Totally Useless SAL -- October 23, 2009

Do you have the patience for one more post about Orts?

Well, I am making up for June, August and September’s TUSAL posting dates which I missed! Somehow I found the time to post an entry in July (she says while scratching her head). I think after this post I’m still down one but we are not going to worry as hopefully Yoyo will understand. Do bottlecaps count as orts? :-)

Two days ago, I introduced you to Ortie. Yesterday I showed you how I collect my orts in plastic bags for each project until I am done with that particular project.

Once I’m done with a project, I then have a little ceremony (okay not much of one) where I put all of the orts for that particular project in my ort container. So with a drum roll please….. Here’s Ortessa!
As you can see she is getting a tad full as she is a well fed lady, but that’s half the fun. When I finish a new project, I can put the orts in, mush them down a bit, and I have a 7 Layer Ort Salad! LOL!

Yes I do have fun looking at the different layers of orts from different projects. Yes, I do have a tendency to name things and yes each of our cars, among other appliances has been named.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my posts about my orts and I hope you come back again soon as I have some new stitching pictures to share with you. I have been stitching and I’ve finally been able to take some new pictures now that we have had a few days of sun here in Rainy Windy Meadow!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Totally Useless SAL -- October 22, 2009

Yesterday, I introduced you to Ortie. Ortie is my former ort container as Ortie has now been adopted by Dear Daughter (DD) as her ort container.

One of the challenges I have had with the Totally Useless SAL, besides not stitching a lot this summer after finding the TUSAL in May, 2009, is that I stitch on multiple projects at any one time. I am a multi-project stitcher as opposed to a mono-project stitcher. I guess that makes me a MUP stitcher as opposed to a MOP stitcher. :-)

As I stitch, I don’t place my orts for all of my projects in one container. I actually collect them and save them with each project. This way, if I need a little bit of left-over thread, I can dig into the ort bag for that project as opposed to having to dig through a larger container.


As you can see I’ve been placing all of the orts from my “Trick or Treat Heart” project in a small plastic bag. As I work on each project, I place the orts for that project in its own little or sometimes not so little, bag.

Once I’m done stitching on the project, as part of packing up the left-over threads, journaling that project, and packing it up until I decide how I want to finish it, I place all of the orts for that project in my ort container. Yes, I’ll share that container with you tomorrow.

Monica, leave me your email so I can respond. You are set up for noreply-comment.

Thank you for visiting!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Fabulous Fat Quarter Giveaway

Be sure to check out this fabulous fat quarter giveaway at Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilting!


Fabulous Fat Quarter Giveaway

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

“Lee Kimono -- October 6, 2009”

This is a Lee mini-kimono which our daughter finished stitching last spring. Yes, it took me a while to send it off to be professionally finished into its kimono shape but we were rather busy this summer! :-)

I think this was only her third or fourth canvas that she finished stitching. It’s now in our display cabinet for all to enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by to visit us! I hope you are having a wonderful and healthy fall! The leaves are falling here at Windy Meadow and yes it’s getting rather windy. LOL!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“Monday Memories – Green Holly Mini-Ornament” -- July 6, 2009

The “Green Holly Mini-Ornament” is another canvas that I stitched in the early to mid 1990’s.

"Green Holly Mini-Ornament”
Designer: Unknown
Early to mid-1990's
DMC #5 Perle Cotton, DMC Floss
Stitches & Threads chosen by Cyn.

The ornament is stitched entirely in Continental and Basketweave stitches using DMC #5 Perle cotton and DMC Floss.

The slightly padded ornament is about 2 ¼” tall by 2 ¼” wide. Red cording was added around the whole ornament and to form the hanging loop. The ornament was backed in red velvet.

I didn’t keep records for this project so I don’t know who the designer was, the cost of the canvas or the cost of the finishing.

I would have stitched this in the evening after the kids were in bed while watching TV or when the children were napping. With two little kids, I’m impressed that I was able to do any stitching! :-)

I have several more ornaments by the same designer which I’ll be sharing over the next several weeks.

Thank you for visiting with me for this week’s Monday Memory!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“5,500 Bottle Caps, 5,500 Bottle Caps #2 -- October 4, 2009”

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments about our daughter’s bottle cap mural “Starry Nights” mural!

Yes, we are very proud of her and by the end of the construction of the mural, we were also very tired! Have you ever tried to maneuver a 6’ x 4’ panel of plywood covered in bottle caps and screws (very heavy) through library doors that are only 3 ½’ wide? Well, it was a challenge and a test of marital harmony as I was on one end guiding my darling husband who was on the other end walking backwards! Dear daughter, could not lift an end as she is a bit vertically challenged compared to the two of us. She was manning the doors. LOL!

I’ve posted another picture of the mural as MN Stitcher wanted to see a close up photo. Hopefully you can see a little bit better in this picture.



Beth, there aren’t any larger pictures online but you can tell your library about bottle cap art by sharing with them the link to Michele’s Stitzlein’s site at;

http://www.artgrange.com/LittleBottlecap.html

You can also see close-ups of other projects here and on the cover of her book and another version of the “Starry Nights” mural at the bottom of the page.

Edy, all of the bottle caps were plastic as she needed to be able to screw them onto the plywood so that they were not easily removed.

The mural has been mounted at the library and is in one of the conference rooms. The library plans on taking school and youth groups through the room as part of their education activities. In addition, the library has printed the information pamphlet written by our daughter and they have also printed the game that our daughter created to share with students and the library patrons.

What is the game that our daughter created? The mural contains one clear bottle cap in addition to the ones used for the initials. The game is to find the one clear bottle cap. This is a bit harder than it sounds as it’s not easy to find the one clear bottle cap, especially with all of the white bottle caps! :-)

Thanks for stopping by and I have some needlepoint pictures and progress to share with my next post!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow