Friday Frolicking

Happy Friday, the first day of the weekend!

The Frolicking in the title refers to Kaye's group blog Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics where we each post what we stitch on during Friday.  The idea is to pull out an older WIP or project we are trying to complete.  My rotation changes each Friday so that's quite often what I blog about there.

This week I have been celebrating JOJ or Just One July with Justine and numerous others.  Following on from her success during Monogamous May Justine has decided to trying being a OAAT stitcher (One At A Time) and this month she is focusing on a Bothy Threads Cut Thru Pirate Ship.

I'm going to JOJ-lite, ie I chose one Focus For a Finish project but also stick with my weekly rotation to keep up with the various SALs.  This week the FFF project has been Teresa Wentzler's You Were Hatched.  In fact I am so close to a Finish, I'm not going to show you the whole piece, just extracts!

Here is one corner:

The chart uses a Dinky Dyes variegated blue for the Celtic border but I've used a DMC Metallic Blue backstitched in a DMC Gold.  One done, three to go!

The next two photos show a little trick I use when I'm backstitching pointy things like dragon wing tips.  Instead of stitching the diagonal backstitch line in the same holes as the 3/4 stitch, I move it across one thread as you can see.  Then I stitch the straight backstitch over the three threads instead of the usual two. 

(you can really see the blended blues in this photo too)

In this photo you can see the difference it makes.  In the top circle I followed the line of the stitching and the wing tip is blunt.  But in the bottom circle I made the diagonal one thread longer and you get a nice pointy wingtip:

It's not just wingtips this is useful for.  I do the same with anything with a 3/4 stitch point, leaves or petals on flowers for example.  Hair tendrils too.

Here's my bathtime project.  You might have more idea what it is now, any guesses as to the designer of the piece?

stitched on 32 count Autumnal Woodland from Crafty Kitten

And here's my rotation piece for the weekend.  The Second Friday of each month is Christmas Friday and this is from The Primitive Hare Christmas Cubes for the Christmas Ornie SAL Blog:

stitched on 35 count Country Mocha linen

I started this letter for my Longest Day Marathon and stitched the snowflake minus one stitch.

I got a lovely little prize in the post this week.  Remember the May Monster Madness Blog Party?  I won a prize!  Here it is on my fridge, next to my Rocky Horror magnet and the "Save the Date" for our niece's wedding (venue deleted so you can't gatecrash!)

Thank you, Little Gothic Horrors!

Finally, I went to an award ceremony at the local college for a video game design competition the Large Boy had entered.  He didn't win but did get a very favourable comment from the judges.  Many of the critiques picked out areas of weakness compared to other parts of the design but his was all positive.  If you accept that this quote is a compliment - "He has seamlessly woven in a narrative which is simultaneously touching and disturbed".  His world was "quixotic" too.  Must be all that Terry Pratchett we read!