January 2014 TUSAL

I wasn't going to participate in TUSAL this year. I've done this for the past two years, but decided that I was done with it this year since I kept forgetting to post a pic about it last year. I found, however, that I was unable to throw away my strings and odds and ends!!! And once I saw everyone posting about it earlier this month, I decided that I was going to give it a go again. :0)

Now this wasn't the first TUSAL posting this month, we have a rare month with 2 new moons. Is there a special name for the 2nd new moon like there is when you have a 2nd full moon in a month - like with a blue moon? Umm, might need to look that up:)

 

Here are my orts for the month. Not too bad, though they are mostly all from the LoveQuilt blocks that I worked on.

 

If you would like to learn more about TUSAL or would like to join in, visit Sharon at It's Daffycat.

Photo session with cats, aka Sept. TUSAL

I think I've mentioned the poor lighting in my house before. It makes taking pictures of my projects while indoors pretty much useless. Sometime (umm, most of the time?) I don't get my projects done until it is already dark, the night they are due to be posted, so I don't have a choice but to take crappy pics.

Today I decided that I... 1. would actually participate in this month's TUSAL and... 2. take pics of my TUSAL project during the daylight hours!!! GO ME!!! Okay, so I took my jar of strings and other bits and pieces with me out to the front porch, decided that it wasn't TOO windy if I took the pics fast and kept my shoes on so I could run after the strays. However the front porch was covered in cats, and that always makes for a fun photo shoot!! :) Here were the results...

They were all walking up to me at this point.

This one is very proud of his tail end:)

This is 'Paws', he is the spoiled one who spends a good bit of his time indoors. He is the only one that gets to do that. Actually, he is currently sleeping on the computer desk next to me right now:)

 

Really I'm only showing you all the pictures with the cats to distract from the fact that even though I haven't shown pics of my TUSAL in a few months, I still don't have hardly anything to show off!! I've been being 'creative' in ways other than stitching here lately, though I have done a little sewing/stitching/crocheting too.

 

If you don't know what TUSAL means and you want to get in on it, go to Daffycat's blog to learn more and join in!! 

July TUSAL

It seems like I haven't done the TUSAL in the last month or two, so my pile of orts is a little bigger than usual.

 

I took this pic outside and had to chase after the threads just a bit:) Silly wind doesn't ever want to hold still!! I only had one cat out to help this morning, so that was better than the last time I took a pic of my threads outside.

If you want to know what the heck TUSAL is, follow the link over to Daffycat's blog and find out. It's not to late to join in!!

Very late TUSAL

I kept meaning to post my TUSAL report, but kept forgetting to:) So I will do one better, I'll post the TUSAL and introduce you to one of our cats!!

 

This is 'Muffin' She is one of our mama cats and is super sweet and cuddly with us, but kind of cranky with the other cats!! She is really fine boned and delicate, and she thinks she is a princess:)

 

I thought I would take the strings and bits outside and the cats would all want to play with it, but it took me some time to get Muffin interested in the strings. She just wanted me to pet her instead:)

 

There were other cats out as well, but none of them wanted their picture taken.

 

I did stitch quite a bit this past month, but it doesn't really look like it according to my TUSAL report here. Most of what I did stitch on was small things, so I guess I just didn't have many leftover strings;0)

 



April TUSAL report:)

Time for the April Totally Useless SAL!! This SAL is brought to us by DaffyCat, and it is purely a fun and 'artsy' way to show off some of our useless bits of thread and yarn leftovers.

 

My bits are seen in the top part of my jar with the past months inside the jar. As you can see, I didn't get as much done this month. Just too many other things taking my time, but hopefully in the next few weeks things with calm down here just a bit and I'll be able to spend more time stitching:)

March TUSAL

Time for another TUSAL post!!! I have been a busy stitcher this past month, I even added a bit of thread from sewing and a strand or two of yarn from crocheting:) In the background you can see my Thomas Kincaid notebook that I use for keeping all my projects and stitching ideas inside. I've been using this same notebook since 2010, so I have all the projects that I've finished since then written down. I tried for a while to also keep track of how long a project took to complete, but I found I was wasting a lot of time just in keeping track of the time!! LOL  So I stopped that since I'm more interested in actually finishing a project than in knowing how long it took:) 

 

It had been a busy weekend here and I didn't get much stitching done, so I don't have much to show off for all the new starts I had last week. Hopefully I will be able to post a bit about that tomorrow:) 

February TUSAL

I haven't had quite so much stitching time over the last couple weeks, but I am putting in as much time as I can to get a few projects completed. As a result I had a pretty decent amount of orts to show off this month!! It makes me so happy to see all the floss bits from the previous month:0) 

 

My TUSAL results for February

 

 

I still have lots and lots of stitchy things going on that I'm hoping to get done real soon - maybe one of them by Thursday!! 



January TUSAL

WooHoo!! The first Tusal of the year!!! And I have been busy stitching, so I have some to show off:)  Okay, so for those who don't know what Tusal is... It stands for Totally Useless Stitch A Long, and it is totally useless, but it is fun anyway. What you do is gather all your bits of floss and fabric and whatever little bits of this and that from your stitching projects and put them in some kind of container to accumulate all year long. Then on the new moon of each month, you post to your blog how much you have for that month.

I'm planning to use what I gathered last year as stuffing for some kind of finishing, maybe a Christmas ornie or something.

SO, here is what I've gather since the beginning of this year. Most of it has come from the project that it is sitting on. Not too bad for only 11 days worth:)

A New Year with new goals

Really, time must be going by faster as I get older. Even my 13 year old daughter said it feels the same to her. She says she wants to grow up, but she doesn't want her childhood to go away so fast. Smart girl!!

It sure feels weird to not be participating in the Crazy January 15 project challenge. I've done that for the past 2 years and it is a lot of fun, but I have so many projects left over from the past couple years, that I felt that I really had no business doing it again. At least not until I found some order with the WIPs and UFOs that I currently have to work on.

But I did manage to find several different challenges and SALs to keep me busy this year and to give me plenty to blog about.

This year I will participate in...

TUSAL - I'm doing this again since it really did turn out to be fun:) Lots of pretty colors all collected in a jar just makes me happy.

WIPocalypse - Well, we survived through the Mayan prediction (really did anyone think this was real?), but we still have piles of projects to work on, so on to another year of really trying to get those WIPs done!!!

IHSW - This is a weekend dedicated to staying home and stitching!! Sounds like a dream come true, doesn't it? Don't have that luxury? (does anyone have that luxury?) That's okay, just stitch as much as you can and blog about it the following Monday (even if it's only a few stitches).

52 in 52 - I really love this idea. I posted about this a couple weeks ago, but I have made a few changes since. I have a page dedicated to this project with a tab at the top of this page. I'll blog about it here and there, but for a total accumulation of my progress I will keep that page updated all year long.

Stash diet - The goal here is to just stitch from the stash you already have. You can set further goals and 'prizes' for yourself such as I will allow myself $3.00 worth of new stash for every chart I finish. Other are doing it differently. Not sure how I'll do on this one. I thought I would go binge shopping before the beginning of the year and get some of it out of my system before starting the 'diet', but after breaking my ankle, I wasn't able to visit the LNS. I did buy one project on-line that is for a round robin I'm doing with a few other stitchy ladies.

Because my 52 in 52 project incorporates so many differing kinds of goals, I'm not doing any other aspirations/resolutions. I'm really excited to see the progress I can make on all these challenges. Please feel free to question my progress and cheer me on from time to time (like mid May when I tend to try hiding in a hole for the rest of the summer:).

What challenges and/or goals are you planning to work towards this year?

Dec TUSAL

I can't believe Dec is here already! I am so not prepared for Christmas, but am ready for the family time and the time off that my dh has and the break that we will be taking from school. After a couple of activities this weekend, that requires my organization, we should a have a couple of weeks of nice, quiet, family time.

 

 

And on to the last TUSAL of the year!!! I had lots of bits of strings this time since I finished up the Race Car project, so all the extra strings got pulled and put into my jar. I've been stitching away the past few days as well and I will have a finish (maybe two!!!) to post in a day or two:) Love when I have a few finishes right together, it makes it feel that I am actually getting something accomplished with the stitching.

November TUSAL Post

ACK!!! I just almost forgot to post today!!! I also almost forgot about TUSAL!! Thank goodness I finally remembered:)

 

I did a bit better this month, though all those snips are from the race car project. I'm pretty sure I didn't put one stitch in anything else this past month. I am getting closer on that project though, and then I'll be able to move on to other things!!! :)

October TUSAL

I haven't done a TUSAL post in quite a long time, but after looking at my very dusty jar I decided it was time to get it down, clean it up and pull out the most recent thread clippings in it. Most of the thread clippings I have here are from frogging out various mistakes from several different projects. It's funny how much it seems you are pulling out at the time and how little thread you actually have in the end:)

 



I have been MIA for this past week, busily stitching away at a couple projects. My dh has been busy  in the kitchen as well so I have a few blogging posts to put up in the next couple of days. :)

Happy Stitching, everyone :)

TUSAL #2

A day late for my TUSAL update #2, but at least I didn't completely forget. I've keep meaning to join in for the International Hermit Weekend and also the Friday Night Sew-In and it just sneaks up and by-passes me before I even know it!!! I really need to put these on my calendar I think!! :)

So here is a pic of my TUSAL jar with a peek at our new addition to the family (10 guppies:)!!

I've still been doing lots of stitching, reading and also trying to put together a planner that will work for us too. Hoping for a stitchy finish here soon!!!

January's TUSAL

Well this is my first TUSAL post: Totally Useless SAL!! This is where you keep all your floss 'trash', broken needles and tiny scraps of fabric and place them in a pretty jar. Yep, totally useless:) I picked out a pretty green glass jar, but it is pretty small, so I'm not sure if I'll make it the whole year with this jar, but I still really like it:)
You can also see that I'm coming along with my January Wordplay too!! I'm hoping to finish it up tomorrow:) That'll be my 4th finish for the month!!!