Sunday Stitching..the beginning of the end.

all of the cross-stitches are done (well unless I spot a missed bit) and the backstitching begins.

Initially I thought I was going to have to figure out what to use where on the backstitch by looking at the picture as there was no key for the backstitch.  However, what I had not noticed until today was a full sheet that is just the backstitch instructions.  Now that makes it sound as if the back stitch is going to be complicated, not the case, just the manufacturer has decided to give it a full sheet all of its own.

The talks today were about the value and quality of friendship, developing relationships and being there to support each other.  Delightfully two of the speakers are friends who live over 200 miles away and were here visiting family (who are also great friends) so the theme was most appropriate. They, the visiting friends are a married couple and I would say the recipients of a quilt I made, except the wife in the couple declared that the quilt is hers! Greek Key Quilt.

So here it is this weeks update.

Sunday Stitching an update

well as anticipated there was no Sunday stitching last week as I was giving a talk with a theme of "be of good cheer"

This week, whilst there has been stitching it was done at home whilst watching a recording of a conference session.  Why you ask? My mother was not feeling well today so we stayed home.

I have touched on my Mother's health before and hope you will excuse my adding in a non-craft related touch today.  My mother brought a leaflet home from her group and as a result set a goal to participate in a fund raising activity, and wearing a very purple T Shirt for a great cause.

Information on what we will be doing, and for my mother it will be a big thing to do, is available at Just Giving if you feel so inclined.

Back to the update, finished the burgundy

                                                               and made a start on the gold

Might make it to the backstitching next week?

Sunday stitching, a spot of burgundy

now you know I mean the colour and not the liquid variety.  No alcohol here.

Anyway the yellow is over and done with (well for full stitches at least) and although I had high hopes of being able to say the same for the next shade the burgundy has a way to go.  As it is Branch Conference next week and I am speaking not sure it will be finished then either.

Sigh, why does progress always feel so much slower once the end beckons?

V

I have mentioned before that this is a letter less represented in most commercial ranges of initialed products. It is also both my mother's and my best friends initial.

I found a broach for framing a small cross stitch or embroidery.  I wanted to make something for my mother as a Christmas gift.  The material I used has featured here before.  At this point I had made the  small-owls. but not the da-vincis-la-sacpigliata .

Once I had the material sorted I counted the available stitches and started looking through my pattern books.  I did find one and chose to stitch it with one thread over one.  As is often the case I miscalculated the available time and was stitching right up to the last moment.  I finished all of the cross-stitches and reached the backstitch.  At which point I there was a hitch, normally I would be working with two strands for the cross stitch and one for the backstitch.  It had not occurred to me  until I was at that stage, what was I going to backstitch with.  Now you can't split a single strand of floss (I did try it looks like it works but disintegrates when you try to sew).  Then I thought normal sewing thread might be thin enough, it wasn't, at the time no internet access or shopping so I was stuck.

Backstitch was necessary to the design as you can see and I was sitting utterly frustrated looking around feeling rather despondent.  When my eye fell upon a solution, a mad strange positively Victorian solution.  I thought about it and the madness of it and the appropriateness in an odd twisted way and decided to go with it.

Was Victorian enough of a clue?  No, well how about a little personal information, I have mid brown hair, a few strands of which are darker than others, and I wear it long.  Yes, as I despaired and looked down at the design, I saw my hair.  There was something thin enough, long enough, strong enough and just dark enough to do the job.  Always getting caught in sewing projects when I did not want it to (never mind clogging up the hoover and blocking the plugs) it amused me that this time hair in a project would be intentional.  It took two full strands to complete the backstitch and I  finished just in time to wrap it Christmas Eve.

Happily my Mother was also amused with her hair broach.

I would have used the same method to do the backstitching on La Scapigliata had I done the backstitching called for in the pattern. 

Sunday Stitching in to May

out of the green and into the yellow.  So little yellow left to go, oh self imposed time limitations are getting frustrating.  However, I promised myself so I better keep to my own rules.

As a little aside, the flag counter, and Blogger do not appear to be in agreement with the countries visitors to my blog are from.

So apologies if your country is not showing just yet.

I am hoping it will sort itself out.  It took several days for the flag counter to notice I had a visit from Portugal, although Blogger noticed it immediately.

I wonder when it will add the flag for the United Arab Emirates.

A little bit of Pyrography

A quick bit of personalisation, it has been  awhile since I had the tool out.  Kept waiting for the good weather so I could have the window open without freezing.

A question of colour

just what colour is something, is it like beauty in the eye of the beholder or perhaps in the mind of the the describer?

I am sure we have all had the kind of conversation were one person admires a blue dress, another points out it is turquoise and a third pipes in its green.  The ambient light can impact on what we see, I once bought a dark olive green coat, well that is the colour it appeared in the shop, when I got it home it was grey. This experience has resulted in my carrying scraps of any material I want to match in my pocket so I can compare  it with any potential match in the same light. (A picture on my phone distorting the shade).

My BFF in addition to liking rainbows is inordinately fond of purple, she stated stitching a nativity silhouette in a shade I would have called pink, she called it purple and on checking the thread colour the manufacturer termed plum.

Then there is that dress, you know the one with the question was it blue or gold?  With the difference in responses from the viewers having a scientific explanation that would support the "in the eye of" saying.

So it is hard enough trying to get an agreement on a shade when you are looking at the item at the same time.  Describing the colour of something to someone else who has not seen it is a step further and at that stage I try to refer to items we have in common.  So references to  a mutual friends car or a favorite dress even on occasion the thread number of DMC.

However, I have had a conversation which clearly demonstrated the difficulties of the nebulous concept of colour.

One of the ladies at Church mentioned she would like to attend the quilting night to make some cushion covers for her living room.  I asked if she had some material and she noted she was looking for some to match her couch.  The following Sunday with the quilting night imminent I asked her again if she had found some material. She advised me no, but one of the other ladies had some she could use.  Oh I asked what is it like, she did not know as she had not seen it.  Does it go with your couch. "Oh yes", was the answer, "my couch is orange and so is the material".  I paused for a moment and then said what shade of orange is your couch.  The reply, "it's orange." OK, orange like orange the fruit?  "Well, no, but it is orange". I tried again and eventually elicited the reply it was like salmon. 

A further pause and I tentatively suggested smoked salmon (that at least being orange and not venturing into the realms of red and pink) she agreed smoked salmon. Somewhat satisfied that we had established some parameters for the couch ( I will note that it had taken almost 15 minutes of conversation and some laughter to reach this point), I then asked if the lady with the material had ever seen the couch to know that the material she had would match.  

The reply, "no, I told her it is orange and she has orange material so it will match". Ever heard the team back to square one? My face must have done something strange at this point and there was more laughter from us both, for one reason or another.  I then tried to explain that the other lady may not have immediately had the same shade in her mind in response to the word orange.  We had just about agreed that if the material was orange like the fruit it was not going to go well with her orange like a salmon and we should check with the material doner what she had, I thought we had made progress.

A third lady walked into the room (not the one with the material) and my companion invited her into the conversation with the question, "you know orange"?

Before she could be drawn in to the alternate universe of this conversation I asked her two questions.

1 have you seen (name's) couch

2 have you seen the orange material (name) has.

The response to both was no, and I suggested she did not want to participate, with a rueful smile she agreed and walked away. Cushion maker and I had further laughter as I tried to explain that a third person without having seen both couch and material was not going to be able to establish ORANGE in this instance.

Fortuitously the owner of the material walked past at that moment and after some carefully structured questions confirmed her material was as the fruit and not the fish. Success, well sort of as now we had established that the material available was not suitable and material for cushions was still required with only four days before the quilting night.

The two ladies went shopping together and on the quilting night four cushions were successfully made.  The colour, well I would call it cream but at this stage who knows what colour it really is or what several other people might call it! Magnolia, ecru, ivory, champagne, linen, almond,off white....

Now any conversation that is having difficulty establishing a common ground or a single point of understanding and the phrase "you know orange" pops into my mind.

Sunday Stitching green shade two

and some stitches of grey as I spotted some missing stitches as I started filling in with the lighter green.  So less progress on the green than might have been but still moving on with hopes this second shade will be completed next time...I think yellow after that.

Sunday Stitching.

Sweet Pea Plus

This design was in an old magazine which had a mix of things, stories and patterns for different crafts.  Sadly  at this point I don't have the magazine to hand to tell you what it was.

I have always been fond of sweet peas, my grandfather grew them in the garden and I would "help" the shoots find the strings to cling to and grow.  Once there were flowers I was allowed to help pick them to make bouquets he would take to the over 60's club as a prize for the raffle.

We later grew them at home and took them to Church on a Sunday.

So they hold a special place in our family.  Add on the butterfly and  it was just perfect for a birthday card for my mother.  This is the only item I have sewn during my lunch break at work, time was a factor as I had started the project a bit too close to the day it needed to be finished by.

Sweet Pea and Butterfly

      

Sunday stitching into the green

and it looks much more shockingly "colour" in person than on the picture.  I am sure it is going to work out fine however, just now it looks too bright and jars my eye after all the subtle shades of weeks gone by.