A Small, TUSAL and Just Nan post

After a wonderful long weekend, I had an entire week of Mondays!  It was not a week I want to repeat soon.  I keep telling the boss that everything can't be my first priority but he doesn't seem to understand that concept - could by one of the reasons 3/4 of the staff is looking for other employment opportunities...

Anyway, I had a wonderful four days off from work and did a lot of stitching in between the housework and lawn mowing and various other things that kept screaming to be done.

For my I had a finish although not this past weekend. The Smalls SAL is hosted at Stitching Lotus by Heather.  Clicking on the badge should take you to the site. Here is Frosty Flakes from Little House Needleworks:

He she? is stitched on Weeks Dye Works' 30-count Straw linen with DMC, WDW and Crescent Colours and Mill Hill beads.  I really enjoyed this one and will probably stitch it again.

  I'm really not sure that TUSAL really is a totally useless endeavor - it puts a smile on my face and I think that is VERY useful!!  Again, clicking on the badge should take you to the site so that you can read all about collecting those little bits of thread that you used to toss away.  Here is my TUSAL jar in front of my current rotation piece, Secret Victorian Garden by Chatelaine.  I finished another corner through part 11.  You can see my progress on part 12 where the thread is hanging.  I am hoping to finish this quarter of part 12 today before putting the doily on the frame for its week.

And finally.  Zeb at Keep Calm and Cross Stitch is hosting the .  A year long hopefully longer SAL to work on all those Just Nan's you have in your stash.  I am still working away on Strawberry Summer.  I showed it on my last post and it was here:

Unfortunately, this was on the frame on my lawn mowing day, and it took me much longer than normal or expected to finish the lawn up so I wasn't able to do a lot more, but did get to here:

This is getting really close to a finish.  I do have to chart out a 4 as this one is dated 2001 with no additional numbers given.

Thanks for reading!!!

A long weekend and Stitch from Stash update

WHEW!!! That no holiday stretch from Presidents Day to Memorial Day is long!!  I even had a week off in April but it just feels different when it's a holiday weekend it is even better that my every-other-Friday-off was yesterday so instead of a three-day, I have a four-day weekend.  The potatoes are cooling and macaroni will be cooked this afternoon for salads, the burgers are made and waiting for the grill and all the housework is done, so I have a solid two days of stitching to look forward too.  I'll have part of this afternoon and evening also, but need to mow the lawn first and that will take a good 2-1/2 or 3 hours, so today is not a solid stitching day.  It may not be a solid stitching day, but it is check-in day!!  Mel at Epic Stitching is hosting this event.  As the name sounds, it's an attempt to stitch from your stash this year.  As I have been collecting stash for almost 30 years, I could easily stitch from stash for many, many years and still not make a huge dent in it.  You are given a rather good sized at least in my mind budget of $25 (or your local currency) each month for those "must haves" and it rolls over from month to month, so it isn't a total ban on purchasing more of a "take stock of what you have and enjoy it".  So for May:

            Carry-over: $100
Monthly Allowance: $ 25
             Purchases: $  0
   Balance Forward:  $125

I had one start from stash this month, Joy to the World from Little House Needleworks

Stitched on 30-count WDW Straw Linen with DMC and yes I do have a problem centering

I also had some progress on a couple of pieces since my WIPocalypse:

Lizzie*Kate's Holly and Hearts went from here:

 
To here:

And Just Nan's Strawberry Summer was here:

And is now here:

Today is the last day in rotation for this one, so I hope to have more progress to show for the Just Nan SAL check-in the end of next week.  Chatelaine's Secret Victorian Garden goes on the frame tomorrow.

May WIPocalypse

Not a lot of stitching happened this week, but I do have progress to show for May's WIPocalypse.  Measi hosts here:

If you're interested in participating click on the dragon and it will take you to the information page.  This month's question is:  Are there any themes or designs you wish you could find?  For me, no.  There is such a huge variety of needlework out there that I have always been able to find something that calls to me, either in theme, design or style.  What typically happens is that I see a design and then realize it is exactly what I was looking for - I just didn't know it.

I have three projects left on my WIPocalypse list for this year, Santa's Magic, Elegant Doily and Secret Victorian Garden.

Santa's Magic went from here:

    

to here:

I stitched lots and lots more eyelets on Elegant Doily.  Here are a few of them:

And Secret Victorian Garden went from here:

to here:

It is beginning to look like I will be carrying at least two, and possibly, all three of these over onto next year's WIP list but I am not giving up on the possibility of at least one finish.

April Showers

If April showers really do bring May flowers every time I say this line that silly joke pops into my head.  Oh you don't know it?  Well, "if April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?  Pilgrims!!! - it was hilarious when I was eight!!!  than it will be VERY colorful here in central Virginia this month. We had almost 5" of rain over a three day period this week.  Lots of roads closed due to flooding but fortunately, no major damage near us.  There was some rather dramatic footage of a portion of a street collapsing onto a train track in Baltimore but fortunately, nobody was hurt.  It all cleared off Thursday afternoon and it has been beautiful since.  Hopefully that wasn't our entire summer's allocation of rain!

Reading through my blog list I came across this idea - use mason jar lids as mini-pie pans - I think that is an absolutely ingenious idea and will have to give it a try soon.  Although not with rhubarb...

In case you missed them, there are a couple of SALs starting up.  Blackbird Designs has a very cute sampler and By the Bay Needleart is hosting a mystery.  According to Donna, this mystery is not a seaside theme so very interested in seeing what direction she is taking.

It is the first Saturday of May which means it is time for a YOTA post.  YOTA is being hosted at Pull the Other Thread - and she has an amazing finish shown on her post this month!  YOTA is a WIP finishing SAL and do I have WIPs!  I have really enjoyed the focus on getting things finished that this SAL has given me. While I still have a lot of things in various stages of stitched, I have fewer than I did a couple of years ago so I am happy.

If you check out my WIPocalypse SAL post for April you can see my progress on several of my pieces.  I have worked on Elegant Doily  and Secret Victorian Garden since that post so will only show my progress on those two.

Secret Victorian Garden went from here:

To here:

And Elegant Doily  had more eyelets stitched as it is hard to see progress on a large white-on-white piece I'll only show portions of it from now on.  

This will stay on the frame for the rest of this evening.  Santa's Magic will take its place tomorrow.