First TUSAL of 2012, a finish, a gift & some progress

Well, that about sums it up…..

 

It’s the first new moon of 2012 and that means time for the first TUSAL post of the year.  I dumped out my ORTs from 2011 so my jar is pretty empty:

 

It has a good amount of ORTs in it – but not because of excessive stitching – more excessive frogging…..  Remember my New Year’s start?  It looked like this a couple of weeks ago:

 

And I thought I was doing quite well for only having worked on it for a few hours……  And then my good friend Froggy stopped by….  I discovered (much to my dismay) that I am completely and totally incapable of counting.  For some reason, this is news to me.  Despite repeated illustrations to the contrary, I persist in this odd belief that having a degree in Mathematics enables me to count.  It does not.  Just sayin’……

 

So I discovered that the entire border from the pink quaker-ish flower on the left, all the way around (counter-clockwise) to the top most pink quaker-ish flower at the top was off.  By one lousy thread.  Not one stitch, but one thread.  I discovered this issue shortly after I took the above picture.  Soooooo – all the border got frogged (I couldn’t fudge it no matter how I tried)….  And my ORT jar got fuller.

 

But this project grabbed me ‘round the middle and after all the frogging (and ordering of replacement fibres), I fixed my error and finished it off in no time at all!  Here it is, all pretty and finished:

 

Moon Garden – Loose Feathers #8

by Blackbird Designs

Stitched on 28 count Raisin Cashel hand-dyed linen by Picture this Plus

with recommended GAST fibres

 

I am totally in love with this piece.  It’s not my usual style at all, yet for reasons unknown, I fell in love and stitched it up in record time (frogging aside!)…..

 

I didn’t abandon all my other projects for Moon Garden – LoTD got some attention too – Majesty is all backstitched now:

 

And I’m moving on to Magic – but I’ll stitch the border first!  I worked a little on CdC as well, but didn’t make enough progress to take a picture.

 

(BTW, sorry for the wrinkly, dark pictures – my beloved Rowenta iron bit the dust in the last couple of weeks and I only have an iron that likes to spit crap all over fabric at random and I won’t put *that* near my stitching….  I’m on the hunt for a replacement iron….)

 

And just last Friday, I was lucky enough to spend the day in the company of Heather and we had a little adventure together.  We headed off to the Bata Shoe Museum and wandered around there (fascinating place – I never thought that much about shoes before but their evolution and cultural differentiations were really quite interesting) and then had a wonderful lunch at a Japanese place.  It was a lovely time spent with a friend.

 

Now Heather and I usually exchange Christmas gifts of some nature every year but it seemed like everything conspired against us so we couldn’t wrangle some time together before this past Friday.  It was probably just as well in the end though – I had ordering issues (I swear some of what I bought for Heather came via outer Mongolia or some other far flung destination rather than North America….)….. 

 

Heather spoiled me rotten, rotten, rotten this year.  Here’s what I found in my happy possession:

 

(it was so pretty and beautifully wrapped that I took this picture, then stared at the contents for about 20 minutes as I didn’t want to rip any of it open!  Heather sewed the bag – isn’t it wonderful?)……

 

Finally giving into temptation, I tore away all the wrappings to find these lovely goodies within:

 

 

lotion and body wash and hand sanitizer!

Then I found this:

 

the yummiest smelling soap I’ve ever come across (smells just like a shortbread cookie!)  Yum!

Then I found this:

 

 

Notecards and a note book (need coffee!!!!!!! Well, at least one in the morning to get my eyes open anyway…..)

 

AND then (yes, there was *more*):

 

Isn’t that the most adorable little snowman?  My youngest DS tried to make off with it, but I rescued him.  And a skein of a gorgeous Thread Gather Silk….  Yummy!

 

Aren’t I the luckiest thing?  Thanks so much Heather!  I love every little thing!

 

Well, that about sums up my last couple of weeks.  Work is picking up steam again so time may be tight – I hope to spend some time with my needle though!

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Happy New Year & Last TUSAL for 2011

Well, well, well, here it is 2012 and nary a post for the last month of 2011.  All I can say is that it got pretty busy over in my neck of the woods, and I got pretty lazy in the posting department.

 

I did know I needed to post my TUSAL update on Christmas Eve and I had good intentions.  However, DH conspired again to make things challenging.  Remember when I started posting TUSAL updates last January?  And I had to do a major retrieval of my ORTs after hubby threw them out?  Well, I didn’t have to do a garbage retrieval, but I did have to go on a seek-and-find mission to figure out what the heck he’d done with my ORT jar…..  My hubby kindly did a ton of holiday decorating this year – and tidied up the mantel where my ORT jar was living….and put it…..  Well, that took some figuring out.  I tried all the logical places, then went to the illogical and found it on a high shelf in a box in a closet that I almost never open since I don’t put things in that closet anyway….  It’s generally next to empty….. Yes, I could have asked him, but he’s been on conference calls all day, so it’s hard to interrupt and ask where my ORT jar is hiding!

 

Needless to say, ORT jar has been found, and picture finally taken.  The ORT jar isn’t sitting in its usual locale due to Christmas decorations, so it had to pose for its beauty shot elsewhere this month:

 

 

Not a bad amount of threads in there overall. Now I can dump it out and start again for 2012.  Some of the threads added this month are from sewing rather than stitching.  Sadly I had a major catastrophe on one thing I was sewing as a gift for a friend and now need to start over again.  And no, I’m giving no other details.  She reads this blog!

 

As to what else contributed to the jar this past month – mostly I’ve worked on this:

 

 

(yes it is both blurry and crooked – me and the camera aren’t getting along today)….  All that is left to do on this block is the backstitch on the dragon.  It looks so pretty and I’m looking forward to moving on to the next block.  It stitched up pretty quickly too.

 

And for the first time in many years, I decided to allow myself a New Year’s start.  I don’t typically do this as there are certainly enough projects around here that need attention, but I had a real urge to start something that I’ve wanted to stitch for ages and ages:

 

 

This is the start of Moon Garden by Blackbird Designs.  It’s not my usual style, but something about the dark linen and the soft colours of this piece got me hook, line and sinker.  I saw it on someone’s blog and fell in love.  Then I haunted e-bay to find the chart (it’s Loose feathers #8 and hard to find) and paid more for it than I probably should have.  It has languished in my stash fully kitted for at least a year and a half.  It’s stitching up really quickly and I’m really loving it so far.  I’m stitching it on a 28-count PTP fabric called Raisin.

 

Back to the stitching corner!

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