Sew close... BFF SAL 9

Just a small handful of stitches remaining to the end of the first border.  Deeply relieved when they finally met up successfully. 

It's quite telling, though, that this is still only 49.19% complete!!  Ironically, the borders feel much more like hard work than the tree did. 

Sometimes I find the repetitive nature of this soothing, and others I long for a little variety. 

And I'm excited but very nervous about finishing and trying to find a suitable frame. 

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

Adventures in Evenweave

I've had a hankering for some time to try out stitching on evenweave. I've done it only once before, on a baby afghan my BFF and I did as a round robin for my son, 16 years ago!!

Having seen the spectacular nature of the BFF SAL on evenweave, one over one, though, that's what I wanted to try. 

But I also knew that I didn't really want to be buying a full piece of evenweave without a project in mind. 

So on our day off in person, my BFF gave me a little swatch to play on, about 60 x 70 stitches if working over 1.

Me being me, I decided to start with the Kimono from the Oriental Odyssey book by Joan Elliott. Pretty full on as far as coverage goes, although it's only 43 x 57.  So I'd have liked to have seen a shrunken version of this. 

This is as far as I got before deciding that the speed of stitching one over one is not for me.

(I should have anticipated this actually, given that I prefer to knit or crochet with thick wool which makes up faster) 

I could have stitched the entire piece on aida (or over 2 on evenweave) in the amount of time I have struggled with this a single stitch at a time. 

I think I would now be happy to work one over one in a small piece of work.  And I'm still keen to do something else on evenweave. But definitely over 2.

I shall contemplate it for the next SAL. That will be plenty of time to buy myself some fabric, as I have more than 50% of the current SAL left to work!! 

It's been an adventure though. 

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.