Getting Ready – Stage 1

Hello everyone,

It’s time to introduce my new SAL project. I’ve kept you all in suspense for long enough and I just hope I didn’t build this one up into something it really isn’t!

As you know, me and Claire are copy cats (well I am anyway). We’ve been enjoying doing the same projects for what seems like ages now and I find it very motivating. It goes a bit like this…

Claire emails me to say there’s a sale on at Sew and So. I go to have a look and don’t always fancy buying. Claire emails again and says she’s bought several kits! In fact, sometimes she buys more than one of the same kit because she likes to give presents. Then, when I see what she’s bought I sometimes want one too. Anyway, Claire bought this design called Getting Ready by Ronald West and it was a real bargain (Just over £5 for the complete kit) so I put one in my basket as well. I do love Design Works kits because they are such good quality. I also love the odd looking characters in this design. There’s a whole series, all with rather rotund cartoony people. I think they’re fun but I also accept they’re not to everyone’s taste.

Anyway, this is what we’ll be stitching for a while.

I’d put all the threads onto the card and wrote the symbols next to the correct colours and was all ready to start but I just couldn’t work from the tiny chart so I enlarged it and decided to mark my working copy as I went. That made life so much easier. I’d already decided to work in sections so needed to judge how much I could probably get done every three weeks. I don’t only work on the SAL project you see. There’s always lots more crafting going on behind the scenes here.

I thought 12 sections would probably work as this design is stitched solidly across the fabric. I like to paperclip the chart to my fabric at the side of the frame and I’ve made a good start here.

 This is the section finished except for the backstitching.

Then I decided to do the backstitch rather than keep it all until the end. What a difference it makes.

So, that’s 1/12 completed. I think each section will be like a mini finish for me. There’s more than enough stitching in one part for three weeks (54 x 54 crosses) so I might not get a whole part done each time but I’ll try. Me and Claire usually agree which bit to stitch for each stage and then we can push each other along but she doesn’t work on a frame so she’s doing things differently this time. I’ll let you pop over to her blog and see for yourself. I’ll be stitching the section to the left of this one for next time.

Everyone else in the group is doing something different. Please take a look at how they are progressing with their own chosen SAL project.  I promise you won’t be disappointed. We live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences but we post local time, every third Sunday.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,

Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Mary Margaret, Timothy,

Heidi, Connie, Jackie

Our next updates will be posted on the  29th October 2017. See you then!

About the SAL

This SAL (Stitch Along) is slightly different to other SALs in that we don’t all stitch the same design at the same rate. We choose ONE unfinished project, or ONE new one, and show progress of its completion over a series of three weekly updates. There are no deadlines and no set amount to stitch. The result is that the space in our drawers full of WIPs (works in progress) is gradually being freed up to store lots of new crafty goodness. It’s surprising how much motivation I’ve gained from being in this SAL. If you’d like to finish a project you’ve left unfinished for a while, or start a new one with us, you can join us by leaving a request in the comments below or sending me an email. The address is on the right of this page. I’ll send you a few simple rules to agree.

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Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on October 8, 2017

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2017/10/08/getting-ready-stage-1/