Thursday, April 14, 2011

I can resist anything but temptation

So after *almost* starting Lizzie*Kate's "Spring-ily" Boxer kit, I remembered Lee's "Older and Better" project idea. If you don't feel like clicking the link (c'mon, you know you want to, Lee is a lovely person!), the basic idea is to stitch something that has been living in your stash since the early days of your stitching journey. Now, I'm kind of a young'un when it comes to stitching...I started stitching in my early teen years, then put it away for a while, and picked it up again when I was around 25. My first forays into the craft didn't result in much stash accumulation - I bought mostly kits, and have either stitched them or gotten rid of them at this point! When I started building some serious stash (beginning about 10 years ago or so), I was obsessed with fantasy/fairy tale designs. These, too, have been weeded repeatedly. I DO still have TW's "Fortunate Traveler," but I'm not quite ready to commit to something THAT big. I also considered Butternut Road's "Feathers and Friends," which has always reminded me of the chickens my parents had when I was a little girl. Still, it is another big design. So I finally found something that I think qualifies, yet isn't an overly-ambitious undertaking for me at this point in my life - Sheepish Designs' "Iris Sampler," from a 1990 issue of CS & CC. I would have been 14 then, and probably just beginning to dabble in needlework! Yesterday I was home with a sick Wee One (and the beginnings of a spring head cold of my own), so I put in the first few stitches. I've subbed a few hand-dyed fibers for the called-for DMC, but I'm staying pretty true to the design as it was charted. Although I'm debating how/where I could squish in the missing alphabet letters... And while I'm in the mood to type, my answer to the April SBQ (also from Lee!). Do you keep records of your finishes? We are so lucky to have so many record-keeping tools at our disposal to record our accomplishments. So if you do, what recording methods do you use? What do you think is important to record when you've finished a design? I'm a librarian and a historian, so documenting my stitching has always been a bit of an obsession of mine. I take pictures of everything. At one point I considered starting a needlework scrapbook...yeah, that was a ridiculous idea. I might still someday, but it would be more about the journey than about just compiling all my finishes (as I originally intended it). So anyway. I designed a little form for all of my finishes, and it includes the pattern name, designer, stitched size, dates started and finished, fabric used, changes made, finishing technique (framing, ornament, etc), if it was a gift and for whom, and of course, a picture. Sometimes I have 2 pics, one of the finished stitching and one of the "finished-finished" project (framed or whatever). And sometimes I'll add a note or 2 about my thoughts on the project/process.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

re: squishing the alphabet. You could gain space for the Y by lowering the q and pushing it under the p. You could also shorten the i and push it up over the h to gain more room.

Just some thoughts.

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