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Saturday 26 July 2014

TUSAL of Stories

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This year I am intending to stitch The Little Stitcher's Twelve Days of Christmas as a monthly project.  Laura has designed twelve charts with a different theme for each one to represent the days of Christmas.  She has invented the different themes herself using her lovely imagination!

This week I have stitched The Day of Stories.  Here it is as part of my TUSAL photo:



And on its own:

I wonder what story the sitting up squirrel is telling its little friend?  Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin maybe? Or how about "The Little Squirrel Who Sneaked into a Round Robin for Bunnies" by Karen McEwan?

How many of you are reading to your children/grandchildren in the evenings?  It's one of my favourite times of the day and always has been.  We started with simple board books and picture books, limited to three stories and one poem book each night.  As my son grew older we moved onto "chapter books" working our way through the classics  from my childhood via anything with a dragon in it and a selection of proof copies from work.  I am a great believer in reading the book before the film so we often read books which are due to come to the cinema soon.  I also quote alot from books so that's another reason for choosing to read a book, so he recognises the quotes.  In the last year or so we have moved on from children's books to my great love, fantasy, especially comic fantasy in the shape of Sir Terry Pratchett.

We still read a poem each evening, we have two different books of A Poem A Day and alternate each year.

Thanks for the advice on the stitching over 1 for the Joan Elliott SAL, I also asked on the Mirabilia FB page because those stitchers do some beautiful conversions and the general consensus was to rechart and smooth the steps.  It is so amazing to have such a pool of stitchers to ask advice from, I really appreciate the knowledge we share.

Here is today's progress:

Stitched on 28count Snapdragon evenweave from Crafty Kitten.

Talking of advice, I noticed recently that my blogoversary countdown was stuck on 67 days, as was everyone else's!  I reloaded it and the same thing happened; changed the date, still 67 days.  So I have replaced it with a ticker which isn't quite as good (it's a bit wide!) but at least it's accurate.  If you have this gadget on your blogs you might want to check it out.  If you find a smaller one then please let me know!

Those of you on Facebook may have become aware of a new event - World Cross Stitch Day.  I don't know if there is a website or a blog or if this is just a FB thing but the date is Friday 8th August.  No time zone given, so if you start at 00.01 New Zealand Time and finish at 23.59 Baker Island (Pacific Ocean) Time then you actually get 48 hours of stitching time in total!

Finally, another card went out for the Summer Postcard Blog and this one came with a bonus picture from me.  Hop over to Krista's blog to see what that is all about.

First postcard from Marcy goes to Gracie at Needles, Pins and Dragonflies
Second postcard from Krista goes to Jocondine at Jocondine
Third postcard from Michelle goes to Sharon at Shebafudge
Fourth postcard from Mouse goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story
Fifth postcard from Christine goes to Marcy at Stitching Plus
Sixth postcard from Astrid goes to Krista at Just Stitching Along






16 comments:

cucki said...

Always beautiful stitches..
Big hugs x

Vickie said...

I read to all three when they were small. Two of the three are readers now. It really takes the right book for Miss Madeleine. ;) She is reading a book on the Beatles right now. HA!

Brenda said...

Oh YEAH!!! Thanks for letting us know when World of Cross Stitch Day is Aug 8. That is the day before my bday, Aug 9, and so of course.....I'll still be stitching both days!

Julie said...

I'm hoping your squirrel isn't telling his chum to hop over here and eat the food on my bird feeder, the 2 that already come are plenty!
My granddaughter and I have been reading Peppa Pig Christmas as she is convinced Santa is coming soon and wants to be a good girl lol.

Christine said...

I used to read to the girls when they were younger. I kind of drew a halt to it when Naomi wanted me to read her a Torchwood novel and I was having to sight edit the dirty bits as I went ;)

KimM said...

Lovely stitching. BTW, I'd noticed the same thing about the countdown. It's s shame, I really liked that gadget. Thanks for the heads up on the 'new' one.
xxx

Linda said...

Beautiful stitching Jo.

Linda

jocondine said...

The 12 days of Christmas patterns are always so cute. I do love squarrels design. "Have you nut the same feeling". xxx

Lili said...

Lovely jar!!
Beautiful stitching!!
Looks that my blogoversary stuck on 61 days... Thanks for the info. I will tell you if I find a small one.

Hugs,
Lili

SilverCuteDwarf said...

Thank you for info about "World of Cross Stitch Day", it is interesting.

I like Cristmas stitches, very cute. Joan Elliott SAL looks wonderful!

BTW, thank you for information that you sent to my email :-)

Karen said...

Squirrels tell great stories.

Marcy said...

The over one looks great. I enjoy reading children's books. And I don't have any children :)

Mouse said...

well reading worked for eldest child she still is a bookaholic ...lol youngest blahhh ...lol
lovely stitching and glad you got help with the mirabilia one :) off to go and peep at the postcard :) love mouse xxxxx

Unknown said...

My favourite memories of childhood are being read to. When my mum and I had to stay away from home for any length of time, my dad would record himself reading my favourite books so that I had the tapes to listen to while he wasn't there. I still have the tapes and it makes me well up thinking about how thoughtful that was!
I love Terry Pratchett as well! Which are your favourites? I love anything with Granny Weatherwax or Sam Vimes in. They are brilliant characters....oh and Death! I LOVE THE WAY HE TALKS - hahaha xxx

Kaisievic said...

Great ORTs this month, Jo.

Shebafudge said...

Sadly, we no longer have stories at night but we sometimes have a family book on the go with someone reading a chapter or two a night. The last one was one of our favourites 'George's Marvellous Medicine' by Roald Dahl.

Luke still likes to read out loud to me sometimes too, especially any particularly gory bits as he is into his zombie and vampire books. I was resistant to these at first, but at least he is reading.