TUSAL - June and some progress

It's TUSAL Day!

(For those not familiar, click on the word TUSAL above or the link to the right.)

Here we are on TUSAL day again.  Can you even believe we are half way through this year already?!  It is finally starting to feel like summer around here with all our notorious Midwestern humidity.  All you have to do is look at my wild mop of hair to know it's true.  LOL!  I didn't think it would ever get warm again.

Here's a look at this month's ORT pile and the ORT report below.  I see lots of blue in that pile up there from the project bag!  It was a good month.

Here are this month's contributors to the pile:

"Speak to the Earth" by Donna Kooler Designs (In Progress)
"Heaven Above" by Midsummer Night Designs (In Progress)
"Love My Stitching" by Hands on Designs (Done!)
Russellville getaway exchange piece (Done...to be revealed next month) 

Speaking of my new project bag, I'm so happy I actually got it finished this past month.  Oh yeah!  I've really been enjoying it and am really pleased with how it turned out. I can see myself using those finishing instructions again sometime! 

"Speak to the Earth" is progressing nicely as we saw in this post!  It's actually starting to look like something now that we are about half way into it.  I really love all the colors and soon I'll be stitching the animals on the bottom part.  I can hardly wait.

I decided to give "Heaven Above" some love this past week.  I hadn't worked on it much since my push to get the project bag done.  I'm going to devote more time to it this month now that I have some of the super secret gift stitching done.  I still have a tiny bit to do yet.  The Russellville getaway is coming up next month so I'd better get crackin'!

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 Progress as of 5-5-15

Progress as of 6-15-15

 

Just for giggles, I thought I'd throw in a progress update on "Heaven Above" too.  As you can see I really didn't set the world on fire but each stitch is one more closer to done.  Now the bird has a body and I really like the new purple.  The heart was fun to do too as were the two flowers.  I'm almost done with the first page!

 

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Well friends, we are caught up now.  Hope all is well in your world and you are enjoying the slower pace of summer.  Thank you for visiting with me today.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Speak to the Earth - progress

Saturday I got together with the Tiara Club for an all day stitch.  I hadn't worked on Speak to the Earth much last month and needed to get myself caught up so I decided that would be my project for the day.  I can't believe I haven't shown any progress on this one since March!

Progress as of 3/31/15

I had started working on it at various points last month and got stumped by the queen stitch row.  Now those that know me know I don't mind this stitch at all. It's not a nemesis to me like it is to some folks.  In reflection, I think what had me stumped was two fold.  I'm working on 40 ct. fabric and that makes these stitches super tiny plus, rather than have them touching like they typically are, these had two threads between them on the first row.  The second row snugged into the gap.  For some ridiculous reason I had a mental block on the placement.  Once I got the first one in on both rows, I was off and running again!

  Progress as of 6/7/15

As you can tell from the picture I got a bit carried away.  I know I've said it before but this one is really hard to put down once I get started on it.  I just had to see what that squirrel looked like once I got myself caught up on this month's assignment.  Which, by the way, was to stitch from the middle of the "E" down to the "W" and across to the right.

I also decided to finish framing in the blue zig-zag inner border just so I would have something to count off of for future assignments.  My peep, Marsha, gave me that idea.  I think it's going to be really helpful too.

I feel like this sampler is starting to take shape now.  Soon we will be stitching the animals at the bottom.  I can hardly wait for that!  I'm really enjoying this one.  Now that I have a significant portion stitched I can tell my fabric choice is going to make this seem dainty when it's done.  Cool!

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Well folks, that's all I have for today.  I hope you were able to put needle to linen this past weekend too.  Thanks for stopping by for a visit and thank you for your sweet comments on my last post.  You all just make my day!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Hands on Design Project Bag...Done!

Folks, we have a finish!  I put the last stitch in this one on Sunday.  I had gotten a good go at it last week since I was so close to a finish and stitching with the peeps last Friday gave me the push I needed to actually make it to the finish line!

But that isn't the best part!  Oh no, I actually completed it into it's bag form.  Now I can use it!!  More on that in a minute.  First, I have to tell you how I solved my dilemma about the motif I mentioned on TUSAL day.

I wasn't wild about the motif between the words "sampler" and "motif" as it was charted.  Something about it just didn't strike my fancy.  I tried to chart my initials and even another spool of thread for that spot.  As I was sitting there pondering what to do, I looked at my latest SANQ issue sitting beside me and noticed the motif between the arrows above.  Jackpot!  It fit perfectly.  I ended up putting my initials on the lower right corner so they are still on it just not in a prominent spot as I'd first envisioned.  That's the beauty of stitching, you can change anything you want because it's yours!

Design:  Love My Stitching

Designer: Hands on Design

Fabric: 28 ct. white Monaco

Floss:  DMC as charted

Started: 4/6/15

Finished: 5/31/15

Completed: 6/3/15

Here's the finished bag!  I really like these finishing fabrics.  I still can't believe I got so lucky to find the actual fabric the designer used for the outside.  In case you are interested, the outside fabric is by Riley Blake Designs' line called Polka Dot Stitches in the print called Polka Dot Doily Blue.  I lined it in a polka dot print by Mary Koval from the line called Cat in the Manor that has an aqua and white dot on red.  A perfect match!

The finished size of the bag ended up being 10.5" wide by 12.5" high.  It's a little bit bigger than the ones I've made before.  It is also padded on all sides and has a chart pocket inside that runs lengthwise across the back of the bag.  The finishing instructions are by Sew Much 2 Luv and came with the chart which I thought was really nice.  They were pretty easy to follow too.


I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Stasi from Bee Mused and Bee Stitching who inspired me to pull this chart out and actually stitch it!  I saw hers a while back and just had to do it too.  I also wanted to be able to take this with me to Russellville next month since I bought the chart there last year at retreat.  I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy using this bag!

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So there we are friends!  Thanks for stopping in today and sharing my happy dance.  As always, I appreciate your visits and kind words.  It's so fun to share my stitching with you all.


Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher