have the same one?  So to check out her progress click on this LINK here.

Oh and I figured out why my blog options had changed, there are two options now and one is supposed to result in posts which look better on a mobile (that is the one I was on) I have reverted back as I like the text options a bit more on the original version.  Happy to know how to change back and forth should I decide to do so anyway.

Sunbonnet Sue Three and four

in a change to previous posts on this project both images are of finished ladies.

So this is Three finished, rather pleased with the way this one turned out, I think the blue hat added a certain something.  Now possibly, one or two of my visitors will also be aware of the sampler quilt blocks which are the origin of the scraps used here and therefore  may be wondering where the blue came from as it has not featured in any of those blocks.

Sunbonnet Sue

Well the answer there is a little preview of the next stage in the sampler quilt, the sashing.  The blue is from the bits being generated by the sashing, I will share the top once it is finished.  In the meantime the blue looked so nice on number Three I used it on number Four.

Sunbonnet Sue

I also much preferred sewing the tulip without leaves.  I was not sure if there would be more than four, even though there is still plenty of fabric bits remaining.

However as I have been enjoying this process and in the main (leaves aside) finding it relaxing, and II will have the sewing machine out for the quilt sashing I may well sew up a few more skirts and see how that goes.  

Sunbonnet Sue, Two and three

well something a bit individual happened with the bonnet to hat relationship.

So whilst the bow on the hat looks a bit better with the greater contrast and the placement of the little flowers I would not say this was either fully an improvement on the first one or a backward step.

Lockdown SAL.

Tonight there was no drama, just nice steady progress, OK once I had turned the volume on so I heard the Skype ringing and my BFF realised I was not just ignoring her, oh and part way through when her husband was trying to show me a picture of dragons on his phone, which I could not see and he sent it as a Facebook message and I managed to turn off the Skype and had to redial. Other than that, no stitching drama!

Finished off the pale blue into the corners, then oh the soothing filling in of the lilac. As it was fully surrounded by other done stitches there was no need for the pattern just the pure joy of cotton in needle being pulled through fabric...bliss.

And I was so very relaxed with that I even got to add new colour, three new colours to be exact.

So here is my update.

I think I will stick with flowers before moving on to leaves.

Now at he time of posting this my BFF has not posted her update so I can't give you a link to the exact post. (She has been busy today arranging a hymn sing on zoom for her social music deprived congregational friends) so if you just click on the link for her blog, Life outside the washing basket down on the right somewhere you can pop over and see how she is doing.

Update...BFF's blog is at link

Sunbonnet Sue number one and two

an update.

Finished the first one and happily as normal the marker pen has washed out. Equally as happily the green fabric marker pen in the Tulip leaves did not.

There are lessons learned in doing this first one that I hope will make the next easier to do. 

I am happy with the way the tulip turned out, the tucked under hems have given it a certain 3D feel.

As mentioned in my last post I have altered the boot shape and having pulled out my fabric dye pens for the leaves it occurred to me I could get some black the same way, so got my black boots. 

The edge of the skirt was easier this time around and that made it easier to give the edge a better scalloped effect.  The hand felt less fiddly too, Funnily enough I have paused at the same point, with the bonnet and tulip to go. .

Sunbonnet Sue number one.

made a start on the Sunbonnet Sues using scraps from the sampler quilt. As I have to match the templates to the available scraps and of course make sure that I am using them as frugally as possible (feel free to wander around my blog to see why that is a given) the colours are not fully planned out.

Still it is putting me in mind of paper dolls from my childhood, sorting out the little paper outfits and deciding what they would wear. I can't say I was as fascinated by them as some of my friends but they were a convenient craft / play item for taking places and keeping me amused when visiting relatives who's conversation was to me at that time uninteresting. I wish they were still here and I had the chance now to listen to their stories, ah the opportunities we miss..

Anyway here is my progress so far

I had planned on doing the boot black, but the scrap of black I had was too thick and too prone to fraying to use so I thought my fashionable Sue might have boots to match her jacket. The position of the boot is a bit off however a bit off is how it will stay.

How quickly we forget, it took me all of the boot and at least half of the skirt to get back into some sort of rhythm for the needle turning.

Mrs Jackson had not turned the hand on her example, I think the attempt for knuckle definition on the template is a bit ambitious so now I quite understand why she did not bother.

Oh the backing fabric is also form Mrs Jackson, there were four pieces in pink with tacked hems to prevent fraying and as they were just a nice size for the Sues that felt positively serendipitous.

Lockdown stitch along week four

and after the unpicking and re-stitching at the end of last week I was raring to make some progress and have a smooth stitch on  Tulip Biscornu by Durene Jones. which my BFF and I are doing as our very first stitch along.  We have done a shared project before afghan-alphabet but that was more a shared single project.

I managed this time to just need a few minor corrections as I was going and to stop in a place that will give me a very easy filling in as a starting point for next week.

the pale purple will fill in the wedges inside the blue.  The green stems and leaves for the flowers on the design make it easier to see the four flowers that will make up the middle of the design.  My BFF notes that hers, without the green looks more like a single flower. 

So you can pop on over to her blog to see how hers is coming together.

 lifeoutsidethewashingbasket.

At the moment this arrangement is replacing our normal gettogether because of Covid 19 lockdown however, as it is working quite well it is also alleviating some concerns about how we will go on when my friend moves closer to her job and further away from me.

Reduced face to face visits interspersed with out new technological get togethers to keep things running smoothly. 

Bits, inspiration or distraction?

So I had some planned time off work this week.  My focus was on getting all of the sampler quilt blocks up to size at 12.5 inches. The amount that needed to be added differed from block to block.

I have finished that, apologies if you were expecting pictures of the sized blocks, I did not take any pictures of them. I have got them all marked up using felt tip pens that are washable. 

It is just as well they are washable as the pen comes off onto the ruler and from the ruler to my hands. Funnily enough that transfer struck me as funny so I do have a picture of that.

 Happily the pen washes off hands as easily as they do from material.

So rather than moving on to the sashing for the sampler quilt another distraction has occurred.

Now most of the material in the sampler quilt was a gift from a friends mother in law who had to give up her crafting supplies as she moved into a care home.

Along with the supplies I was also the lucky recipient of her patchwork/quilting note book, I revisited it as all the small bits, the scraps, from the sampler quilt were nagging at me.  The bits really were too small to add to a bits a quilt yet it felt wasteful just to throw them away.

In the back of my mind was a Sunbonnet Sue in Mrs Jacksons note book.

Here it is.

Happily there was the pattern as well as the example, that meant I could draw templates out on the back of a Mrs Peaks Christmas pudding box (nice strong cardboard) and then looked at the bits.

So far I have sewn together (on the machine)  enough bits for four sets of skirts.  The rest of the pattern will be hand sewn, needle turned and also from bits. That is something I can do watching the TV and in the company of my family.  A pick up put down project with no deadline and at the moment a very loose plan of what to do with them depending on how they turn out. I will come back to that as they progress.

Here are the skirts.

You may be able to see numbers on the skirts, to help me get the bits sewn in order , again used those washable markers so no concerns about having the numbers on the front of the design.

As for the sampler quilt, perhaps next weekend, if being back at work does not wear out my brain I may revisit the layout, firm that up and start on the sashing.

Lock down stitch along, new rule

added at my request as a necessity.

Why rule and why, well the rule is that whilst stitching on the project other than during the stitch along is banned, correcting is allowed.

Her is a picture of where I was at the end of this evenings session, you may notice the addition of some dark blue, but also that there is less light blue than before.

When I came to add the dark blue at the bottom I realised there was an error in the light, The usual one stitch out but so far back time to pull out.  Now I will not call it frogging as there is no ripping involved I pull each stitch back out and then I re use the thread.

So my friend and I agreed that pulling out and  catching back up to where one would have been before the pull out could be allowed in none Skyping time. In this instance she also allowed me an additional 20 stitches as she had made a small start whilst waiting for the Skype call to connect and me to answer.

So this is where I am ready for next week,  You will note that there are a few half stitches (waiting for the top f the cross to go in) and there are more than 20 but I figured that 20 stitches was five fill stitches and 30 half.

Hopefully next time I will just be stitching ahead and not doing any in reverse! To see my friends progress pop on over to my frineds blog, just click here..


Oh I almost forgot, as the Sewing Bee is not on till 9 and we have normally stopped Skyping by then we are going to leave our night at a Wednesday.