The Soothing Properties of Grass - Lockdown SAL

Lots of work on that minty grass again tonight, largely I've generally been unimpressed with the colour.  However tonight, for some reason, the stitching of it was soothing.  Definitely felt like I needed it, it's been a long week today.. Working from home constantly is getting me down, and I'm trying to arrange some time to work in an office, but nothing about the process is going smoothly.  Add to that a few days filled with complex work and tight deadlines, and it's enough to fill my head with difficult thoughts. 

Really enjoyed the get together on Skype tonight, I'll let my BFF tell you about the children's playground songs that pervaded our nattering on http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com

All over the place - Lockdown SAL

Finally starting to feel like there's a single picture emerging, although the bizarre peppermint shade of the grass on the right still intrigues me - it looks less odd in amongst the green stuff on the left. 

This week should have been a walking week, but a local lockdown and torrential rain both put a stop to that.

We started a new variegated thread this week.  Now, most magazines have their patterns with both Anchor and DMC options, this is no exception.  However, two of the threads, Stormy Seas and Mountain Stream, did not have any alternative suggestions.  Fair enough, methinks, I will break with my habits and buy the Anchor threads for those 2.  Unfortunately, as I have had the pattern saved for several years, they have been discontinued so weren't available for purchase.

So, a search was required, and with a bit of Internet wizardry (read Google search), I found a site which compared DMC alternatives to Anchor threads, and suggested levels of closeness.  So the dark path is DMC 4240, replacing Anchor Stormy Seas.  There is a teeny bit of single strand work, and more to come in the rest of the piece in 2 strands.  Feels like there's less variation between the lights and darks in this thread than the variegated green grass.

There's a bit of stuff all over the place this week, which is representative of the state of my head... A busy day in a busy week. 

Head over to http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com/ to see my BFF's progress.. As she beat me to it this week! 

Oh, Leaf me alone!! Lockdown SAL

This week is the first time I have been stressed out by anything on the  current SAL project.  Making some progress with the medium tree leaves, not the variegated ones yet, but the single coloured ones.  Somewhere in last week's stitching, I have gone wrong.  I didn't discover the error until this week.

On reflection I have decided to 'leaf it alone', as it will be surrounded by a sea of variegated greens later, and leaves are individual.

Enjoyed our get-together again though, we managed decent weather for a walk last week, so a bit of stitching time felt overdue.

With a potential local Lockdown impending again, I'm glad that we have built up a good habit of Skype sessions.

Here is the latest progress, check out http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com for my BFF's update.

Gifted Gorgeousness - September

Oo, just sneaking in for this month's Gifted Gorgeousness event at the last minute, hosted by the lovely Jo at https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com on the 15th of each month.

This is the (almost) completed Golden wedding sampler for my parents, this coming weekend.  

 

It's the second adaptation of Claire Crompton's Finding Mr Right pattern for me, I loved it so much I made their Ruby anniversary sampler from it 10 years ago, I can't quite believe it's been so long!!  Here it is for comparison, I wanted to keep the bones of the pattern intact to symbolise the unchanging love they have for one another, but I didn't want to simply recreate the original variant with golden threads.

I still need to find a frame and press the completed item, but I'm pleased to have finished the stitching on time at least.

My parents' long and happy marriage is something we aspire to ourselves.   In addition, we almost share a wedding anniversary, when we were choosing our wedding day, we decided to hold it just 2 days after their anniversary.  We'll have been married for 18 years this year, a mere drop in the ocean compared to the 50 years of my parents.  But I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else.

The lure of forbidden fruit - Lockdown SAL

This time round, it didn't seem to matter which thread I was stitching with, something else always appealed.  So as a consequence, I did a little bit of a lot of things!! Some medium tree bark, a wee bit of leaves for the medium trees, half a house, oh and a smattering of grass!!

We're finding it massively fascinating just how differently the same project is looking for us both, we even saved our 'ta-da' moments till the end of the session.

Head to http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com/ to find out how my BFF's version looks. 

Jumping off Trees - Lockdown SAL

Whilst not recommended in real life, it's the measure that I am using for most of the SAL, for where to measure my next stitches from.

Lots of progress, as you can see below, and on my BFF's blog 

at http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com/

This time we began our joint march into the variegated green, you'll see from our blogs that we have both done this very differently, the variation is perhaps more apparent on here, as you see on the left hand side.  We saved the first time to do together, but not sure that this will be a common practice.

What did I make of the variegated?  Hmm?  Well... it's different. It requires a different mindset, as it's recommended to stitch one full stitch at a time.  I'm quite happy that the darker end of my variegated thread ended up underneath the medium trees, but right now the colour combination feels a bit 'off' against the minty green of the grass on the right hand side.  I shall reserve judgement until we get more of the pattern stitched.

My plan for next week is to continue on up the medium trees, I'm enjoying trees, did I mention that once or twice?  And maybe spread sideways into the house, but right now I'm enjoying stitching with 2 threads, so maybe I will save the skinny stuff till later...who knows.  Stay tuned to find out more.

Blue coming through

Yay, those lovely trees are all stitched now!  Barring the backstitch of course.  I was SO tempted to do some back-stitching too, but it turns out that there are still some stitches around the trees that I would have to work around if that were the case.  Added a little more to the grass, but I wasn't really feeling 'the love' for that colour this time round, so I decided I needed a bit of a change.  And so it was time for some work on the bluebells.  

My BFF wasn't to be outdone (we've discovered a fun competitive edge with these joint projects), so she made a start on some bluebell stuff too.  Once again though, we're handling this quite differently, so I'll let her tell you about that over at http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com/

I'm nervous about straying too far from stitches I already have in as starting points, so these few bits may have to satisfy my need for bluebells for a wee while, and next time I will probably return to do more grass. (and although my BFF and I have both stitched some of the same grass, we've attacked it from different angles too).

Once again, we stayed on for an extra half hour past our normal Skype time, as we were just having so much fun with this stitch. (and with our nattering too, but I might tell you more about that in a different post, as it was unrelated to crafts or the SAL directly).

Probably a walk again next week, weather permitting.  Lots to talk about, and plan for.  I have more stitching WIPs underway though, so you may get an update once I make some more progress on that side of things.