Happy Spring and March TUSAL report

Well it's the first day of Spring and as in years gone by I awoke with an internal restlessness and the urge to hit the road for an adventure of sorts and oddly enough to declutter my nest.  I felt the mild stirrings of restlessness for a few weeks so I will have to appease the stirrings soon and take a short road trip soon.

Here is my Ort Report photo of my Ort jar filling up rather nicely this fine Spring New Moon day (that was a mouthful), followed by the current projects I'm working on.

What is a TUSAL you ask, and what the heck is an ORT jar well if you want to be in the know click the link and learn all about it from daffycat, you may find you want to join in too.
http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-totally-useless-stitch-long-2015.html

My lastest progress on Greenman #2 in the Q-Snap frame, I've had to take a few days off from stitching to let the split on my finger heal so this week when I had time I put in several rows of crochet stitching to my shawl, my new yarn bowl is peaking out.

The new yarn bowl with dragonflies, there is room enough for a large ball of yarn or several yarns. Since I haven't had time to get into the pottery studio and this piece just took my breath away I bought it, I purchased it here http://stores.ebay.com/californiahandmadetiles

So far the shawl is currently 32 inches across this photo shows a more accurate  color of the yarn but fails to show the luster.

The quilt blank I put together to embroider different Greenmen designs which are currently in progress. The blanks are 8x8 inches just the right size to work comfortably in hoops or frames.

This ends my Ort report for the month of March, I really enjoy taking part in the TUSAL= Totally Useless Stitch a Long, it makes me want to stitch more.

Here is what I am currently reading,  this week both books are by authors I haven't read before which helps fill my goal of reading 12 new to me authors.

 The book by Maria Semple had me from page one, last night I couldn't put it down and read into the wee hours of the morning.

This book by Lisa Van Allen I chose for my reading books with thread in the title. Its a personal little challenge I came up for myself to get me reading when I hit a slump.  So far I have read A Single Thread and A Spool of Blue Thread.

Some day this week I will be planting the OldHami bamboo in my garden and clearing away the fallen twigs and ever growing weeds.

I wish you all a very Happy Spring

First TUSAL Report for 2015

It's January 20th which means it is time for the New Moon TUSAL ort report, here is the photo of my January Orts jar, as you can see I have been stitching quite a bit, or just wasting lots of embroidery floss and sewing thread.

Here are a few of the things I have been working on since January 1st. in no particular order.

I have finished piecing my crazy quilt block and have just begun to add the embellishments, many of the threads in the jar came from this piece, not only did I move around a few pieces to get better placement, those beautiful butterfly and dragonfly pieces fray terribly.  On a whole I am happy with the outcome, though I didn't care for the random piecing method until I received some wonderful tips from a facebook group I joined, which is work clockwise from the center piece out. The next time I do a crazy quilt block I'm going to try the flip and sew method.

The Celtic Knot piece was completed on New Year's Day and I do like the look using the green printed fabric.

These are the first and second week stitches I'm doing with the Facebook stitch a long at Joyful Embellishments.

week one

week two

I am truly enjoying the challenge of learning these embroidery stitches, for January we are doing variations of the feather stitch, which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine in all its guises. One or more will be the first stitches I use on my crazy quilt block.

The last item to add bits of thread to the jar is my Greenman which I began stitching at last Thursday at the Thread Therapy group.

While looking at the photo I may go another way so don't be surprised if the green thread is in the jar for next months Ort report. Not sure what an ort or a TUSAL is follow the link below and read all about it.
http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-totally-useless-stitch-long-2015.html