A Little More Progress

I just thought I'd post about the progress I've been making on the two pieces I seem to be spending the most time on. The one on the left is the one where I made the mistakes in the border. It seems to have worked out ok. All the flowers and the leaves fit and unless you look really close, you can't tell I messed up. The other one is my cross stitch hybrid. It's moving along quite fast. And I love the colors. Now I'll probably never really cross over to the dark side of needlepoint. But this makes a really nice break. And it's really fast (did I mention that already?). I've already pulled a few projects out to see what I'll start next but I do want to work on a UFO after these are done.

The organizing is coming along quite nicely. I'm on box 6 of 16. I'm making slow but steady progress. And it's such fun to pull things out I had forgotten I had. It's really stoking the fires to stitch more. Maybe I should do this more often.

Making Progress

I just wanted to show the progress I'm making on my little cross stitch hybrid piece. I really, really like the way it's turning out. This style of pattern really lends itself to being stitched in needlepoint. And I love the threads I'm using. Now I wouldn't use them on a project that has a lot of different colors because it's too expensive for me to use it like that. But on something like this where there's less than 8-9 colors, it works just fine. Now I will never give up cross stitching in a normal fashion. But this is a lot of fun for a change of pace. As for my other stitching, the piece that I miscounted the border on is coming along nicely. Unless you know it's there, the mistake is very hard to spot. Opps, I gotta run. It seems my kitty also loves the thread I'm using and I keep having to rescue the piece from her hot little paws. Now she's after my scissor fob. Lord, save us from some very curious kitties!

The Hardest Part...

about organizing is seeing things I had forgotten about and wanting to start stitching on them now! Some of them are things that I have already started and some are new things I want to add into my rotation. I did find some things that I have decided I will never do and have pulled them out to either sell them or give them away. There are too many things I'd rather be doing right now (like jewelry and beadwork and watercolor painting) than punch needle or huck weaving. There are just so many hours in the a day and as much as I would like to spend more time with my hobbies, I don't have that luxury. So some stuff must go. The other stash will continue to sit in its appointed basket and will sing its siren song to me. Finish me, stitch me, I can already hear it calling to me. I... must.... resist!

Getting Organized

I finally got my craft room straightened up from being Christmas Wrap Central. Now ever since I got the system from Ikea to hold all my supplies, I've been meaning to find a way to figure out what I had. It seems I've been buying duplicates not only of patterns but the occasional kit as well. So today I decided there would be no more procrastinating and I would sit down and organize them. So I got out my handy dandy index cards with their box and pulled the first cube. I took all of the kits out of the basket and made an index card for each kit. On the card I put the name of the kit, the manufacturer of it, and what was included in the kit. If there was a designer attached to it, I noted that as well. Then the card went into the box behind the divider that said "1". See, each cube will be numbered. I just have to go to the cards behind that number and I'll know exactly what kit is in what cube. When I take a kit out of the cube, I'll take the corresponding card out as well. If the kit goes back in the cube, the card goes back in the box. When I've finished the kit, the card will be thrown out. It will be a lot of work setting this up, but I think it will help keep me on track with what I have. I'll let you know if it works!

Progress Being Made?

It sure doesn't seem like I've been stitching too much lately. Actually I have been working on my cross stitch/needlepoint hybrid project quite a bit. I really wanted to work on it this weekend but I forgot it at work and really didn't feel like going back for it. And the other projects I picked to work on this year haven't piqued my interest yet so I've been working on this one I added in at the end of last year. It's actually a kit from the Cross Stitch Guild by Jane Greenoff. It's her beginning linen kit and I'm hoping to get it stitched and framed in order to give a beginning linen class at work. Now it doesn't look like I've made too much headway on it. I did have to frog the lower right hand part of the border. Then I was looking at the chart and looking at what I had stitched and I realized I had made a mistake in the upper right hand corner. Then to my utter surprise, I discovered the exact same mistake in the

lower left hand corner. So in order to corect the mistakes I would practically have to rip everything out and start it over again. Or... I could try to fudge the areas that I have the problem in. I think I'm going to try option #2. But I will do that next so that if it doesn't work, I won't have that much more stitching to frog. I don't know how I did it but at least I was consistent.

Nothing!

I received the new issue of the Stitchery catalog yesterday. I've always loved going through it and marking the pages for things that I absolutely had to have. Now I don't usually buy everything I see. I usually wait a day or so and the desire to purchase fades away. Occasionally it doesn't and I usually do indulge in new stash when I've seen the same item in several catalogs and am still lusting after it. Too many times I've gone back to order something only to find it's been discontinued. So it was with great eagerness that I checked out this newest issue. Imagine my disappointment to find that there was absolutely nothing it it that I had to have. Nothing, zilch, nada. Not one thing reached out and grabbed me yelling "BUY ME, BUY ME!". So I can conclude either one of two things from this. Either I'm perfectly happy with the stash I have, or the designers are just not coming up with anything that is really piqueing my interest. Or a third possiblity is that I'm getting burned out. So I quietly tossed the catalog into a tote, figuring I'll look through it again and see if anything changes. Who knows, I may have missed a diamond in the rough just waiting for me to discover it.

A New Year and A New Project

Well, it's a new year. 2010 was rather unsettling. I didn't have any major upsets in my life but there were many minor things that made life a challenge. Sherrie is living back at home since graduating and is now searching for employment. I love having her home but it is quite different going from just the two of us to having another person here. But it's all good if just a little disconcerting. I'm looking forward to 2011 and a fresh start.

I have all the UFO's I'm going to work on in a special tote sitting by my chair. It includes the new projects I'm allowing myself to work on as well. This is one of the new ones I decided to add into the mix. It's by a new (to me anyway) designer called Butterflychirp. She has several rather retro designs that I have in my stash but I decided to start this one first. Okay, I admit it. I actually started this early, last week in fact. Yep, I cheated. But it's my hobby, my rules. Anyway although this is a cross stitch pattern, I decided that it would lend itself very nicely to needlepoint. Now I like needlepoint, I just don't do a lot of it. The hand painted canvases are way too expensive for me and by the time you add in the different threads you can use, you can have several hundred dollars in one piece. I do have a few canvases I purchased but want to save them until I get better at needlepoint. That's why I like counted needlepoint so well. I can follow a chart (just like in cross stitching) and chose my own threads. So when I saw this little design, I decided to try it. I converted the threads to Silk & Ivory (a VERY nice silk/wool blend that I won't use very often since it is much more expensive that the perle cottons which I love-good thing I work at a LNS). I figured since there were so few colors in this I could afford the special threads just this once. It's working up rather quickly and I'm very pleased with the way it looks. I am having to be very careful to mark off the chart as I go. Since I'm working on the diagonal, it will be very hard to find my place without marking the chart. So I call this my little hybrid project.