No Sunday Stitchings today, I was not feeling well when I woke up. My parents were able to go and when they came back announced that there was a gift for me!
Oh a box I do like a box, nice colour and leaves how nice that someone sent me a box.
Oh it has things in it! Wow I was happy with a box.
Sorted the threads into numbered and not
That's a lot of numbered threads, it is the DMC numbering as evidenced by the 310 Black but I think it is the "other" three letter named number compatible range so that should be interesting.
And lots of random threads to add to my collection of those.
And the wool, well with the permission of the giver it might for obvious reasons find its way to another home.
A nice bit of thread sorting and being able to participate in this months link up with Jo over at serendipitous stitching cheered me up.
after some discussion we did settle that this was a plus to SAL 18 rather than SAL 19. It is the same pattern, the same colours and whilst a different material as it was a direct follow on, 18 plus.
We each had a little bit of cross stitching to go on the second square and we had waited to finish that off on camera before finishing as scissor keepers.
Roni told me she had a scissor keeper all finished except for stuffing, closing and adding the ribbon or cord and as she would be getting out the wadding anyway she might work on it tonight.
So in anticipation of that and as this had been a fun stitch and there was room, I made a second set in a different colour way. Oh and this time I followed the pattern.
Normally I would do the right sides together and turn out, even if the finishing directions say otherwise. This time as it was so small I thought I would try something different.
Add the wadding to each half, turn the hem over the wadding then add the ribbon and sew the two sides together.
So it made me laugh when this time Roni decided to do the turn out!
How did it go?
started OK
hmm had more material on two of the edges than on the other.
added the ribbon for a corner hanging. and things were going slowly.
and a bit frayed and uneven.
Added a six strand thread couched round the edge.
Not sure that was a good idea.
At about this point my BFF was just about finished addressing edge issues on her turned out version.
Here is mine finished with the original on wood and some small scissors for scale.
My BFF had turned her attention to her larger and much more involved scissor keeper which was waiting for its final finish so I moved onto the green set.
This time I would turn it, then stuff it and add the ribbon on the straight edge.
Right sides together.
Turning was hard work and halfway looked like a mitten for me rather than a sack.
however once it was turned adding the wadding, ribbon and sewing it closed was much easier and therefore quicker.
I like the ribbon from the corner but an edge is easier and neater for me to do.
CLICK HERE to see how the evening went for my BFF, and as she mentions we may not have quite finished with this little pattern yet.
we decided to try the idea I had at the end of the cross stitching on SAL 18.
We would repeat the patterns on AIDA and make a scissor fob to go with the thread drop.
I found an off cut in white 14 count that would accommodate the 14 by 14 count of the pattern. Yes it is going to be a small fob for a small pair of scissors I guess. I thought that on this much smaller size and using two strands I might have enough thread left from the kit to do the fob.
I have had to repeat my design deviation to match the drop.
Looks like there will still be some thread left over once the fob is completed!
As you can see stitching on AIDA went much quicker than on the wood.
In the same space of time one version of the design is completed and the other is over halfway.
We both agreed it was considerably easier on fabric, however it took a little while to get used to the counting on the changed base material. Probably because it was the same pattern. I had no trouble making the switch back to counting on AIDA for my Sunday stitching project.
We had a nice chat about this and that as we went as this allowed for that. Although at times we also had silence. Which I think was as we were both kind of tired and it was a "what were we talking about, lost our train of thought" kind of silence not a "need to concentrate on counting" kind.
We plan to have the requirements to hand to fully finish SAL 19 next week and perhaps have some time to fully consider what will be SAL 20 (unless we decide this counts as 18 part two and it is 19 we need to select).
CLICK HERE to see how my BFF has approached this, and how we have once again been the same but different!
I said we had a plan for the back of this project. Here it is, a little bit of felt (another Temu purchase a little pack of felt squares in various colours) it is that slightly stiffer felt with a little sheen to it.
It is sewn on and due to the depth of the holes in the wood it was possible to start with a knot on the right side of the project without it being visible.
The section in the middle reflects the lines of backstitch required on the front, bur with care as to the positioning on the back and where transitional stitches would fall.
I quite like the way it turned out and the felt makes the back less slippery when putting the project down adding to it's functionality.
well that is how it feels when I have new glasses to wear with a change in prescription. So to give my eyes a chance to get used to them I stayed with adding the bright colours.
The chunks of colour are rather satisfying to do but getting back to the more blended section in my goal for next time.
And the glasses, well it was the distance part that was changed and I can now see a pattern at a little distance much better, so not having to pick it up and hold it close as I have been doing. Hopefully in a few days my eyes will be more used to the change and straight lines on the left of objects will stop bending!
This is the "changed to" project I mentioned last BFF post. Still a cover kit, this stitch is on wood and neither of us has tried that before. I have tried perforated paper previously and there are some similarities in the way the needle has no traction through the holes and just drops. For stopping and starting the paper is a bit easier but for grip the wood is better. I was at least not worried about squashing it as it was being sewn.
The kit came with two colour placements for the same pattern, so I asked my BFF which she was going to do and I would do the other one. And then I started on the same one she did, ohps! Realised before I was four stitches in so took them out and started again on the right pattern.
The kit has no suggestions as how to start and finish a thread on wood. As the pattern called for two strands I thought I would try the loop start. It was an ok way to start and could also be used to catch in the end when finishing. However, as the lengths in the kit were quite short it made for a lot of stopping and starting. I stuck with it for the dark blue sections. Once I had that all done I remarked that the coverage was poor and I thought three strands would be better and it looked as if there was enough thread in the kit to do that. Roni started with the light blue and came to the same conclusion.
For the mid blue I changed to three strands which gave me longer lengths to work with. The option for a loop start gone I was back to slip start and stops, but less of them with the longer lengths. That was just as well as it was much trickier than the loop. So which was best, it was close but less starts and stops was preferable but if I were to do it again I would want much longer thread and the loop if that was an option.
It did look much better with the three strands and there was enough thread. As I moved onto the last shade I realised I had made a mistake and added two stitches on two of the corners in the mid blue where they should not be, so I went back and added the same stitches to the other corners. Unpicking was just not happening. Completed the light shade and declared I was finished. Held it up for Roni to see and in that little corner view of myself on screen immediately noticed another mistake! Or perhaps I should call it the other half of the same mistake as I realised where those two extra stitches in two comers had come from. I had missed two stitches from one place and added them elsewhere Ah well I just overstitched the light blue with the mid and all fixed.
So although I had no intention of altering this pattern I did anyway.
This is the front.
and this is the back. We have a plan for the back.
The kit said it could be completed in two hours and it was. Indeed it may well have been quicker without the false start and the double ohps.
There are a couple of backstitches to do which will be part of the plan to fully finish them.
not sure yet if that will be added as an update here or get a post of its own at a later date.
It was interesting doing something different and something that could be just about finished in one on camera session. We have not been converted to the delights of sewing on wood, so I wont be getting my Dremel out and adding holes for sewing, Well not just yet!
We did quite like the little geometric pattern so perhaps we might sew it again as a matching scissor keeper maybe like the one I did on navy 18 count from a Charity shop purchase which might take us a couple of weeks to do. Must remember to suggest that to Roni.
So talking of Roni click here to see her very artful posed version.
As always we are delighted to receive any comments on our posts.
And yup I have a Forestella link as we move into the month KoWooRim will complete his military service and the Fore will be together again.
a double change to the plans for tonight, after a missed week that was my drop off due to there being too much going on in my head!
Anyway, we did have a next project planned for this week but I have suggested a change to that and Roni has agreed. We would have been trying something new to us both that looks like it might be quite quick and that I don't anticipate Deborizing. However, as Roni explains on her blog Click here to pop over for that, circumstances change and so do priorities.
So this week became a RAL (random along) and whilst Roni cross stitched there was still a bit much going on in my head for any complex counting type stuff so quilting tonight.
You might be thinking it would be on my "fan quilt" (LOL that is a working title, not sure it will get that as an official name) but no, I am potentially finished quilting that. It will get its own post a little later once it has a name and a label on it I think, well unless I go madly off on yet another tangential addition that is.
Tonight it was back to adding quilting circles onto the original bits-a-quilt. It would have been very soothing except my thread was feeling Knotty, yes with a capital letter! It was reasonable soothing as most of the knots came out eventually, otherwise it would have been all caps!
I managed four circles, the picture shows two of them.
One is on a previous added repair patch.
I have during the week done a little bit of sewing on Bits-a-Quilt number three (well sort of five but I count the blue and white one and the white and lilac satin as a separate category as they had colour restrictions imposed on them) and some work on the yellow and white bits-a-quilt which is very close to becoming a top.
But I didn't take pictures of those so updates will have to wait I guess.
With luck and a fair wind we will be both back for a RAL next week.
well sort of, all of the stitching part is done. There had to be some variation in the backstitch, Not just to accommodate the variation in the cliffs previously mentioned but because I ran out of the dark grey.
A change to black for the puffin was OK but used some lighter grey in the cliffs,
I would blame the shortage on having to do some unpicking and not being able to reuse the thread, but Roni had similar shortfall issues and she did not have the unpicking.
It is not however, full finished as it is not stuck in the card mount it came with just yet. Whilst I like this mount better than some that have come with kits I won't permanently set it until I know what I am going to do with it.
You can play spot the difference with the cliffs once Roni has posted her update.
There is a link to her blog in the blog list to the left.
We anticipate continuing with the cover kit theme for our next SAL for ease.
Perhaps we will try and plan something a bit more special for our 20th!
Once again this is not the direction I had intended for this project. However it has evolved as it has progressed and this is the most recent set of design decisions.
Vertical sashing.
You may recall I considered using this space when originally intending to add the groups names.
I had no comments on my intended lettering there but did get some Facebook feed back about not using the vertical space. It was a bit distorting to the lettering.
Still once I had all the horizontal sections quilted, much as I would have liked to have been done, nope it needed more, OK I needed there to be more.
I thought about stars, four stars for Forestella, logical but the length to width of the space was still giving me issues.
Then just as I was thinking about it, and in the same fashion as a new logo appeared when I was just going to do circles, one of the Facebook Fan pages suggested that as part of the push to a million views before the group is once more united as four on a particular song we add an emoji comment of.
💚💚💚💚🍀
hmmm how about using that?
or a modified version
OK that felt right, but just for the middle of the three sets of vertical sashing rows.
However the idea of two then something in the middle then two also felt like a solution to the star issue.
I had wanted to add the fandom name earlier in the process. Across the top alternating with Forestella.
In this instance while using the Korean for the names had made them the same three batchim in length, Forestella and Soopbyeol came out as five and two respectively and did not balance
So would the Korean for Soopbyeol work this time.
well I think it does. As a side note upside down hearts points into the clover works for me, upside down stars pointing inwards somehow did not so they are all point up.
Not decided on the thread colour for the stars yet.
But I have for the Fore together hearts.
Green.
Amongst all that blue a bit unexpected perhaps.
I just happened to have the emoji shade of green in quilting thread (thanks once more to Mrs Jackson) and thankfully I think it is looking OK.
More design decisions as I stitch. Firstly to just outline the single hearts and use the dye pen to make them solidly dark.
Second to do the inner line on the clover as a continuous stich but to form the clover edge in just the running stitch.
For a sense of continuity I now intend to do the Stars the same way but remain uncertain of the lettering will be single strand or outlined.
That decision may depend on the colour and thickness of the thread chosen.
I am still hoping to get the "fan" addition quilting done for the reunion and listening to their music whilst I stitch might even help with getting those million views.
Now I have added the link to the You Tube video we are working towards the million before but I will add it again just in case you are new and missed it before, or you might like to see the proliferation of hearts that inspired me.
As a little after thought about blogging. There is a stats facility to tell me how may views by day and month etc. there have been and which countries they are from (and other technical stuff) but I am never that sure when those are real people or an algorithm of some sort. Single country visits feel like they ought to be people but sudden spikes of a few hundred or thousand from one place suggests to me that something computer generated is going on . So for today I have some hope that the one visit logged as being from South Korea was a person but that the 919 from Singapore much less likely.
The only time I can be sure people read this at all is when they kindly leave a comment. Just a Hi would be nice on occasion.
