Totally Useless SAL -- October 21, 2009

On January 26, 2009, Yoyo of the "Dragon My Needle" blog started the Totally Useless SAL.

The TUSAL asked that you use a clear container and then throughout the year you put in the container any of the following (in her own words);

- regular Orts (thread ends)
- little snips of fabric
- broken buttons you were going to use on that little Lizzy Kate flip it
- a bead or two from your Mirabilia design
- worn out needles
- the labels from used up floss skeins
- whatever you like, as long as it is, or rather, was (LOL)
going to be part of a stitching project currently underway.
- you may include orts from any type of stitching project:
cross stitch, knitting, crochet, whatever, but please
do not include other craft leftovers such as paper crafts,
rubber stamping, etc.

She then asked that you post a picture of your container each month on the new moon.

Well, I have to admit that I “ahem” have not been a very active participant. Well, my excuse is that I haven’t really been stitching much this year. Please refer to exhibit/blog entry number 1 and exhibit/blog entry number 2!

I was determined to post a picture of something for the Totally Useless SAL on or about October 18, 2009 which was the new moon for this month! Well as they say, the best laid plans of…

So better late than never I would like to introduce you to Ortie. Ortie was made for me many years ago for me by my husband when he was playing around with his work bench, his scroll saw, and some wood. I used to use Ortie a lot for my orts. You ask, “You used to?” Yes, Ortie has now been claimed by dear daughter for her stitching orts. As you can see from the picture, she does not believe in throwing away her orts. Rather she mashes them down in the container until they start overflowing unto the floor. Then someone (me) usually fusses at her that she’s made a mess and then she cleans up the orts on the floor. Not the ones in Ortie. Sigh…

Tomorrow, or as soon as I am able, I’ll share a picture of what I use to store my orts. And yes, my ort container also has a name. :-)

Monica asked what was a SAL. SAL stands for Stitch-a-Long. A Stitch-a-Long may be offered by a designer who plans on releasing portions of a design periodically so a group of stitchers can stitch-a-Long as the design is release. It can also two or more stitcher who have decided that they want to stitch the same design or a design by the same designer at the same time. Usually there is a starting and ending date set for a Stitch-a-Long. A Stitch-a-Long can also be held on a specific day of the week where the stitchers in the group have decided that they want to stitch on that specific day. There are many forms of Stitch-a-Longs but the intent is to have fun, make progress on a project, and share the community of like minded stitchers. For the Totally Useless SAL, Yoyo has asked us to collect our orts and post them each month on the new of the new moon. So for this SAL there is no stitching but it is held on a specific day of the month. As she says, it's totally useless to collect orts but hopefully we will have a lot of fun and learn about other stitchers blogs, a just for fun SAL! :-)

Thank you for stopping by and I appreciate all of the comments. Especially as I’ve been a little bit erratic on my posts. Okay, a lot erratic! LOL!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow