TUSAL March 2019

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

How can it be TUSAL day already?  I was thinking there was another week to go and nearly missed it!  The Silly Stitching Calendar says that I’ve had 15 stitching days since the last TUSAL check in, and I have two piles of orts to show off.

I’ve finished Catherine Theron’s 1840 Town House Sampler, but have plenty to say about it and think it deserves its own post - hopefully in a day or two.  The larger batch of orts belongs to that sampler.

The tiny bunch of orts (I don’t think qualifies as a pile, really) is from Season’s Greetings, a Little House Needleworks ornament that’s been sitting neglected for maybe a year.  The other night I finished the frame and had worked one section of the branch, delighted with how quickly it was going ... and then realized it was in the wrong place (hello, frog).  This should finish up quickly, but I really want to figure out what larger piece to work on next before it's done.

Happy stitching everyone – thanks for stopping by!

>^..^<

TUSAL February 2019

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

  

The Silly Stitching Calendar for 2019 says that I’ve had 14 stitching days since the last TUSAL check in, and this netted a nice little pile of orts … including the tiny, crinkly tell tales of frogging.

Still working on Catherine Theron’s 1840 Town House Sampler.  I’ve made several changes – some intentional, others unplanned.  The frogged snippets were one of those unplanned changes that I was going to leave in, but the more I stitched, the more out-of-place the color looked.  I had changed the lighter green since the supplied color didn’t show up on the linen, and had put all the candidates away before realizing the simple dividing bands use the same color.  Not paying enough attention, I grabbed the wrong color and didn’t realize it until the first two dividers were stitched.  Sigh.

Happy stitching to you!  I’m so glad you stopped by to visit me today!

>^..^<

TUSAL January 2019

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

Late ort report....

This tiny pile of orts is from two days of stitching time – my first since the end of June!

I’m working on Catherine Theron’s 1840 Town House Sampler.  It's finally starting to look like something now that there are some strawberries on that vine!

Happy stitching, every one, I’m so glad you stopped by to visit me today!

>^..^<

TUSAL July 2018

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

The Silly Stitching Calendar says I had 11 stitching days since TUSAL check in last month.  All the orts are from Jane Turner – and that’s the last time I’ll say that!  

What I kept thinking of as not-quite-orts - threads a bit too long to really be considered orts - were tucked into one of the sections of my project thread box so I could use them when I needed to do just a small number of stitches.  I sorted through them and the ones laid out straight will be wound back onto the appropriate bobbins while the rest join Jane's other orts.

Here are ALL of Jane's orts since I started working on her in 2015.  Rats - I forgot to take a picture of them in their pretty little jar.  Oh well, they're all together in the big ort jar now.

For anyone who hasn’t already seen Miss Jane in all her glory:

Jane provided all this month’s orts because I haven’t stitched since I finished her – that’s TWO ENTIRE WEEKS!!  (*gasp*)  Besides going to work, I’ve been reading, weeding, and working on a couple house projects with Wonderful Husband. 

And trying to figure out what to stitch next.

Happy stitching, everybody, I’m so glad you stopped by to visit me today!

>^..^<

TUSAL June 2018

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.     

Even though I took pictures on the correct day, I’m late posting this month’s TUSAL – last night I just *had* to stitch rather than crop pictures and type and edit.  The Silly Stitching Calendar says I had 21 stitching days since TUSAL check in.  And all the orts (again) are from working on Jane Turner.

I’ve hit bottom!

See that last blue line, the short one in the center?  That’s the very bottom of Jane!  Here, take a closer look.

It's hard to settle down and stitch, I'm so excited!

To bring you up to date, since my May Ort Report, I’ve finished the wide Montenegrin band …

… and the reprise of the narrow Montenegrin band.

I’ve learned how to do marking cross stitch – a reversible stitch (when done properly, that is) that I believe got its name because it was used to mark the household linens.  The instructions said the stitch can be worked from any of the four sides, but I wanted to insisted on making sure the top of the Xs would ALL go in the same direction - between the top left and bottom right corners (the way my plain vanilla cross stitches do).  I’m going to say that's the reason I’m having difficulty making the letters completely reversible.

Not too bad.  And I'm getting better.  But when you look at the back, it’s pretty clear my stitching would not have been good enough to mark those sheets and things!

Happy stitching, everybody – thanks for visiting today!

>^..^<

TUSAL May 2018

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

Jane Turner is the only project I’ve worked on this month and the Silly Stitching Calendar says I had 21 (!) stitching days since TUSAL check in.

Still working on the wide Montenegrin stitch band, and would probably have finished it by now if it weren’t for those diagonal parts which have continued to give trouble.  But ALL the Montenegrin stitching in this band is complete - there’s some filling yet to be done on the flowers and leaf on the right and also that knot motif and inside the long green double line, but should be able to finish it up by the end of the week (I hope, I hope).  

I think the knot in the center is pretty neat.

The middle portion was rather cool all by itself too.

The entire band so far (and yes, I've continued to make adjustments to satisfy my obsession with desire for symmetry):

It’s finally springtime here!  Apparently things were just waiting for a bit of warmth – flowers and trees and have just exploded open.   And the hostas – yikes!  They always surprise me by how fast they grow – sometimes I think they get taller while I watch. 

Happy stitching, everybody – I’m so glad you stopped by today!

>^..^<

TUSAL April 2018

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of leftover thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

The Silly Stitching Calendar says I had 25 stitching days since TUSAL check in time last month.  I’m pretty sure that’s a new high count since I’ve joined the TUSAL fun, and I’m certain my March monthly total of stitching days – 28!! – is also a new high - woohooo! 

Once again, Jane Turner has provided all the orts for this check-in.  And yes, that ort pile has a fair amount of the telltale, short-fuzzy-twisted bits that show the frog spent several days in my stitching bag, and required me to rip out the lower right side blue flower.  Twice.  (er … maybe it only counts as once since I ripped out about half of it two different times?  I dunno.)

The bottom center will have an almost-Celtic knot which I was just about ready to start when I decided a long run of stitches with only a few turns was in order and so shifted over to the lower line of that double green ribbon-like bit.  It looked really good to me last night, but seeing the picture, I notice that the diagonal portion at the bottom is different from the one at the top – narrower space between, and it seems like the angle itself is different (how the heck can that be? 45 degrees should be 45 degrees ... right?).

Ugh, why do things like that hide when you’re stitching, but scream out their presence once you take a picture?  Or maybe you don’t have that problem.

Perhaps this new moon will herald real, actual springtime for the northern hemisphere.

Happy stitching,all – thanks for stopping by today!

>^..^<

TUSAL March 2018

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

I’m happy that the Silly Stitching Calendar says I had 19 stitching days since last month’s TUSAL check in.  In that time, I’ve finished Band 13 of Jane Turner and made a good start on Band 14 while collecting a pleasing little pile of orts. 

Thought I was going to stitch the large green line/band first so I could use it as a reference for where the flowers go.  Uh, nope.  Turns out I needed to stitch flowers to know where the green band goes.  Maybe Jane and her 17^th century friends and fellow students didn’t get confused by Montenegrin stitch - applause for them! - but I find it especially befuddling when it’s on the diagonal.

Since I’ve already made some intentional changes in the stitching, I gave in to my compulsion desire for balance and symmetry and made that lower dark blue flower the same on both sides/halves. 

Looks like I have a couple of new followers - welcome, I'm glad you're here!

Hope everyone's weekend is starting off well and you have lots of lovely sunshine.  And that your snow is melting!  Thanks for stopping by!

>^..^<

TUSAL February 2018

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

My orts this time are exclusively from Jane Turner. 

The Silly Stitching Calendar says I stitched only 8 days since last month’s TUSAL check in.  Yikes, that’s patethic!  Work has been especially hectic for the last month or two (and not likely to let up for at least another month) and fairly often lately I get home too tired to remember my own name - not a good condition for stitching.

But he *good* news is that I’ve finished Band 12 (yay!).  I know I’ve mentioned before that Jane’s wider, more complicated bands are bracketed by pairs of narrow bands that are essentially mirror images, and I had decided to show you that when this band was finished.  But while stitching it, I noticed that the colors on the satin stitched circle flowers in Band 12 were reversed from those in Band 10.  So that would mean that instead of being mirrored, it’s spun around 180 degrees, right?  Nope.

Band 10

Newly-finished Band 12 (I like the darker green outlining better...)

Weird, huh?  Now I’m curious about the other paired bands.

And I’ve begun Band 13 - the first, narrow Montenegrin stitch band!  Next time I hope to show you a bit of progress there, and some detailed pictures of the stitch.

Thanks for stopping by!

>^..^<

TUSAL January 2018

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and find out why we're saving our orts!    

As usual lately, all the orts are from Jane Turner. 

The Silly Stitching Calendar (yes, there’s one for 2018) says I had 11 stitching days since last month’s TUSAL check in.  Sounds like an embarrassingly small number till I remember that the December new moon was *before* Christmas and I didn’t even pick up a needle while visiting family were here for the holiday.  The 2017 version of that silly calendar reports that I stitched 171 days – not as often as I’d hoped, but not too bad.

I’m working on Band 12 now – the narrow band under the Lady Band, and an inverted version of Band 10, though with the double running stitch done in dark green.  Will show you progress on the band in a moment, but first I want to show you this motif.

I’ve now stitched that motif ten times, and I don’t think I followed the same path twice!  Certainly that wasn’t planned, it just seemed to go a bit differently each time.  

Here’s Band 12, and you can see that I have only one more of those fussy little yellow and green leaves to fill in.  That’s the last one of those in the entire sampler!  Think I’ll dance a little jig when it’s done.

Thanks for stopping by!

>^..^<

TUSAL December 2017

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read a thorough explanation of the Totally  Useless SAL.   

Phooey.  I *really* wanted to have Jane Turner’s Lady Band finished to show you for this last TUSAL post of the year, but I needed another half hour or so of stitching time.  Guess the good thing is that I got any stitching done at all - last year’s December TUSAL post had nothing to show but crumbs.  

The Silly Stitching Calendar says I’ve had 14 stitching days since the last TUSAL post – not bad considering this is December!  All the orts are from Jane Turner. 

I'm going to wait to show you this band when it’s complete – probably not till after Christmas since my daughter is already here, my son and daughter's husband are both coming in a couple of days and there’s still a lot to do for the holiday.  Oh, who am I kidding – we have such a good time when she’s here that I don’t take time to stitch!

I’m working on Lady Jane’s face and it’s mostly filled in – just need to do her chin and neck and then give her some features and the band will be done.  Ah, I know what to do – I’ll show you what *is* done!

The birds are done.

  

The big pink flowers are done.

The fruit is done (and so are the leaves).

The creepy crawlies are done.

Even the pesky blue flowers are done.

Thanks for stopping by!

>^..^<

TUSAL November 2017

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally  Useless SAL.    

Jane Turner provided all the orts this month.  I had some really productive days but then pretty much fizzled the last week or so - the Silly Stitching Calendar says I’ve had only 15 stitching days since the last TUSAL post (phooey). 

I’m finally working on filling in the Lady’s dress with detached buttonhole and the bodice and sleeves look pretty good, I think..  I had wanted to have that left side of the skirt finished to show you but just didn’t get there.

 

>^..^<

TUSAL October 2017

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog for all the details about the Totally  Useless Stitch A-Long.    

Lots of orts this time!  Well, for me, that is.  All these are from Jane Turner.  I did stitch a bit on LHN”s Seasons Greetings, but not enough to finish the gold frame yet.  You could imagine two or three gold orts off to the side if you'd like.  The Silly Stitching Calendar says I’ve had 18 stitching days since the last TUSAL post. 

Jane’s lady has hair!  And a floral crown!  And a dress!  Well, sort of.  Guess it’s more like she has a dress frame.  I keep thinking I should do the detached buttonhole filling but since I stitch in hand I’m a little worried about that looooong stitch the buttonhole goes over.  You see, those sections will get filled vertically (turning Jane sideways to stitch) rather than across the short direction.  I think I’ve figured out how to make sure it doesn’t pull things out of shape, but I keep putting it off. 

So both those spiral trellis flowers are done, a few of the fruits on the trees are stitched, and the large birds have eyes now so they can watch what that caterpillar's up to.  Also, one of the moths is filled in.  You can see that, like the moths on at least two of the Jane Turner “sister” samplers, he has a head and antennae and a couple of legs – quite bug-ish, if small.  That’s because it looked really dumb just being a two-colored floaty thing.  Not too creepy, right?

(EDIT/ADDITION)

Thought you might be interested to see a moth comparison.  All of these little snippets are of the right-side moth which turned out to be easier to catch.  Jane's original very un-mothlike moth is on the left, the kit model in the middle and my unfinished one on the right.  

But if you look at the same part on the "sister" samplers, it's easy to see what these floaty blobs are supposed to be.  You can barely see the outline of the lady's dress on the snip on the right - that's because this picture was from the back of the sampler signed D.O. which belongs to the Museum of London.

So why didn't Jane stitch heads and legs on her moths?  Did she forget?  She could have meant to go back and add them and then lost track since this band has a lot going on.  Maybe after stitching the legs on the caterpillar, she decided they were too creepy crawly?  Or perhaps she just didn't like moths.  We'll never know, but it's fun to wonder about and come up with possible reasons.

(end edit)

Have realized that with a good bit of stitching yet to do on the Lady Band plus three narrow bands, a wide band in Montenegrin, and the alphabet band, there’s not much chance Jane will be finished by the end of the year.  Oh well ... next year, then!

>^..^<

TUSAL September 2017

Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog will give you a thorough explanation of the Totally  Useless Stitch A-Long.  CLICK HERE  for all the details.

It feels like I got a lot accomplished this lunar month even though my Silly Stitching Calendar says I’ve had only 15 stitching days since the last new moon.  I’m thinking that’s because I was able to finish filling in all those (so very tedious) leaves on Jane’s Lady Band and then went on to do a bit of the fun stuff.

So good at planning – that’s me.  Since it’s the most complicated part of the sampler, I had read the instructions for this band and looked at photos and the chart and thought and read and looked and thought some more.  I came up with what I thought was a good plan – to do the filling stitches in three sections, left to right, keeping everything neat and reducing the chance of mangling some bit I’d already stitched.  Sounds good, right?  Yeah, well, I finished filling in the leaves on the left side tree and tossed my plan out the window.

Tree trunks are filled in with trellis using a blended needle.  I do not recommend using a blended needle to do trellis – makes it about three times as hard to figure out where to put the next stitch.  Started working on the two spiral trellis-filled flowers last night – spent a half hour trying to stitch them as called for in the instructions and ended up frogging the whole bit as it looked like garbage.  Restarted on the second ring of the flower – must decide whether to do the outer petals in satin or something else … fans of bullion stitches perhaps?  Suggestions, anyone?  But am hoping to next outline the lady’s dress.  Maybe.  (Oh dear, another plan!  But maybe I can stick to this one.)

Not too much progress on LHN’s Season’s Greetings ornament though I did work on it once or twice. (EDIT:  oops - had wrong picture - this is right)

  

>^..^<