Traffic Sampler Birth Record

I'm working on a birth announcement for my nephew. He's 3 1/2 right now, but that's okay because his older sister didn't get birth announcement until she was 5. I started one that I liked but I've had problems and I didn't like the purple panda so I went looking for something else. Since he likes cars and trucks that was what I was looking for. Then I found this:




This is how much I've got done so far. I'm hoping to get it done and framed by Christmas or his birthday in January.

Backtracking

So I've been working on a project for a friend. Unfortunately I found a mistake in what I had done. I could have redone the rest of the pattern to compensate for my mistake or rip out half of what I had already done and do everything right. I'm a perfectionist at heart so any mistake left uncorrected would bother me so I ripped everything out. Here's the before and after pictures of what I had to undo. Believe me when I say I wasn't a happy stitcher.

The project went from this:





To this:

New Stash acquisitions

Here are some pictures of some new stash acquisitions. I don't need any more stash, but I couldn't resist. That's two pieces of 28ct Jazlyn in English Rose and Amaretto. The rest of my Geisha kits, some linen charts and a Christmas booklet.

QS Curl Up With a Good Book SAL

On Heaven and Earth's forums I signed up for a QS (quick stitch) freebie. It's a smaller portion of a larger chart. The one I picked was Curl up with a Good Book. Every other month you get a new page of the chart and you stitch it up. If you can post 6 pictures of your progress throughout the year (even if you don't finish) you get access to the other freebie QS projects. I'm not making much progress but here is what I have so far.

When there's nothing left but backstitching

I love to cross stitch but I hate to backstitch. There's just something tedious about backstitching that I've never liked. The effect of backstitching though can make a project amazing. Unfortunately I usually leave the backstitching until last and then I don't want to work on the project any more.

I've "finished" two projects recently where all the cross stitching is done, but I still have backstitching to do. Those projects are:

A Star is Born:


and

Adobe House:


It's pretty obvious in the first one that the backstitching is necessary if I want the words to show up at least. In the second one I could probably leave it like it is but the backstitching would make it so much better.

Now these projects could just sit around and never get completed but I'm hoping to make a goal to work on them during UFO week. It's the first week of the month were you try to work on Un-Finished Object. You know, those projects you put aside and never think you'll finish. I think I can handle backstitching for one week of the month. And it would be nice to really finish a project beyond the backstitch. Stay tuned.

A new start

This is my next project I started. Can you guess what it is?

SABLE and SINS

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.