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.

WIPocalypse - January, new finishes and more

 

I am (of course) running late with this, but then it's still January so it's not *that* late hehe. I'm going to try and do this properly this year, so not just a list of what I've done but also answering the question/doing the topic of the month. This month's topic is: "Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!"

I go as either Magical or Magical525 online. I am a 45 (yikes) mother of 2 boys, one of which is, at 13, now taller than I am by more than a head with the appetite to match which means I have effectively given up trying to cook enough to have leftovers as, cue to his appetite, there are rarely any leftovers. My youngest son is still 11 and despairs at ever being taller than I am - ha!

I tend to have phases of when I do crafts, currently it's cross stitch and crochet but, as you can tell from my blog name, it is also on occasion quilting, though I do that a lot less at the moment. No matter which craft I do I tend to not only follow patterns but also go my own way and create my own, some patterns you can find on this blog (along with a bunch of recipes) and my latest series of patterns are being hosted over on Nerd Central Command International Headquarters These patterns are part of a SAL and have also led to my first two finishes of the year!

Allow me to take a moment from the WIPocalypse to introduce my SAL: Ornament of the Month Which is a year long stitch along that gives you the pattern of a new ornament every month so that by next Christmas you will have 12 new ornaments for your tree - or a garland, or a wall hanging as I have given a pattern to combine all 12 ornaments into a single wall hanging if you don't want ornaments.

The ornament is made with the border from the wall hanging to make it a little bit different and larger, it's 3" on each side and was made with 3 colours of DMC and craft thread for the hanging loop and tassel.

The garland section you see below was made using the pattern for the ornament, the loops to the side will be used to join the sections together much like how you would loop a thread onto a needle to stop the thread slipping when using metallics. The finished size of the ornament is 2 1/4 "

Both were made on 16ct antique white Aida, the colour difference is due to the top ornament being photographed in artificial light and the bottom one in daylight.

Back to WIPocalypse stuff...

In my last post I wrote a quick list of things I want to work on this year:

• Mike's 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.

Now I will take a while to show where they are now and explain more as needed.

Mike's Mushrooms:

I have not worked on this at all since my last post with a photo of it in, which was may 20th of last year. It really needs a bit more work done to it, so my goal for this year is to at least finish the 400 x 400 stitches bit of marked fabric to make this section square. I would however like to get a bit more than just that done.

Teresa Wentzler's Castle Ridge

This was my Christmas present to myself which I started just after midnight on January 1st I did some stitching on it before setting it aside to work on the Ornament of the Month ornaments I made. I bought a kit as I wanted to do this the way Teresa planned. It's 18 ct Antique Aida, 90 x 126 stitches and will be 5" x 7" / 12,7 cm x 17,8 cm when complete. There are only 24 colours of DMC in the kit but Teresa has, as she always does, made that stretch to create 32 colours.

Last night I picked it up again and went from having about 50 stitches done to who knows how many (I'm not a stitch counter - sorry) that you can see in the photo to the left. I had a go at thread gridding - it didn't go entirely to plan as you can tell by the fact that only the bottom left hand corner is marked, but it's even and that's more important.

I have decided to work on the rocks at the bottom first, then move onto the castle.

I hope to complete this embroidery this year.

My ornament SAL

You will have read about my SAL above so I won't repeat myself hehe. My plan is to complete one hanging ornament and one garland ornament a month around the time I post the next pattern. They will all be done on the same fabric using 3 colours of DMC.

The Christmas tree tea cosy

This is a project that I've been wanting to do since I saw it in a magazine in the 80's - this year I WILL make it happen! I have the fabric for it at last (it was discontinued) and all I need to do now is buy thread for the project and make it.

The cutlery sampler

This is a Lanarte kit I got for myself last November
It will be 6 x 7 3/4"/ 15 cm x 20 cm and is made on a 27 ct (according to the packet) cotton evenweave. So far I have done 2 of 6 pieces of cutlerry and then there is a border - it should have "Forks and Spoons" backstitched at the top and bottom but I don't see me doing that - I am probably going to use the side borders at the top and bottom instead.
 
 I hope to complete this embroidery this year.

The jasmine spray

 For some reason I thought I had a lot more to do on this but it appears that "all" I have to do is rip out the backstitching I don't like because it doesn't show at all, which means that the petal lines do not show and it all merges into one, and redo it.

This is also an embroidery I wish to complete this year - this month even if I can make myself do it, as for some reason thought I love the colours and love the photo in the magazine I got this from, I have grown to really dislike this piece.

 

The border of the week sampler

In The Netherlands "randje per week"  has become a bit of a thing. It's a SAL where you are given 2 or more borders a week to add to a long strip of fabric - or a length of edging fabric. It started last year and really took off with a fb group being made and even meets. Last years patterns will be made into a book but for another couple of months you can download the weekly patterns from the blog. They are continuing this SAL this year.

The interesting thing about this SAL is that ALL the borders are taken from old samplers made by people, often school girls, to learn the patterns. I love that they not only give the pattern but, on a second blog, they give all the information of where the pattern came from.

I will be making my version on a larger piece of light brown Jobelan, probably using my Cosmo variegated threads. My plan is to attempt to keep up but I will see how it goes as I am still at the hemming the fabric stage.

Celtic Wolf

The dA group Stitching Pirates is hosting a competition:  TRIBAL AND TOTEMIC CONTEST. For my entry I will be making a Celtic style wolf. This will need to be finished before the end of march so I need to hurry up and decide what fabric to make it on.

More TW

I'm not entirely sure which of the many smaller TW patterns I will do but my plan is to slowly work my way through them.

This is my list for now, hopefully my list will not grow by too much.

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.

TW: Peacock Tapestry

As with the ECS I wanted to have a look and see what the fabric would look like with the colours needed for the PT to make sure that all the colours would be properly visible and look nice and I'm glad to say they do so I appear to have made a good choice when I bought that fabric 2 weeks ago before even deciding to do this. I won't be starting this one yet, I need to properly collect the threads I need first as quite a few of the colours you can see are already being used in other projects and I don't yet have the speciality threads I need either, however by the time I have completed the tile floor, ECS and Mike's Mushrooms I most definitively will. I have already decided that the 504 I have, which was discontinued by DMC, will be saved for this project so I have set it aside, along with some other skeins I had in my stash box, so a start has been made with collecting these threads. I have 8 colours of 73 and need 95 skeins in total + the Kreinick threads. I suddenly realise why the kits were always so expensive lol.

TW: English Cottage Sampler

My dear friend Carla  has bravely started doing Teresa Wentzler's English Cottage Sampler and after a long search, a plea for help and some more searching she managed to get her hands on what appears to be the last piece of  Dublin Linen "Driftwood" that is the correct size. When I mentioned that I may be doing this embroidery myself too she ran off and started searching for some for me, so I too could do the embroidery on the fabric that Teresa intended. Unfortunately none could be found however…

A couple of weekends ago I got this mystery Zweigart fabric - it's 25ct and burn tests showed that it's not got any synthetic material in it - which I was planning on using for the embroidery. To show what the threads look like on the fabric I dug in my stash, got them all out and laid them on the fabric on my desk (over the stuff I have on it, hence the lumps and bumps in the image lol).

This is a close-up of the fabric using the macro setting on my camera - please ignore the blurry edges - it always does that. As you can see it's a nice neutral colour that's not white and it has some interesting speckles of brown in it here and there.

While I was digging out the threads I wondered how people coped with the colour changes that happened after many of Teresa's patterns had been created. The 504 for example which has been "replaced" with the 3813. I happen to have both in my stash so I compared the two and the 3813 is a slightly different shade to the 504 - different enough that I wonder why DMC chose to remove the 504 as they have so many other colours that are even closer in colour than these two are.