Positive Mental Cattitude - BFF SAL 12

As someone rightly guessed last week,  a feline is our subject this time. 

And am very much enjoying the stitch, I think because it looks more and more real with each addition. 

Starting to get some other colours in, quite looking forward to the backstitch when it comes to it!

Check out my BFFs update.  A Patchwork of Crafts

BFF SAL 12 ... a tale of two....

Well that would be telling,  and you know we don't do that right away!!

We started with the same area of the pattern,  and in typical fashion of Same But Different,  we've gone in opposite directions from there.

I'm fairly certain that most people will be able to tell what this one is, and as a certain blog post of Jo's led me to buy this book, I think she may recognise it.

Check out my BFFs update later at A Patchwork of Crafts and see if you can guess. 

Oh... and progress from last week's mini stitch... definitely not Father Christmas. 

Once upon a time - An ongoing Saga of The Quilt That Never Was

Once upon a time, there was a Big Idea.

An idea for an autumnal quilt. For me. The idea grew out of my BFF's quilt Hidden Star, the colours gave me a warm cosy feeling whenever I saw that particular quilt.

Now, I had some teal green material in the stash from duvets from my first house (29 years ago), but nothing had ever seemed quite right alongside it.  And then my parents bought new bedroom curtains, so there was part 2, bringing a variety of autumn shades.  Some orange from my very first foray into quilting, a log-cabin variant that I will show you some day.

I found an extremely simple pattern, and completed the main quilt top in a weekend! (more on that later). My BFF has since used the pattern on at least two further quilts where she was looking for an effective but simple top to patchwork.

Then my BFF and I got to talking. And as is our way with such things, the Big Idea got bigger. A quilt with side panels to drop down the sides of our double bed. Some rail-fence squares with sashing and a border, and I now had 2 sides.

So on a day where we could make use of the church floor for space, the huge piece got pinned and sandwiched with wadding.

I think I managed to get the hoop moved on my own only once, and it was so big that my BFF had to arrange it on my lap when we had our meetings (pre Covid so shows how long this has beenaround).   This is not conducive to sewing at home, where one's hubby is less inclined to hang around to arrange the quilt.

So, I needed a solution. The sides were to come off and be quilted separately. And the top would be split into two and quilted as separate entities, with a vague idea of joining the finished pieces, Quilt As You Go style.

Deciding to start the sides first, which was a good plan.  In those days there was a massive commute, as well as an OU degree to study, and my time to craft was limited.  This had the unfortunate effect that every quilting plan stalled along the way.   Nothing ever felt quite right, somehow.  There were complicated templates for hexagonal spirals, but having not drawn them on before starting the quilting, I couldn't get the layout right.

I settled on simple hexies in the end, spaced between the rail fence blocks. The borders used half hexies of the same template, resulting in an interesting diamond shape where they meet. 

And thus it began...6 months after moving house we finally got a bed runner.  I do love the pop of colour from it.

Loaded up the next piece of top, with a simple echo in the pattern squares. And once again life took over, not so much lack of mojo altogether, lack of quilting mojo.

The reverse is pieced too, and I have used a self binding technique my BFF taught me.

So it took from August 2021 till May 2023 to progress to the lap quilt above.  This represents the top half of a double bed, but will likely be adopted for a long while as my craft room quilt, as it's cosy for cocooning in my chair.

I intend to update the blog, and probably this post with progress.   But for now it is time to fancy a different quilt under my needle and take a wee break from the Saga.

I have christened the quilt Parts of a Whole, who knows whether that joining plan will happen or not, but it's been fun to be quilting again as well as my cross stitch.

Gifted Gorgeousness May linkup

Checkout Serendipitous Stitching for a list of participants. I've had quite a stitchy fun time lately so I have things to share for a change. 

This lovely Derwentwater Designs piece was a gift from my BFF a few years ago. Like lots of my pieces, I started at the time then ran out of oomph for a goodly while!  There are multiple blends and a mixture of full and half cross stitches in both one strand or two.  But by far the fiddliest part was the backstitch which also called for mixtures of shades and thicknesses.   It's all worth it though for this beautiful picture. 

Another gift from my BFF,  which she's also talked about on her GG linkup, this lovely DMC thread project card.. not sure if there's an official term for that, even the package doesn't give one?  This was an accidentally re-gifted piece as I gave it to her, it's not the first time we've regifted but it's probably the first unknowingly done so!

The other beautiful piece of the same nature which she has already shared,  has been organised into boxes with some other accessories,  so I can't share it alongside until I get myself reorganised yet again!  Check out her blog to see it.

BFF SAL... or not quite

Last week I was otherwise engaged. But that was just as well,  as my BFF had issues of her own that would have prevented stitch work.

We have a pattern planned for BFF SAL 12, but have not yet quite established our fabric choices.   So this week we had a more random session. 

I have been almost welded to my new comfy chair this week and stitched loads.

I'll talk about some of them in other dedicated posts later and in Hops through the year, so for now I will share just this little cover kit by Lucie Heaton.

During our session I worked a little on this Durene Jones SAL freebie.

And then as I would have been required to leave the comfort of my chair to progress further,  I started another cover kit, ironically also by Durene Jones!

For so few stitches,  we think it's already obvious what the subject matter is here - can you guess?

Check out my BFFs update at A Patchwork of Crafts

 

The People Chose... embellishments

This share is hosted by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching

The title this month caught my eye as I've just had an embellished finish, this freebie from Durene Jones. 

It did make me look back and think about other things embellished,  like a decorated hat for a Mad Hatters Tea Party with my BFF. 

My BFF did a much better job than me though...check out her amazing creation, you can read more on her blog to see the full story.

https://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com/2022/08/down-rabbit-hole.html?m=0

Or this cover kit I completed a couple of years back with the snowflake charm. 

Sometimes it's just fun to revisit old photos in this way, to remind ourselves of the bits and pieces we have worked on along the way.

2 FFOs, 1 new start and a new place to Be

We didn't feel quite up to our next start on BFF SAL  12 (and indeed we had a bit of fun going back to work out what they'd all been!)

So some random bits.  I started this cover kit back in September 2021 and finally finished just before our Skype this week,  so it counts!

Finished the cross stitch during the week on this freebie from Durene Jones,  and last night added a Button as a charm.

And made a start on a Christmas themed mini stitch to be better prepared for the Hop.

Thankfully my cold finally left me,  sadly I apparently managed to pass it to hubbyman,  poor fella.

Checkout my BFFs progress for the evening at http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com

Oh! Almost forgot about the other bit.... I have a new chair for my craft room!  Very glad to finally have it in place!