If you came here from Serendipitous Stitching then you will know about the link up and the rules on the item or items being shared having to be in some way a gift and sewing or craft related. if not then this link will take you to the main page of the Link up for more details and to find other participants.
You may recall this from BFF 18 and BFF 18 + I always intended it to be for my BFF as she uses them and for some reason I don't. When I want to have my thread, from a kit usually, on a drop rather than bobbins then I prefer just punching holes in card. Odd but then that is me.
That intent to gift it was also the reason I did the opposite colour way to the one my BFF completed so they would make a pair of sorts.
As it was wood I also always intended to add to it with pyrography.
Doing the little mini scissor Keeper was an unexpected addition due to the fun of the pattern. I did also make a little purple scissor keeper but I don't appear to have taken a picture of that.
It has waited till now to be posted here as it had to wait till it was gifted.
Once again we have been very late getting together for our official Christmas 2024 and indeed for our joint birthdays 2025.
At least we managed it before another Christmas came and went.
There have been times when we did not.
I have some hopes of managing Christmas 2025 in 2025 !
Oh and a gift to me a suitably themed jigsaw puzzle
Some time ago, and I have a feeling it was years now, I bought a little tie-dye kit. Well I bought two, one for me and one for my BFF. The original thought was we would give it a go together at some point.
But getting togethers that have the time and scope for doing something like this proved difficult. There was also the thought of what to dye. The kit came with a piece of material to make a bandana style scarf alongside the dye, gloves rubber bands, and an instruction booklet.
We thought perhaps T shirts white T shirts. All the stuff says cotton is best, the more cotton content the better the dye will take.
Ah but finding something nice enough that if it worked it would be worth it but cheap enough that if it went horribly wrong it would be no great loss.
I mentioned that we were having a get together, and we met in a city centre and there was a Primark, and 100% white cotton T shirts that were only £2.50 (in the men's department, the ladies were 50p more) and so three came home with me. Only one was destined to be for this new craft experiment. The other two, some point in the I hope near future are for the dye pastels and the T-shirt dye pens. It will make a change to use them for the function stated on the packaging and not for anything else.
Anyway back to the project, I have based the tie part on a you tube video rather than anything from the book. Although loosely based might be a better description.
First step soak in warm water, and let it dry a little. Then fold as per the video, which is harder then it looks.
Then pleat, also much harder than it looks. I could have taken more time to try and get the pleats even, I could but I didn't. Sometimes I just feel like doing and am more relaxed about how it might turn out.
Then tie it in place.
I did that with thread, it looked fine but I did not get it knotted enough and it did go a bit loose. I added the rubber bands. That may well have a detrimental impact on the intended result. Mind there are lots of things that will be doing that.
Then on with the generously sized gloves to add the colour.
I had red, yellow and blue to work with and this was the result.
I used all of the blue, there is a little of the other two left, not sure if I will used them later or not.
The book said to wrap in tin foil and leave it at least overnight to dry.
Will post the result later. When it is dry and I can as the chorus says "free your colours"
My BFF also obtained a T-shirt, she may look at more tutorials than me, I have been after all this time a tad impatient to get something done.
well perhaps that many topic covered in that part of our evening which is as much a part of our joy as the sewing and there was some conversational weavings tonight.
Some included wondering if the pink and the orange went together, the orange looking more red on the cover kit picture.
Indeed they two shades look more compatible in this picture as the tones have dulled down a bit.
We covered out plans for an in person get together and what chance the possibly expensive Hotel Chocolate hot chocolate we intend to try has of equalling the one I had many years ago in Bruges.
My fan girl persona has had a busy week with the first back together as a quartet performance of Forestella and then the release of their new song. The forma was a performance of Abracadabra. Now I will ask you the question I asked Roni, which song pops into your head with that title?
The one by the Steve Millar band (mine and Roni's hands go up) or the one by Lady Gaga?
They did their take on the Lady Gaga one (which I had to look up as I could not recall it at all)
And the new song, well it reinforces they are a cross over group as it is quite a contrast. It at least has lyrics that go with the SAL.
I have a preference so far.
oh and don't forget to pop over to Roni by clicking here to see how she is progressing and what of the evenings chat she feels like sharing....and I wonder if she listened to the version of the Muffin Man I suggested.
I did manage to take some of the stitches out so I had the length of thread that would be reusable. However for the sections that were more interlocked on the back, snipping the stitches to remove them was quicker. I call that fluffy unpicking, as you end up with just that, a pile of fluff. And thread fluff on the Aida, that will come off with a lint roller or Sellotape later.
on projects is probably not inclusive of looking things up on Google that arise out of the rolling randomness of our conversations.
That being said my desire for solid structure was well met with this evenings progress. The picture has a bit of a yellow haze to it. I will try for something better next time.
Click Here to pop over to my BFF's blog to see what she was feeling the need of this week.
but I have gone astray again on the last quarter, well I think I have. I am not seeing where so will give my eyes a rest and hope to figure it out another time. I have a feeling the Frog and I may have some work to do.
Wow! when I started in in June 2013 I don't think I quite envisioned how many years or posts might follow.
And for the 1000th post do I have something amazing or special to share?
Nope.
I have something small, a new start on a little kit on some very very stiff Aida. I might have thought the material provided for BFF SAL 20 was stiff, but this is even more so.
It is the first time I have needed to get a pin to make holes in the material first before Being able to make fractional stitches using the cross stitch needle.
You can see in the picture below the four squares a hole in the middle for those fractional stitches Normally I can manage to get the needle through but in this instance preparatory Holes were required
quietly. We had thought that twenty might merit something momentous, either some new style or technique or special thread. Something big or complicated or perhaps with a deep meaning.
Nah! We are both rather busy of the mind and body at the moment for one reason or another. And this space, this time, these two hours (and the occasional over run) are not here for us to add anything that is not fun, that adds stress rather than takes it away.
Therefore, we will not pressure ourselves or let anniversaries or waiting projects do that to us either and steal away our just being us together time.
Another cover kit here we come, and this one has a bonus feature that will become evident later.
As for this kit , it started with sorting the thread, and then the material, wow stiff stuff this time round, the stuff for 19 was unusually soft, this unusually stiff. I could use it as a wobble board and make thunder, ok thunder a long way off but it did make a sound when flapped.
I worried that once folded to find the middle the folds would never come out. Then I had an idea, cut a piece of scrap paper the size of the Aida, fold the paper, put a hole in the middle, lay it over the Aida and middle found not folds in the material.
It worked, it may be a common trick that I have just never come across before, but at the moment I am pleased with my brilliant idea.
Whilst we both made a "middle" start you will not be surprised to see (Click HERE to see ) that we did not go the same way after that.
The kit came with a card, but if it will be made up and fully finished as such I am not sure.
I fully intended to follow the pattern, and I almost did. However when doing the backstitch on the petals I noticed a missing stitch on the edge of one. I just could not be bothered to change thread so I just altered the backstitch a bit.
So my SAL 19 and my BFF's are a little bit different after all.
