Progress to Share

Good morning! The sun is coming out, and it's going to be a warm, and very sticky Father's Day here in Indiana.  My husband is out fishing with his step-dad. He visited with his dad on Friday, and we will have one of our boys here later today.  Both of my dads are already deceased.  This will be an atypical, totally calm day for us.  I am really looking forward to it for a change.  Hubby and I spent all day yesterday working in the yard, and we were worn out by evening.  I don't have the energy for a house full of people today.  As much as I absolutely love our ten acre yard, it is becoming a bit of work.

Last week, I spent several days at our lakehouse with a girlfriend.  She is going through some things right now, and she needed to just get away.  We hoped to boat, swim and fish, but it rained, every single day.  So we stayed in the basement, and played with paper.  I really enjoyed staying up all night, and sleeping in.  Neither of us were totally prepared with everything we wanted to use for the week, but we managed.  I made a total of eighteen scrapbook pages, and several cards!  For a couple of years, I had a subscription to a monthly scrapbook kit club.  I had never put those together, and they were taking up a lot of space in my overflowing craft room.  I assembled all of the pages last week, and because I had no photos with me, they were incomplete.  I have already added pictures and journaling to three sets of layouts, so I am on my way to getting some scrapbooking done! I will show pictures of those in my next post.

Because I was out of town, I also missed the date for the monthly TUSAL post.  If you don't know what the TUSAL is, you can read about it here: It's Daffycat.  I don't have a large collection of my threads this month, but I am excited about the stitching I have completed!  Here are my ORTS:

This is a dark picture, I'm sorry.  There are a lot of greens in here, and some reds.  The pieces I have worked on include my Life is About the Journey, which I finished in May.

 I am so happy to have this completed! I don't know why I dragged it out so long.  I love the bright colors of it.  I have another piece that goes with this, it may be a while before I start that one.  The backstitching was intense, even though I did a lot of it as I went along.

I have focused on two other projects, working towards completion.

A Spot of Coffee, by Little House Needleworks.  This is so close to being done!  I will have this done in June.  I usually work on this as I enjoy my morning coffee.

My other project is my monthly word play, by With Thy Needle and Thread:

Yep, it's June, and I am stitching February.  I knew I would not finish any of these in a single month, so I just grabbed.  I love the Tomato floss in this.  I stitch on this piece in the evenings, hoping I will have it complete this month also.  I found a major mistake in this last night.  I really, really didn't want to remove all the threads to correct it, so I fudged.  I think I can live with it, if I don't look close, so it's just going to be.

That's all for today folks, thanks for visiting.  I think I'll go make hubby a card before he gets home.  Have a wonderful day!

So Many Options!

When I sit down to stitch, I have so many pieces started now, I have plenty to choose from.  I told myself that I wanted to finished my older projects this year before starting anything else, it's just not happening that way! I have started and finished some new things.  I have stitched on older pieces and not finished them, and now I have started more!  I can't even imagine starting something new every day of May, or even the first week.  My latest start was February Word Play.

I have loved these since they first came out.  This is the first one I grabbed. I hope I can have it done by February.  It is being done on a 25ct even weave. It looks a little strange in this photo, probably because it is zoomed in too much, I just wanted to be able to see the small start!

I have also recently worked on America, America from a Stoney Creek magazine.  Not a lot of progress on this one, it is going to be slow going I think.

I have put additional stitches in A Spot of Coffee by Little House Needleworks.  I really love this!

I was working on this last weekend at the racetrack, and I ended up having to frog out a lot of what I had completed, and had to restitch it.

Stitches have also been put into Marriage Rules by Lizzie Kate.  This has been my obsession the past few days.

My son and wife have an anniversary this summer, I am hoping it can be a gift for them.  It's almost halfway there.

The last piece I have worked on has been my Life is About the Journey.  I only need to complete the bicycle and it will be done! I am just not enjoying this backstitching. I will have it done by the end of May though! ( Did I say I would have it done by the end of april too?)

So, from all of the pieces that I have stitched on the past month, I have accumulated a nice little jar of ORTS.

They are really squished down in this jar, it's hard to see how many are there.  When I combined them with all the others I have saved this year, this is what I have so far.

That's my recent stitching progress, which I am sharing for a Totally Useless Stitch A Long.  If you want to know more about TUSAL and collecting ORTS, you can read about it here It's Daffycat.

Thanks for visiting!

Stitching Report

Good morning!

I have to say, I am in a much better mood today than I have been for the past couple of weeks.  I saw the orthopedic specialist on Monday, and I have been given the ok to start weaning off the use of my crutches.  I'm so ready to be mobile again!  It appears the stress fracture in my hip is healing.  I am not convinced the issue is resolved though, because I still have a significant amount of pain from time to time.  I start physical therapy next week, and revisit the doctor in a month.  I have to be careful though. Yesterday I tried to move around without crutches a little too much, and I ached last night.  Today, I will use my crutches a little more, and we'll see how this goes!

On to my stitching goodness!  I know that I am a couple of days late on my ORT report.  The 16th was such a busy day. Besides the doctor, we had family that had driven to Indiana from Arkansas. I hosted dinner at our house for everybody on Monday. There were ten of us gathered here that evening. I was busy cooking and cleaning!

If you don't know what ORTs are, you can read all about them on the blog It's Daffycat.  I think it's fun to save these for a short while, I smile when I think of the projects I have stitched each month.  I didn't post a report in March.  I stitched a little bit that month, but I was too busy finishing my BSN. Yep, that's right, I am finally done with college! I have my evenings free to stitch now, hooray!  So, the ORTs in my little jar include a few pieces from March.

There are some pretty pink threads in here, as well as some shades of blue.  I started a Lizzie Kate piece in March, and finished it this month.

I love her designs, they stitch up quickly.  I just received a backorder of a few more Lizzie Kate charts, I just want to stitch them all!

I have also stitched on a piece I started last year.  This was a kit.  It is getting so close to a finish, but i get bored with the backstitching, so it has gone into its project bag for a bit. I hope to finish it this month though.

This is really not a good picture, I'm sorry. I only need to finish the grass and the bicycle. It's almost there! I need this piece done so I can have credit for my stitch from stash!

Finally, because I am anxious to stitch everything I have, I started another piece this month.  I guess I just decided since I finished one, I should start one.  This piece is from Stoney Creek magazine, from 2017.  I love the tension hoop that I have been using to stitch, it sure leaves wrinkles though!

This is close to being finished as well. I need to backstitch the letters for Lake, and complete the bottom.  Since we have not yet sold our lakehouse, I want to frame it and hang it there this year.  The walls at our lakehouse are pretty bare, so this will be a nice addition.

Today,  I am going to spend some time helping my young son.  He bought a house to remodel and rent, and it needed a lot of work.  I haven't been able to do anything to help him out so far, but I am determined to do something for him.  Today, I am going to sit and pull what looks like a million little staples out of the kitchen floor.  Previous owners had stapled new flooring on top of old.  The staples all need to come out before ceramic tile can go in.  Hopefully I will be able to get these out.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day!

My update

Once again, I am posting late for the TUSAL.  I struggle with deadlines sometimes, even when I have a reminder set on my phone, as I did this time.  In my defense, the date this was to be posted, was the day I was on vacation in Florida, also the day I crashed on my bicycle.  After enjoying a 14 mile ride around Key West, I did not successfully pull up on a curb from the street. Yep, 51 years old, been riding a bike since I was little, and I failed at a basic skill! Fortunately, I pulled myself up quickly, pulled my bike out of the road before the box truck behind me ran it over.  And I rode back to the place where we were camped before I ever looked at the damage.  I was relieved to see a little road rash.  I have never experienced this before, but thought, how bad can it be? My son has received worse than this riding his dirt bike.  When we started putting water on to clean it, big old alligator tears fell, as much from my own pain, as for the pain I imagine my son endured, quietly.  It took several shots of whiskey (which I don't drink), and more than one mixed drink before we could attempt peroxide to thoroughly clean.  This has been awful! And last week, my entire leg swelled to the point I could not put on a pair of pants, or a sock. Keep in mind I live in Indiana, and it is February!  I had been running three times a week, training for a half marathon.  And last week, I was forced to sit in a recliner, with the leg elevated to help with the swelling.  Additionally, it appears I have done some damage to my hip flexor muscle, and have been on crutches for two weeks now, not allowed to even walk.  Makes me not a pleasant person to be around at times.  Today, I get an MRI done on the hip, Friday I find out the definite damage. Prayers for no tear requiring surgery, would be much appreciated right now!

Now, about that TUSAL that I was supposed to post....

If you aren't familiar with the TUSAL, or ORTs, you can read about it on Daffycat's blog.

Here is a photo of my ORTS since my last post, using the same plastic container

I have done a LOT of stitching! In this photo, I have combined all threads for the year

The colors of the threads aren't as pretty in this photo :(    Just so you can see how lovely the colors really are, here are the pieces I have worked on.  I started, and completed Gingerbread Girl and Peppermint Tree by Country Cottage Needleworks. This was stitched on a piece of Stone hand dyed fabric, I am not sure what count

And the other piece I have worked on almost every day, is a kit I started last Spring.  I am soon close to having this piece done!

There were a lot of different shades of greens in this piece, and some pretty blues.  I should have this done by the end of March. Then I will push to finished another older piece. I am down to 13 WIPs in my stack. I think every time I finish one, I start another small. Having the small pieces helps break up the monotony of some of the bigger pieces though, so that really helps.  I usually work on the small pieces with my coffee in the morning, and work the large piece in the evening when hubby and I are sitting.

I think that's it for today folks, things to do.  Thanks for stopping by!

Cindy

Late to the Party

My dear friends, I am late with my TUSAL report. I had good intentions. I started to type this post two days ago, and realized I was too early. Instead of typing and scheduling it, I waited because I thought I would get to it on time. Instead, I was caught off guard with picking up the dear granddaughter from school, and having her stay the night with us. I was unprepared for her, but loved it nonetheless.

Back to business-TUSAL. A Totally Useless Stitch Along. I have participated with this in the past, but it has been a while. I have been stitching up a storm the past few months, so maybe I will be able to participate with this all year. What is a TUSAL you might ask? To get all the details, check out Daffycat's blog, she hosts this fine adventure!

In my picture below, I have my ORTs from the past month. There were some that got pitched when I was stitching in the car, but overall, I was pretty tight with my threads. They aren't cheap, so I use as much as I can squeeze out of them!

This little plastic tube is about six inches tall. It has been perfect to keep beside my stitching chair, and with a lid, the pieces don't fall out when my puppy knocks it over.

I can't show the threads without also showing what I have stitched. I have finished two pieces already this month! I am participating in Stitch From Stash on Facebook, so I have every intention of finishing more of my works in progress.

My most recent finish is this piece Simplicity, by Little House Needleworks.  I started this two years ago right after my dad died.  I had only done a couple of rows on the sheep, and put it away.  I struggled with linen, but I was stitching in hand.  Now that I have started using a tension hoop, it is much better. I have the entire series of these Little Sheep Virtues.  I am participating in the Facebook series SAL, so maybe these will be out of my stash pile this year.

Another finish this month was by Lizzie Kate.

I bought this as a kit in December, it had the fabric and buttons with the chart.  This stitched up so quickly and I loved it! I bought a frame yesterday and next Christmas it will be displayed.

I had a few other pieces I have finished stitching, might as well show them since we're here.

The bookmark I started for my granddaughter this past fall. It took longer than I thought it would, but it is fully finished. This had a lot of backstitching, but I don't mind it.

Another Lizzie Kate piece, A Little Snow. This is really not a good picture, I don't think you can see the brass charm on the letter S.  I bought this as a kit three years ago, it came complete with charm, beads and fabric. I don't know why it took so long to get to this, I completed it in only a couple of weeks! I can't wait to display this next winter.

And my biggest accomplishment-

Autumn ABCs by Little House Needleworks.  I did this in one month as a SAL with the Facebook group.  I absolutely loved stitching this.  I have the needlework ABC piece to do, all kitted up.  After I complete a few more pieces, I will buy the Winter ABCs pattern.  I don't think I am very happy with the mat on this piece. I think it is just too big like this.  I am going to leave it together for now, but I see myself having this redone in the future, taking the mat out.  I also think the white floss doesn't show very well on the fabric I chose.  Maybe I'll just have to restitch it on something else! Since my walls are blue, this really looks nice hanging up.  I left it up until just yesterday, when I moved it to another room.  I know Autumn is over, but I didn't want to hide it away. It is in the guest room, only my granddaughter goes in there, she didn't even notice it, so I think it will be ok.

Well, that's quite a bit of sharing for today.  Several pieces finished.  Maybe next week I will have to show the pieces I picked up from the framer this week.   It feels good to finally be really enjoying my stitching goodies.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

TUSAL update

Hello my blogging friends! I'm excited to share an update of a few things I've been up to lately. Believe me, I've been busy with a LOT of stuff, but I'm really only interested in sharing the fun stuff, some stitching! I haven't had much time for stitching in the past year, but I've been squeaking out a few minutes almost every day this month, and it's made a difference in my unfinished projects.

Last year, I saved my ORTS, and since I didn't have much stitching time, and no time to post my TUSAL updates, I pitched everything. I've started saving them again, and have a little bit to show this month. In case you aren't familiar with the TUSAL update, or why anyone would save their thread pieces, you can find info here.

I have what feel like is a million of the Crystal Light plastic containers, and the smaller one is perfect for saving my threads!  I have a lot of fall colors in these threads, since I worked on, and FINISHED this project, yeah! This piece is Autumn Tree by the Trilogy. I've had it in my basket for years, never finished. Unfortunately, when I bought the chart, I didn't buy the buttons. On a good note, when hubby and I went to Northern Indiana for our 30th anniversary this month, he was so sweet to go check out a needlework shop with me, and I was able to purchase the shop's very last package of the required buttons, how lucky was that! One unfinished project checked off the list.

I have another very small project I started last year, and was able to finish this month

This is a very small Christmas ornament, I hope to finish up for my granddaughter, before her parents get their tree up at the end of the year! I found a book of Christmas ornaments at my local library, and this was a quick stitch while I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, while my husband had surgery.

Another project I completed after many, many years. From the magazine, For the Love of Cross Stitch, 1993:

This is too funny, I have changed the direction on this photo a dozen times in my photo library, and when I upload it here, I can get it to go every direction, except the one I want! I think it's been a little too long since I've played on blogger, and not being very computer savvy in the first place, I give up. Don't look too close, just laugh at my lack of ability, and let's move on.






Believe it or not, with my limited stitch time, I had one more piece that I completed! I have so many projects that recommended being stitched on linen, but I have always been so intimidated by it. I have purchased several pieces of linen with my charts, and I was determined I was going to master stitching on it. The first piece I attempted was by Little House Needleworks, but I got scared so quickly, and never quite got the first stitches in. I tried again on this chart. It's far from perfect, but I was excited to attempt something new with my stitching. I still find linen a little intimidating, but I think I will continue to work on it. I don't remember the name of this piece or the designer, but I really enjoyed working on, and completing this one.

I have a couple of first year anniversaries later this year, and if I can get this "finished" finished, it might make a nice anniversary gift.

Several pieces completed off my works in progress! I feel like I've really done a lot, with the limited time I've had to work on anything.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!

TUSAL update

It's that time of month, time to show off the collection of ORT's! I'm sorry to say, my collection is not very big this month. As a matter of fact, this collection is for the whole year, not a very impressive group of threads if I had to admit.

The white threads at the top of my meager pile are the most current. This is also an update of the piece I'm working so hard to finish. I feel pretty good if I manage to stitch about an hour a week, it's hard to get much accomplished at that rate, but I feel like any stitching is better than no stitching! Thanks for checking out my progress!

Updates

With all of the running around, I realize that I haven't yet posted my update for the TUSAL this month. If you aren't familiar with this, you can read more about it on my previous posts. I haven't had near as much stitching time as I wanted this past month, but in my opinion, some is better than none. Here is my collection of threads for the month, as well as the piece that I've been working hard to complete:

I've done more stitching since taking this picture, and I'm getting so close to finishing this, hopefully this week! I've got a couple of other projects started that  I'm anxious to work on, but want this one done first.

The first weekend of March, I travelled to Wisconsin for my nursing clinical weekend. Everything I had read or heard said you will not believe the amount of stress this weekend would cause. I travelled out a day before my test so I could relax. I took my camera, hoping to get out and do some sightseeing. I never pulled it out. It was bitter cold and foggy. I was just not feeling it. And after 5 hours in the car, I really didn't want to drive anywhere either, so I stayed close to the hotel. I took my exercise clothes with me too, thinking workouts would be good for the stress. The hotel I stayed in has two buildings, connected by a skywalk. I was in the portion of the building that did not house the fitness room. My building did have a conference center, which hosted a pretty rowdy wedding reception the weekend I was there. There was also a major basketball tournament in town, so a lot of exhuberant basketball players/supporters. Needless to say, not much sleep, and I did not make the walk to the gym. I did go outside and walk around the hotel and local shopping center for about an hour. There was a bicycle trail behind the hotel that had mile marker signs, and I was tempted. I couldn't see very far down the trail though, and it was foggy, and I was alone, so on second thought, decided against it. I think a woman alone in a city she doesn't know, can't be too careful. Being out in the fresh air was good for me, I was calm when I showed up at the hospital Friday. All went as I hoped, and I was done testing, and back at my hotel by checkout time Sunday, with the coveted completion letter in hand. Now that I am done with classes, I am almost at a loss during the day! I still have some studying to do, since it will be almost two months before I get to take my state license exam for my RN. I have plenty of things I pushed aside the last couple of months, and I am finally getting around to them.

Last week, my baby boy finally made his way home, I was so relieved to have him back here. By 8pm the first night, he was already bored! I just laughed. He was used to hanging out with the guys all day until about 10pm. I tried to remind him before he left S. Carolina, we do live in the country, everybody's in school all day, it won't be the same back here, but he came home anyway. While I was testing, he shared a couple new snapshots with his dad, which they withheld from me, so as not to scare me! He's come so far with his riding:

He's made a couple of visits with his local friends, and I sense a change. He's been on his own and has grown up, not so much with his friends. He's gone to work today, and it's so very quiet in the house. I wish we could just stop the hands of time.

I spent my weekend cleaning. I emptied what was the guest room, and is now officially youngest son's room. I didn't realize how much I had stored in there, quite a bit of which needs to make its way back into my scrapbook area. Hm, I have already filled that back up since removing all that stuff, not sure where it's all going to go now. I was easily sidetracked going through boxes of my grandma's old pictures. I hope to be putting my dad's baby pictures into a scrapbook soon, now that I have them all sorted and into a common area. Among all the pictures, I found the sweetest old valentines, from my great grandfather to my great grandmother! They are so fragile, I can't believe they have survived. And my dilemma, what to do with them now? I will keep them, but I'd love to be able to have them in frames to display for valentine's day, without destroying them. Anybody have any ideas how to do this?

Well, I'd love to chat a little bit longer, but I promised the hubby I would spend the day completing the taxes. Plenty of other things I'd love to do, but he's been waiting patiently for weeks. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

TUSAL

Good morning my friends! It's time for another TUSAL report again! I started the month out really strong with my stitching, and got a little derailed. Overall, I'm pleased with what I have accomplished. Since I am on the road again, my threads are not in my TUSAL dish, so I have to show them sitting with the piece I've been working on. I'll save this nice little pile and add them to my jar at home.

I was concerned when I found one little mistake in my counting, and I received so much wonderful advice from my blogging friends! Some suggested pull it all out and fix it, some said leave it. I compromised. I pulled out the bad leaves and fixed them. Then I pulled a small area of the border at the top. The mistake was too obvious there. But I did not rip it all out. So there is an extra empty row between the two borders. It all worked out, and looks ok.
I have travelled to Atlanta, GA this weekend. I am taking advantage of a workshop to help prepare for my upcoming clinicals. I have had information overload, 8 hours of learning, combined with homework. There has been no time or energy for stitching this weekend, even though I brought my project along. This trip has been well worth my time and travels though. I am learning things I didn't get out of a book, and I would have failed without this knowledge. I'll be on the road, headed home tomorrow morning. And now, I'm off to class for today! Hope ya'll are staying warm and dry through all this amazing weather across the country, thanks for stopping to visit!

TUSAL

I'm trying something new this year. In the past I've come across bloggers' posts for "orts" and "tusals" and never really knew what they were. Now I know, and I'm going to give it a shot! If you're in the dark like I was, here's a little of what I learned-

Orts-are old ratty threads, they are the ends that stitchers cut off. Some people save these castoffs and create a pile, others discard them. I've always thought it was neat to see the different colors build up together-since I usually have several pieces I rotate working on, there's always a variety.

When various stitchers post photos of their piles, showing "progress" of sorts, the Totally Useless Stitch A Long was born (TUSAL). Photos of little jars containing the orts are usually posted around the new moon every month. 

Since I already collect the threads, I might as well join the fun! I have a pretty little candy dish that sits by my stitching chair at home. However, when I left home a week ago, I didn't think to bring my orts along with me. This is one of the rare times I will say, I am thankful for cell phones-I asked my son to take a picture of my jar at home, and send it to me (along with instructions please don't let dad throw away my trash before I get home)

This is what I have to show:

It's not a very large pile of threads, so that means one of two things: either I'm very thrifty with my floss, or I need to stitch more! I'm thinking it's the second choice 

I will probably not empty my dish, just continue to see it grow throughout the year.

If you're interested in joining this stitch a long, you can find more info here:
http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-totally-useless-stitch-long-2013.html


The next post will be February 10th, I hope I have more to show then!