This has been a busy week.  I have been working hard to make some deadlines plus it was my turn to preside over my own local ANG guild meeting.  That also entails writing the "President's Letter" for our newsletter.  Now, Sharon W. is the person who regularly writes it and she does a wonderful job.  Her letters are always fun reading.  On the other hand, my style is not as zippy.....but I'm certainly learning a lot but writing this blog!  Anyway, back to the point of my story.....I knew I had to come up with something different to enliven it.  Happily, just before I was scheduled to write the letter, another of our members requested I research the information on the meaning of ORTS.  I did "exhaustive research" into  that important questions and here follows is all I know about the definition and origin of ORTS.

Ort appears to be derived from an old German word which was created from the Middle English orte, food left by animals, and with the middle Dutch: oorete (oor, out + eten, to eat.)

Current dictionaries define Orts variously as “leftovers.....of food, or the crumbs, scraps, or remains left over from any job, as cleaning up the orts on a construction site”, or “a fragment, esp. of wisdom, wit, knowledge”.

Wikipedia defines as follows: Ort, the snippet of thread left over after finishing a section of embroidery. The jar used to store these snippets is referred to as an Ort Port .

Finally, there is a shop in Florida called NeedleOrts, Inc. which defines Ort as “noun; a snippet or leftover bit of thread, usually resulting from a voracious addiction to handcrafted needlework”.

Now, I have two more deadlines looming for February 1st, (is there anyone without any deadlines!?), but I do plan to stitch on Funky Rose this week and to post some update photos mid week.  This is a project I plan to have completed by February 15th so really plan to stay with it.  

Claire and I are narrowing in on a location for our first Stitching Retreat to be held late September to early October.  I hope to announce more details on this website, and have photos of both project designs, around February 15th.  

Now, back to those ORTS.  If anyone has more ORT info they would care to share, please send comments. More again in a few days.