Thursday 12 March 2009

All At Sea

No, not me - which makes a nice change - but this post definitely is! LOL

Stitching on Sea Stars for Thursday SAL night went quite well and, for once, was left feeling reasonably pleased with the amount stitched.......... and the pesky little frog was nowhere in sight. Yay! This is where I left off:


I love the colour of this thread, Carrie's Creations Stormy Seas. It may be called that but it reminds me more of the colours in a Scottish tartan (Black Watch, perhaps?) which always makes me remember a fun four day holiday I had in Dunoon with my DSis and DBro back in the early 1990's. Strange but pleasant, this association of colours, or smells, that can make you recall specific people or memories and thoughts or feelings from the past. The smell of Old Spice and Sandalwood bring back memories of my Dad, Lily of the Valley and Old Lace perfume of my Mum, cornstarch gravy and damp of my grandparent's house, pipe smoke of my grandad D......... and the list could go on. :0)

In keeping with the sea theme today is the RAK chart Barb (no blog) very kindly gifted to me recently. I decided to start kitting up this design, ready to go, with the possibility of starting it after Night Watchman is completed, as there'll be an empty scroll frame then. Scroll frames always look so sad to me when they're left just hanging around empty, so I reckon it's much better to attach another project straightaway. ;0)

I remembered having a rather gorgeous sea coloured Silkweavers fabric in my stash called Tropical Breeze and dug it out:


You may not be able to tell, because of my poor photographic skills, but there's a lovely frond or fern-like pattern across it that reminds me of seaweed - perfect for this piece. Knew it would come in for something one day. LOL The design calls for 32ct but this is 28ct so it would normally end up a larger piece but have decided to seriously challenge myself and stitch it over 1........... mostly because the fabric isn't large enough to do it over 2 but also because there's only so much wall space in the house and there are many other projects that will need to share it. :0)

Now I'm hoping you can all help me with some thread suggestions for stitching this. Am wanting to use a hand dyed thread - either cotton or silk - and would like to go darker, rather than lighter, to get the silhouette effect and preferably one with only a slight variegation in it (trying for a sun on water ripple effect, iykwim). I've tried a few Carrie's against the fabric, looking for ideas, but nothing has really grabbed me so far and my colour confidence isn't the greatest either. So, anyone got any good ideas, please?

It's the S&S/JA Forum meet-up in Nuneaton this weekend. I had been thinking about going when Clare first mentioned it but decided against it for this year: with all the pills and potions I'm on, and especially with the food restrictions, it would've made it too awkward. We couldn't have avoided having to eat out and there aren't many places that are willing to alter their menus to suit - I've only found one place locally that is OK about it - and I find it embarrassing having to explain too. By this time next year I should be off most of the meds and have a more regular food regime, so am hoping I can make it then. :0)

As we're not going to Nuneaton we'll be going over to Doncaster to pick up my DSis before heading over to Elsecar for a Mind, Body and Spirit event being held in the Heritage Centre. Am hoping we'll get there early enough for me to be able to have a tarot reading with my favourite reader, as it's been over a year since she last read for me. It's also ages since my DSis came to one of these events with us so it'll be fun to have her there. I shall more than likely do a post on my other blog about the day some time next week. So I'm now away to my bed as it's an early start in the morning. :0)

Thank you again for taking the time to visit. Hope you're all having a good weekend, doing lots of fun stuff. :0)

6 comments:

Stitchingranny said...

Hi Karan,

I have a DD silk (No 85) called Fantasy Blues. I have tried it against something that looks the same shade of turquoise and it is a real contrast and yet looks great with it. It varies from blues to greyey lavander shades and I think it would be ideal. I will send you a needleful to try so you can see if its what you want before buying.

Hugs

Cheryl said...

Sea stars looks lovely. Dunoon is just over the water from me :)

Christine said...

My first thought was Carrie's Sea Mist, but I think it may be too light and bright.
WDW Twilight is a deep dark teal, that might work

Julie said...

SS looks fab. Dunoon ... i know it well, my maternal Grandpa Fred used to live there, his front window looked out onto the Clyde ... lots of happy memories of hols there.

Sally said...

Loving the look of Sea Stars Karan. I think the colours belnd so well together.

Love the RAK Barb sent you. It's a lovely chart and the fabric you've chosen is gorgeous. Not any help with the thread I'm afraid but I see from your next post that Helen helped you out.

jojo said...

Sea Stars is looking great Karan, I love your fabric choice for RAK chart Barb sent:)