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Wednesday 26 April 2017

April's TUSAL is Brought to You by the Letter

K!


The K is from my spooky conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet.  I'm stitching it all in DMC 310 on 32 count Tiger Lily Murano from Sparklies.  I won't be stitching the flouncy girl or the rabbit but will be adding lots of bats, pumpkins, spiders and other spookiness.





Tusal

It's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog.

Here is my TUSAL jar with two of my current projects:


On the left is Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas and here's the part I have just finished; the top border.  I needed a break from all that metallic!



The other project has been my focus piece for the month; Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs:


I am a little bit disappointed that I didn't quite finish the bees, I had to work a full day this week which left no time for stitching the backstitch!

Here's my latest progress on my Ten-a-Day project.  This is Day 116 on Just Nan's Spring in the Square:


And here's a new Thirty-a-Day project; another Just Nan freebie, Christmas Star:

Day 4

Which of course means I must have finished the previous Thirty-a-Day project!  I think I'll save that for the Smalls SAL post on Friday.  Give you something to look forward to.

Now here's a pleasant task - drawing the winner for the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.  Each picture poster got one entry and each phrase-guesser got one entry too.  I used the Random Number Generator to pick a winner and the name out of the RNG was:


Congratulations to Mary!  I shall be looking around your blog to decide what to send you as a suitable prize.

The Mystery Phrase was guessed by everyone this year - The Earth Laughs in Flowers - a phrase from a poem entitled Hamatreya by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  For those of you unfamiliar with the poem, here's a link to the full version - Poetry Foundation - and here's a link to a blog post talking about the meaning behind the poem which is rather interesting - Karen Joslin.

My initial thought for a suitable prize was a chart with the saying on it.  So I Googled the phrase and guess what came up?


Yes, a free chart, so a prize for everyone who entered!  Just click on the link above to download the chart.  I have deliberately made that picture small so you go and visit the source.

In addition to being entered into my Easter draw, all the participants got additional entries into my Blogaversary draw (if they followed the instructions on that post).  That draw is still open, until the end of the month so you've got time to enter if you haven't already.  Just visit my Blogaversary post and follow the instructions.

Finally, the Blogger of the Week blog is doing so well.  I just love reading all the answers and looking at the beautiful stitching.  If you would like to be featured, please send me an email.  If you know someone who is too shy to volunteer themselves, then send me their email or blog address!


20 comments:

Beth in IL said...

Thanks for sharing your TUSAL. i always look at my jar of orts and think, I should post this someday...

Vickie said...

Good for Mary! Thank you Jo for that pretty freebie!

Carla - Alaska Wolf Pack said...

You know, I was thinking about the blog hop and completely forgot there was a prize at the end. For me the blog hop is the prize, but CONGRATULATIONS to Mary!

Thank you for finding that cute sampler, I believe I will be stitching that one of these days.

deb said...

Border work on both those larger pieces - looking great. What a neat idea to turn the Enchanted Alphabet into a Halloween stitch! Read the title and designer and thought, "huh??" so of course had to search it out. Bats and spiders and pumpkins instead of flouncy-dressed little girl - this is going to be fun!

Now I need to stitch a bit and then grab a pic of my own orts....

Barb said...

I just love the saying,"The earth laughs in flowers." Even though I didn't enter, I think I will go to the freebie. As usual, your stitching looks wonderful.

The Knitting Cross Stitcher said...

Gathering Honey is rivallling JE at the moment as my favourite of your projects.

Linda said...

Congrats on all of the gorgeous stitching and progress Jo. You are a stitching machine.

Linda

diamondc said...

Hi Jo: What a lovely post, you have done so much, I like the idea of the Enchanted Alphabet and all the bats, pumpkins and spiders, I look forward to seeing it finished.
Gathering Honey is beautiful.

Blessings
Catherine

cucki said...

Awesome projects
Love your Tusal xx

Julie said...

You are working on such lovely things at the moment Jo, the 12 Days is looking fabulous, well done on the goldwork. The JN - love that one. But the Gathering Honey is just a stunner.

Bekah said...

Gathering honey is really coming together well. I love the little bees and the honeycomb design. Thanks for linking the poem and the comments. The quote definitely has a different feel when taken out of context, I don't know which one I prefer though.

Rhona said...

I'm not surprised that you needed a break from all that stitching with metallics! Looking forward to seeing the L&L design with your changes....sounds fun!

DJ said...

Gathering Honey is looking fabulous!! The border sure is a challenge, but you will get there! I'm loving the 12 Days of Christmas, it looks more beautiful with ever stitch! What a great idea for the spooky conversion of the Lavender and Lace pattern...can't wait to see the finished product! I know of a few free Halloween patterns if you are interested that are really quite nice!

Mary - Lecoeurceltique said...

I'm not too keen on metallic thread so I can imagine you wanting a break from it.

Leonore Winterer said...

So much great stitching in just one post, I love all of it. Very interesting about the poem too, I only knew this as a happy phrase as well.

Lili said...

Enchanted Alphabet looks great!!!
Beautiful stitching!

Sheryl said...

Lovely Gathering Honey design, congrats to Mary and thank you for the freebie link.

Christine said...

I really like the way your spooky alphabet is coming out

Sarah in Stitches said...

Great spooky alphabet! Gathering Honey is GORGEOUS. Congrats to Mary! :D

Mary - Lecoeurceltique said...

What a lovely surprise. Thank you, Jo.
Great progress on all your stitching.