background

Saturday, January 28, 2017

SAL check-ins

I'm home!  The training I did last week went well (or at least I think it went well, haven't seen the evaluations yet).  There were only two problem "children" but my training partner and I figured them out pretty quick and kept them under control.

As I mentioned in my last post, no new stitching happened this week, but I do have four SALs that have check-ins this weekend, so new words, old pictures.

The first is TUSAL.  Sharon at It's Daffycat hosts TUSAL and everyone is welcome to participate. TUSAL is not your usual SAL.  SAL typically means "stitch along" whereas TUSAL is a "save along".   All those end bits of thread, dogears from quilting and whatever other loose bits you have when crafting get saved in a container of some sort, you take a photo and post about it on the new moon. Super simple and it doesn't really take any special preparation or supplies either.


A chunk of this is frog fuzz from Sentimental Hearts but the majority is bits from Winter Wonderland. 

And speaking of Winter Wonderland,  it is my finish for the Smalls SAL.  The 2017 Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus.  This is another straight forward SAL - stitch a small piece and post a picture of your finish on the last Friday of the month.  You get to define small and you just have to finish the stitching not finish-finish it.

Here's my January small finish again:

This is Winter Wonderland from The Silver Needle's Secret Needle Night.

The third check-in is for WIPocalypse.  Melissa at Measi's Musings hosts this SAL.  It focuses on finishing some of those works-in-progress that you may have sittings around.  Up there at the top you can find a tab that lists out my WIPocalypse projects.  I worked on three of them this month.

Santa and the Mouse started the new year here:


and went to here in January:


Enchantment of Winter was a blank piece of fabric on January 1st.  It ended the month here:


And here are Shakespearean Fantasy's before and after photos:




Melissa also gives us conversation starters each month.  This month's is:  What SALs are you participating in this year?  I am currently doing the three that are in this post, WIPocalypse, TUSAL and Smalls as well as Gifted Gorgeousness.  IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) is on the list, when I can remember and I am doing (so far unsuccessfully) Stitch From Stash on Facebook.  I am always open to new SALs, but have cut back drastically from years past as I tend to over-commit myself.

Speaking of Stitch from Stash, here's my report on that.

Budget:   $10.00
Purchase:  15.50 - The 12 Berries of Christmas (colly birds, golden rings and geese a-laying)
Balance: ($ 5.50)

Not a good month.  $10 USD would normally be plenty, but when I set my budget amount I forgot about the auto-ship for the berries.  Fortunately, the balances, good and bad, carry forward so on February 1st I will be back in the black.  There is a provision to give yourself credit for finishes and if I did that, I think I would have been even for the month, but as the finishes don't generate real money, it really doesn't balance out the real money I am spending.

13 comments:

Karyn said...

Wow, Susan, you have been very busy this month, and the WIPs that you are currently working on are all hard designs with a lot of confetti stitching, so I think you should give yourself a big pat on the back.
I was reading your SAL list and thought "Wow! Thats a lot!" and then I realized that I am in the same SALs except one lol...good choices ;)
I love your "Winter Wonderland" finish, it's beautiful!
I look forward to watching your progress on these wonderful WIPs.
Have a great weekend

Bea said...

That's a lot of stitching - well done!

I'm glad the training went well.

Linda said...

Wonderful progress on all of your projects Susan.

Linda

Justine said...

Lovely to see all your WIP updates in one place! Why are we so tempted by SALS?! I swore I wouldn't join any more and have committed to quite a few already...
Gifted Gorgeousness, Theme-tas-stitch plus a Monthly Ornament and Four Seasons SAL over at Needlecraft Haven.

Mary said...

I love your finish, it is very pretty. You have made tremendous progress on your WIPS also.

Robin in Virginia said...

Good progress on your WIPs. I really like the Winter Wonderland piece. Glad the training went well. I had to chuckle about your comment about the problem "children". Have a wonderful week!

Astrids dragon said...

I love your Winter Wonderland and the way it's finished.
Your WIPs will keep you busy, great progress.

Sheryl said...

The Winter Wonderland is a very pretty design with a lovely finish and great progress on your other WIPs

Lady Stitch-a-Lot said...

Lovely progress on all your projects =)

Leonore Winterer said...

Good to hear you've made it back safely from your journey! I love all your projects, hoping to see much progress on all of them soon ^_^

Sarah said...

Lots of wonderful stitching.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

I do like that tiny Small, it's so nicely finished too. Great work on Santa this month, you can really see him forming.
I'm in loads of SALs but they are nearly all ones I can fit my existing stitching into rather than being told what to stitch!

Kaisievic said...

Great month of stitching, Susan. My favourite has to be Winter Wonderland - I must go check out to see if the design is still available on their website. hugs, Kaye