I can almost see my house from here!

that was my cry after a few more tiny bluebells, a bluebell hued front door and our first foray together into the delights of variegated thread cross stitching. It might be a house made of negative space but I will take what I can get in more identifiable features.

We both pulled the thread till we could cut at a point it ran the full range of its variegation from light to dark, which was quite long, longer than I would normally stitch with. 

Then the decision would we start dark or light, we both plumped for a light start. However where to start from well there we diverged.

As it has a very gradual colour change I decide to work up from the middle just above the blue bells and below the door, working some stiches across and some on the diagonal. Stitching a single full stitch at a time, It needs a change of mindset, the same as half stitches, when you are not doing a row of bottom stitches and then coming back.  Planning how you get from one section to another is another mental exercise.  Well it keeps things interesting.

I am quite pleased with the dappled effect the variegated thread has produced, I am hoping it will look like light diffused by the medium sized trees, well once I have medium trees that is.

I did get some more grass completed and the trunks for the last of my my little trees.  So next week  I think it is time for a move up in tree size to those medium trees and the variegated green leaves on the top of them that beckon to me. Oh or perhaps I will finish building my little house, many possibilities.

Pop over to my friend's blog to see how her variegated went. Link to Blog

Green, green a bit of blue

 so this evening it was back to sewing, but double strands, I was rather looking forward to that and possibly completing the grass on the right of the pattern.  Going along quite nicely I thought might get it all done about the same time my friend finished the second big tree?

Nah! Although got quite a bit done I still had plenty to do as my friend finished tree, did one thread length of grass and announced she felt the need to do blue as she just was not feeling the green!

Well I could not have her making a start on the big bluebells and just keep going with the green!  So I did a bit of blue too, on tiny bluebells.  

Fits in with the split approach so far, her "big" trees my "little" trees so the same approach to the first bluebells felt appropriate.

 

You know as I look at that grass at the bottom and I think it looks a bit like Jabba the Hutt's head or maybe Slimer from Ghostbusters.

We are both now chomping at the bit to do some of the variegated sections, so we have decided to do one of the green variegated section and to do them at the same time. 

It should be interesting to see the difference the count  size (14 for my friend and 18 for me)  makes to the way the variegation  appears. I would assume there will be faster movement in the shading on the lower count.

I also have the feeling that my centring may have been off and I might run out of material at  the bottom before I run out of pattern to stitch, who knows maybe I measure all wrong and I will do the same at the top, happily given the way the pattern is laid out I think that will still be OK.

It fits side to side at least......

Oh I almost forgot to add THE LINK to my friends blog so you can see BIG things!

From a distance

 this looks a little bit more as if there will be a viable picture at some point, close up the colours of the little tiles don't look as is they should work out at all.

I am a little concerned that the sticky will wear off before I get all the tiles stuck, I think that the one colour at the time method is not the best of ideas here for that reason. Ah well lesson learnt too late perhaps.

Gifted gorgeousness August 2020

as organised by Jo over at  serendipitous stitching

just a small post for a double in the gift category.

A friend's daughter has had her first child, actually I guess the daughter could also be classed as more friend than acquaintance, she has on occasion attended a quilting night or two. Anyway this momentous event calls for a birth sampler.

With a picture of the nursery provided for ideas and a hunt for a pattern not resulting in a find I am trying my hand at designing. I will share that later, after completion and gifting. Presuming all goes well.

But the background material was being a bit difficult I did not have the shade required, and dye pen experiments aside did not think I could get as dark a shade as required, and matching to a photo is fraught with pitfalls I was going to default to black or navy blue neither of which felt right.

And he comes the gift from my BFF a piece of Blue Spruce 14 count Aida that whilst not the colour of the nursery focus wall will tonally coordinate and go well with the colours in the design element.

Saved by my BFF, I am still tempted to experiment with the dye option but when the result is less important and less time restrictive. Now to hope I have a suitable frame in stash, although at the moment climbing up the ladder into the loft is not a pleasant thought as my hip and knee are not feeling very friendly at the moment.  I have photographs which had narrowed it down a little but a first hand check for size is important. 

Best of both stitch-a-long

now as last week was a stitch week instead of the planned walk week, well you would expect this week to be walking and no sewing update? 

Nope, why? Well a combination of a particularly bright, warm but not windy day (the lack if wind is important) added to enjoying stitching the project and some rather unhappy joint equalled a change of plan.

My BFF came to my home and we sat, carefully distanced, outside to sew until the light was no good for sewing, especially on 18 .  Then we went for a walk as it remained light enough for that.

Here is my update, as you can see more work on teeny tiny little trees, one strand on 18 count and oh the excitement some grass stitched with two strands. My friend will confirm it is much bluer in person than it looks in pictures, oddly to me as I was adding green it made the blue more visible.

This is a picture of our outdoor sewing station, folding chairs with little folding stools as tables.  You will note two cats in the shot.  They are not my cats, however that does not stop them form considering this their garden and possibly me amongst their staff. There was no issue with them being there, they had no interest in the stitching whatsoever.  The black cat did give a slightly disdainful glance when the one puff of errant wind picked up my friends pattern and disturbed the peace slightly (not chasing patterns around the garden is why the wind status was important.

It was nice to sew and sit and be, I will note that now I could provide knotting thread assistance my friends thread behaved impeccably!

Follow the link to my BFF's blog  The link

Summer blog hop Stitching friends are friends who count

so this summer when physical meeting up with friends is not something most of us are in a position to do, Jo over at serendipitousstitching is hosting a hop with a difference where we can find , met and  hopefully get to know new friends in the blogaverse.

Basically each participating blogger has been provided with a link to the blog of another participant and we have had a week to read, research, learn and then come back to our own blog and introduce our new friend. At the same time, someone is doing the same with my blog (oh exciting and scary in equal measure). There is a list of all the participating blogs over on Jo's (link above)

It was also suggested you might like to do this as a bit of a guessing game so I won't say who I have till the end of my post, there will of course be clues, however I will be adding links to individual posts from that blog as I go (the text will be a  different colour where there is a link) so if you do want to guess leave off clicking links till the end. But if you skip to the end in mystery books because you just can't wait then follow the links to your hearts content. 

                            Explanation and introduction done, time to meet and greet my

blogger!

I have a lady who like myself lives in England and near the sea (mind you are never more than 70 miles from the sea in our country wherever you are) but it is not the same sea that each of us see.  She is in a county I have never visited (an omission I should rectify) that points out into the Celtic Sea on one side and the English Channel on the other.  A wife and mother of two (girls watch them grow on her blog) with an interesting variety of jobs exceeded only by the breath of her crafting interests, my focus blogger has been sharing with the world via blog since 2007 building up a following numbered in hundreds (oh I can only dream).  Sadly I was not able to read all of her earliest posts as the text was almost the same shade as the background for me but the pictures told a tale all of their own, which is not surprising as she is a photographer and a dab hand at it too.

Like my own blog there is not a set crafting focus but a variety,  quilting, knitting, jewellery making, baking, flower arranging, lace making, cross stitch, embroidery and she makes clothes! Sometimes several of her interests are shared in each post.

Some of those things I either do or have tried my hand at (some with more success than others) which makes me appreciate  her ability to create.  Indeed the title of her blog has a dual purpose hinting as it does to some of her career choices and her ability to transform items and create something through a seemingly magical process.  (if you are playing the guessing game to see if this is a familiar blog, or even your own then this is a big clue). It also has a little nod to the mythical nature of her home.

She likes to participate in exchanges, challenges, SAL's and Jo's blog hops throughout the year, she also runs a little guess the numbers challenge of her own.  Guess the number of books read, the number of projects finished and the number of shoes purchased in the year! That tells you some of her primary interests, to those add Shakespeare, Austin (the author not the car), Si Fi to in her words the level of Geek that requires its own Christmas tree. (I am rather fond of some of those SiFi films, programs, books and characters myself ).

Lets not forget her delight in a particular species of winged but flightless bird....Penguins! You will find lots of penguins in various medium, they appear to be to her as dragons are to me.

The last part of the rules for this hop is to share something I think this sister blogger would like based on my visits to her blog.  I get to share either something I have made,  an image of something off the intranet or a pattern 

Well I do have a penguins. cross stitch 

and penguins and oh look a green penguin!

 and a Star Wars pyrography

my lace butterfly

 and I have this alphabet pattern, pulled from Cross Stitcher April 2019 with the thought it might be used for an acquaintance of mine with  a serious shoe and bag habit......

that perhaps Christine in her Alchymyst's Study might appreciate.  So go on click on THE Link  and visit for yourself. 

BFF stitch--a-long surprise

so what you may wonder is the surprise this week, well that there is a stich-a-long update at all.  You may recall were had intended to alternate evenings sewing and evenings walking.

This should have been a walking evening but well life happens, I will let my BFF tell you about it in her blog. Link to Blog where her oneness with nature continues.

Mind I enjoyed the sewing and am still working on my happy little trees, honest these are trees.

Not sure how well it shows on this picture but I like the was these little trees are looking on my blue, sort of like a water colour. 

More tiles stuck..diamond painting

and I am keeping on with this, there is admittedly something very satisfying popping a tile into a section to make it complete and solid.

Trying to get all of each colour done can become a bit of an obsession, and just like cross stitch when you think you have all of a colour done and put away the thread (or in this case pour the tiles into the little bag and put them away) you spot that ninja stitch (somehow hiding in plane sight), the empty gap with the symbol for the colour just put away.

So this update more colours added, some ninjas tracked down and dispatched (but some will still linger)

Together, separately, the same yet different

My BFF started off our second stitch a long by informing me "I want to be a tree!" which s also part of the title of her blog and as she has posted first this time the link to her blog is at the beginning rather then the end of mine.

So I can can comment on hers here too.  So yes I did tell her that the middle is often a good place to start, but I don' insist on it. It would be a bit hypocritical of me to do so as I do think it depends on the pattern and I have started bottom left, top left, top right and bottom right, all points of the compass as I felt the pattern needed.  

She had initially told me she would be starting with the happy little trees, now the pattern has large mid ground trees of which we see trunk and no foliage, mid sized trees seen in full and very small trees blurred and in the background barely seen, so I did wonder what she planned to do. 

I was thinking the big trunks as a good place and a quick test of the question is my material big enough height wise. A quick e-mail exchange and that was also her plan she had just been channelling Bob Ross for the fun of it.

On the evening I started in the middle with one of the colours completed with one strand not two as I wanted to stitch out from the centre to the tree trunk and then start, as you can see from my friends she trusts herself to count over to the starting point.

In a way we were both starting with tree trunks, me on the tiny furthermost trees and she on the big ones. 

I got into the flow with this area changing from the trunks to the foliage (which I miss counted, frogged and re did) and just kept going with it expecting to do brown tree at some point in the evening.

I did get to the point tree was an option, then oh dear, I don't have that shade of thread.  I had not thought to check. I have boxes of the stuff, but apparently not some of the more recent (to me) colours not the dark of the trunk or the light of the trunk and indeed one of the blues.  I am bereft of 3800's.

So I just kept on with the single strand trees.

now if we were working on Aida of the same stitch count (mine is 18 count BFF is using 14 count as per the pattern recommendation) and the same colour then the two would fit together as I have a gap to the left of the section in progress right where her tree goes.

We were getting so comfortably into this (even with the frog) we are already talking about what to do once this is finish, which given it is weather permitting to be alternated with walks will take twice the time to do.  This time, well next time we are thinking of setting ourselves a theme and not restricting to stitching the same pattern.  My BFF feels I should pick something that takes a bit longer as I sew faster (I unpick faster too, lots of practice). So in the not sewing time we can be pattern hunting.

What theme, well its a multi theme at the moment till we see what we can come up with, so we have Umbrellas (as they are company for our walks both past and future) poppies, if you have visited with me before you know I like poppies. BFF says she has lots of poppy patterns from magazines, cos I would not let her throw them away and last but not least frogs and toads and the why for that is for my friend to tell if they do become the thing.

Of course if anyone knows of a pattern with all of them combined we would love to know about it (can't guarantee it would get stitched but it would be interesting all the same.

Here is a little after the fact edit in case you are visiting time after this was originally posted

 Click Here to see the finished cross stitch. and 

here is another link to click to see it framed.

and this is a beautiful sone by the wonderful Forestella if you are so inclined.

Ice Blue Aida!

is the material called for with the Bluebell pattern chosen for the next in tandem project my BFF and I are calling our lock down stitch a long. Just on the basis that we are doing the same pattern at the same time and stitching along together via Skype. This will be project number two.

And it calls for a coloured Aida.  Blue, ICE Blue 14 count  by Zweigart to be exact.  In this instance exact is not going to happen on several points.

I don't have that fabric in my stash, buying it especially for this project does not fit in with my parsimonious nature as any to buy would be in bits way bigger than I need and given it would be order via the post not guaranteed to arrive on time.

I did recall having some blue 14 count in the stash but had a feeling it would be a bit too blue, judging by the picture of the finished piece in the mag this Ice blue is a very very pale shade of blue indeed.

The in one of her blogs Jo over at serendipitous stitching mentioned painting Aida with acrylic paint, oh that there is a thought, paint some white the shade I need.  Look it up on the internet and ah! it apparently needs a medium to do that. (Not someone that contacts the dead, a painting medium especially for fabric) and we come back to the parsimonious problem and the timescale.  The fabric medium came in rather large containers (well for what I wanted, the stitching area is only 97 by 70) and again for a "try it and see" I felt the cost was not merited and there was the ordering and waiting.

Disappointed I mulled a bit then recalled I have some silk paints, somewhere safe? Mind that was not all that appealing for some reason.  Then the light bulb went on, I have fabric dye pens, but again the shades would be a bit too intense.  Perhaps if I coloured the fabric and rinsed before setting with heat some of the colour would stay put and I would get the light shade I wanted.

A bit more mulling and I decided on a double test. 

1 a small piece (and I do mean small, I keep small, I use small (click to see how small) with the three shades of blue drawn on to it to see how well the "fade" would work.

2 a slightly larger piece of white just popped into the water with piece 1 to see if it would take up enough of the dye bleeding into the water to colour it.

Her are the bits soaking. 

So here is a picture of the pattern illustration, with the big bit of blue I had (too blue really very too blue) and with the result of test option 2.

Looks a bit too pale the tester, but still closer than the stash fabric. 

It was hard to tell if it had taken any colour until you put it next to white..

I had every intention of checking the frame stash for something suitable and deciding on the count to use based on the frames aperture. Notice past tense, I got carried away with the dye process and all in a hurry I cut a bit of 18 count white and popped it in to the blue water, unsure if there was enough colour left in the water and needing a bit more water to cover this, I applied more dye pen to the strip of test Aida and put it back in.

This has resulted in a slightly deeper blue shade on the fabric for the project and a much deeper shade on the test strip.

So here is my home dyed "Ice Blue" for the project. It is a bit more turquoise in its blueness than the picture suggests, a bit warmer but I am happy to give it a go.

I did ask my BFF if she would like to give this a try, but she felt that she had a shade of blue in her stash that she could live with for the project and that would keep things simple and it is always nice to use stash, especially the coloured stuff bought in packs that you wonder "what will I do on that!"

So whilst same pattern at the same time we will again be stitching on different coloured Aida and this time round I think we will be on different counts too. Hopefully that will be interesting.

Of course this has also opened up a whole new set of options for the cross stitch, I have at least 20 shades of fabric marker in the pen format.  Mind I am quite happy with the blue, I have in the back of my mind that there is a pattern of corn, poppies and a field mouse I quite liked the thought of but it was on a blue I did not have....hmm more mulling over ahead I think.

It might be nice to start a new pattern for me that is not as complicated as my ongoing Teresa Wentzler, or perhaps it is time to tune back to the three angels (embroidery no cross stitch) time will tell.  

Here is a link to my BFF's blog life outside the washingbasket