TUSAL and a Synchronised Happy Dance

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 with the current project:

What a great weekend, two happy dances in two days!

The first one is the latest Just Nan ornament, Royal Blossoms, which has taken much longer than any of the previous four.  A total of 35 days altogether doing 30 stitches per day.

stitched on 32 count white evenweave

It's not really very Christmassy so I am going to scrapbook this one rather than make an ornie.  I would have done it this afternoon but I couldn't find my Monet papers I used for the previous designs.

The second Happy Dance is for the July Mermaid from The Year of Magical Stitching by Joan Elliott.  I started her last August for a water themed SAL and finished her for the Just One and Joan Elliott SALs this July.

Stitched on 28 count Jazlyn in Peacock by Crafty Kitten 

I added beads to her necklace

and for the bubbles:

 The plan is to scrapbook her on this paper:

I am slowly working my way through my blogs adding the photos that Photobucket was withholding.  I decided to reorganise my pre-blog finishes and add the year to each one to make it easier to find them in the folder.  I did this as I worked through my Happy Dance blog and found 14 finishes I hadn't added there!!  All pre-2011 so now I have to guesstimate when I stitched them and insert them into the relevant year.

Finally, there will be a Tenuous Shoe-Horn Linky Party on the 8th August again this year.  I am still debating what the theme will be, so save the date and watch this space.  All you'll have to do is link up on the day, no need to send me anything or sign-up beforehand.

Theme-tas-Stitch Just One July

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by Kerry

Each month Kerry gives us a theme to stitch to and we show our progress on the 21st of every month.

Just One July - Pick a focus piece for the month and see how much progress you can make - show us before and after pictures if you can.

This was perfect timing to work with the FB Joan Elliott July too as I planned to make her July Mermaid my focus piece for July.

I started the Mermaid on the 8th August last year for the Stitch Maynia Water Olympics and did another 30 minutes of her for the Longest Day SAL this June.  Here is where she was then:

August 2016

June 2017

21st July 2017

These designs are only 66 x 66 stitches but there is a lot of detail and each one takes longer than I think.  Especially with quite a few work days thrown in and very little stitching done on those days.

My other Joan Elliott project is the 12 Days of Christmas which I am stitching a little bit each evening during bathtime.

6th July 2017

21st July 2017

I have still got four days of the Focus Piece section of my rotation left this month so when I finish the Mermaid I might pick up my Joan Elliot Faces SAL which currently looks like this:

Finally, there's a new post up today for the Blogger of the Week.  Pop over and see who is featured this week.  Your clue is "hardanger".

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

My rotation for the year goes as follows:

26th of the month - Lavender & Lace Enchanted Alphabet
Then Brooke's Books' Stitcher's Alphabet
Then Happy Hallowe'en with an option on Witches
Then a block of 12 Days of Christmas and one day of the header
Then one day of Gathering Eggs and one day of Memories
Rest of the month - Focus Piece for the month.

In my last post I had completed the 7 Swans-a-Swimming block for 12 Days so it was followed by a few days of daily swapping.

First I stitched quite a lot on the Herald Angel from 12 Days:

I am currently filling in the pale blue and then I'll backstitch her.

I worked all day Saturday so I took 12 Days in to stitch on my lunchbreak and then spent all of Sunday on Nora Corbett's Gathering Eggs:

The shawl turned out beautifully. 

On Monday I went to a coffee morning at a local craft shop which has just opened in town.  The owner makes various things herself and also rents shelves out in the shop to local crafters.  I did buy myself an early birthday present but that's gone away until September so no peeking!

I took Just Nan's Memories with me as it's a nice easy one to stitch and chat at the same time:

Today saw the start of my focus piece for the rest of this month.  Kerry is doing Just One July and there's a new Joan Elliott July group too so it made sense to stitch Joan's Mermaid from July in the Magical Year of Stitching.   I started her last Summer for the Olympic challenges and very unusually did not note down the fabric.  It's either Sparklies or Crafty Kitten, most probably the latter and it's beautiful!

Finally, the Blogger of the Week blog is going really well.  I am so pleased with all the comments everyone is leaving and being able to introduce people to new-to-them bloggers.  I'd love to have more people I didn't previously know featured so please mention the blog on your blog!  I've also decided we should have a little competition when we reach six months so pay careful attention and watch the blog for more information!