BFF SAL 26 seasonal start

 and all the black completed. Let the guessing what it is commence.

My BFF  has a bit if the black to go, so what she is seeing in hers is different to what she sees in mine and different to what I see.  Funny, same but different once more. 

CLICK HERE

The first day of Autumn 2026

 and further progress with the small and a funny (well I think it is funny) coincidence.

Dark pink confirmed I started with the light pink

Then on to the mid pink

Then, that from stash dark pink

Then  green and brown, finishing off with dots of white, cross stitch on the main area of the design was completed.

A beep on my phone,  pre order information for the leader of Forestella's new solo album. And the coincidence amused me, the colours differ but you can see why I laughed. Especially as for me a tea pot is not what you would call a useful item. I don't drink it at all, I find the smell of it awful, my poor grandmother who was quite sure it was a cure all never could persuade me to touch the stuff. Therefore me being in the process of stitching one just as this comes up!

This is the best I could capture the image as a screen shot , this is a link to the official You Tube Chanell for the artist, not sure how long this image will remain there. ChoMinGyu official You Tube

On to the backstitch

There are still stamens to do on the large pink flower, and there should also be a butterfly top left. Of course I am now contemplating if it would be fun to add the album title there instead.( Sweet Escape) Oh and the original has the word tea on the tea pot...might I put something else?  The same word but in Hangul maybe ? 

So a pause on this now for contemplation so I may pick up another small to do (till the thread stops hiding) and hope the next small does not suddenly feel like it needs any contemplation on pattern deviation or playing hunt the thread number.

Last day of summer, well metrological summer in the UK

 and a little further on with the small, which dare I say it is being fun.

with blocks of colour big enough to feel comfortable but not too big to count.

and made pleasing shapes even before the subject matter became easier to see.

and doing one colour at a time has been possible as new shades are in good counting reach.

There was a pause here, as I wanted to move onto the pink. There have been two shades of teal, two shades of blue and brown but for the pink the key has three shades and I had carded two?  First thought they are very close and I need better light to tell them apart.

Better light and no they are the same shade.  As you may be aware cover kits no longer list the thread numbers in the key, just the symbol used and a name, so in this instance I was not sure which I was missing, dark pink, pink or light pink. The magazine has a copy of the cover kit pattern printed in it and that has the thread numbers for the three main threads listed. 

Finding that had to wait a bit but unlike the satin threads which are still conspicuous by there absence the magazine was exactly where I thought it was. 

Numbers obtained it was then a case of checking the threads I had against the numbered threads, I tried the ones in my "not DMC but use the same numbers" BOX   as I expect they and the kit threads are from the same source. No help there, it is not as yet a full set so that was not too surprising.

Next option my DMC Bag of thread boxes and the darkest pink on the key is in there and is darker than the pink I have four strands of so mystery solved and I can stitch again.

I would note that it appears they "as in whoever packed the kit" accidentally  included four strands of the pink in stead of two each of the dark pink and the pink.

A little pause for me but it would be very frustrating for anyone without a stash to dip into  or who had taken it on holiday or into hospital. Hopefully it did not happen to many in those positions. 

A new start and a small plan

 or perhaps that should be a smalls plan?

When I finished the Castle and Wyverns sampler and it was the wrong size for the place I had planned to use it I had to do a rethink.

And I quite quickly chose another pattern, but it is supposed to have three satin threads, I thought perhaps I could use the marlitt thread I already have, thread that has been in a paper bag in a pocked of my blue thread storage bag forever! Except I have at some point obviously decided to move it to a more logical place! You know what comes next, my brain fog has obscured any recollection of having moved it. I have no idea when I did or more importantly where I put it.

I have of course looking in all the places my current thought processes consider logical, or even illogical but locationally near the original place, nope no sign of it.

It is being a nag in the back of my head, can't start the new project and it would feel off starting something else of any appreciable size before this.

So, smalls, smalls that I do not have in common with my BFF so as to not diminish the pool of potential little SALs. Small enough to not feel off starting, and something to keep my hands busy as otherwise I wonder around muttering where did I put that thread, where would a good place be. On the positive side I have rediscovered various bits I had forgotten about, although that does stack up as oh things I was going to do in the back of my head, and there is not that much operating space in there at the moment.

So here it is the start.

Nice colour and I think all of that one shade done. 

And perhaps it will help me get past the nagging of where is my thread that is repeating in my head like an earworm.

BFF SAL 25 a start and a finish

 we had planned this as our next project last week, indeed we managed an in person get together and Roni picked up a little piece of red felt so it would be to hand.

We did not realise that we would be working on this on International Dog Day.(which is 26th August, we will be blogging later than that as usual) I found out due to the little corgi icon in my search bar, Roni heard about it at work.

But realised or not here is our pick, the Scottie dog key ring cover kit.

I had considered adding some features to the wooden form with pyrography before doing the stitching but did not get around to it.

So made a start with the dark green, three strands for the cross stitch, then what the pattern described as dark red but looks more like a shade of pink to me.

Dark red done then it was onto the light red, hmm pinker red and the base for the tartan was done.

Onto the backstitch that would make it look like tartan.  And here I had a silly thought. When doing  a previous project on wood and using a felt backing I had used the backstitching to hold it down in the middle. However, I was forgetting that was just a little bit on the thread drop and just one strand.

This was different, more backstitch than you think when first looking at it, and not continuous flowing there and back lines. 

The first line was in the cream and four strands. Not too bad going on, But the next one was more difficult and by the third I needed to use plyers to get sufficient grip on the needle at the angle I was trying to pull it through. Roni, made aware by my grumblings and the fetching of the plyers was a wiser woman than I. CLICK HERE for her take on the project, we each had our own tired brain challenges.

I was still battling with my backstitch through the felt and she was all completely finished! I had the special dispensation this week to finish off screen time. So I did.

I would like to say that the struggle was worth it and the backstitch on the red felt gave a pleasing checky result, if not a tartan one. I would like to but to be honest can't. It might have somewhat worked if I had been able to keep the lines straight on the back and the stitch sizes consistent.  I failed, and the result was not worth the extra effort. I had started so I had to finish, but on this occasion I think I should have kept it simple. 

That being said, the tartan effect on the front, on the cross-stitch part well that worked very well indeed.

Last picture the finished keyring , placed on top of the illustration on the kit which being to size I find amusing.

The question of if this little tester of sewing tartan will lead me to trying anything similar is still being debated. It was done in one session and a bit (it would have been done easily inside the two hour mark if I had not made it awkward for myself) and stitching blocks was OK, but the back stitch, hmmm, but if not trying to do it on something with a exposed or semi exposed back, perhaps that would not be as irritating.

We are all set for next week and a bit of forward planning seasonally speaking.

BFF 24 all sewn up

 backstitch completed, after some pausing for the missed stitches flushed out of hiding by the magic of the backstitch. We overran out allotted time by 14 mins as we wanted to finish.

I used the darkest green and the darkest pink from the pattern to do the peas stems and flowers respectivly.

I like the peas and stems, and I am dithering a bit on the pink, between liking the subtilty and wondering of perhaps a shade darker would have been better mid petals.

It looks a bit more defined in the picture than it does held in my hand.

Plans for BFF 25 are pretty much set but that is for next week.

To pop over to my BFF's blog CLICK HERE

Fully finished

 and all ready to go up this, ah it still feels too early to mention it, its still summer, not even had Halloween or bonfire night yet but well you can tell just what season it is most likely to be displayed.

The stitching was finished last year, and I bought the magnetic poster hanger then intending to use that but I had not figured out how to finish off the edges and stiffen it so it would hang well.

A combination of things aligned to get me to the finish.

Firstly, the thought of  a complementary colour behind the fabric enhancing the effect from the front previous used in The Twins samplers and The Dragons. Secondly the leftovers from the crafting at Church

A4 sized sheets of orange felt and lastly coming across the item needing some finishing off.

First step fix the few sequins I managed to melt with careless ironing. Then add the felt to the back, the colour through worked and it did indeed add sufficient stiffness but what to do with the sides?

Top and bottom are covered by the hanging frame.

Hmm perhaps ribbon, what did I have, I was thinking I might have something in either yellow or gold to reflect the ribbon on the cross stitch.

What caught my eye was some red and green ribbon with a touch of gold. There was exactly the right amount to sew down both sides and to make a faux  hanging loop. I say faux as it is there simply to cover the string loop on the frame and add a little cohesion to the finish.

Any other "hoarders" or recyclers will fully understand my joy at being able to use up exactly the piece of ribbon I had. Nothing left over all used, bliss.

Is it perfect? No, but it is finished which is good and I am happy with the result. I can take the hanger pieces off and use them for something else if I want to as they are magnetic.

Perhaps something for a season that is colder than the current heat wave will make me feel cooler.

Which left me with a bit of a Forestella dilemma, what song to add?  Settled on this one.

Kool, because at the moment that is nice.

 

Sunday Stitchings 16.08.2026

 and a bit of a surprise even to me. Having finished the Kittens last week and as noted wondering which way to go with this next, I expected I would choose a small kit that I don't have in common with my BFF and do that.

Something small, simple, most probably on 14 count with all the threads to hand.

That is not quire what happened.  I went to get a little kit, got my eye on something else that has not had an outing for some considerable time.

Not on Aida, never mind 14 count. Not small, well the project isn't, the stitching size one over one so yeah small. Were all the threads at least with it?

No, they may have been once upon a time, but as other projects needed them some have been utilized elsewhere then put back in the main thread storage box.

Was I at least working on a simple fill of block of stitches.

That would be another no. 

Millennium, the one over one earth in Teresa Wentzler's Millennium. So confetti ninjas.

I was still not feeling up to the Comet but I did manage to find and fill a few stitches whilst also watching the talks at church.  The first speaker noted he was substituting for the person originally called and had only found out after midnight on Saturday they would not be able to do it, and he felt that was a bit late for him to assign anyone else so he was doing it.  My mother and I smiled at each other, we have both on more than one occasion arrived at church and been asked to give a talk when someone had not arrived with five mins notice.  Indeed I had to do that so regularly I started having a just in case talk tucked into my scriptures.  Todays last moment talk was very good and engaging.  Which was a good counterpoint to the sewing.

I think I have everything south of the equator filled in now. There are still quire a few stitches to go to complete the earth.

There are even more left to go in the Halley's comet, all pale shades and twisting my eyes. 

My mother asked me her favourite question, is it finished yet! 

No..not yet...sigh!

Gifted Gorgeousness and a fully finished item.

 I know that the originating blog is no longer in a position to do a link up for this but it still feels nice having  a day especially for sharing things that will be a gift , are a gift or contain an element of gifting.

If you visit and are also sharing something under the GG banner please leave a comment so I can add a link here for others to follow. Perhaps we can do a widget less version of the link up that way.

So to the item, the gift component is the frame and mount. A friend from church was doing some sorting out and she had some frames would I like them. Yes I would, thank you Jill. They were larger than I oft use, nice wide wooden frames. 

They have been perused  on a regular basis would the whatever I was making or  had made  fit or be suitable?

In this instance the answer was yes, which was good as I had once again muddled up my measurements and the stitch was not going to fit where it was intended to go. A 26" piece is not fitting into a 25" space. Ah well new project required for that then.

If I had not had a frame to hand and had needed to start the hunt for one goodness knows how long it would have lingered waiting.

It was tight getting the back off, and the mounts aperture was too small, but I have my cutter and making it bigger was an option I accepted. I think resizing a mount is trickier than cutting one in the first place, It was a but wobblier than expected but I can live with it and as it is for me that's OK.

Perhaps more importantly my mother can live with it, so up on the wall it goes.

The difference the lighting makes to the colours...same picture different location.

Weird but also delightful. Also the feeling seeing it on the wall after all the time it has been in my hands, there are quite a few K dramas and C dramas in there.

 and late nights waiting for my Dad to settle to sleep.

BFF SAL 24 I'm back!

 for this SAL you may recall I have used the count of Aida as per the pattern, the colour sort of as per the pattern in that it is white but it is not the pre flecked stuff the designs normally go on. I have used the colours as stated on the pattern (well eventually after the one issue with the pink) . Then on to the backstitching.

Mouse tail paws and nose "brick red" as per the pattern, mouse fur again as per the pattern. Round the eye in a darker brown all going OK.

Then onto the sweet pea plant which the key tells me should be in dark charcoal grey. A few stitches in and no! I don't like it, it feels too dark, too solid next to the delicate tones of the mouse.

Hold it up to the camera for my BFF to see. Oh very dark she agrees. Out it comes, hmm what to use instead. BFF holds up hers, she had decided to use a different shade (perhaps her blog will tell you about that choice) which was a mid-dark brown. OK will give that a go then as looks alright on Roni's.

Same number of stitches in for that and .... no not working for me.

Third time lucky and I am happy with this choice.

using the darkest of the three greens from the pea pods as the backstitch on the pods and next time on the stems. My intention at this point is to use the darkest pink from the flowers to backstitch the flowers.

So the diverging from the pattern me is back, I did not manage to stay on pattern for the whole project!

CLICK HERE for my BFF's update and musings on the delights of backstitch for this project.

we do have plans for the BFF 25 (wow) but not a big  project , something small and we hope quick whilst we contemplate what our next larger project may be.

Indeed there may be a run of smalls as Roni calls them then a move to a seasonal stitch with that deadline which unmoving year after year always appears to come as a surprise of sorts. But is also to my mind to early to mention whilst it is still summer and wow its a tad warm!

Castles and wyverns

 is finished. Well the stitching is finished. It has yet to make its way to its fully finished placement. I expect it will do that quite quickly, perhaps even tomorrow.

I had quite a bit of the sixth skein. So I would say that six is a safe number to use  one over one on 32 count.

Still don't think that the full impact of the thread comes across in the photographs. I might just take some more in natural light and see if that helps. 

Still pleased with how it has turned out. And quicker than I might have anticipated when I started it back in April

Sunday Stitchings 09.08.2026

 After the bit of time allocated to the kittens during this weeks SAL there was very little left to do today to reach a finish.

It feels odd , not having to do any backstitch, odd but nice.

I have thread left over.

which has the tempting thought that I could stitch this over one, given that absence of fractional or back stitches. Not right away but perhaps later.

So to the thing that has been on my mind since last Sunday. What to stich next for Sunday Stitchings, or even if to do it at all going forward as a separate  focused time or just use that time for whatever comes to hand. 

Still thinking, perhaps it could be for "smalls" as my BFF calls little kits. I do have a few that she does not so they will not become BFF SALs or .....or I could start something large and new that might let me add some of the gold filament I bought. 

The thread is already on a card, although not fully sorted I have to cross check with my DMC threads to see which is exactly which as the kit states they may not all be DMC but an equivalent. 

Looks like a lot of black. 

It states the pattern finishes as 9" by 22"  I shall have to add that to my "keeping an eye out" list of frame measurements on my phone. I am already looking for 10.5" by 24".  I have the feeling I came across one whilst looking for that second size that would have been OK for this, although perhaps the width of the frame itself was a bit wide. 

Hmm I remember where it was I might take another look tomorrow. If the frame is still there and proves to be suitable then the chances of this kit getting a start will improve.

The timings for church are changing from 11 for sacrament to 10. They had made sacrament later with the lesson first to make it easier for those without their own transport or other issues to make the sacrament meeting. We were amongst those but now we are there via zoom so reverting is not an issue for us. 

BFF SAL 24 Playing cat and mouse

 my BFF had not had the opportunity to finish all of the cross stitch on our SAL ready to start backstitching during our online session. She did let me know beforehand she would still be working on that. So I thought I would work on my Sunday Stitchings kittens.  I had been thinking of working on them in other time to get them finished,

So that is what I did until my BFF mentioned she was doing the white in the mouse's eye. As I had not done that and was at the end of a pink thread anyway I stopped to do an eye highlight.

a close up of the worked areas. I have created a design opportunity on the kittens patchwork, I am a stitch out, it will get a fill in not an unpick. 

Click HERE for my BFF's update

Then we stopped altogether and had a warm beverage of choice. Mine was Hot Chocolate and a piece of Cornish Clotted Cream Shortbread with prunes on top. I never said I wasn't a bit odd.

It tastes many times better than it looks.

It's Twins!

No not me, my work desk mate, Alex's son and daughter in law. I say desk mate and we were physically for a lot of years then virtually for the last few. We have been on the same team, on different teams, the same team and so on and at the last the same team again.

I  did think about making quilts, however I was not so sure I would be able to get two finished in time. Nor was I sure what style would feel right. So cross stitch, asked Alex if stitching would be OK and he happily agreed I would not be stepping on any family stitching toes.

On the basis of that, I started thinking about what to do and I was let in on a little secret, girl and boy twins. Oh so what to do. I have done a few birth samplers before and shared most of them on this blog. I did consider the patchwork bear and bunny But it did not feel quite right.

The solution came when I recognised the mental block. I wanted to do something for Alex and at the same time birth samplers are usually for the parents with the potential of being in the child's room and if very very lucky something they might like to have as an adult. 

The solution presented itself after seeing some nice All Our Yesterdays designs turning up in some Facebook cross stitching groups I belong to. And the recollection I had a collection by that designer.  Often there are designs with groupings of children, might I have one of a boy and girl of a similar size?

Oh I did , a boy and girl holding hands on the beach looking out to sea. Perfect, even more perfect it would not be difficult to stitch each one separately  for the parents and together for Alex and his wife.

And I found a set of three frames that would be prefect. Well once I double checked the measurements, you may recall mentioning an AOY project and the irksome approx.  on some frames. This is the project although you may note that there was a change in plan re the little wooden embellishments on the single frames. I will come back to that.

I am not very good at stitching repeats of things, these were nice to stitch and did not make me feel like the second set were repeats.

Worked out that on 18 count they would fit the frames, unusual for me but that is the way it worked out this time.  The pair first. Then  separated, and add the beach and the sky.

And the names, to the side on the pair in blue and underneath in dark grey on the individuals. Normally, I add at minimum the birth date , in this instance however, I was not able to decide where it would fit well, so no stitched birthdate, it is on the framing label.

There is a fair bit of white left unstitched and it felt just a bit cold.  And as noted when I was framing them back in February it occurred to me to frame them over a coloured sheet of paper.  Then a triple coloured sheet, with yellow behind the beach section, a mid blue behind the sea and a light blue for the sky.

It worked very well, the difference with the coloured backing was very clear to the naked eye. I think it can be seen on the photographs, that hint of colour warming the white.

I had some card in the perfect shade of blue and cut the mounts myself and framed the pieces myself. The frames for the single figures have little wooden starfish added, They came from a WOX  cover gift of beach patterns and one star fish and one conch shell. Happily my BFF had the same and gave me her starfish and they looked more balanced on the bottom.

Here they are framed, and lots of pictures as I could not decide the best arrangement and because I was and am rather pleased with how they turned out.  I do tend to take more pictures when I am happy with the end result in an attempt to capture that joy.

Alex kindly came to collect them, and whilst visiting took my Dad for a short drive he rather enjoyed.

I did tell Alex that it was his choice which he kept and which were for the parents, he kindly said he wanted to keep them all but would ask his wife (smart chap Alex) and they settled on keeping the double so if they wanted to the children could each have their own in their room in the future.

I asked if I could have pictures of the babies with the samplers and if I could send them into WOX and have them on my blog. After checking with their parents he said yes and sent me some well posed pictures (just after bath and bottle time so they were relaxed and co operative, I did mention Alex is a smart chap).

After blurring out the surnames for a level of privacy I sent them off and we waited to see. 

As I currently subscribe I get the magazine that bit early to the newsagents, my October copy arrived on 5 August. With a very nice surprise in the letters section.

Published, and star letter , They cropped the double image to make them fit. As soon as I saw it I sent a message to Alex letting him know, he and his family had been looking forward to it happening. I had said there was no guarantee (although beautiful babies was an advantage) and that it usually takes a little bit of time.

I remain very happy with how all of the aspects of the project turned out and a new method of enhancing the stitching during the framing process. They were getting framed when I was framing the dragons over gold, I was having quite a successful framing time at the beginning of the year.

Now as that was a wordier post than has been the case recently I think you deserve an nice Forestella song as a reward for getting this far (did you notice they have now made their way into the banner below the bog title?) This is Together, with a translation of the lyrics which are in Korean.

Sunday Stitchings 02.08.2026

 today felt special.

I started off with a light purple then one stitch of pale pink to complete the patchwork on the left.

Delighted with that my eyes cooperating I thought to fill in the missing stitches on the ginger kitten. There were more than I thought, not a lot just ninjas I had not previously spotted.

Ginger kitten is now complete. a quick examination of the black and white kitten and it was missing one grey stitch at the corner of its rightmost eye. So both kittens have all their stitches in place.

Spotting missed stitches usually feels like a component of the backstitching process as that tends to flush them out of hiding. This project has no backstitching at all so I am hoping a good hard stare has found them all.

Only the patchwork to the right to go and I even managed to make a start on that.

I had thought this project might come out for a BFF session if I was needing to stitch on something else until my BFF caught up and we would be doing the backstitching together. However, that has not needed to be the case as she is catching up off line and we will be backstitching together .

I expect that this may take two weeks rather than one of Sunday sessions unless I can't quite wait and keep going outside the usual allotted period

Printed panel

 off to its new home.

it is a bit lighter and pinker that this image. but it does the trick.

Hand quilted I find doing these relaxing in their own way. I only have one left to work on at some point

I might keep an eye out for others but it is not a priority. 

BFF SAL 24 and

 cross stitches all done.

Well the glint in the eye of the mouse is still to add but other than that it is just the backstitching to go.

The backstitching is supposed to be in four colours. According to the chart that is a brown for the fur, coco for the eye charcoal grey for all parts of the flowers and pea and brick red for the tail and paws.

My immediate thought was it was a mistake, or it was from the Robin pattern that shares the key, and my BFF and I discussed it and thought nope going to just use the grey for the lot.

However, in typing this I had the amazing though to check the colours "pulled" into the little box for the project and see what was being described as brick red and well, I thin I may just stitch with the shades as set.  My BFF using a different material to me may well find that for her doing all the grey is the thing.

I in this instance am rebelling against my usual modifying self by sticking to the pattern...it is really still me honest!

CLICK HERE to see her update.

So BFF 25 looms, a sort of milestone that, we never did get around to discussing that as I have a personal milestone of sorts coming up tomorrow  and we will be having lunch together on 1st August to mark the occasion. We might squeeze in the question of BFF 25 and if there is any need to do something special for it. Mind finding something we both want to stitch is special anyway I think.

Five Skeins

to get to this point and I am now completely relaxed about having enough of this thread to complete the project . I have just this last square to fill and whilst this Wyvern is a lot more solid than the previous one its not going to take up all the thread, I have started skein number six and fully expect to have four left over.

Happily the variegated thread has held my interest through all the repeated motifs  and in the picture squares in a way that using one colour would have driven me round the bend.

I am looking forward to getting it into its intended place. I am reasonably sure it will be a little smaller than the available space and so fit. But I better not get too ahead of myself still a ways to go.

Sunday Stitchings 26.07.2026

 More filling in on the patchwork quilt. 

As occasionally happens when I near the end of a Sunday Stitchings project I am tempted to remove it from the Sunday spot and just get it finished.

My other current focus project however is taking up the time it might have slotted into.

Therefore it is going to have to wait again. the quilt to the left is almost done now, one stitch of palest pink and some light purple to go. 

Two castles

 completed, there were a couple of unique points  but still happy with how things are going.

There are points that I have needed to stop and start with thread lengths to get the colour transitions to work at splits of the branches or where one line flows into two. That is part of the fun.

And so onto the last space and the second Wyvern.

Trying to get the stitch placement to emphasise the curves.