Mega SAL post

The last two weeks have been eventful to say the least.  The short story is that I had a health scare a couple of weeks ago and while it wasn't the feared heart attack after more tests than I care to count, my heart and associated systems were declared healthy  I will be going in for surgery tomorrow to fix the cause.  After doing a little research, I am not sure why I didn't figure it all out sooner.  I am not looking forward to the surgery but am looking forward to the relief from all the symptoms that I put down to aging.  Because of the surgery, I probably won't feel up to posting for several month-end SALs so I am going to cram them all into this one.

Before I get into my SAL postings, Pull the Other Thread is hosting a Mega Mini Month Madness SAL during October.  The link should take you to the sign-up page if you're interested.  All you have to do is stitch on a mini (ornament size or smaller) piece and post once each week in October you don't have to do five different pieces just post your progress each week.  There will be a drawing for a gift card at the end for everyone that participates and follows the rules,  While I am recuperating (6 to 8 weeks of no commuting - I will be teleworking as I can) I will actually have time to stitch so I may sign up for this one.

The first SAL is TUSAL.  TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch Along) is hosted by It's Daffycat.  If the links don't work, the buttons along the sides should take you to the information pages for all the SALs mentioned.  TUSAL asks that you collect all those little snippits of thread in a pretty jar and take a picture on the new moon each month.  I had more additions to my collection than I expected given my relative lack of stitching recently.  My jar is shown in front of Chatelaine's Secret Victorian Garden.

The next SAL post due is the Smalls SAL.  Heather at Stitching Lotus is hosting this SAL.  Another easy one - stitch on a small and post the last Wednesday of each month.  I did finish a small this month but it was leftover from last month's non-finish month and I didn't start another one.

Little House Needleworks' Red House In Winter stitched on 30-count Northern Cross linen with DMC and Crescent Colours

Stitch from Stash is the next one in line.  Mel at Epic Stitching hosts.  This group encourages you to keep within a budget and enjoy what you already have stashed.  We have a very generous $25 a month budget and your unspent balance rolls over, so if you have a larger purchase in mind in a fairly short period of time you'd have the money saved up.

For September I had:

                 Carry over:  $200
    September Budget:  $  25
September Purchases:  $   0
       Balance Forward:  $225

I had no new starts from stash, but I did work on Red House in Winter, Holly and Hearts Sampler, Santa's Magic, Spring in the Air, and Secret Victorian Garden.  I do expect to have a new start for October's report, but I am not sure what.

Last, but not least is the Just Nan SAL.  This one seems to have fallen apart but I will continue to post as I am enjoying pulling out some of the Just Nan's that I have had kitted and stashed for years.  I am currently working on Spring in the Air.  While I didn't get a lot done this month, I did get two of the over-1 pansies completed, so I am happy with my progress.

Stitched on 28-count Antique Ivory with DMC 

And I did have progress on a couple of other projects:

Holly and Hearts Sampler by Lizzie*Kate

Stitched on an unknown Silkweavers fabric with called for fibers

and Secret Victorian Garden by Chatelaine

Stitched on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan with called for fibers

WHEW!!!  I think that covers everything.  Lots of little things to do around the house to get things to a point where The Hubs won't feel overwhelmed while he's the one trying to keep it all together.

YOTA and WIPocalypse

The stitching drought finally ended last weekend!  Apparently four episodes of Endeavour and the first Hobbit movie was just what I needed to settle in and stitch.  I had all intentions of settling in with the Desolation of Smaug and stitching all day yesterday but instead of looking at this:

I looked at this:

Yes, another "finally", we got the boat out and did some fishing.  Not a lot of luck fishing but it was a nice day to be on the water.

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month and Tuesday is the full moon which means, YOTA and WIPocalypse respectively.  YOTA is hosted at Pull the Other Thread and WIPocalypse is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings.  They are both set up to help keep you on track to finish up some of those WIPs that you have hanging around.  As I had that stitching block going on I only stitched on one WIP on my list so another combined post.  Here's where Mirabilia's Santa's Magic was when it started its round in the rotation:

And here's where it was last night:

For whatever reason Blogger decided the photo should be sideways and despite all my tries, including following all the directions I could find on rotating photos in Blogger, it stubbornly stayed like this.  I am very happy with the progress I made and even more thrilled that things are lining up and matching where they are supposed to.

 

Before I forget, Melissa has questions to go with each month of WIPocalypse.  This month's question is, "Who is your favorite person to stitch for, or do you keep your stitching for yourself?"  I don't know that I have a favorite person to stitch for.  I have stitched a lot of gifts over the years, but I don't think any one person has received more than anyone else.  Items that will be given away tend to be picked out specifically for that individual and usually for a specific event, such as weddings, babies or anniversaries, so eventually everyone gets something.