a week and a day later than planned we managed our online get together. We fully expect it to be the last one for 2024.
I was working on the same pattern(s) as last week. One colour at a time.
First blue, that was my pick.
And then I asked Roni to choose, she asked for red as there is no red in her current stitching has no red.
So with the red.
what is left, green, white and black.
as this is a RAL and not a SAL I can, should I wish to and find the time keep going with this one.
Ah and this time I can add a link to my BFF's blog for her update. It might not be there yet but I expect there will be shortly. Click here for Blog link That feels so nice after we have had quite a long gap. Wow its been 5 weeks !
this almost made it for Christmas 2023. All the stitching was done, I had even found the bell I knew I had somewhere and then? Well then I stopped. Why? Well I was also working on the cone snowman, I had a plan for the snowman and I thought I would be finishing them off together.
Then I realised I had used two different whites on the snowman and I paused and the pause just went on a very long time.
Roll around to December 2024 and I thought I would try again.
Got a bit further this time.
Reindeer is cut out, and has his bell added.
The bell is not part of the pattern, it is a stitched one, but I thought adding a real one would be fun. And they did suggest it might be a nice idea.
However, and it is a funny thing to say but I think I am more pleased with how the behind turned out.
I did a one square overlap and then cross stitched that row. I think it is a nicer looking finish that the suggested closing method.
You can just about see the join, but not that much.
So is he finished?
No not for me. I wont be hanging it, I want it as a standing ornament to go with the other cones. CLICK HERE for link to them
As such and to to prevent Bambi on Ice with the legs he needs a bit of supporting wire.
The wire that has been there and getting in my way and being annoying and has been moved to a sensible place.
Hmm now if I could just remember where I thought would be a good place to put it when I moved it!
The snowman, well he is a little further on also with the white issue settled in my mind. However he also needs me to find my wire, white wire and I have some black, I think they are together, snowman needs the black as well as the white.
So wish me luck in finding my wire and if I do there may be a snowman soon, or Christmas 2025, you never know!
Follow this LINK to the host blog for an explanation of the Gifted Gorgeousness Link up process and to fins links to other participants.
This is a combination of gifts. The 12 days of Christmas panel was a Gift from my BFF for last Christmas, although as you may be aware we have over the last several years tended not to manage an in person at Christmas and oft end up "doing" Christmas at the same time as our joint birthday get together, which is usually in the middle of the year!
Things were much easier to arrange when we worked together and when we lived in the same town, but things change and you manage how you can.
That aside, the edge and the back of this project are from material gifted to me by Mrs Jackson. It was nice to use it up. Well there are some small trimmings from the green and a row of kings from the patterned back. I did think of using them to make cards, but I ran out of puff and maybe next year!
Oh this was the 8th zip getting inserted when I made up the cushion covers for the children at Church.
The size was determined by the size of the red cushion I bought just as a prop for a photograph related to a completed BFF SAL 11.
So all I needed was a festive cover and not a new cushion.
If you have not visited before and the items on the wall in these pictures have you wondering, yes I made them and the details are in the post christmas-card-inspirations.html
I did think there might be a fourth joining them this year, but I managed to mislay the Christmas card that one is based on just before Christmas last year and I only found it again a week ago! It might get worked on over Christmas and I have taken pictures of the card just in case I manage to loose it again.
I have a few more festive projects on the cusp of completions so although there is sadly no Advent Hop this year there will be some festive things to look at.
we had a later start that became no start at all. We have been using Facebook Messenger for our get togethers as Skype had become unworkable for some reason.
This evening Messenger was not feeling cooperative. We tried for a bit wondering if it was my device or my BFF's before we thought to google it and discovered it was not our problem but a general one.
By that point we had lost half an hour of time and had to reluctantly accept that we were not going to get our sewing session even remotely.
I had picked up my RAL and was determined to finish the browns so kept going after we gave up on our plans.
So here it is.
It still puts me in mind of little Egyptian Figures on a wall. That is not what they are and I am sure the next colours will bring that out. The backstitching certainly will.
We had intended this to be our last RAL or indeed SAL for the year. Christmas stuff of one sort of another requiring our time. However, as this was not a proper get together we will try to find a time slot next week.
It is at this point I normally add a link to my BFF's blog for her update. Well, as a tech type she was more frustrated than me about the on line thing not happening with nothing we could do to sort it and did not feel in the right frame of mind to sew. Her intent was to play video games and have the tech there do her bidding.
This years tree cards. I was a little more pressed for time this year. The plan to do a tree or two each time I was doing something else just did not happen. So the wording on this years trees, big and small was simpler but I did add some baubles with the patterned tips.
Again they can be removed from the card and used as a Christmas tree decoration should that be the recipients choice.
Link to last years trees CLICK HERE and plans for next year?
Oh I always have plans, I just don't know to what extent they will happen.
making more cushion covers with zips in. Not for me this time but for the children in Primary. Each with an outline of their hand on one side, their name and some of their art work on the other. All done with T-shirt dye pens.
I decided to try using some thin wadding from the Pound a Meter people as an experiment. Its rather thin but I wanted something lighter both so I could try some machine quilting and as I wanted this as a summer quilt.
I started with fan shapes in the patterned squares marked on using cardboard templates I made myself and washable markers..
That went reasonably well, but the wadding did pill a bit.
I had intended to quilt round the squares but decided not to.
However because of the fan shapes that left a bigger space in the quilting at the cross points of the squares than I was comfortable with.
What to do, something simple quilt a circle. Ah if only I was capable of sticking to simple. At about the same time as I was thinking I could just use the circle template I got at the charity shop a certain wonderful Korean Crossover singing Group (I may have mentioned them before ) released both a new song and a new format of their logo. Which just happened to be somewhat circular in nature.
More cardboard was sacrificed and I got to try out a new cutting tool that looks like a pen.
it worked quite well and I cut two templates in case one wore out as I used it as cardboard templates are prone to that.
But I only needed one.
In a fit of confidence I marked them on using dark blue T-shirt dye pens.
That was sufficiently darker than the blue of the material for me to be able to see to stitch without being excessive .
I think it has also added a little emphasis on the finished ones.
There are nine in total with the star in each free styled rather than added via the template as having the star cut out made the template too weak.. With the edge on the quilt already done you would thing that is the quilt finished and just in need of a name and a label.
And I waver between thinking that and wondering about adding something else.
Quite a few somethings.
The pale blue is the edge of this quilt, it is on top of another quilt when taking the picture.
So what am I considering as additions?
Names, the names of the members of Forestella.
I have worked out I can add their names on the sashing between the blocks and have all the names appear the same number of times.
But, and it is an interesting but for working it out, do I do it in the Romanised form of their name or in the Korean Hangul lettering.
The spacing is of course going to be considerably different depending on which I choose and as the horizontal sashing is a different width to the vertical I would need to make two different sized templates for each name. Hmm, I know that doing the lettering Romanized would be easier for me, however the Hangul would be more stylized and with potentially less directional issues to consider as it is easier to do in either orientation . Additionally I think the names may become more similar in length that way
Other than I am a little crazy what do you think?
I have with some amusement posted a picture on one of the fan group sites as they were holding a competition and one category was a sewn napkin with the group emblem or name on it. I have asked if my quilt can pretend it is a big napkin! I am not expecting to get very far with that.
Now what Forestella song can I add a link to for this item?
I think perhaps as it is a fan quilt (yes the fans on it made me think of that so pun intended) it will be the song that the group dedicated to the fans.
Maybe instead of the group names many times I could do each one once and put Forestella and Soopbyeol in the other spaces. At times contemplating the options is so much fun and the quilt is still useable whilst I think about it.
Although at the moment its not that random as we are each sticking to the same project of choice, we just are not working jointly on a project.
I have made reasonable progress and this is an adventure as the illustration for the finished look is just that, an illustration not a picture of a finished piece.
As such the colours are being somewhat unexpected.
It is a little hard to tell here but those checked sections are in different colours.
On the illustration they look exactly the same.
I have added a close up for reference.
Doing the backstitch as I go is working for me on this so I will keep doing it that way..
Pop on over to my BFF's blog to see how things are going on her time sensitive project.
this week the additional tome is due to watching the remembrance ceremony at the cenotaph (other than the two mins silence of course)
I think it has gone from a bit scary to sad ?
I also did a little on the project I started on Wednesday BFF session. There is less to show than there was sewing done. Yes the frog had to help me out of a counting mistake. Ah well I enjoyed stitching it in the first place so I get double the fun having to do it again. I have also learned that with this pattern doing the backstitch as I go is going to help with the counting.
I thought I would do the next shade of brown, that there would be something viewable at the end. Oh and the brown stood out, erm perhaps a bit much. Oh too much, I had sewn with the darkest shade and it was the wrong one.
So out it came, faster than it went in, I managed to get all of the incorrect colour out and a little start on the right shade within my normal Sunday sewing time.
When I got home, and after lunch I went to take the update picture and there was not that much to show. I decided to apply BFF Sal rules when frogging has been required. Going back to where I would have been at the point the mistake was spotted.
However, I got a bit carried away as as those stitches were in the ! I will just finish this length of thread" lie popped into my head. Followed by "there are only a few stitches left in this section" on loop.
The result quite a bit more progress than I would have made within normal Sunday Stitchings time.
There was nothing made in our Primary lesson at Church today, but my candle is still in place.
Usually at this time of the year I join in the Trick or Treat Blog hop hosted by Jo over at https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/ but organising the hop is a lot of work for Jo and this year life is busy so instead of the hop it is a link up.
I like to try and do something new for the hop each year and happily had something finished ready so it can be added for the link up.
It is a modification of a design in issue 350 of The World of Cross Stitching. One of four designs by Fiona Baker, intended to be a coloured cross stitch with a blackwork frame.
For speed I decided to just do an outline of the central image and added a little bit of gold blending filament I have a little bit of that to use up
after the picture there would normally be the letter for the hop and a link to the next blog. If you did not come here from Jo's blog then use the link at the top and see what other themed stitches are about.
If you are still craving more Halloween themed stuff you can link to previous years hops click on the Halloween label link at the bottom of the page.
Oh and I have shared this particular Forestella song before but as a ghost story it fits
it has been a few weeks without Sunday Stitchings due to a cold that settled in that I did not want to spread and then a migraine.
Its nice to be back at Church.
Added some light grey this week
not easy to see on this picture, but it is there on the ears and just a few stitches in the middle.
There was a bit of crafting in Primary as well, we were learning about letting our light shine and being like Jesus. So we made candles from sticky backed foam.
The children were tasked with pitting their finished candle somewhere they could see it to remind them to each day try and be a light to their friends and family by doing good things.
I got to make one for myself (in between being in charge of the scissors and cutting the pieces as instructed by the children who are mostly still too young for very sharp scissors) and of course I have the same task as the children.
I just happen to have a wall sconce so out came the wax candle that was in it and in went the foam one. Oh and the back of the card has a holographic surface you can see reflected in the mirrored section of the wall sconce.
I quite like the fake candle in place of a real one, although perhaps not quite the colour scheme I might have chosen, this was based mostly on the bits left after cutting pieces for the children.
Perhaps at some point I will make a fake candle more reflective of the sconce and the other items displayed on the same wall.
But for the moment it is certainly going to catch my eye and act as the intended reminder.
I finished that last little bit of sky off camera. Not that it looks like much difference from the last update but here it is ready for the backstitch.
I was quite looking forward to the backstitch and getting this into the frame I had measured my section to fit.
The best laid plans...
Issue one my BFF had other life things occur and let me know she would not be ready to backstitch in time.
That was fine, change of plan, I would work on the frame and sort out the mount.
Of mice and crafters...
The frame was a charity shop purchase and had been waiting in the loft for its opportunity. It had a print in it, "so many sales so little time" so taking that out to make way for a cross stitch was an improvement, well it might have been.
But it had been finished very securely on the back. Under the masking tape it was proper framer staple fastened. I have worked with such before successfully but this was not budging and I got the feeling if I persisted all I would end up with was a broken glass.
oft go astray..
and broken glass can have other consequences, so I have given up on that framing plan and the frame itself with its print, well it will be going to a different charity shop, perhaps someone else will want it for the print. I have not replaced the masking tape so that another re-framer will be able to see the issues with it for that purpose.
That leaves the question of what I did with the rest of our evening?
The answer is
any guesses?
as for my BFF well Click Here for a delightful double update.
you may notice that I am late with my blog post, that was due to a combination of our stitching session overrunning a little followed by my being ill the day after our stitch session and a catch up on the Friday.
However I shall consider it serendipitous as it means I am posting on the day that Forestella have released a new original song. So whilst my frame issue is not quite at the level of the title of the new song I shall shoehorn it in!
If you follow K-Pop at all you might feel that this is something that Hong Seunghan formerly of the group RIIZE might sing. It makes me happy that the fan group I belong to Soopbyeol is made up of a differently minded fan base that is supportive of the group being real people with lives and relationships.
Back to the stitching, as my BFF noted she has a scheduling conflict for next week, so that backstitching is going to wait a bit longer. Which will give me time to got frame shopping, initially in the loft and my stash, fingers crossed one of the frames I have will suit. If not it might be awhile finding one the right size.
how annoying is it when you know you have a particular shade of thread and it is not in its place in the box, or in any of the ongoing projects it might be with!
Very that's the answer to that. So there were substitutions and I am nearly almost done ! Ah so near and yet so far! All the full cross stitches are done, just half stitches in one or two strands of the same blue remain to do before backstitching can start.
The big white space, or slice of cheese as my BFF referred to it is now filled in and looking much more boat.
The little houses are all done.
I anticipate it will be backstitching next week and then we will change to BFF randoms till the New year I expect when BFF 17 will need to be chosen.
I am not sure yet if this is for me or if it will be gifted.
I might add a little something to the design either way, but the what is going to depend on the for whom!
Click Here to pop over to my BFF's blog for her update.
I have not posted for a few weeks, I had a cold and it rather interrupted everything including our BFF sessions.
There has been off camera sewing in dispensation time, and at the end of this evenings session we agreed to free stitching up to the backstitch stage and we will then pause and wait till we are both ready for that whomever gets there first. We get to that point sometimes on the joint projects when we want to be finished and on to something new even if what that will be is as yet unplanned.
So her is the progress up to this evening.
that half stitch sky, some in one strand some in two is most likely going the same way as the sky in the EasterBunnies .
I am very glad now I have less sky to fill in than my BFF.
It feels good to have more of the little houses done (i have done a little remodelling on mine , so you can play spot the difference between mine and my BFF's if you like.)
And at last with that line of blue I am making progress on the big boat at the bottom and getting rid of the "slice of cheese" as my BFF has been calling it.
I checked what thread I was missing and for at least one of them I will be doing a substitution rather than try and get just the one skein of thread .
CLICK HERE to see try that spot the difference on the houses.
We had another conversation about the passage of time, and our joint astonishment at being on BFF SAL 16, but then we have been doing this for 4 years now, wait what!
Gosh so we have. Mind so far stitched more than fully finished. I will have to check that and get some finishing done.
so as the 15th of the month falls on a Sunday and the item that I am currently working on on Sundays happens to be a kit gifted to me this post happily is both.
Still working in brown although I think I might have finished all of the stitches in this shade, there may of course be ninjas lurking about waiting to catch me unaware!
Ah and talking of ninja stitches today was also Stake Conference, its too long a combined time of sitting for my mother so we watched from home via you tube and I thought I might get out my normal conference stitch and work on that. On the World and THAT comet.
I did get it out, and each celestial body got a few stitches however, I am still struggling with "seeing" just where I am and what stitches need to be in what shade where! So I took the few as a win and turned back to something nice and friendly on 14 count.
CLICK HERE to go to the host blog and find other participating blogs (oh and for the rules on the GG posts click HERE as it is a much better explanation than can provide.
was still the go to shade set for me. Some area defining work and then just before we were done for the evening some satisfying filling it.
I think the rest of the filling in for this section will be something I can do whilst listening to a nice Forestella mix, perhaps even the ones for singing along to, although goodness knows what my mispronounced Korean, Spanish or indeed Italian is actually saying but I will have fun with it.
Click here to see my BFF's progress on her chosen section of the pattern.
You can almost see what the whole thing might look like.
but still working on the same shade. The left side is sorted but there is still more of this shade to go on the right side.
At the moment a particular breed of the animal emerging springs to mind. However, that is not the case at all.
Things went quite smoothly this week, I spotted a small miscount in the last four stitches from last time before it could grow into a bigger issue. That felt like a win.
missing bits. We don't plan it this way, honest we don't. We just stitch in whatever colour or direction we want.
And in this case also how much of the original pattern we want. That it ends up with my part being bits that are not as yet stitched by my BFF and visa versa just happens.
Although this time I am particularly amused that I stitched in the black bollards as jumping off points for the houses and steps and then looking at my friends update to get the link to add below realised that is the only bit of the houses and steps she still has left to do!
My picture is likewise a little less posed than usual, and you can no doubt see I don't leave a lot of room at the edges. It is rare that I do.
You will also note I now have five part boats, I really must get that missing thread.
To compare and contrast Click Here to see my BFF's current position.
Now it may not look like it but she is still closer to completion than I am so I still have additional allowance for off joint session stitching time.
Why, well Sunday I was not well and so no stitching occurred and as for the SAL it was one of those rare evenings when we just did not have the emotional or physical energy to do it.
It happens, and quite often when it does we are each feeling the same way, which ever one of us mentions it first.
I do however had that non camera allowance on this BFF SAL so I do have an update to share before next weeks get together.
Quite a lot of blue, some of it single strand but still a full cross stitch. And yet another "not all there yet" mode of transport.
You are right I keep forgetting I need threads for this.
At some point I wont be able to keep working around their absence and will have to get that sorted out.
I would note that the ohps has been successfully "fudged" inside that swathe of blue.
I have not quite worked around the ""ohps to the point it feels fixed but some off camera time and a productive night of mostly blue and I feel I am making progress.
Funnily although I have not stitched anything on the three boats in this image the blue around them has made them more there this week than they previously were.
I am still far enough behind in the area left to stitch before a finish that I retain stitch anytime dispensation on this project.
So of course I don't feel all that much like working on it. However I have stopped in such a place that there are good starting points for next time.
There is still the issue of threads that need to be bought as well, but at the moment I will just keep going with the shades I have.
Pop on over to my BFF's blog by Clicking HERE to see how she is getting on with hers.
