Stash

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Here are some pictures of my stash of kits. I don’t plan on doing all of these in 2015, but I would like to do a bunch of them. The first photo shows the kits I have received from World of Cross Stitching magazine. These will be my top priority because they are small and contain good materials.

stash1

The next photo shows my stash of larger kits. I would especially like to stitch the DMC African scene and the three sets of Nativity figures.

stash2

And finally, my stash of miscellaneous kits. These will probably not get attempted in 2015. These came from clearance sales, garage sales, etc and have been in my stash forever. The materials in the tiny kits especially are not very good, so I may not even hang onto these.

stash3

Next up: photos of my threads stash!

XXX
Carrie


A New Year

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I am so excited about the new year and what it will hold in terms of stitching. This year, 2014, was my year to try new things. I think I accomplished this pretty well, although I do admit that I did not find time to do all of the things I wanted. But I tried my hand at Hardanger, Biscornu, and stocking finishing. (Yes, I had completed other stockings in the past, but they were not finished in the same way or as nicely as the one I made for Adrienne.) I made a Mason jar and a decorative pillow. I stitched my first Reproduction Antique Sampler. And I learned how to grid large projects. I didn’t get to try out Assisi embroidery, because I couldn’t find a pattern I liked. But I think that was about the only thing I wanted to accomplish this year and didn’t.

So what’s in store for 2015? LOTS! First of all, I have joined two groups on Facebook designed to help stitchers use up their stash and say no to new things. This will hurt me as a shop owner – I have to hope that not all stitchers adopt this plan! But for myself personally, I do have way too much in the way of stitching stash, and some of it needs to go. There are about 500 of us so far who are pledging not to buy ANY new stitching items in 2015. But each person does get to list exceptions. My exceptions are pretty simple – floss if I run out of a color part way through a project, and my current magazine subscriptions. I don’t want to cancel those because so many of them offer charts that are presented over several issues. So my first goal is to use up my stash and not add anything new to it. My second goal is to finish something new every month. I don’t care what it is, or what size it is. I don’t care who it’s for or whether it is new or an old UFO. I just want to complete one project every month. I have so many kits that came free with The World of Cross Stitching Magazine, I think some of those need to be tackled. Since A Summer Ball is already gridded and kitted up, I plan to start on that and get as much done as possible. That’s my third goal. But I am not going to worry if it is not completed in 2015. Depleting my stash is more important, and my time is so limited right now. And my fourth and final goal is to maintain my blog consistently. There have been times through the year when I have gone weeks without posting, and even weeks without stitching. I don’t want that to happen in 2015.

So, to recap, my goals for 2015 are these:

1) Use up current stash; no new buying for one year
2) Finish one project per month
3) Have one large project on the go (A Summer Ball)
4) Blog at least once a week

Happy New Year!

XXX
Carrie






The angel!

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The angel is really starting to take shape! I have decided to do the backstitching my own way. The directions called for couching and cording of the yellow/gold outlines on the robe, and I wasn’t really in the mood to do either. I just want to be done with this project, which has been 5 long years in the making. I made lots of mistakes along the way. The part of the robe where the black and dark green were mixed together (the triangle shaped areas) were supposed to be done in half cross stitch. Oops. The yellow/gold backstitching on the robes was supposed to have gold metallic threads mixed in. I just didn’t feel like working with that stuff any more. The wings are a totally different color from the photo on the kit because, well, Dimensions either messed up or used different colors when they stitched the model. So the backstitch on my wings barely shows up. The kit photo has much nicer colors. Oh well, you live and learn. This was my first Dimensions kit and definitely my last! I can’t wait to stop using this horrible shredding floss and get back to stitching with real DMC.

The kids have their Christmas concerts at school tonight and tomorrow night, so I probably won’t get any stitching done until at least Thursday. But hopefully I can get a lot done over the weekend and maybe, just maybe be done with this stocking by next weekend. Actually, I have to be. Christmas is just a few days after that. Yikes!

 stockingdec8

XXX
Carrie