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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
Had a late start because I fell asleep. My sleep patterns are a bit off at the moment.
Once awake, well sort of I started with the pink. Managed two shades and some filling before my eyes objected to recognising the symbols on the pattern.
I was going to stop then recalled I had finally got the black thread out so
The mouse has an eye. There is still a touch of white to go into the eye to give it a bit of sparkle. But it looks less like a zombie mouse now.
Then I stopped with the stitching and went to look at the WOX Etsy store. As I get to pick a PDF pattern from there as a thankyou for my published letter. There is a limit to that, can't choose any of the Wrendale patterns. Which given we are stitching one at the moment is somewhat ironic.
My BFF and I looked together, which is fun at times as we do have different tastes BFF SALs or not.
There were some we both liked the look of but did not think we would like to stitch them. Some we liked but did not think the framing would be easy and was a bit essential. Others one liked the other did not and back and forth we went. This is the second time I have been given this opportunity and I've not stitched the last one.
We did eventual reach a decision, and I will let WOC know.
You may have seen my posts with the castle and dragon sampler using variegated thread or my Christmas gift box which contains non DMC thread that has DMC compatible numbers.
Some was gifted to me and some I bought from TEMU.
Usually I have bought either the variegated sets or toned sets of teal or skin tones.
I did however also get two packs of " random assortment"
Here they are.
At fist glance looking like an OK selection of very usable colours, I did not notice the issue until I was putting thread onto bobbins.
Can you see it?
enlarge it perhaps and take a moment.
See it, it took me a moment as well. Then it made me laugh. At some point in the future when I have a desire to do "something" yet not perhaps to sew I will get my DMC threads out and do a colour match so I know what numbers to put on the bobbins so I can add them to the not DMC storage box.
what fun, actually how funny as I received the mag, flipped through the letters page looking for a different letter and pictures submitted and which I have not bogged about yet and totally missed this.
Only spotted it when I was reading the letter top left and thought oh there is a dragons....oh it is mine.
Always nice to be in the WOX.
In case you missed it, and well you might have a little money from the internet thing I became aware of and s referral link to the Microsoft/ Bing rewards thingy from me https://rewards.bing.com/welcome?rh=pnkaXyr5VKc&ref=rafsrchae.
Once you have signed up each time you complete a search, or a set activity you get points. When you get sufficient points you can convert them to various gift cards , for example Amazon, Starbucks, Burger King, Etsy and more and spend them. Or you can donate them to a charity, there are a lot of options there as well. How many points you need to redeem varies for each type.
Now if you feel like doing that, you could consider using
Now I will be clear you don't have to use that, I think you will find it just fine if you google it. But if you choose the link there is a set up bonus of 1,320 points for you, and for me I get something for the referral. I get 1 point each time you make a search. So if you do then many thanks and if you don't well it didn't hurt to ask.
Shy Bairns get nee sweets as they say locally.
Oh and they also do a Microsoft Cashback thing. Of which I understand less, and went to explore as one of the activities in the rewards thing to get more points. Once there, well I guess I had signed up for that at some stage, managed to use it and there was a little over £15 in cash back waiting. For that you do need a paypal account for the cash back to be credited to.
Anyway that was a nice surprise and went towards a PITTA CD, I had been debating treating myself to, and now well it feels mostly free. It includes one of my favourite tracks.
Although I guess it could have been used for some craft supplies...perhaps next time!
Oh I just realised, I finally made some money off the internet! Not from a blog, or a video but just by using it! now that is funny.
lots of straight lines, no need to try and make curves here. That did not stop there being planning, ground and cliffs and roofs stitched horizontally. The castle walls vertically.
In some ways this was less stressful that the wyvern. There are some design deviations here and there but overall it fits.
I like the way the variegated thread has worked here.
Two down, two to go. Castle again for the next square as it was fun
This feels by title if nothing else to be a perfect Forestella song.
I am still working on this project but I am not posting it on an "as I go" basis.
I am posting various stages when I feel like it. Either when I have used up another skein of the thread or when an element has been completed.
In this instance it is the latter and there is a dragon , well of sorts, as it only has two legs I think the proper description is a Wyvern but whilst I am splitting threads to sew it I am not splitting them in the name.
It was interesting changing the direction of the stitching to trey and give curvature and movement to it.
I did have a deviation from the design here as I made an unpickable error. However, I am happy with it.
Here is a picture of the whole piece at this point in the project.
time for the fun part I have been looking forward to.
Time to think about how the direction or placement of the stitches in the variegated thread can be used to enhance the flow and movement of the design.
On feeling the curve here.
Not something I focused on for the edge designs.
Now are you wondering what it could be? Ah you know, what else!
the mouse is done, apart from the eye, which I will leave till last.
I can see the shading on this so much better in this picture than in person. The flowers look more complete this way as well. It is odd that even at arms length it does not come together visually, it needs distance.
and two skeins used, the third started and the edges are done.
I so wanted to start the sections that go into the empty squares, but had to keep with the edge designs first.
There is one mistake in the outer pattern, I can see it, I thought it might hide but nope I can see it. I am contemplating if I can overstitch the one X that is in the wrong place with a shade matching the fabric and then add the stitch into the right place.
Maybe by the time the full thing is finished I can revisit that thought, it might have hidden itself by then?
Adding the album version of this Forestella song as I just happen to be listening to it whilst drafting this blog.
and a bit of "what now" laughter at myself, all that stitching and this is th first time I noticed the griding on the pattern is five by five as well as the ten by ten.
the Saturday before was a display and share craft evening at Church. Two hours there abouts from 5 ish to 7 ish. I only took two quilts to display as I was not sure of the space I would have, and three cross stitches that were easy to grab, no taking them off the wall.
As got the demonstrate and share so visitors could take something away.
I did felt needle cases. I did the demo one and there were four made. Well three made their own and the fourth was a little boy who told me he was not allowed to touch pins or needles, so he designed and I sewed.
The blue in the middle is mine, with cut out felt flowers, to the left the flowers are pre- formed ribbon flowers I bought and to the right three cut felt flowers and letter beads that were the little boy's mother and father.
Other crafts on offer were candle making, cross stitch, sewn cards, crochet and a drawing class.
makes the thread go a long way. This is one full skein into this pattern. Using Variegated thread.
It runs from a dark grey through a brown to a purple red and a mid then light brown. Not that it is showing up all that well here.
I have ten skeins of this thread and am interested to see how much it takes to finish. The pattern came with estimated thread requirements for different stitch counts.
for 18 Count it suggests 18 skeins
for 16 Count add one to make it 19
and for 14 count you need 23.
If I have measured correctly (by stitching a row and measuring it) I am working on 30 count (might be 32 as neither my counting nor measuring are perfect) and I am hoping 10 will be enough.
why special? Well most people were on the tech option today as there was a special multi stake conference for the UK and Northern Ireland.
A live broadcast via You Tube.
It was slotted for two hours but was not quite as long as anticipated. However, it did give me a bit more stitching time than usual and after a few stitches of grey I felt up to doing some brown.
Two shades of brown and it feels like a lot of filling was achieved.
Because of the self imposed "when to stitch" time restrictions there are still several weeks worth of stitching to go I think. Still I am already contemplating the question of what next, is there going to be a designated next at all. Originally the Sunday stitching was something to take to church and work on in the Relief Society room whilst listening to the talks and avoiding the migraine inducing lights in the chapel. Things have changed due to my parents health and attendance is via Zoom at the moment.
So I control the lights now. That an all my crafting stuff is available to keep my hands busy so my brain can focus.
and mount for £1 and I thought maybe I know what might fit in that.
Brought it home and fit it did.
And now it is on the wall.
You might recognise it as BFF SAL 14 (and currently on number 24 , just wow!) Click HERE for details of the finish and pattern. As that is quicker for me than typing it in again.
Oddly my BFF and I were working on the same shade, the symbol sounding like a yoga pose, the downward triangle.
The initial stitches went in as fillers between previous stitches, that was nice. Then they moved into areas that did not have that framework. That was a little bit more work. There are still stitches to go in that shade but my eyes were tired of them before our designated time was up.
There were two stitches in "sideways lollypop" which symbol lead to the earworm of the Oh lollypop lolly lolly pop song.
whichever it is I find that I need a little foot stool to be comfortable. Finding one the right hight was proving difficult so many years ago my father made one for me. From a wooden cutlery tray, four knobs a bit of wood, foam, hinges and some brown velvet. I guess the Mice from the Marvellous Mouse Organ and The Wombles are not alone to blame for my make do and mend thoughts.
Perfect.
After many years of use reupholstering was required.
A stapler gun later (a pink one as it was £1 cheaper in that shade than it was in either green or grey) and a new cover was in place.
I keep my seed beads in here, well and random other stuff like tassels. It rather needs a sort out.
But for the moment I am happy to have my foot stool back.
