Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post, TUSAL, and More for December

 

Welcome to the tenth Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! (Since I skipped July and August). I just realised that even though this was supposed to be the last post it can't be really, as you are presumably doing things in December and so would want to show them off afterwards! Since the next first Wednesday of the month is also the first day of the month/year and has the tail end of the NYE Mystery SAL, the Temperature SAL, and the Seasons SAL all on the same day I'm going to do the very last post for this SAL on Thursday 2nd January. Although I will still do some sort of round up for the TUSAL and my pie charts I'm not going to be running this SAL any more - feel free to keep on doing it if you wish - it's just one thing too many for me right now.

Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post, TUSAL, and More for November

 

Welcome to the ninth Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! (Since I skipped July and August). This month I have been very busy - not just with stuff for the blog but also with a second round of TeamKLT vs TeamJodyri. I also made two more batches of jam: one batch of apple jam and one batch of apple and strawberry jam - if you make jam yourself try making them - they are amazing! This post is picture heavy as usual so make sure you view it using WIFI if you are viewing this post with a mobile device.

Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post, TUSAL, and More for October

 

Welcome to the eighth Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! (Since I skipped July and August). This month didn't have as many health issues as the three months before but I did wear myself out a few times - especially as my fridge decided that it was about to croak and I had to get a new fridge (I'm so glad I save money for emergencies like this!) and that required cleaning the old fridge and preparing the space for the new as it's a bit bigger than the last one. I also ended up making a batch of jam from the frozen fruit (Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, black currents, red currents and cherries all put together in the pan at the same time to make a single jam) that defrosted as they didn't fit in the cool box and the way I'd insulated them wasn't sufficient for the six hours they were out of a freezer. The jam is awesome!

Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post, TUSAL, and More for July, August, and September.

 

Welcome to the seventh Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! Yes it's really been three months since my last Finish It In... 2019 post. Between getting ready for my summer holiday (and getting the kids ready to go to ex for that time as I usually make a break for it when they are at his place for two weeks in the summer), being away on holiday and then over a month of dealing with my infected finger I either couldn't stitch or wasn't feeling up to it. I'm feeling a lot better now and am getting ready to stitch again (just as soon as I have this blog post out of the way really as I'll **finally** be all caught up!) I'm not sure if I mentioned it but I did splurge recently and got myself a new dishwasher which has really made things easier for me and left me with more energy everyday as I don't have to stand and do the dishes any more. This post will be picture heavy but perhaps not so picture heavy as it could have been if I'd not had health issues.

Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post for June, TUSAL, and More

 

Welcome to the sixth Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! In this post I'll show you what I've been up to since the last post (except for the still secret stuff), and all the other things that I have added to this once a month mega post. Get your coffee, tea, or favourite drink of choice out and make sure you are on Wi-Fi if you are on a mobile device as this post is picture heavy as always.

Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post for May, TUSAL, and More

 

Welcome to the fourth Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! In this post I'll show you what I've been up to since the last post (except for the still secret stuff), and all the other things that I have added to this once a month mega post. Get your coffee, tea, or favourite drink of choice out and make sure you are on Wi-Fi if you are on a mobile device as this post is picture heavy as always.

Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post for April, TUSAL, and More

 

Welcome to the fourth Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! In this post I'll show you what I've been up to since the last post (except for the still secret stuff), and I have a few additional things I'm adding too for a big all in one post as it doesn't take much more time to add extra information to this post and it all seems to go together seamlessly. Please note that this post is seriously picture heavy so if you are using a mobile device don't open it unless you are on Wi-Fi

TUSAL and a Google+ Reminder

Not sure what a TUSAL is? Click the picture!

Last time I posted about the TUSAL I said

I feel like I'm about to go to some sort of addiction meeting...

Hi! It's been 3 months since my last TUSAL post...

And now it's been almost a year! YIKES!

March TUSAL

Not sure what a TUSAL is? Click the picture!

I feel like I'm about to go to some sort of addiction meeting...

Hi! It's been 3 months since my last TUSAL post...

Great start isn't it! I've been stitching so much I've not really had time for extra posts - even the WIP Wednesday posts have suffered the results of my stitch-a-thon!

January TUSAL

Err yeah... so it's been 6 months since I last posted about the TUSAL (click the image above to go to the site that explains all) and my ORT Jar got pretty full in the meantime.

May TUSAL

Front of jar with my needle minders - the dragon is being helpful and holding a needle for me.

I'm really late for this but then it's not as long this time as it was last time (a year hehe). My jar is pretty full as I've been very busy which means this post will be very picture heavy! For those of you wondering what on earth a TUSAL is: it stands for Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long and its just keeping all your threads etc. from stitching in a jar and then posting once a month (or so) what you stitched since the last post. It's a good way of seeing that you stitched more (or occasionally less) than you thought.

Friday Freebie: Spider's Web and TUSAL

The end of this month and the beginning of the next mark the 6 months to Halloween point - so what better way to celebrate it than to have a quick little Halloween related pattern?

IHSW & TUSAL

It's been a while since I last did a IHSW post, not really sure why - it's just not happened. If you are wondering what IHSW is just click the button above and you will find out all - and hopefully join in too! This weekend I plan on having some fun with Dylon paints and some fabric and thread as well as complete a tiny I'm working on and maybe also add some more beads to Celtic Wolf. The last time anyone saw Celtic Wolf he looked like this:

The whole bit of unstitched grey is to be covered in beads - if I stitched it, it would be over 4500 stitches but it will be a lot less beads hopefully!

I shall return with a report of what I've done over the weekend on Monday.


Now it's time for the TUSAL part of this post. Please click the button above to find out more - it will explain all about this slightly mad but ever so fun SAL.

I've been a busy bee the past month working very hard on Celtic Wolf - most of the shiny thread you can see in my jar is from him, as well as the darker reds, blues and greens. I took some time out from him to work on my Ornament of the Month, which added some lighter blues to the jar.

This is, for those that don't read my blog often, a SAL I host over on another site: Nerd Central Command International Headquarters - or NCCIH for short, which is also slightly less of a mouthful. Click the button to the left to be taken to the first 3 free patterns.


After I'd completed the cross stitch of Celtic Wolf I started the beading, which I can only do in daylight due to the sparkly nature of the beads and my eyesight, so I started stitching some other things in the evenings. Initially I made a new fob which is the first of my new Fob a Month series of free patterns that I host on this blog: A Fob a Month, which added a lot of bright colours to the top of my jar.

Right at the very top are the threads of the Sophie Card kit that I am stitching right now - it's almost finished as I only need to complete the back stitching and then decide which clothes I want to add.

So all in all a very productive TUSAL month! On the less productive months I'm even more happy I keep track of my threads as I can then remind myself that I did actually do something.

Celtic Wolf - WIP post 9 & TUSAL

Wednesday's lack of progress can be seen above, although I did get a lot of XL backstitching done, so there was *some* progress. Yesterday I didn't do much better, however I did have a lot of "life" happening. All good though! I met my bf at the station nearest the airport he arrived at and after a cup of coffee to rehydrate after travelling we went to my house where he is staying the weekend.

Between making bacon and eggs for him and the kids for lunch, catching up on wash and making roast lamb for dinner as a nod to the Chinese New Year (this year is the year of the sheep), I didn't get much stitching done. I managed 100 stitches, which is more than I thought I'd manage to be honest.

 You can see 2 threads trailing up, these are parked so I can continue the lines later.

Stitches done: 100
Total stitches: 4186
Total backstitches: 33.62 inches

Tusal is all about showing off your orts - if you click the button above you will find out all about it. Since last time I have done quite a bit - above you can see what I've been working on for the last 9 days - yes 9!

Before that I worked on my February Ornament Of the Month - I always make 2, one to use as an ornament and one to make a garland with.  If you head over here you can see the garland ornament and find out where to get the pattern for free.

Going back in time and through the layers you can see that before all the purple is some lighter coloured threads, some of these are from the owl ornament, owl scissor holder and the "A" letter book lasso I also wrote about in the post I linked above

So quite a bit has been achieved since the last ort report, Hopefully I can finish the Celtic Wolf before the next one, or be very close to doing so!

See you all tomorrow (hopefully) for my next Celtic Wolf WIP report.

TUSAL - January ORT report

And so here I am at last with a real TUSAL report (Don't know what this is? Click the button above!) - it's been months since I last did one despite me keeping a jar for each month for it but with me having some health issues and working on a lot of secret stuff it just didn't happen. Instead I've made a photo of every single ORT jar I have - from September 2012 to December 2014 - there have been a few months where I didn't stitch at all and for those months I do not have a jar but looking back it's amazing how much I DID stitch.

The top row are the jars for 2012, just 4 of course as I only found out about this in September. The next row down and the two on the left of the 3rd row are the 11 jars for 2013. I had some really productive months there as some jars are almost full. If you consider that these are standard 450 gr / 1 lb jam (jelly) jars that's quite a bit of ORTs! the other 4 of the 3rd row and the jars on the bottom row are all from 2014, also 11 jars ,  which shows that I did quite a lot even if I didn't post about them.

A new year and a new shape of jar, sadly the company that made the jam changed the jars they put the jam in some time ago and Decembers jar was the last one I had of that shape. The new jars are taller and skinnier, which might just be a plus as you can see the layers of the threads better.

So what did I work on to make all those pretty layers?
Well there was the Death of rats and Mike's Mushrooms which you can read all about in my blog post D.E.S.I.G.N. & Death of Rats. There was Teresa Wentzler's Castle Ridge that I started on January 1st. I got quite a bit done on this but I set it aside to work on the ornaments of the month and give mike's mushrooms some love and will pick it up again at a later time, I'm in no hurry to finish this so am switching between projects.

 

Then I made the two Ornaments of the Month which you can read about in this blog post: WIPocalypse - January, new finishes and more and last of all is the little freebie that came with this month's CrossStitcher magazine on Monday - an owl scissor case with matching scissor fob.

I just need to finish a little bit of the eye and then the top piece of the case is ready. The body will be done on a separate piece of Aida and after hemming the top of that I will layer the two together with some felt to make the back and sew them together, although admittedly I'm not so sure about the felt that came with the kit as it's rather flimsy and very stretchy so I may just dig in my stash for a nice bit of cotton to use instead. The pattern gives instructions to do a scissor fob that is one side cross stitch and one side felt but I'm thinking that if I have enough thread left I might just do the other side with embroidery too as they have enough fabric to do that.

A new year - and perhaps a new beginning

It's that time of year when everyone posts about their hopes and dreams and plans for the year to come, I'm no different as I want to make an overview of which SAL's I want to join in with - and also post a bit about the SAL I'm running myself.

A SAL? I hear you ask..

Yes indeed! This year I'm going to host a SAL over on NCC International Headquarters where I will post a new ornament pattern every month - the first one is up already!

 

TUSAL

Although I've not been too good at posting pictures of my jars I've been good and made a new jar every month, some fuller than others but I have kept them all and will continue to do this.

IHSW

Another SAL I've not posted as much about as I should have last year but I certainly made a point of stitching every time and joining in with a hangout chat with some friends so we can chat, stitch, show stuff off and generally behaving as if we are at a stitching bee.

WIPocalypse

I've been kinda doing this for a long time - just not answering the questions asked every month. I hope to be a bit better about joining in with this as well for the coming year.


This SAL needs a bit more space as I want to make a list of things I want to work on the coming year.

• Mikes Mushrooms - it's in dire need of a bit more love and some more being stitched on it.
• TW's Castle Ridge - a new start for the year and I want to finish it this year too.
• My ornament SAL - I want to stitch them up myself too and make examples of how to finish them.
• More TW - not sure what but it will happen.
• The Christmas tree tea cosy - will need to buy thread for that though.
• The cutlery WIP needs finishing.

The Magnificent Year of Teresa Wentzler

Last year I had a blast doing this and this year I have already started on Castle Ridge, in fact it was this project that had the honour of the first stitch of the year! Carla is a great enabler and is keen to egg people on, so I have no doubt that I will finish Castle Ridge and more by the end of the year!

Tons of Tiny

This is another new SAL that I will be joining in with, and it has the added bonus that it fits in nicely with my own SAL as they too are tiny patterns! I shall be sending on some patterns of things I have made in the deep past and still have the patterns for.

D.E.S.I.G.N.

This great little project is meant to help showcase designers all over the world - anyone can jump in and post about a designer they love - and even designers themselves are allowed to write about themselves and their work and share it with the world to see!

Stitch From Stash

It's always easy to go out and buy whatever you want or think you need but it's far better to first go stash shopping instead. There will always be things one really needs to be able to complete a project but if one is careful with money this is more than doable. So with that in mind, along with my stash enhancement activities late last year *gulp* I have decided to curb myself a bit more and try and stick to the 25 dollar budget , though hopefully I will spend far less.

An update.. at last... post, TUSAL, finish and WIP

First I'm going to start with what arrived in the post the day before yesterday - all the lovely stuff you can see in the photo above! I used the 10 USD gift certificate at 123stitch I was given for winning one of the #stitchingpirates competitions to help pay for it so was able to get more for my money.

What I got:

• 2 Mills Hills appliqué beading needles
• Thread Worx overdyed floss (5 yard) in Wild Fires (1107), War Paint (1151), and Dreamscape (1053)
• Caron Watercolours Lexi's Blue (289)
• Kreinik silk Mori milk paint (5.5 yard) Very Dark Hemlock (0416)
• Mill Hills Glass Beads (Size 11/0) Gold
• Weeks Dye Works  (5 yards) Trick or Treat  (4101)
• Kreinik Blending Filament Peacock (085) 
• Kreinik Cord Vatican Gold (102C) 
• Kreinik 1/16" Ribbon  Emerald High Lustre (009HL)
• And behind it all in all it's blazing glory from the sales section:  a 13 x 18" picture this plus solar 16 ct aida

It was wonderful opening it and in the end the biggest disappointment of it all was that it turned out that the weeks dye works thread is not colour fast. I mean seriously - whoever thought that thread you can't wash is a good idea? I wash everything after making it to make sure it's all nice and clean before taking photo's and generally most things I make will end up being something that needs to be able to be washed . If I'd know the thread was this useless to me I'd never have bought it even though the colours is fantastic and looks amazing.

So if you want to wash something do NOT get Weeks Dye Works threads as it will not have a happy ending.

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I am very embarrassed to have to admit that I have yet again let the posting of my TUSAL jars fall by the wayside along with my blog. My last TUSAL post was in February and as of this moment I still don't have any photo's as I keep forgetting to do them while there still is enough light to see them. I will make a proper post about them soon.

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I did manage to have a finish while I was "away" - finished on Saturday the 14th June is the embroidery my bf gave me on May 1st. Normally something this small would be finished much faster but it was a struggle due to my health issues. I also added 3 extra lines of stitching as the frame it came with fit exactly around the sides but not at the top and bottom so looked odd - nothing I did made it fit even after that so the photo was made without the frame.

The pattern is of  Dashwood Mausoleum with the church behind it. It's 78 x 51 stitches 9 1/4 cm x 14 1/4 cm / 3 5/8"x 5 5/8"done on 14 ct white Aida. I can't remember how many colours it has I'm afraid.

Doing the "large" expanses of blue almost did my head in and I only had enough blue to add 1 extra line so I had to get creative and add the other two lines at the bottom using the greens - I think it worked out pretty well as it's hard to see where the pattern left off and my addition starts.

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This is my current WIP - I'm not going to say too much about it right now as it's pretty obvious what it's going to be. I will say that the large background is doing my head in a bit less than the blue of the finish as the colour changes and it's nice to see hoe it looks as the colour change happens.

The 8th Century floor tile and the much delayed TUSAL

I'm going to start with the much delayed TUSAL so as to not delay it any longer. I have 3 jars to catch up with so without more ado here is my October 2013 jar:

The contents of this jar were the result of the mini-pumpkin-box I'd made at the end of October it was a small project so not many ORTS were produced.

In November I didn't do any cross stitch at all - I was busy making a quilt which is currently blocking my sewing machine as it's in the process of being quilted.

This is my December jar the threads you can see are all from the Final claus embroidery I made in December, again not many ORTS were produced.

My January Jar is a LOT fuller at the bottom is all the pink threads from a still secret project then the blues from creating my Ice dragon using the  Futurecast pattern. and on top of all that you can see the threads from working on my 8th century floor tile - which I will show you more of now.

The last time I showed you my 8th century floor tile it looked like this:

During theearlier this month I did some work on it and by the end of the chat session with Carla It looked like this:

A bit of progress was made along the top edge and I'd been able to try out my new Q-snap frame.it was great but once I'd gone round the corner it started getting in my way so I swapped it to an oval frame instead, which made stitching so much easier. Once I had completed futurecast I decided to be strong and get back to my floor tile. So I got out my tray of threads and set to work.

As you can see each colour has a needle poked into a biscornu next to where I have the card with the thread on it, so the next colour is ready when I need it and I don't spend so much time rethreading needles.

By the 31st of January it looked like this, with the end stretch in sight. I was starting to get pretty sick and tired of doing these loops but I kept going and on the second of February I finally completed the border.

I thought that I would be taking a bit of time away from this but having started something else I found myself drawn back to the floor tile after all as I was really curious how it would look with the filler pattern in the middle So today I got started again on the floor tile - this time in a bigger hoop so I had more space to work and I used two of the colours to make a start so I could see what the pattern would look like compared to the design in PCStitch.

This is what it looked like before I started this post I didn't start the pattern with a whole diamond as the size of the inner square won't allow me to have a whole one at the top so I fiddled around in PCStitch till it was centred with the same amount of incomplete diamonds alone all the edges.