TUSAL Time

Yes folks it's that time of the time of the month again so here I am posting a pic of my rubbish :)

Zeb asked on my last Tusal post how high my jar is and I thought I'd wait until this post to answer, made sense to me anyway!   I've had the tape measure out and it's just shy of 14 inches the perfect height to sit by my chair and just have my orts dropped into it, maybe next month I'll post a pic of that as well.

So as you can see it's got one or two more orts in it than last time and those have come from Stitching Day's, Lewis Hamilton, Tree farm, Thread Bear, Sunflowers, Flower Tender and Happy Holidays which I've not posted about yet

And my beading jar, I think this year I'm going to leave this one as it is and not empty it into the other one just out of curiosity

Just in case you have no idea what the Tusal is all about you can either click on the button on the right side bar or follow this link

Tree farm finished

My fourth finish of the year and my first weekend project completed as well as it being my first Victoria Sampler.

By Sunday evening I had 2 tree and the sleigh to back stitch and the last band to do and I knew that it would only take me a couple of hours to do that but I couldn't see straight so I had to put it down.

After beading group yesterday I sat down and dd those couple of hours and here it is.

Now I need to pick a new weekend project but nothing is talking to me yet so I hope something does in the next couple of days

Stitch From Stash January post

You all remembered that I'm going to try and stitch from my stash this year didn't you?

So far I'm doing ok but as we're aren't even a month into the year it's not really a surprise is it.

My January 1st start this year is Flower Tender and is the last of the bigger Pocket Dragon designs that were available in chart form so of course it's from my stash.

I really didn't get far with it because I needed to get Lewis finished so it got an hour or two spent on it and that was it.

Once Lewis was done I made a start on Thread Bear which is a kit that has been in my stash for around 20 years, yes you read that right!

I remember buying it and it's probably the thing that's been there longest but I won't swear to that.

My next new start is simply called Sunflowers and is the one I've used some of my budget for.   The chart, fabric and 2 of the colours are from stash but I had to buy the other 6 because it calls for Anchor and I don't have many of those.

I checked about the budget beforehand with being in the UK and was told that sticking to £25 was ok but I've seen other UK stitchers going with £15 which is roughly what $25 converts to so I thought I'd split the difference and go with £20.

My plan is to save it up all year so I have something to spend if I go to Harrogate again this year or maybe the NEC in November.

New starts from stash = 3

PHD's worked on = 2 (Lewis and the tree farm)

£ spent = 6 x 90p = £5.40

Budget left = £14.60

My IHSW weekend

Saturday ended up being busier than I'd expected with fella and I going out for the afternoon.

Friday night I'd started the back stitch on Lewis so I decided to get him finished rather than wait until today 

Sunday I went on a class with Oak Tree Crafts and here's how far I got on the day.

I have the bead work on the mould to finish off, then I have to stitch it to the fabric of the bag and make my tassel/decoration bit for the bottom

And lastly the Tree farm did get a little attention on Sunday evening.

There is a slim chance I'll be finished this weekend but no promises and it won't be the end of the world if it's not

2013 bead mat

Early last week I finished adding the diamonds to my 2013 bead mat.

All last year I put the black, white and gold one's to one side so that I could do some sort of border on it this time.

In total I made 212 diamonds in 97 colours but it should of been more, I had a list of 30+ colours that I hadn't made a diamond for but I'd reached the point of not being able to face doing any more of them so they didn't get done!

And not all the diamonds I made got added on the mat this year, they are in a tub waiting for me to decide what to do with them.

I've made a start on my 2014 mat but I'm not doing diamonds this year, I've gone with squares this time for a change if I'd stuck with diamonds I doubt I'd make one this year!

Updates

I really do have a pic of Lewis this time not just one in my head that I thought I had!

Now that I can see him being finished he seems to be going a lot faster and should be finished next week.

And Tree farm progress, that's band 6 started which I hope to make a lot of progress on this next week even tho I'm off on a class on Sunday assuming the weather doesn't decide to dump snow on us which as far as I know it won't

Tomorrow we say our final goodbyes to the family member that passed away in Saudi last November

Exchange stitching

Today was exchange opening day over at Needlecraft Heaven for those of us that attended the meet up in November.

We had to stitch a saying and make it into a hanging ornament, simple enough you might thnk but finding the right saying wasn't easy!

This is the beauty I received from Maggie

I think it's a Lizzie Kate and the back is the same purple heart fabric that's top and bottom

Here's the one I sent to Lynn.

It's called Stitching Days and you can find it here
I made a few changes to it as I wasn't overly happy with the original version but didn't know that until I'd stitched it!  

Tree Farm update

I realized earlier this evening that I had't posted a pic of last weekends progress on the Christmas Tree Farm so here it is.

I'm over half way now and hopefully I'll finish this band over the weekend

The winner is..........

All the names in my bowl

And the winning name as picked by fella

Congratulations Debbie

Last and first Tusal

My final ort jar pic of 2013.

All that white on the top is KO from making the ornaments and Mum's present but there are also orts from Firefly Fairies, Lewis Hamilton, Tree Farm, Ester Sleepe and a few bits of yarn from sewing the ends in on the scarves

And my first of 2014.

Those few orts are from Flower Tender (Jan 1st start) and an exchange piece that I can't share 

2013 Goals report and 2014 Goals

For 2013 I said

Finish a TW  Yes, I finished Legends of the dragons

Stitch or bead an ornament a month and finish it  No, this one fell by the wayside and I ended doing them at the last minute

Stitch at least 6 squares for SOLAK  Another fail, I managed 2

Start and finish Santa's Village  I started it but didn't finish it 

Finish more projects than I start  No, I started 3 more than I finished

Keep up with the TUSAL  Ha, this one I did :)

Get my PHD number to below 25  Another epic fail.

I think the main reason I failed on so many of my goals for last year was having 3 projects to do off one lady and they took up so much of my stitching time that nothing else stood a chance other than whatever my weekend project was

For 2014 I'd like to

Stitch or bead an ornament a month

Start and finish at least 6 small TW's for the SAL (link in my side bar)

Have fun rediscovering my stash with Stitch from Stash 2014 (also a link in my sidebar)

Keep up with the TUSAL (another link in my sidebar)

Finish one of my Circe Des Cercles, most likely the beaded one

Finish Santa's Village

Get my PHD number to below 25, it's currently 32!

I stitched for 910 hours 55 minutes in 2013, had 30 new starts and 27 finishes 23 of those were new starts

December progress and January goals

For December
Finish Firefly Fairies  Yes, done 
Finish Lewis Hamilton (the last paid project)  No and I haven't in fact touched it for 10 days now
Finish Reindeer Stables  No, didn't even get to pick it up
Finish something else  Yes I finished Esther Sleepe
Decide on my January 1st start  Done and started

For January I'd like to 
Finish Lewis Hamilton
Finish my exchange project and get it posted on time
Not start more than 3 Guilt Free Jan projects
Decide on and start my first TW for the SAL

I stitched for 88 hours 14 minutes in December, had 1 new start and 2 finishes and 1 day of no stitching.