2015 TUSAL

Yay!  The 2015 Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long is once again underway thanks to Sharon at It's Daffy Cat.  

What is the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long aka TUSAL, you ask.

Basically, you'll save your orts (that piece of floss you're left with when you're done stitching that's too short to do anything with) in a jar, and every time there is full moon, you'll post a photo of the jar on your blog.  More info here.  Thank you, Sharon,for hosting the TUSAL once again!

The first full moon was January 20 so here is my orts jar (I'm never on time) along with a Valentine bag I started making the other night:

(More on the heart in my next post.  Hopefully, I'll blog again before the year is over.)  (And, I know there is no cross stitching involved but I used embroidery floss to sew the hearts together so in the orts jar it goes.)  (And, yes, I know the red heart is not centered on the pink heart.)

I believe there was only ONE year where I actually posted a picture of my jar every time there was a full moon.  In 2014, I posted pics of my orts jar three times. I'm shooting for four times in 2015.  Go, me!  Really, I'm hoping the TUSAL will get me to not only blog more often but also make more stuff this year.

This was my jar at the end of 2014.  Those are threads from the past few years.  

I'm starting with a new jar for 2015.  

Edited to add:  I have no idea why some of this post is highlighted in white.  I did not do that. Also, I can't get the font to change.

First Post Of 2015, Woo Hoo!

On Halloween night last year, I was bored and looking online for something to make and found a tutorial for making a felt sugar skull sachet at Adventures in Making.  So I made one but without the sachet part.  [Link via Craft Gossip]

I was happy with it until I stitched the teeth.  I tried to do them freehand at first and that did not turn out well so I traced the pattern on to some tissue paper and stitched right over the paper on the felt. This is the second time I've tried that method and once again I was disappointed in the final result. Maybe it's me but when I remove the little bits of tissue paper that get stuck under my stitching, I end up pulling on threads and then it looks like crap.  I'm also not thrilled with the blue whatever-they-are below the eyes.  The tutorial sample had three lines and I did four and I think it's too many.  But hey, at least I finished something.  Alert the media!

The other time I used the tissue paper trick, I made this strawberry scissors keep from Red Brolly last year.  This was another night where I just had this strong urge to make something. Red Brolly's scissors keep is made from fabric but I made mine with felt.  I used floss to make the strawberry's seeds, instead of pearl beads, and did not add a bow at the top because I forgot.  The green is regular felt but the red is super thick felt so the pointy end of my scissors does not poke through.  By the way, while I was making the sugar skull on Halloween, I realized I have the dullest scissors in the world.

I used tissue paper to stitch the embroidery design on the stem and then loosened the threads when I yanked out removed all the little bits of tissue paper.  I think I did a crappy job of removing the tissue paper and it messed up my stitches.  I hate this method.

My scissors keep in action:

After looking at the original, I think it needs that bow on top.  And speaking of cases for keeping your scissors, I love this one from Feeling Stitchy.  Maybe I will make that one the next time I need to make something.