BFF SAL 9, round the bend and across the border

Finally went round the bend this week.  Gold border completion, yay!!

And on Skype tonight, a little bit of progress on the final outer border.  Strange how unsquare the pattern looks before you fill in the edges! 

Check out my BFF's update here

Gifted Gorgeousness June link up

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted as ever by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching

We share a few things about gifts received or given, related to our crafts.  

I've only stitched on the BFF SAL this month as time has been limited, so I thought I'd share a gift from a few years past, from my BFF. 

Meet my ORT Baubles. 

They get filled up with the bits and pieces of thread, or occasionally labels, or even fabric offcuts. 

I see in each of them a history of my crafting life through the times.  Last year I added a few bits of fabric from quilting, and a lot of wool from crochet.  This year has been largely cross stitch so many thread offcuts. 

Is it just that I don't want to keep visiting the bin as often? Yeah maybe a little bit of that too, but it's fun to do and hurts nobody so I will be happy with that. 

I think I have 4 more to fill, feels like it's almost time to start the next one! 

Check out Jo's page for a list of all the participants this month. 

BFF SAL 9 - Nearly almost almost

It's been 2 weeks since our last session as we were out with our son for Important Teenagers Things last week.  Last week I stitched a lot of border, most of it yellow!  This week not so much, as I have been busy with work and coding challenges for a job application. 

But all in all, happy with progress by the end of the day. This week coming, I will finish the yellow and continue with the final outer border.

Check out my BFF's update on here

BFF SAL 9 - Honest, truly I do

Stitch on this between times... Really truly.

Actually feels like a bit of progress this week, the top yellow border is complete. 

And lots of additional work on the outer border. 

Comparing with last week and this... 

I shall have to be satisfied with that. 

Conversation topics were many and varied, from Jubilee Breakfasts, Britain's Got Talent, to Decapitated Bunnies. I'll let my BFF explain that one hahaha!!

Check out my BFF's update here

BFF SAL 9 The Never Ending Story

Oh dear, the 'sameyness' has hit big style with this set of borders.   And whilst I am glad that I have a couple of options to stitch on by starting the outer body too, oh boy I wish I had not added it.

The yellow border was tonight's focus, a bit more on the side and a stretch along the top to feel like I'd made any progress.  I prefer the stitching on the side, but it honestly never feels like I've made progress for the amount of thread consumed! 

I know it's all going to be worth it in the end but I long for the fun of the tree again! 

Check out my BFF's update on here

Gifted Gorgeousness May link up

It's time for Gifted Gorgeousness again, how did that happen already??

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted as ever by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  We are tasked with sharing our stitching on gifts, or with gifted fabric, or any combination of these things. 

My share this month, you've already seen a little bit of on my earlier post Adventures in Evenweave

But the reason it still fits here, is that I received the lovely book it came from from my BFF on our joint Xmas/Birthday real world meet up. 

There are SO many gorgeous patterns in here, I'm very excited to be starting on one of them. 

Here's the my abandoned evenweave version alongside for size comparison. It's about the size of one sleeve!

I'm looking forward to stitching a few designs from this book, I think it was one of my favourite pressies.   It didn't make me laugh quite as much as this one though. I'm getting through a lot of 550 on the SAL. 

The Road To Somewhere - BFF SAL 9 and other stuff

It's been a weird old week this one.  I think I've finally reached exhaustion point with the borders on the SAL.  On the plus side I have a choice of borders and corners to be working with, on the negative side then it resulted in a feeling of incompleteness everywhere.

A good friend of mine was successful in getting promoted at work, for a job which I chickened out of applying for. I have been living 'in my own head' way too much lately, I think, doubting my capabilities with work and real life skills. Oddly this comes along at a time when my crafty confidence is higher than usual. However, I'm guessing that some of that annoyance with myself spilled over into my stitching tonight, as I just couldn't get properly motivated on the SAL.  My BFF has her own tales to tell on the SAL side of things, so I'll let her update you later here.  Progress so far, mostly on Monday all in one long session after a muchness of grass cutting. 

So I dropped off the SAL and worked a little on my latest small piece, I'm working the kimono on a random piece of 14 count leftover fabric.  It wouldn't leave me alone, so I just had to start it. 

Remembering as I go along just why I don't love metallic thread... This tendency to split and pull. But as there's only a little bit of it in the pattern, I'm going to persevere as I think it will be worth it.