Smalls SAL Jan 2017 (& TUSAL Check-In)

This year, I'm really trying to get more organized about my cross stitch goals - my intentions are somewhat aspirational - this month, I'd hoped to get 2 smalls (for me, that's stitchery under about 75 x 75 stitches) down, one Work-in-Progress (WIP) done, and headway made into a larger new start.

Due to a series of mishaps, including illness that must have had me delirious because it led to a lot of 'frogging' of malformed stitches, I completed one small - everything else is still 'in progress', and in some cases are going to take a daunting bit of frogging before I can get back on track.

('frogging' - picking out of stitches because they're in the wrong place or not well stitched. also known as ARGGGHHHHHH!)

Oh, well - more fun for later! hah!

I'll post on the WIPs soon, but meanwhile, this is my check-in with the 2017 Smalls SAL - if you enjoy stitchery, stop over and check out what other small stitchery projects people have gotten finished.

2017 Smalls SAL Jan

This is the one item I finished this month:

Partridge in a Pear Tree by Satsuma Street

Stitched on 14ct Charles Craft Aida Brights: Polar Ice

Used suggested DMC floss colors

63 x 49

I'll be stitching one of these each month, and then finishing them invidually after they're all complete - I'm hoping to turn them into a banner decoration for next Christmas.

TUSAL

Meanwhile, after a few years of not doing it, I'm going to be participating in the oddest little SAL (Stitch-a-Long) there ever was - the New Moon TUSAL.  That translates to Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long, and is just a place to show off ones snippets and scraps (whether you embroider, engage in yarn-arts, or quilt), often referred to as ORTs (Old Ratty Threads).

I keep mine in a little Mason jar - there is also a makeshift wrist pincushion on it for when I need to park a needle for a little while.  Emptied out at the end of the year, here is where it is now after nearly a month.

For me this is a way to remind myself that I have gotten some stitching done and to (theoretically) keep those little snippets from being all over the rug or my chair or my clothes.

Those solid bunches of floss are not a good sign - that's where the stitching went bad and had to be taken back out. Rest in Peace, wasted floss and time.  I hardly knew ye.