T.U.S.A.L. - JAN 2020

TUSAL - JAN 2020

Here is my first offering to the TUSAL gods for 2020.  In this meager selection, I have orts from the English Floral Sampler, Harriet Salt, TOL mystery SAL.  I have spent more time this month planning and preparing stitching than actually stitching, but it's a good start.   I have used this container for my Orts since 2010 and recently found ziplock bags with orts from 2012 and 2015.  I've kept them to fill ornaments I hope to stitch this year.

As it is New Moon today - it's time to share your TUSAL containers - Here is a link to my page which explains it all.   Join in.
TUSAL - Totally Useless Stitch A Long

Time to release the first part of my 2020 Mystery SAL.
I'm stitching on a random overdyed 14 count Aida from my stash.
I'm stitching in 2 colours, using Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Hand Dyed Floss - Purple 113 and a random Deep Sage green (have lost the tag - sorry)  I have also selected Mill Hill Glass Seed Beads to augment the design.  I prefer beads to french knots, but it is up to you.  Purple 00252 and Green 02031  
The first picture shown is without the beads and for some reason shows the colour of the fabric better.  The second photo with the beads is washed out somewhat, but I'm really happy with the way the beads have made that design POP
 

Look for the pdf of this mystery SAL on the dedicated page.
Send me a picture of your progress and I'll add it to the page as we travel through the year.
Look for the next part of the SAL on 20 Feb 2020 

This was the week that was.... First week of 2020

HI friends,  I have spent the past 2 weeks in organising heaven.  I am determined to be more organised in 2020, and have a scheduled amount of sewing to get through.  I have 4 SAL's, a baby quilt, a wedding quilt, Christmas Stitching, and a pile of WIP's to get through.  Add to this, October and November will be spent touring the USA...  I have THAT to plan also.  

I have spent a lot of time sorting all those magazine and freebie downloads I'd kept from about 10 years and more ago.  I've sorted them into display folders by type and theme, and using excel (bless it's little cotton socks - I LOVE excel) have made indexes for each book, which is now labelled and filed in my cubes.  The total of display books is currently 15, but I have a big box of quilting patterns and another couple of saved boxes of mostly Halloween, Christmas and samplers to sort through.   I hope to run a couple of giveaways this year for those who are interested in my excess patterns and charts.

English Floral Sampler

This is one of my WIP's.  I refer to it as my English Floral Alphabet Sampler - I started it around 2005.  Found it, and the charts during my clean up and have put it on high rotation.     The patterns were issued in a series in the English CrossStitcher magazine in 1993.     I participated in a round robin in 2005, and stitched the W - Waterlilly for my part. (if I think hard, I should be able to find my round robin item - it was teapots)   The flower was easy to stitch and I thought how nice it would be to have the full alphabet as a banner sampler.   My plan is to stitch this at the very least, the first week of each month.  It is to be my fall back sampler stitch for 2020.   I finished the K this week - today I will kit up the floss (DMC) for the letter

T.U.S.A.L. 2020

 In preparation for T.U.S.A.L. 2020, i had to empty my special jar.  The floss inside had gathered there from at least 2017 and also at least some 2018 stitching.
As I had done some intensive cross stitching in the last 3 months of 2013, the orts had been gathered in my little fabric box by my chair.  It was fitting that they had their photo taken in my TUSAL bottle.

If you wish to participate in the TUSAL for 2020, click here for the link to my TUSAL page which explains all.

Speaking of SAL's  - please feel free to join in - here are the links to this year's SAL's (so far)

Harriet Salt - A SAL from HATS - stitching a reproduction Sampler and hoping to finish in 2020

TOL 2020 Mystery SAL - Threads of Life - an online group I've been part of for over 20 years.   This year, I'm offering a 20 line sampler over 11 months.  Each section will be released on the 20th of the month.

NFSAL 2020 - Following another blog Magical Quilts and more - This SAL is for using up the neglected floss I've collected over the
years 

Not much action on the sewing machine so far this year, but there is still another 50 weeks of the year to go.  After all, there is still a couple of quilts to produce at the very least.   Time now to go and see what all of you are blogging about.  

See you all soon with another Bronnys Sewing Nook update.

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New Year in Australia - 2020 - Bushfires

 I love my country.  However, we are at a historical point that in effect could be compared with 911 in its impact upon one nation, and it's galvanising effect upon its people
This is a photo of Melbourne at 4pm yesterday.  Melbourne, the capital of the state, is a 8 hour or more drive away (at full freeway speed) from the devastating fires to the very east of our state.  
It was blanketed in smoke, dimming the view.  This picture does not adequately show how dense the smoke was.  There are skyscrapers in the distance - which cannot be seen.  Some people in the street were wearing masks to breathe clearly.  My eyes and skin felt gritty after a couple of hours visiting a friend for lunch.   Returning to my home town of Frankston, the smoke was just as thick, despite the sea breezes which normally keep the temperatures down and clear the air.

The evening before, I knew the sunset would be spectacular.  The intensity of colour of the sun as it lowered into the horizon is not captured in these photos.  The sadness is we all know why we had a red sunset.   This is smoke haze from the fires which are devastating my country.  Due to the nature of the landscape, this will not be over for weeks, if not months.  Our bushfire season started in September in NSW - that is 4 months of fighting fires along an ever expanding front.  This cataclysmic event has decimated townships, accelerated the extinction of many native animals, birds and insects.  The ground is scorched, baked hard and it will take 20 years before we see the like of the bushland again.  Farmlands have been impacted.  Prices of food will skyrocket.  Will bees survive?  

In the meantime, I feel compelled to continue to organise my sewing space, in the hope that by maintaining the normality of life, I will be able to assist others.  I may only be able to offer a few quilts to some communities, if they will take them, I will add some non-perishable goods to my shopping and leave them at food banks.  My spare change will be funneled towards bushfire relief.     

We are Aussies and we will rally and recover and reclaim our land.  Let us not be too proud to accept any offer of assistance.