Stitching is like any other profession/discipline. It has it's own acronyms that to the outsider or newbie don't make any sense but to the experienced stitcher those little groups of letters mean a lot.
One of those acronyms is SABLE. Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy. When I look at HAED (Head and Earth Designs) projects I think they are so beautiful and that since there is no backstitching or fractional stitches they would be so easy to do, even if quite large. So I bought a few. And a few more. And a few more after that. I counted the other day and I think I have 57 HAED patterns and another 75 on my wish list. Every time they have a sale I want to get more. I see a design and think "I have to have that". It doesn't dawn on me at the time that there is no way I'll ever get all those patterns stitched up in my life time. And that's if all I do are HAED projects.
I have lots of other projects too. I was going through my bins of stash and some of the kits or patterns that I pulled out seemed like I was seeing them for the first time. I always knew I wanted that project, but I didn't remember buying it. Now I have it. And a whole lot more besides. Several months ago I went through my stash and put everything that I wanted to stitch in the next year or so in a separate tub. Everything else went back into the large one. That smaller "year" tub has enough projects in it to last me several years. And yet I'm still adding to that tub and the main one.
I have projects that I loved so much I had to get them at the time. Now when I look at them I still them but there are other projects I love more. But I want to do them all. One such project is a booklet of teddy bears, one for each month. I stitched up the June bear because my birthday is in June. I figured I would stitch each month up and use them as a calendar. While I don't think the bear was that hard to do, it was when my eye sight was much worse (pre-surgery) and I was just getting back into stitching after being out of it for over 10 years. And it had metallics. If I had known then what I know now about using metallics it would have made things so much easier for me. Live and learn.
There's another project that has a little square for each month. And another one that has a different quilt design for each season. And yet another one of a view from a window for each of the seasons. Not to mention the monthly snowmen and doors from Vermilion Stitchery. I'll probably never do them all but which one could I choose?
And that question leads to my SINS. Stash I'll Never Stitch. I have lovely designs that I want but I know I'll never stitch them. The best thing to do would be to give them away to someone who would stitch them. But how can I give away something that I still love even though I'll never do? I'm sure that as soon as I give something away then I'll suddenly need it to stitch something as the perfect gift for someone. But then again I feel guilty keeping stash that I know I'll never use when someone else might want it.
And I've thought of asking people to stitch up some of my projects for me. This way I could get more of my stash stitched up and hanging on my walls than I would otherwise. But most of the fun of stitching is seeing the design come to life on the fabric. I few blobs of color suddenly become a beautiful garden of roses in no time. While I'd love seeing all these finished projects on my walls I would feel sad because I know I didn't stitch them. And who would I ask to stitch them? All the other stitchers I know have there own pile of SABLE and SINS they're trying to deal with. I can't ask them to put aside their projects to work on mine.
I guess my only alternative is win the lottery or marry someone rich so I don't have to spend 10 hours a day wrapped up in working (plus commute time). Think of all the stitching I could get done in that time. Not to mention the loads of money I'd have to buy more stash. That might not be a good thing, but I am willing to try and find out.
