TUSAL, YOTA and a new SAL

I have myself involved in five different SALs this year. I don't know what came over me, I kept seeing all these sign-ups and thought "I can do that"! It will be interesting to see how long I can keep it up.  

Before I start with the check-ins, I have been very remiss in welcoming my new followers!  Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my, sometimes, rambling posts. OKAY, more often than not rambling posts...

And so far this week, the frog infestation seems to have moved on.  I am hoping they are lost somewhere in the middle of the not a lot that I live in and have not moved onto someone else's home...


My first two check-ins are for Daffycat's TUSAL and Pull the Other Thread's YOTA.

I participated in TUSAL the year before last and it was fun to watch the ORTs pile up. That year I put the ORTs directly into that year's glass ortament um that would be an ornament full of ORTS. Turns out that was a bad choice as I didn't realize how often I went digging through my bits of leftovers for a piece just big enough to do half a stitch or to help pull a thread through. I did learn my lesson and this year am using a much more appropriate, for my stitching style, bowl:

Now if the weather had cooperated with some sunshine you really could see the little threads there in the bottom.  There are actually more than usual as I, as mentioned in my previous post, had a frog attack so there are lots of frog fluffed pieces in there.  If you're interested in joining this SAL, hop get it frogs/hop? pun fully intended on over to Daffycat's blog for all the information.

My next check-in is for Pull the Other Thread's YOTA SAL, I found this one through a new to me blog Kali's Creations.  This one is a WIP reduction SAL and one I definitely need.  Between this one and WIPocalypse 2013, I may actually reduce that ridiculously long list over there to the right.  If you're interested in joining this SAL, check it out here!  I don't have a specific WIP that I am focusing on, as my entire rotation is now WIPs, but I did work on these the first two you have already seen, but in the following of the SAL's rules/guidelines, you get to see them again:

Serengeti by Chatelaine.  This was a new start, but as soon as you put a stitch in the piece becomes a WIP, so I am counting it.

Here's my before:

and the after:

Same story with Little House Needlework's Pine Tree Inn. I don't have a before, but here is the after:

Twilight of the Tsar by Dimple Designs is probably more in the spirit of this SAL and I am pleased with the progress I made:

Before:

And after:

Pine Tree Inn is going to be this month's focus piece for the 2013 Ornament SAL at Stitching Lotus.  If you are interested in this SAL, it's not limited to Christmas ornaments, check-in is on the last Wednesday of each month and actually  finishing it into an ornament is optional *that* criteria alone made it something that I thought I could keep up with - if I actually had to finish-finish every ornament, I would have been sunk.  The actual rules are on the SAL tab.  If you're interested in an ornament finishing SAL, there's a new one at Stitched: Now to Finish. 


There in one symbol on TotT that I would like to finish today and then I think Just Nan's Christmas Elegance will be put in the frame for the coming week.