Friday, December 30, 2005

A Stitching Year in Review

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more organized with my stitching. Last night I actually started cleaning my closet. Halleluiah!! First task was to refile all my DMC. I now have 8 Sterlite Shoeboxes filled with DMC. I could probably actually even extend that as some of the boxes are pretty stuffed. James looked over it all and pronounced it "excessive". I told him he didn't understand that all these colors were different and you "need" to have extra skeins of each color in case you run out. I also explained to him that my mom gave me all her DMC when she decided she couldn't see anymore and the lady at Eva's daycare gave me 3 huge boxes of her grandmother's stuff, so it wasn't like I actually purchased much of it. I did find a bag full of DMC and a receipt for like $3 and showed him that too. That was from one of those good JoAnn sales and the cashier and the manager were having problems and couldn't get the thread to ring up and after much beating of the register they just charged me $3 for all of it so they could get to the next person in line. That was so worth the trip to New Orleans. Anyway, I think he felt a little better about it once he realized I wasn't spending thousands of dollars on thread.

Next, here's what I completed over the last year:
You Have Stolen My Heart
Victorian Valentine
Petal Fairy
Cherry Blossom Fob
Bunny Buns
I Love Strawberries
Happy 4th
Bug Collector
Teacher’s Row
Pretty Posies
Wintery Mix
True Friends
Coeur Romantique
Welcome Freebie
J Monogram
Nature Alphabet
Tis the Season
Princess Pine Mountain Pillow
Hinzeit Princess
Christmas Elf
Subversive Ornament
Psychedelic Ornament
Stitcher’s Lane RR: 4 houses
Open Theme RR: 3 pieces
Band Sampler RR: 3 Band Sections
Alphabet RR: 4 pieces

My Works in Progress are:
My Mirabilia RR Square (this will be finished by 1/3)
A Dimensions Daydreams kit
A freebie Bird Sampler
Lizzie Kate's Needle Nick
Mother's Tree
Peacock Tapestry
Brown House Studio's Black Cat
Mirabilia: Angel of the New Dawn, Under the Friendship Tree, Titiana, Enchanted Mermaid, Queen of Peace and Maidens of the Season
Doro Theos

I need to look at the Dimensions kit, there was some reason that I stopped working on it. I think it was a thread issue. Otherwise it shouldn't take very long to finish. The bird sampler is one of those French freebies. It's barely started. It's monochrome so it really shouldn't take too long. Needle Nick, sigh, I have about 1/3 done if I'm being generous. It's dull and boring and I'd like to get rid of it, but it's too expensive just to put up for adoption, so if anyone wants to buy it let me know. Mother's Tree, that'll get done. Peacock Tapestry, I think I have one side of one border done, I may need to reconsider my fabric for that one. Black Cat, I think I'm definately going to restart that one on a different fabric. It's just not working for me. Angel of the New Dawn, no excuse on that one, I just got bored working on it. She's probably about 1/2 to 2/3 done so I really need to just get back working on that one. Under the Friendship Tree, I need to remeasure my fabric, I think I stopped working on it because I started worrying about having enough fabric, because it wasn't cut straight. Titiana, no excuse really, just got bored with it. Enchanted Mermaid, I got side tracked on that one, I need to pull it out again. Queen of Peace, the fabric got damaged. It was packed in box in the garage and it got wet and there was some mildew on part of the fabric. I think I got most of it out, I need to give that one another good look before I decide what to do with it. Maidens of the Seasons, it's barely started, but I don't think I'm going to continue with it. I may just cut off the little bit I have done on it and salvage the rest of the fabric. It doesn't really appeal to me anymore. Doro Theos, I have the first medallion done, but then I started having color issues with the second one. I think I have that resolved now, so that shouldn't take too long to finish either.

Last night I also put all my printed freebie patterns in page protectors in a binder. Part of my stitching resolutions is also to do more freebie patterns. I have a ton of them. Actually, I'd bet I'm pretty close to SABLE on freebies.

I went through all the freebies that I like and intend to stitch, and the patterns that I hope to get to this year, and made a list of all the threads that I will need to acquire to finish them. I posted that list on my Shopping/Wish List.

My official January Goals are:
Complete and mail out my Mirabilia RR (this will be done by Jan. 3)
Complete and mail out Jen's OT RR (I have pattern picked out, I just need to pull threads)
Complete and mail out Kathy's OT RR (I need to look over the available patterns)
Complete and mail out Sandy's SL RR (I think I'm changing my mind on the pattern I picked out)
Start next Mirabilia RR
Work on any other RR pieces that come up
Finish Dimensions Kit

Sometime over the weekend I hope to finish up cleaning my closet. I need to get the two boxes of books out of there and put them somewhere else. I cleaned the office yesterday too in order to have bookshelf space for one of the boxes of book. Then I called the used book store to see what their policy was. They'll take books for store credit only and only a "bag or two at a time". That was fine with me. I filled up a Wal-Mart bag with books and I'm going to take them over there. There's another used book store near my house, so I might need to fill up another bag and get an account going there too. I have about a gazillion paperbacks. I used to read books more than once so that's why I kept them around, now I'm lucky if I read them once. Actually, I'm reading more so that's good. In fact, I think I'm going to put a thing on my Sidebar about what I'm reading.

So, once the books are out, I need to decide the fate of my WIPs. Then I need to sort through my fabric. After that, I'll work on kitting up some of my future projects.

I will be organized!

No comments: