Cross-Stitch

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Sign Up for 2012 TUSAL – Totally Useless Stitch-a-long

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As I wandered around stitchy blogs I kept running into a mysterious term – TUSAL – and I wondered what in the world it meant. Until I found Daffycat’s blog and unearthed the meaning of the term. TUSAL stands for Totally Useless Stitch-a-long. Read on to learn more.

If you would like to join the TUSAL for 2012 leave a comment on this post at It’s a Daffycat. The rules are simple:

1. Get a glass container and save your thread clippings or ORTs (Old Ratty Threads!) Some stitchers include fabric trimmings, thread bands or any other stitching cast-offs they gather. You may continue filling this jar throughout the year OR you may empty the jar and start over each month ~ no firm rules here!

2. On (or about) each New Moon take a picture of the ORTs in your jar and post it to your blog. This is a blog game so YES, you MUST have a blog to be included.

3. Yes, you can use your current ORT jar or jars.

Read More About the TUSAL

Comments

  1. Too funny! I’ve been doing that for awhile and just dumped my useless thread. Just started another one a few weeks ago! 🙂

  2. I saw this at the beginning of 2011 and started a jar but never posted pictures. I’m happy to report my jar is almost full and I will empty it on Dec. 31 to start again. I’m saving the threa for the birds in the spring, they can make pretty nests.

  3. Did you know that you can take those threads, sandwich them between two layers of watersoluble interfacing, quilt like crazy on your machine, dissolve the layers, and have a pretty neat, original piece of fabric to play with?

Have you read?

Designer Spotlight: Cross Stitch with Art

Cross Stitch with Art is a Ukraine-based Etsy shop with more than 1,000 patterns covering a wide range of subject matter, from sarcastic (and stabby) animals to jokes about mental health, tarot cards, holiday designs and a lot more. 

The funny and adult humor section is by far the largest, with lots of snarky word art designs, often with a floral wreath thrown in for extra cuteness. There’s a bit of swearing in here, too (as well as in other sections). 

My favorite place because I love that there are enough of these sorts of patterns to warrant their own section, is the Chaotic Animal Society. I feel like this is a type of cross stitch pattern that I share often, but it is a bit of a trend right now, too. 

This one is a racoon in its bathrobe drinking a coffee and reassuring us that nothing is under control. That’s pretty relatable. The design is 86 by 91 stitches and uses 9 colors. It comes out to a little less than 6.5 inches or 16.5 cm square on 14 count fabric. 

There are also a ton of mental health quote patterns (here again with plenty of snark as you might imagine, but also some sweeter ones, too); Halloween, Christmas, Valentines and other holiday patterns; nature patterns divided into animals and flowers and landscape designs; BookTok patterns and more. 

There’s a nice collection of made up tarot cards including the antisocial butterfly, a reading dragon and a rainbow haired unicorn doing yoga. You’ll find feminist designs, Celtic knots and tree of life patterns, blank frames you can add your own sentiments to and a bunch of fonts to help you do just that. 

Even though that covers a lot of the chaotic fun happening in this shop, there’s really a lot to see so you should head over to Cross Stitch with Art on Etsy and see it for yourself!

[Photo: Cross Stitch with Art]