BFF RAL ?

 Might be the heat, might be work things taking up headspace that it should not out of work hours, we were both somewhat  meh! About what to work on tonight.

So we planned to thread sort, on cover kits or check stock in the thread stash.

But on the night I felt more like tackling ninja stitches in a long running "season based" stitch that even my BFF has not as yet seen,

So that is what I did and here is a snippet teaser. 

I might even get it finished this year.

Click Here to see what my BFF did for the evening, well other than look for her perforator plyers, which she did find and now live in her box of cover kits, noted here in case we both forget where she put that item ! 

A Tie quilt?

 well maybe sort of. Potentially. I once saw a quilt which incorporated ties and I rather liked it. It might have stayed at yet another pretty image (and goodness knows it still may not progress that much) but my local hospice shop Alice House Hospice had some new ties. One Hundred percent silk and £1 for three.

I bought ties.

And they sat and waited. And waited some more and more and eventually I got around to unpicking them.

I expected this to result in removing a stiff inner that I would discard, I have had to fix one of my fathers favourite ties where the stiffener separated in the middle and whilst fix it I did that stuff was not something I could foresee me doing anything with.

The unpicking went faster than I expected, remove the label, snip holding stitches at each end and then the wiped stitched thread came out nice and easy. Perhaps too easy, yes I have wound the thread round a bobbin and it will get used at some point on a something. Shades of brown, grey and black I have some thread.

I thought once unpicked they would take up less room.

That might have been true if I could bring myself to throw away the inner tie stuff. Problem is it is nice "stuff" and usable and do something with and nope can't throw it away.

So now rather than less it is more, the space these component parts, for quilt (and, hmm stiffening in a bag handle, oh or bags. I am sure I will think of some thing, several somethings) manages to take up more space that the ties did in the first place. 

And the tie quilt, well I still have to do some figuring out there, as I saw only a picture, no pattern no instructions I an just going to have to make it up as I go along.

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.

BFF RAL I've finished but sadly not started!

 before our evening session I had finished all of the thread on my bobbin but not all of the backstitch in that colour.

So that would be a loss for me at thread chicken.  Maybe not, I checked my duplicate or spare threads and hooray for the win, I had more.

So I started the evening with the last quarter partially completed and with the flow of the stitching set in my mind.

And as noted at the start,  I have a finish.

Crown Cross

I did have some time left and that was used to put the threads from this project away and I thought to get out threads for my next project. However unless they are sitting in other projects (I will have to check) looks like I have quite a few to order first. So no start just yet!

CLICK HERE to see how my BFF's evening went.

We remain undecided about the next SAL so we may RAL a little longer unless we settle on something before next week.

There is a tentative connection here. 

My sewing mind

 appears to be a separate thing. I plan on stitching a particular section or colour  that feels the logical next step, get out the project and do something completely different.

Intention sew crown finials, action sew blackwork. Oh that was fun so next time intention sew blackwork. Action?

work on all three of the remaining finials!

I am two shades away from finishing the curved section and five from the full crown. This has been a very different project for me and I have and still am enjoying it. However, I have a next project in mind to start once this is completed so I won't miss this too much. 

BFF RAL and thinking time

 after finishing SAL 20 (wow but then we have been doing the BFF SAL's since 2020) we realised that we were not sure what we wanted to do next. Another cover kit? Perhaps not, something from a shared pattern book, looking felt like hard work. So we decided to work on whatever random project we each wanted to do until we find "the one"

For me the RAL was the project I have been working on recently. I had thought I would work on the next crown, following on from my last post. Got the project out and decided to do the blackwork for the quarter.

I had only managed the inner line and the horizontal knotwork to the corner by the time our online session had ended. However, as this is RAL and not SAL I could keep going when I was in the flow and finished the rest of it the same evening.  It has made me realise I am going to need more of the backstitch thread, or perhaps I will play thread chicken!

There was some interruption to the evenings sewing session as we looked online to see if there was anything that both of us liked and could see ourselves stitching. We have a maybe, maybe we will or maybe it is too big. More contemplation required.

CLICK HERE to see what my BFF chose for her RAL.

Onto the crowns

 I was tempted to try and work on all four at the same time as unlike the quarters the crown finials are all the same.

Tempted but no as there was a start on one, so I thought do one at a time and see how that goes.

Oh very heart shaped here but that goes away I think as the crown is completed.

Sunday Stitching 20 July 2025

 Wow in the second half of the year already how did that happen?

It has been some time for the official Sunday Stitching project. A new colour this time to start with, a dark burgundy next to the black. Then back to adding brown.

BFF SAL 20 stitching done

 I was trying my very best just to follow the pattern. But at the last, at the rope I could not resist adding a little bit of gold blending filament. I have a little bit of that as you may recall.

I think it went quite well.

Although not sure it is showing up well in the picture.

Whilst we had discussed continuing with the kit theme, we were not settled on what we might do next week, and as there will be a gap week after that we have thus far (unless we come across something amazingly captivating) decided to have a week of random along.

Did you notice the bonus feature of this pattern?

Yes, there is no backstitch.

CLICK HERE to see my BFF's finish

Something different not quite to plan

 I had my concerns about the folding, and I did wonder about the amount of dye. I was more right than I would like to be on the dye.

Once unfolded there should have been stars from the triangle added colour to the spiral folds.

Nope.

On the front only the top quarter had much colour, that and what had been the edge and was now the middle.

The back was a tad lighter but had a half area with some colour.

Still disappointing and I mulled over a fix perhaps.

I did have some yellow and red left but not much.

I added a little extra water, laid the T-shirt out on the ground and

on the front went from this

to this

and with the dye that seeped through the back became

That is upside down on the line. I expect that 

there will be some fading as it dries.

I also expect there might be more fix contemplations when this is dry.

Although quite what that might be I am not sure.

Oh and there was one little extra from this that I had not considered 

Coloured thread, from the tying. It is rather pretty. I an not sure what I will do with it, perhaps I will use it to quilt more circles on the original bits-a-quilt. 

And if you have not seen it already CLICK HERE to see the start of the journey for my BFF.