BFF SAL 9 - IRL

Oh, such a good day on Tuesday. Finally, after over a year in our new house, my BFF and I managed a proper real person get together, and a chance for her to visit and see the space outside of a screen!

We started the day off with breakfast out, and after the obligatory house tour, and birthday and Christmas presents exchanged (as we much prefer to do this in person) managed to combine a trip to my local thread stockists and a look at some of the other shops. 

And I got to see my BFF's SAL piece in real life. Now, I'm not entirely silly, and we've done our own pictures for scale in the past, but nothing quite prepared me for the difference on her 1 over 1 piece!  Even the photo here doesn't seem to emphasise it as much! 

There was also a little stitching on the SAL, on the grounds of testing out my new magnifying floor lamp.  

And now on to this week's progress. Added some work in the first border, and a teeny bit of the gold one, with a touch more of the red in the corner piece. 

Check out my BFF's update on http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com

A little taste of everything - BFF SAL 9

This week has had a lot of decisions required, on my part at least. So this post is all my own. 

Did I want a mono colour, or one or more contrast in there?

So I began with a bit of a 'thread toss' to audition some alternative options. 

I narrowed it down to 783 for a gold shade - I've always visualised the middle border in gold. But somehow that red in 777 kept calling me.

So the 777 became corner pieces and the middle border became 783.

Decided to give them a live audition too, and added a little bit of each into the work. If I'm honest, I got the gold one on and wasn't convinced, so I had to add a bit of the final border to be sure I would still like it once it was surrounded by the main colour.  Thankfully I do, so I won't have to take anything out!! 

Read onto the next post to find out all about this week's progress proper. 

Close but no Cigar - BFF SAL 9

Oh.... So close to finishing the first part of the pattern!!  One teeny bit more swirl required. I reckon maybe 100 stitches or so in total. 

So OK, before my BFF gets in with 'told you so', yes I do appear to be moving faster on this project than she is. 

I think there's something about symmetry and geometric patterns that appeal to my brain in a different way. 

Next come a series of borders, some of which I plan to keep in the purple, but I need to choose an alternative colour for one of them if I stick with my current thoughts. 

We're planning on an in-person meet up next week before our Skype call, I'm so looking forward to getting together again, and to showing my BFF around our new house in person.  And of course as always, we plan to include some food! 

Check out my BFF's update on http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com

Gifted Gorgeousness April linkup

It's time (alongside the Easter blog hop) for the Gifted Gorgeousness linkup, hosted by Jo over at http://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com on the fifteenth of every month. 

This was actually a March start and finish, it is an adaptation of a Durene Jones pattern from the World of Cross Stitching magazine.  I needed to turn the U upside down to create an A, is in our part of the world, our mother is a Mam. I can live with very teeny cursive Us on a card, as Mam cards are very hard to source.  But for a stitched piece she needs her real title! 

I also brightened up the hearts (okay well I was forced to brighten them after following the wrong symbol on the pattern hahaha) and left out some green stitching under the backstitch as it didn't work well with the A rather than a U. 

Finished up as a bookmark as then I know it will be kept and used. Although I have seen it look good presented on a card by other stitchers, my mother is not a keeper of cards.   The  colour of the felt is somewhere between a purple and a raspberry pink. 

Easter Blog Hop 2022

I can't believe it's already time for Easter and the Blog Hop again... It feels like 5 minutes ago we were taking down the Christmas tree!!

The Hop is hosted by Jo over at http:serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com, pop over there for the starting point.  If you collect the letter from each blog and rearrange them to make the mystery word or phrase and share it with Jo. 

Having done a bunny last year, I wanted to do something different this year.

We had some small pieces of the plastic canvas left over, so I decided to put it to good use as a series of little Easter bookmarks.

I had fun making these and using up some spare bits. And in my covid recovery phase, they were a soothing mini project without any pressure.

The hardest part was the final assembly! 

Edited as per my BFF's request for closer pictures... 

I think I might try double sided tape next time though, I had a couple of places where I stained the ribbon with glue.

Anyway... Enough from me, off to your next step on the journey, which is http://guavagems.blogspot.com/

And take the letter T with you!

Have fun, I know I will.

Happy Easter, my blogging friends. 

BFF SAL 9 - I want to be a...

... Lady of leisure? Dolphin? Dragon? Tree? Knot that meets up? 

Had a lovely week and a half off work, with lots of stitching.  So definitely the first one appeals.

A deep sense of relief when finishing the majority of the first side of the design, and knowing that the knots meet each other where I'd started top and bottom. 

Right now the incomplete knots at the bottom right make this look not quite symmetrical, but I'm fairly confident it's just an illusion.  Nevertheless, I have started filling them in to be certain! 

Thankfully no impending decisions required regarding what's next to stitch, as (certainly for me at least) there is a long way still to go. I'm informed by the software that it is only 24.79% complete.   My BFF may end up with it more than once in that time!! 

And then we have a plan of sorts for the next one, and even maybe a maybe for after that... Who knows? 

Check out my BFF's update on http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com

BFF SAL 9 - Side swipes

Having to progressively zoom out to capture more of the design. This week I'm starting to work on the left side close to the first border. Not sure whether I will do that to completion, or match up a little more of the other side yet. 

To answer a couple of questions from previous comments - no, we will keep you in suspense for a while yet as to designer and pattern name.  I can reveal that it's a Ukrainian seller on Etsy, I'd like to say that was a deliberately chosen thing to support the country, but as I only just realised that yesterday I would not be telling the truth!!

I get the feeling I will be stitching more from this designer, as I'm really enjoying it.

We talked also about how the time limit we've imposed has been encouraging us to work on our other stitching too.

Check out my BFF's update on http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com

Cutting through the noise - my friendly neighbourhood Pattern Keeper

Sometimes you go to pick up a piece of stitching and wonder why you don't do it very often. 

This is one such for me. 

So, it sits.. The amount of detail and teeny half stitch work here on Bucilla's "Mother and Child" is astronomical! 

But lately I've taken to working with excerpts of the pattern in my Pattern Keeper app.  This allows me to zoom in and view the details much more than I can on the paper pattern. 

I'm also finding that very useful on the Big SAL. 

I also like the stitch count and progress indicators, however it's a teeny bit daunting to see the total stitches yet to go, along with how small the amount of progress is so far!! 

Definitely worth a download if you're an android user though, there's a small charge but I feel like it's worth every penny I spent on it.