January TUSAL

Here we go again, the first TUSAL post of the year.  For those that don't know a TUSAL is a Totally Useless Stitch A Long run by Daffycat.  Basically you collect all those ORTS (Old Ragged Threads) in a suitable container, post a picture every New Moon and join the fun!  At the end of the year I use my ORTS to stuff an ornie.

This month my jar is posing with a Gazette 94 design Bonne Annee (as it's New Year) and the piece I've just finished - Linda's Indigo Rose Round Robin.

I don't have a page-a-day Calendar this year, they only did Knitting or Quilting.  So I'll be using my box frame as a background.  I change the picture every month using the pages from my scrapbook.

Here's the Round Robin in it's own picture:

And here's the close of my bands:

I've just realised here's not a single cross stitch in there!

It didn't take long to stitch, about four evenings.  The hardest part was choosing the bands!  Linda sent a choice of bands and it was quite tricky finding one which would fit the width of the piece.  I used DMC threads and tried to match the colours suggested as closely as possible.  There's only one more round of the RR then mine comes back to me!  Yay!

Here's another 2013 finish though strictly speaking 99% of it was stitched in 2012.  It's a Joan Elliott inspired card for the Small Boy's Home Support worker.  She was supposed to come see him for the last time just before Christmas but fell ill.  Instead of finishing it anyway I put it away then suddenly had to rush to complete the white and gold in the border!  Typical of me and my last minute scrab habit.

Anyway she loved it.  As I thought they're supposed to declare all gifts (ie wine and chocs etc) so a card really is a better choice.  And there was a cute photo of the Small Boy inside so she'll never forget him!  Again, they can only have photos of the children if the parents give them, they can't take pictures themselves anymore.

The words are a traditional Chinese saying which Joan Elliott used in her Wit and Wisdom book.  I charted the words myself then used part of one of Joan's borders.  But here's the time-saving part - only stitched the back stitch and coloured in the pink and green!  Then I stitched the white and gold on top.  Looks great and saved a couple of day's work.

Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year is going from strength to strength, we have over 160 people stitching alongside us and a second blog!!  Here's a link to the Finishes Page where you can see the 12 samplers finished so far.  Then you can click on Blog One or Blog Two on the tabs to see all the WIPS.

I took my Joyous Noel in to be framed today, ready next Friday.  I couldn't get a carved gold ornate frame in the right proportions (they come ready-made) so the framer helped me choose a plainer but still gold frame for it and a nice dark red mat.

Finally, I have promised to send out a few bits and pieces to various bloggers over the last month.  That will be done next week so if I've said "I'll send you something" and it hasn't arrived by the end of the month PLEASE tell me!  Because either the postman is a secret stitcher or I've forgotten to do it.  Thank You!