TUSAL AND SPOOKY SAL

This is this month's collection of orts. It looks like a lot. Maybe it is!! The new jar is a little smaller than the old. I had a couple of finishes and a lot of frogging! And here's my growing collection of scissors. I found the cute vase at the Goodwill shop and thought it would be great for keeping my scissors neat.

I've finished my Spooky SAL piece. I chose this particular one because she designed it after a trip to New Orleans. Haven't decided what to do with it yet.

I had another finish, but thank goodness for cameras. It's a pillow for a new baby. I took the photo, downloaded it and found a major mistake in spelling. I'll do a little more frogging and post the snappy.

We're waiting for some bad weather to hit here. According to AccuWeather it will hit in a couple of hours. Linzie senses it, I think. She's sticking to me like brown on rice!!! I have a crockpot full of a new recipe. Hope we don't have a power failure. It's Corn Chowder and absolutely delicious. And very rich. I'll post the photo and recipe shortly.

Until then, stay safe and happy stitching!

TUSAL AGAIN AND THE FAMILY SAMPLER

Two days in a row! I'm doing good here. Maybe it's because I've got the sniffles and am homebound, but it feels good!

Daffycat has re-instated the old Totally Useless Stitch A Long. I really never stopped the old one-you'll see in a minute- so I'm glad to be back as a part of a group.

And some photos of the Family Sampler. This one has overtaken my life. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. More on it, too.

It's only the 5th, but I have quite a few thingys. Some thread labels and some orts. I found the glass pitcher at the Goodwill store (I love those places. I'm glad the ladies that work there sometimes don't know what they're holding!!). The big glass jar behind the pitcher hold all my orts and stuff from 2009 and 2010. They are in glass Christmas balls that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. And I've labeled them as to the year. They've outgrown the jar, so I'm thinking I may hang them from a silk ficus tree in my breakfast room. It's already wired with fairy lights. Cute idea, huh.

The funny stitchy things to the left are the Quaker months from Plum Street Samplings. It took FOREVER to finish stitching them. I did okay on the motifs, but the words are stitched one over one. Quakers wouldn't refer to months by their given names. They were named after mythological people and were considered heathern. So.....January is "First Month" and so on. They were finished as pinkeeps and may actually be hung.

Here's the sampler. Grace is to the right and the crazy redhead is next. Then David, Linzie and Michael. On the other side is the beginning of Ann and then Laura. Bradley will follow and then John. Michael will eventually have a red A (for Alabama, of course) and John will have some reference to LSU. We're a divided family! But SEC all the way.

That's about all for today. It's rainy here-stormed all night. Every time it thundered, Linzie got a little closer. Eventually she was on the pillow by my head. And this morning she didn't want to go outside to do her thing.

David prodded her a bit!

So...........

here I sit, looking through the window. It's getting very dark outside and we're under tornado watch until 10PM. The mayor sent city employees home at 2:30 PM so we can all watch the storm coming. It's 80 degrees outside but is supposed to be a little cooler tomorrow. Michael came by to pick up the football tickets for this Saturday's game:  Alabama (yea) vs. Tennessee. He'll be leaving tomorrow after work for the trip to Tuscaloosa.

Since there's not a lot to do right now-I avoid housework-and I'm taking a bread from stitching, here's a look at the last few day's activities.

This is a piece that I did years ago-the 80's, I think-and I decided to frame it for the kitchen. Amazing how one's taste changes over the years.....

Now for a look at some progress. Houmas House is moving along. It's an easy stitch (not a short one!) and is really nice. The shading is so subtle. And really looks like the house itself. I'm using the threads called for: DMC and Weeks overdyes.

A Summer Ball is lookin' good. I am changing some of the dress colors and am planning to watch P&P later to see what other colors men wore for dress suits back in those days. The pattern calls for black and white but that's BORING!!! We'll see.

And here's a belated birthday present I've given myself. Diane at my LNS gives a 25% discount during a birthday month. I've really been wanting to do this for a long time: it's the mate to the Quaker Christmas  that's already finished and hanging. I did it in shades of green with touches of red and gold. This one will be in shades of blue with a mahogany brown for the lettering. It's kitted up but I have no idea when I'll start it.

And last but not least: here's the answer to the $64,000 question. The Totally Useless SAL is just what the name implies. Stitchers collect a lot of trash. Little bits and pieces of thread (called "orts"), broken needles, thread labels, etc.  Those belonging to the SAL save them in special jars, or whatever. Once a month, at the New Moon, we report our savings. This past month was a busy one for me. Sometimes I don't do a lot of stitching and there's not a lot of little treasures. Every month I move the stuff into little glass Christmas ornaments which I place in the bowl up side down. I have a very LARGE glass jar and at the end of the year I'm going to move all those little balls to the jar. The only scary thing is to see how many scraps there are. And the colors are really nice when combined all together.

SOME CATCHING UP TO DO....

Here is "Quaker Christmas" in its new home-over the mantle in my bathroom. The clock belonged to my parents and is quite old. I still haven't decided what else to put on the mantle. Maybe a small plant? The bottle that says Bath Waters actually came from Bath, England. It came home with me from one of my trips to England.

It's the full moon, so it's time for a Totally Useless SAL report. I had lots of ords and thread wrappers from kitting "A Summer Ball" and "Chaplain's Garden". There's also a Belle Soir and some GA papers.

And here they are. All tucked away in their glass balls. They're growing! Had to change bowls. This one is an antique Japanese dish. I'm going to have to find a very BIG bowl by the end of the year.

And work is progressing on "Chaplain's Garden". I've ordered its companion "Murrle House". It's here but I haven't picked it up yet.

And my favorite: "A Summer Ball". I usually have a piece handy for traveling or sitting for a while so that I can just fill in and not have to refer to the chart. Looks like this one is it. I am going to change the white in the yellow dress to a pale yellow (instructions call for white). I just think it would look better.

My friends are doing well. Diane came thru her surgery well and Deanne is receiving her first infusion today. Thanks for prayers!

OBSESSIONS!

Well, I guess my mojo is back. I'm obsessing with The Summer Ball. I've finished the two left women (except for some back stitching and filling in). It's been a long time since I've worked on aida and I had forgot how quickly it stitches. I've never had any trouble with half crosses so no problem there. I'm going to change some colors: there's even one figure that's going to have my red hair! And Chaplain's Garden is coming along, too. A lot of ords for my Totally Useless SAL this time.

Siobban is getting me started on my next obsession. She did a piece and did a feature on it on Stitch Bitch's site. I've looked it up and am going to add it to the old stash in the next few weeks. The only source I've found is Volarium. The sampler is called Le Marquoir de Justine. It's just lovely and has a great story behind the sampler.

My friend Diane Guillory at my LNS, Cross Stitch Corner, had a pacemaker installed yesterday and is doing great. Lots of kind thoughts go out to her. And to my friend Deanne Webb, who is going to begin some experimental therapy at MD Anderson beginning Tuesday. Deanne is proof-perfect that God answers prayers. She has melanoma of the liver and needed this treatment. Her insurance company was a little hesitant to cover the costs. After a lot of prayers from our church and friends, it's going to be covered. And if you all will, say a prayer or two for her-and Diane's- quick recovery.

And I'm a happy camper. Saturday, when I had my little collision, I was on the way to a lab to have some blood work done. I got the results Wednesday and it couldn't have been better. As most of you know, I have heart disease and sometimes blood chemistries aren't always great. Well, this time they were: no diabetes, no bad liver studies and great cholesterol levels. Haven't been this low in a long time. PTL.

I'm still going to take those photos and I have a great recipe to send along. But I'm going to take the afternoon and see the new Harry Potter film.

TOTALLY USELESS SAL

It's that time of the month again!! Here's my month's accumulation of orts and other various and sundry bits and pieces. There's a lot here: scraps of fabric, thread wrappers, one of my beloved gold needles and a Memorial Day paper poppie. I've also included some price stickers from my new charts.

I started looking for a creative way to store and display my goodies. I paid a trip to the local Hobby Lobby and found these neat glass (I guess!) balls and started loading them up. No, I don't think I'll make a Christmas tree from them. Maybe place them in a pretty glass bowl so that the multi-colors will show up well.

TOTALLY USELESS SAL: BIG PROGRESS

I really didn't think I did that much work this month but I was wrong. My jar grew. There's some fabby from the Traveling Stitcher, ribbon from my Stitching for a Cure projects, a label from GAST and some magenta colored thread from a project I decided to re-cycle. This is an eye-opener SAL!

And now it's time to punch the threads down to see if I can get a few more into the jar.

DAMAGE REPAIR--EVERYWHERE!

It was bad enough that I spent most of the last two weeks removing more stitches than I sewed. Guess all stitchers go through bad patches like that. It was a way of filling my jar for the Totally Useless Sal! Worse disaster struck on Monday. I was enjoying my latest addiction: Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. I sat the can on the table right next to my latest Jane Austen sampler (from Sampler Girl). Yep! Old Nimble Fingers knocked it over. Right on to the sampler. Well, no way I was going to throw it away: too much time, too much money. SOoooooo. I got creative. I blotched in some more Dr. Pepper. Let it dry. Then put the entire piece into tea. It evened out pretty well. The after photo is not particularly great. I took the picture with the towel still under it and there's pink on it and it's casting some shadows. I had already planned to finish it as a wall hanging instead of framing it, so things will work out okay. I'll post a picture-probably next week-of the finished project. I suppose the next disaster will be to sew my finger to some fabric with the sewing machine. But Lord, please let it be after the Easter music!!

And finally, almost seven months after Gustav, the roof has been repaired. Four days of pounding and grinding. No way would I ever climb to the top of our roof. Too steep. And like everyone else around here, we have that dreaded black fungus. Excuse me--had. The new roof has a guarantee against it. The damage was on the back of the house. The good news is that hurricane season starts again two months from today. Now to get the hole in the ceiling repaired.

TOTALLY USELESS SAL

Well, finally something to do with those millions of orts, broken needles and floss labels. This is a super cool SAL and we can all do it. I just started a couple of days ago and my little old jar is just filling up.

All you stitchers, check it out. Yoyo at Dragon My Needle started it and all stitchers are invited.

http://dragonmyneedle.blogspot.com/2009/01/totally-useless-sal.html

It's also time for a recipe! I'll get one online later today or tomorrow. Maybe it will be one of my St. Patty's recipes.

If I could remember where the snap came from I'd gladly give credit. I just have no idea where I got it!