Friday, January 16, 2015

What I Learned While Starting 15 Projects in 15 Days

finish #1: freebie from Bent Creek
  1. Starting a project is the hardest part.  Aristotle said "well begun is half done" (maybe without the rhyming). Just getting all of the fibers and fabric organized for each project took weeks of effort.  But the payoff to all the careful organizing was a palate of great colors to work with and the perfect fabric all ready to go.
    A Christmas Carol by Cross Stitch Collection Magazine
  2. It's hard to make time for myself a priority.  I tried to get an hour of stitching in first thing in the morning after my routine chores were done.  I felt the pull of a dozen different things calling me all the time.  The payoff was huge though, in my sense of purpose and accomplishment each day.  
    Animal Advent # 9 by Brook's Books
  3. Everybody starts small.  It has been a revelation to see the other stitchers display their work on our facebook page.  Most of us only got a few dozen stitches in each start.  Yet some of these projects will go on to be enormous and epic.  I think in my mind I imagined that the people who do these types of projects have some superhuman power that lets them do thousands of stitches a day.  No.  We're actually all the same.  It's about showing up and sticking to it.
    "Gift of Peace" by Lavender and Lace
  4. New supplies are a lot of fun.  The multiple trips to the store for floss (I need to go again today!) has actually been as much fun as getting a new box of crayons used to be when I was a kid.  Luckily, it's a cheap thrill. 
    "Alice and the Mad Hatter" by The Floss Box
  5. I have enough cross stitch patterns in my stash to probably last me the rest of my life.  All the free patterns on Pinterest haven't helped.  I am confident that I will never need to search far for some new project to do.
    "Poinsettia Elegance" by Dimensions
  6. If I tell myself I'll take a break "just for a minute" I'll never get back to it.  Quick lunches turned into lunch/laundry/errand/read a book.  It takes a lot of self-discipline for me to sit back down and quiet my mind again once I've interrupted it.
    "Night Owl" by Prairie Schooler
  7. There are patterns for everybody.  See my ground hog day project above.  I have loved watching other stitchers display their work and their goals.  We all have different tastes, and I respect everyone who devotes so many many hours to this hobby.  I'm pretty sure a lot of my choices fall in the range of very silly.  I also seem to have an obsession with Christmas.
    Animal Advent #10
  8. I love my ott-light.  I could not live without it.  Some stitchers like to work by a sunny window, but I need bright, clear light to really see what I'm doing.  I also use the magnifier attachment a lot.  Some of these projects feel like doing brain surgery.
    "Bookseller" by Mill Hill
  9. I cannot stitch without some coffee in me.  I'm a morning person, but I really can't get my brain around fine details before some caffeine has hit my system.  I will miss you holiday blend.  Hello French Roast!
    "Once Upon a Time" by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery
  10. Facebook is my biggest distraction.  I can't even imagine how much I'd get done if I had the self-control to quit looking at everyone else's progress.  Also cat videos.  I'm an addict.
    "Give Thanks" by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery
  11. Every stitch matters.  I tried to get as far as I could each day.  Some days this didn't look like very much at all.  Family needs, cleaning routines, life, and sadly facebook all took time.  But every stitch that got done brings me closer to finishing everything. I'm especially reminded of this looking at the people who started enormous projects. Every minute is worthwhile.
    "Bless our Home" by Country Cottage Needleworks
  12. My quilting has fallen by the wayside.  Now that the initial 15 days are complete, I'm going to balance my work going forward and get back to doing some quilting.  It's fun to focus so much on one hobby, but I love my other pursuits too.
    "Haunted Hotel" by Mill Hill
  13. Making my brain switch gears every day seems like good exercise for it.  I worked on many different types of fabric, different types of charts, different levels of difficulty.  This is so different from how I usually work on a project.  I will enjoy going back to working on something intensely for days at a time, but I think it will also be fun to mix it up a bit more in the future.
    "Autumn Harvest Festival" by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery
  14. Working on this challenge has helped me deal with missing my oldest daughter who is so very very far away in Scotland right now.  My hobbies have always been my therapy, and this particular challenge was so absorbing for my brain and my time that I couldn't dwell on missing her.
    "Story Time Sampler" by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery


So now what's the plan?  I will work on whatever strikes my fancy that day, although at the moment I think I will get some of the smaller pieces done first so I don't actually have all of these in rotation at the same time.  It's nice to have one off the list already.  I'm a little behind on stitching up the Advent Animals.  If I want to finish it up this year, I have 17 more to complete.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

More stitching starts and a reading challenge

Today's start is from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  A super cute small piece for Thanksgiving.  I almost finished it, but ended up going to the movies with Jungle Boy this evening.  It will be fun to pick this up next time and finish it up.

Yesterday was not as productive, but still a start:
It's just the door from a Country Cottage Needleworks piece called "Bless Our Home."  A nice patriotic little cottage to finish up before summer.

Now for a fun book challenge.  Go check out Bringing Up Burns for her 26 book challenge for 2015.  She has a fun list of prompts to help you pick books.  The first is "A book you own but haven't read" which is a LOT of the books on my Kindle, not to mention my big reading pile.

I picked 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.
This one will also fit the categories of "A book that was made into a movie," "A book by an author you've never read before" and "A book that was based on a true story."  See how fun the list is? 

It reminds me of the book bingo challenge my kids did back in middle school.  They had to get bingos by reading different genres.  This challenge lets you read whatever genre you like, and makes it a lot of fun to pick the next book.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

The third day of stitching - getting ready for Halloween

This is the start I made on the third project of the year "Haunted Hotel" by Mill Hill.  It's a nice change to work on perforated paper.  I love the designs by this company.

I think the idea of starting 15 new projects the first 15 days of the year is starting to really reinvigorate my crafting.  It is exciting to begin something new.  It's sort of a relief to finally work on something that's been sitting in my stash for a long time.  These things will never get done if they never get started.

I'm also getting very organized, with a notebook of projects, when I start, how much time I put into each.  We'll see if I'm able to keep that up.

I will probably finish 15 cross stitch projects - just maybe not all 15 of these that I'm starting.  I plan to throw in a few small ones, and as they get done, I'll replace them with others.  The larger ones always take a lot of time.

Drama Girl is on the East Coast now.  Hanging out with friends for a few days before she flies overseas.  Where's my next project?  I need a distraction.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

On the second day of stitching

Here is my next start for the year: "Autumn Harvest Festival" by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  I already love the little slices of pumpkin pie on each end.  This is a band sampler and I've watched everyone on Instagram start from the top, but for some reason, I've decided to start from the bottom.  I love the Fall colors.

Last year I saved up all of my orts (scraps of embroidery floss) in a big vase.  Here it is in all of its final glory.

The top layer of floss papers are from all the floss I purchased for new projects this year.  There really is a lot of work represented in this jar and I'm very proud of it.

This year I'm saving my scraps in a plastic ornament.  One for each month.  To go on a sewing-themed tree next Christmas.  We'll see if I can keep this up.  It is fun to see the orts accumulate.

Not much stitching is going to happen today.  Drama Girl has torn apart the great room with her frenzy of last-minute packing.  We're getting everything ready to put her on the red-eye flight tonight.


Friday, January 2, 2015

Cross Stitch Crazy 2015

I'm looking forward to starting new projects and going on new creative adventures this year.  I've joined a facebook group that's challenging members to start new projects each day for the first 15 days of the year.  There are projects I've wanted to do, but they'll never get anywhere if I don't get them started.

So here is the January 1 start:  "Once Upon A Time" by Frosted Pumpkin.  This is a fairly big piece, with fairy tale scenes for each month.  January features Snow White.  Isn't she cute?

I have been busy with various other projects over the holidays. 

This is the latest in the Animal Advent series.  Isn't she adorable?  I'm behind on these, but I've included them in my 15 starts for the new year so I'll get back to them soon.

Drama Girl leaves for her semester in Scotland tomorrow.  I'll take down the Christmas decorations after she leaves.  Then the house will feel so empty!  I'm glad to have some projects to distract me so I don't get glum.  I will miss her so much.


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