TUSAL Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long

Here is a fun new little thing to do while I stitch...A blog by the name of "It's Daffycat" has invited everyone to join her in a Totally Useless Stitch-a-long, and I think it's going to be fun! 
I've never joined or done anything like this before so I hope I do everything right.

Each stitcher finds a jar and keeps all of the little pieces of thread that they cut off of the ends of stitching, or other old ratty threads in the jar. 
Here is Daffycat's link to the page that explains it all.
http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2011/11/totally-useless-stitch-long.html?commentPage=2

I kept seeing all of these jars of thread on other stitching blogs and couldn't for the life of me figure out what they were.  After seeing my third or fourth one, I looked it up on Google.  Well now I know and have started one myself.  I'm a bit behind in collecting and am kicking myself for cleaning out my thread box last Monday night.  I threw away all of my ORT (old ratty threads) that had accumulated while stitching on vacation.  Into the garbage they went. 

Here is my jar.  I'm posting a bit past the June New Moon, but want to get it posted because I'm just so excited about it!

My pretty much empty jar of old ratty threads.  I'll get going on it ASAP!

The jar used to be a little sewing kit I had made with a pin cushion on the top.  It will work just fine for my ORTs. 

You know, it's kind of funny, for years my darling husband has tripped me up with using initials when it comes to his electronic gadgets:  DVD, PS3, 1280p.  Even movies are abbreviated.  BTTF (Back To The Future), LOTR (Lord of the Rings).  It kinda drives me crazy to have to ask what they mean.  BUT NOW, I have inital thingys of my own.  I'd like to watch him try and figure out what an ORT is or a TUSAL (Totally Usless stitch-a-long).  Ha ha.

Have a Happy Stiching Day!

Fruit Jam Jars

While on vacation, we stopped at my favorite antique mall in Moorhead, Minnesota.  While there I found these adorable little jam jars. 

They are a bit smaller than my Apple, Strawberry and Lemon and these new ones do not have spoons, but they ARE jam jars, so they live with my collection. 

Here they are, one fruity, happy family.

I think there is a Raspberry and Pear out there somewhere and a grape one that actually matches the "bigger three".  But that's what's so fun about collecting...the search.  And having my heart skip a beat everytime I spy one of them in a little antique shops or flea market.  It also helps that they average around $3 each!

Have a Happy Day!

Embroidery May and June

There hasn't been much time for embroidery lately, but I was able to finish this little cutie. This was the project I was going to work on during the flight to California in March, but decided not to risk going through security with a sewing scissors. So she had to wait until I returned home and had some time to stitch. (BTW, there was a lady on the plane with knitting needles, so I might have been able to have a sewing scissors.)

This is the little kit I put together for the flight to California.  I think next time I fly I will ditch the scissors and just pre-cut all of my floss to length.

The whole little kit fit neatly into the top box of my little travel case.

Here she is all finished with a cheerful strip of yellow at the bottom to match her apron.

I picked up a few transfers I had never seen before.  The Life on the Farm one is my favorite!  Aunt Martha pattern #4021-black.

We found these at a garage sale of a lady I knew from my childhood (she was actually the wife of Lyle Westphal, owner of the little grocery store I grew up with, The Friendly Village Market, that I mentioned in an earlier blog).  She gave them to us!  How sweet!  They might be so old they won't transfer, but I can always photocopy them and transfer them to fabric with my pen.

While we were on vacation in eastern South Dakota I twisted hubby's arm into stopping at a little shop in Watertown, SD called Expressions Gallery.  What a fun place for crafters!  She had knitting and crochet items, embroidery and cross stitch items, and every Aunt Martha pattern you could imagine.  She even had hand-dyed floss that is so pretty but at 2$ a skein, I only bought two.  I bought 6 skeins of floss to make my "little red hen" towel.

Goodies from Expressions Gallery in Watertown, South Dakota

Hand dyed floss from Weeks Dye Works.  But after reading the fine print I found that they are not bleed proof and will run when washed.  Sooooo, thinking I won't be using these beautiful threads on my dishtowels.  But they sure are beautiful to look at.

One of the adorable pages in the Colonial transfer book I purchased.

I bought a skein of floss there called DMC Flower Thread.  At first I thought, "Oh, how wonderful!  It's a new type of floss to collect!"  But when I got home, I looked at the brochure carefully.  The woman's nail polish looked a little too 90's to be modern.  After further investigating online I found that DMC discontinued Flower Thread in 2003.  Bummer!  If I had known that, I might've bought more colors!  It's meant to be used for counted cross-stitch, but I'm going to do some red-work with the one I bought.  I'll keep you posted on how it works.

There is one more project I've done this June and that's my little bird purse.  It was on my birthday wishlist and I received it just in time to work on it while we were on vacation.  I finished it in about 1.5 hours between Bismarck and Valley City.  It was so quick and easy to do too, with very good instructions.  I used my little purse all through vacation, using the wrist strap so that my hands were free to do other things such as take photos and shop.

My little bird purse.  Then, while I was browsing at Michaels in Fargo, I found the bluebird tote to match for only 10$...but I didn't buy it.  I know!  What WAS I thinking!?

So, there are my embroidery projects for May and June.  When I finish my current project, I will show step by step pictures of that one too.

Have a Happy Day!

Dresden Update and June Has Been Busy

Late May into June has been crazy busy for me.  My school agers are back in daycare so my days are filled with keeping them as busy as possible. 

These past couple of months with their warmer temperatures and good road conditions have allowed me to travel.  After months of staying "close-to-home" because of snow and ice, it's been nice to get out and explore a little.  We've made a couple of trips out of town, had a wonderful picnic with good friends and family, went to Fort Union for a day and went on vacation to Eastern South Dakota.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I have lots of catching up to do and I will post photos of our adventures as soon as I can find some time to blog.

Right around the last weekend in May I went back to my parent's place, this time to cut fabric with my mom.  Her friend Eileen, is a quilter and she offered me snippets of her reproduction 1930's feed sack fabrics, for my Dresden quilt!  How thoughtful of her!  It would've taken me years to accumulate all of the different styles and patterns she had in her stash.
What fun we had looking through all of her wonderful fabric.  I now have over 180 snippets of feed sack fabrics, just the right size for 3-5 Dresden petals each!  I can't wait to get started on my quilt. 

Mom and I cutting fabric on her kitchen table.

We kept the piles of my new snippets in little stacks, organized by color.

The beautiful pile of feed sack fabric that I got to bring home.  I had a huge smile on my face all week!

Thank you to my mom who helped to cute all of the pieces!  And a big thank you to Eileen, for sharing your treasure-trove of 1930's fabrics!  I've been busy making a little think you gift for your kindness.  Ya'll will see it when it's done.  AND I'll do my best to keep you posted on my quilt's progress.  I've had to put it all away for a while, but will get back to it as soon as I choose the backing material for the Dresden flowers.  I want a very soft backing material and am being quite picky about choosing it.  A trip downtown to Bernina might be needed to find just the right fabric.

I will blog again soon.  Until then...
Have a happy day!