TUSAL: April 2011

A half-gallon size Ball jar stepped up to become the new TUSAL bottle after the minor disaster that claimed the original apothecary jar. This one should be a bit more forgiving if it slips from my hands, but I'd best be quick to get toes out of the way since this jar is rather hefty.

Friend SU had a birthday recently. I made a book safe and a tin and scissor fob set for her. The book safe, at first, didn't go over well; I believe she really would have rather had the single volume from the 1957 edition children's encyclopedia. When I explained the original condition of the book (dirty, sooty, broken spine, pages tearing from spine etc), I think she understood why I did what I did with it. I promise I do not destroy any books of value when I make book safes. SU really loved the repurposed Altoids tin with the cute sheep on the front. The tiny scissors made her happy too since they are too small to use for anything other than snipping yarn or embroidery threads. She said she's infamous for ruining scissors by using them as screwdrivers or cutting up paper or tough fabrics like denim.

TUSAL: February 2011

Greetings. Here we are Groundhog's Day as well as another new moon, which means it's time for another picture for the TUSAL hosted by It'sDaffycat. There is a lot more to show this time than last.



During the last month, I made nine scissor fobs, took a needle work class in Florida and worked on several smalls for a project that's still in the works. In addition to orts from stitching, there's also the label and empty spool from a ball of #12 black perle cotton, an empty spool of Krienik #4 very fine braid, scraps of handmade cording and various and sundry scraps of linens and felts and velvets from finishing projects. Yes, it's been a busy month!



The needlework class I attended is an annual event taught by Susan Greening Davis. The attendees lovingly refer to it as Pirate Camp since it is held in the St. Augustine area - and they've had more than their fair share of pirates in the day. The beaches are beautiful in this area.



I like to make favors for my table-mates and hosts of the class and, this year, decided to make scissor fobs.



A little piece of needle work from JE's late mother inspired the black-on-black stitching on the front. The fabric is 22 count Hardanger stitched with #12 perle cotton.



In keeping with the pirate theme, I found a cute Jolly Roger rubber stamp and used it to make emblossed velvet for the back of the fob.



Joining the two pieces was a bit of a challenge. The velvet was crawly and evil and didn't want to stay put to be sewn together with the stitched piece. There was a lot of cussing involved. I made the tassels from #12 perle cotton, and the cording was made with #5 perle cotton and red #4 Krienik braid.

I'd been to St. Augustine several times but had never visited the lighthouse. Right before taking our afternoon break, one of the ladies at the class asked who was going to be climbing to the top of the lighthouse. At the time I thought to myself, "Not me!" But a while latter, driving down A1A, there was the lighthouse.



I turned off the main road to get some pictures of it and one thing lead to another. Oh, did I mention my mom was with me? Yuppers, she'd come to the stitching class and here we were at the lighthouse.



Now, understand, I'm afraid of heights and Mama had a total hip replacement a year ago last Christmas. Neither of us were great candidates for doing this, but I knew we could. All 219 stairs up to the top.



I kept my eyes on the wall when going up the stairs; the holes made into the stairs offered too much of a view to look down. Mama, on the other hand, was watching the stairs to make sure she didn't make a misstep. We'd rest on the landings, and Mama wanted to quit a few times, but I kept egging her on.



And we made it to the top! It was a glorious view and I wish I'd been able to step away from the safety of the brick wall to look around more, but I was terrified. Going down was a lot faster than going up for Mama. It took me a bit longer because I had a death-grip on wall mounted handrail (with both hands) and had to hand-over-hand my way down - looking at the wall not the steps. I was very happy to reach the bottom but could now brag I'd actually made it to the top. Three cheers for me and Mama!

Pookie had also made the trip, but we left him in Jacksonville with our friends B and TM and their bird, Gus.



Here's a book safe I made for B for her hospitality:



It's the best book safe I've made to date and she appeared to be please by it.



While there, I saw the scissor fob I'd made for her last year. It's a Lori Birmingham design. Don't you love them? They're all so delicate and beautifully feminine



I'll leave you with a shot of the good ship Bob sailing along the carpet.

Late Summer/Early Fall Craftiness

Ok, first things first. Here are the pictures of the TUSAL bottle for the last three months. August is on the left and October is on the right. I thought I'd taken a picture of September but I can't find it if I did. It looked a lot like August except there was a huge blob of blue floss added. More on that later.





The first crafty thing to share is one of the more recent, but it is also seasonal so I'd best get it in now.

A while back, I made a biscornu out of some great purple fabric that came in a kit. The fabric really was awesome and I couldn't bring myself to throw away the leftover scraps after assembling the biscornu. The scraps turned up just in time for a make-a-scissor-fob desire to hit me. (I can always use another scissor fob because I own too many scissors.)

Purple is my favorite Halloween color -- especially when paired with emerald green. Thinking cap engaged for a Halloween scissor fob, I quickly found a small bat motif, tweaked it just a bit and had a bat. Instead of stitching eyes, I applied two red glitter chips from some glitter glue in the stash.



I wanted to put some words on the back of the scissor fob, but couldn't come up with anything pithy off the top of my head, so I turned to the Internet and started looking for batty things there. A wonderful poem by Frank Jacobs called The Bat turned up:

The Bat
By Frank Jacobs

Bats are creepy; bats are scary;
Bats do not seem sanitary;
Bats in dismal caves keep cozy;
Bats remind us of Lugosi;
Bats have webby wings that fold up;
Bats from ceilings hang down rolled up;
Bats when flying undismayed are;
Bats are careful; bats use radar;
Bats at nighttime at their best are;
Bats by Batman unimpressed are!

I fell in love with the line "Bats remind us of Lugosi" and knew that was what the scissor fob needed. The lettering style came from taking batty = deranged.



The scissor fob was assembled using the tag string from a Vera Bradley bag (love that emerald green!) and a bead from my stash. I had some black matte scissors that were just begging for this scissor fob. But, they would need a scissor sheath, too.

Again turning to my stash for inspiration, I found some supple, old boot leather and some pleather that came from gawd-knows-where, and some scrap black velvet. Yes, there was a bat in my future. This seemed to be the perfect sheath for these scissors with that fob at this time of year.



This really wasn't hard to make. If anyone has a desire for a tutorial, or just some instructions for making one, let me know and I'll be happy to fill you in.

The big blue floss blob that was added to the September TUSAL bottle was the orts from the (finally) completed Smokey Mountain Cats that I've been working on for a long time. I believe I started it around 2000, but one of my friends thinks it was around 2002 or 2003. Either way, it's been in the WIP pile for a long time and it was time for the final push to get it done.



This project is 184 x 140 stitches - a small one for many of you - but for your humble author, the ADD Kid, this was a mammoth undertaking and I'm pretty damn proud of myself for getting it done. And the funny part of it all? It's going to be given away. It's always been destine for AH and I hope it is appreciated.

Fall is my favorite season. I love the mild temperatures, sleeping under quilts with the window open, the changing leaves and the winds. Going to the Farmers Market is also a treat. All the produce looks great and there are colorful pumpkins, gourds and mums all around.







This is my friend SU. She is very talented with tiny knitting needles and crochet hooks.



She had come across the first tiny needles she'd ever bought and was bringing them to our stitching group so we could admire the beautiful rose wood handles on them. When she arrived at the stitching group, she discovered one of the needles had been lost - probably when she dropped them into her project basket. I offered to make a lining for her basket so it wouldn't happen again.




The happy ending to the story is that SU found the missing needle not far from her stitching nest. It really had dropped through the open weave of the basket. But that will never happen again.

Lately, I've been playing with felting sweater in the washing machine. After a couple of near disasters and some reading on the Internet, I learned to put the sweaters in pillowcases prior to felting them in the machine.

I'm still in the thinking stage on what to do with most of the felted sweaters. I've made cat toys with the cuffs



and some house slippers for Mama



but I've got a lot more already felted and ready to go - as soon as the inspiration hits me.

July's TUSAL and other things

I'm less than a week late for posting the July TUSAL. Not bad for me. There's some new stuff in the bottle from recent projects, some more ort producing than others. Sure glad I'm using a bigger bottle. All of this wouldn't have fit so well into the small bottle I used last year.


For last year's July TUSAL, I took a picture of my orts bottle with a pair of scissors wearing this beautiful fob my friend SU had made for me. The frock is so complete there's even a petticoat under it!

At a recent stitching gathering I chanced to be sitting next to SU and I had the fob with me. S was very good natured about me wanting to get a picture of her with her creation. Thank you again, S! Love you, mean it!


I've been working on a lot a Susan Greening Davis projects lately. This one I really like and enjoyed making it. So many pretty stitches and beautiful beads!


This Purple Tuffet by Susan is my latest project. It took less than a day to complete. I so adore fast projects and the gratification that goes with them.


And speaking of biscornus, this one was a recent Make-It-And-Take-It project at the LNS. FC, one of the stitchers that attended, said she never does the projects and passed it on to me. It was a fun little project to stitch and originally was charted for only the little ABC pattern. The back is a freebie pattern I had printed from online some time in the past...from I don't remember where. If it's your's please leave me a message and I'll give you credit and link back to it. The pattern, with the addition of a few beads, was perfect for the tuffet. As a surprise, I gave the finished project back to FC. She was delighted and immediately started using it as a pin cushion. I love making useful things.


Lately, Pookie and I have been going to the local Farmers' Market to get yummy fresh vegetables. I don't have my late daddy's green thumb so I have to satisfy my yearning for home grown tomatoes at the Farmer's Market. It's a great little outing for a summer day and well worth the drive.


That squash was as delicious as it looks.


And, speaking of nature, here's a lovely web that I found the other morning as I was leaving for the office.

That's all for now. Happy stitching, y'all.

June's TUSAL and other random stuff

It's almost time to post the July TUSAL but I'm just getting round to posting the one for June. Such is life these days. I did take the picture around the correct time which should count for something. There are bits and pieces from all sort of stitching, both original projects and those I purchased, and scraps from finishing.


Lately, I've been stitching on Susan Greening Davis projects that I've gotten either at classes or at trunk shows. I really love her designs and I'm very grateful to her for all the wonderful stitching knowledge she's passed on.


Susan aways says to follow your heart and do what makes you happy..even if it is changing a design. This was one of the class pieces from the Souther Stitching class in St. Augustine last January. The original design had waves along the right and left edge, but I prefered to put fishes. The design came from the book A Rainbow of Stitches.


One stitch I came across while looking though stitching books (something I love to do) is the Hugarian stitch. I believe it is normally a needlepoint stitch but it works well with floss and linen, too. This little scissor fob was made with a scrap of linen and a lot of Hungarian stitches. A bit of cording and there it is.


I used a double running stitch and a surface stitch to create the little humbug. They are rather easy to make, actually, since it's just a matter of joining the top seam at a right angle to the bottom.


While I was in the mood to make scissor fobs, I braided this little guy using up some left over floss. As it turns out, I didn't have enough of the orange to make the cording and had to improvise with black. Meh, it is what it is.


A recent doodle using different stitches resulted in this little needle book. Notice the background is, again, the Hungarian stitch. I really like that stitch, it adds great texture.


Stitch Witchery was used to line the inside with fabric and a bit of wool felt created the needle park area.


Another recent stitching doodle became a little pin cushion...


...mounted on a small stuffed pillow.


The needle book and the pin cushion were given to stitching buddy LS as birthday gifts. She was delighted with them. Happy birthday, L!


The last bit of stitching was started on my way to Talladega back in April. It is a Ginnie Thompson Guild design that's Assissi work. I'm going to finish it into a pouch for my digital camera.


And, for the cat lovers out there, here are a couple of recent pictures of Bob.


He's actually bathing, but it looks like he's laughing into his paw.

Ok. That gets me up to day on posting. Y'all have fun.