TUSAL and IHSW recap…

It’s the new moon – and it’s the first of the year, so it’s time to empty the jar and start fresh for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long.   I’d been filling my jar for two years, so to see it this empty is a bit… weird.  My orts from the last two years have been put into a baggie – I’ll spread some of them in the yard for the birds in the spring, and others I may use to stuff ornaments or something similar.

My orts this month come from a wide variety of projects.  I attempted (and failed) Crazy January.  I started my first Chatelaine.  I did some work on a couple of my long-neglected WIPs.  The pile of orts will only grow from here!

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and I decided to focus entirely on Floral Bellpull for the January rendition of IHSW.  I had two goals – finish the cross stitches on the Morning Glory square, and get it entirely backstitched.

I completed goal #1 easily. I’m about half-way done with the backstitching. I forgot that the inside of the frame is backstitched, and wound up having to do it twice thanks to a quietly building knot of string that built as I went along (whoops).

In any case, I’m happy with what I got accomplished.  Once Castle is done tonight, I’ll get a bit more done tonight before bedtime.

For the rest of this week, I’ll likely split my time between an adorable little Lizzie Kate that wandered into my mailbox from Jo a few days ago (great for my commute) and either Book of Ink Circles or Seasons of Mystic.