I'm a bad, bad duck!
Yep, only days ago I said I wasn't going to do any new starts. I had valid reasons...I already have too many projects going as it is, I may never finish the ones I have going now, especially since they are all so big, etc. Well, Aspers are good at logic, but following through with it is another story because we are often led more by our hearts than our heads, despite the strong argument that logic may give. We want what we want, when we want it and how we want it, consequences be damned sometimes.
A thought occurred to me on the way to work one day this week...I have all these great projects in my stash, charts that I have whole collections of from a small number of designers, but I tend to only work on HAEDs or Neni's and I decided that it's just not fair to those other designers! So I chose some patterns from my favorite online designers and decided it was time to branch out...in more ways than one (but more on that in a moment).
I know I'm overdue on a FanGirl Stitches and I think the Supernatural Alphabet is calling to me (probably because I'm binge watching it yet again after finishing The X Files, again), but that's another really short project (less than a month if I force it), so they may pop up too at some point. But here's a question...would you do a Supernatural-themed alphabet on opalescent fabric? I absolutely ADORE my Once Alphabet on it, but are "sparkles" appropriate for a man-dominant show? Every time I talk myself out of it, I always think of the imaginary friend episode when Sparkle gets murdered and he bleeds blood and glitter. That episode was hilarious! It could be my own little inside joke, but what do you think? Here's the pattern:
As of now though, that one is on hold, but lets get on to the ones I chose.
I have all the DoNa Fairy Tale series and have been envious of Linda's work on Sleeping Beauty. Considering that Aurora is my favorite princess, normally I would do her first. But for some reason, Rapunzel call is louder (probably all the purple), so I decided to start with her:
I'm going to do her on 18ct opalescent white Aida, which I have already ordered and I have enough thread in my stash for the entire project. I just have to buy scroll rods (and that's the catch with all of these...I am completely out of scroll rods, I didn't even think that was possible!). Luckily, I already have a Rapunzel needle minder.
Next up I decided on Tilton Craft's Once Upon A Time's Daniel Kordek's Captain Hook (although I'm still miffed he never did a Charming...having Charming and Hook framed next to one another would literally be the highlight of my entire stitching career, oh well, I'll have to make due with Hook, The Huntsman, and The Mad Hatter - unless I break down and get Pinocchio too or maybe the one with Emma and Regina, guess it depends how horrible stitching sepia is):
I'm going to do him on 28ct Tea Monaco simply because there is SOOO much white in this (and yes, ALL that background is stitched), I can't deal with stitching white on white fabric, especially this much of it. I had almost all the thread other than the two colors that have multiples each (I prefer to buy those in the same dye lots). But I have to have scroll rods for him too. I have at least ordered a needle minder for him although I don't know when it will be in. Since I still have to get the rest of the thread and scroll rods, I have time.
The next choice was harder. I absolutely adore Addict To Cross Stitch charts and I have several in my stash, but picking that first project was a lot more difficult. In the end, I went with Everest:
I'm not a fan of the horizontal project, but I think I'm having Disney World withdrawals and this might help. I'm going to do it on 28ct Monaco as well, but probably just plain white. I had most of the thread, but I'm missing several colors and, broken record here, I need scroll rods. I have also ordered a needle minder for it as well, but I'm not sure it's the right one for the project, so I may keep searching.
Last, but certainly not least, I decided on my "small" project...it's a HAED (obviously not a new design choice), but it's my first Faces, Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Faces of Faery 167:
The exciting part here? I'm going to do her on 32ct Silver Moon Lugana...my first foray with that small a thread count which means she will only be 7x7 when finished! It's going to be a good test because, if it works out well, it will SOOO make a difference on a supersized HAED if I could use 32ct instead of 28. I'm also going to buy all new thread for her because I will be doing it 1x1 and I want new "clean" thread for her. Again, needle minder ordered as well as fabric, but I might have a scroll rod for this, especially because of the next paragraph...
So, I also decided it's time to start a "bin of shame". I don't have one, at least not a real one. Anything that gets put in a drawer is usually because it needs framing and it's never in there long (except for my Design Works mice and those are being held until they are all finished and can be framed together). Can anyone guess the first occupants of the bin? Yep, A Summer Ball and 35th Anniversary Celebration. They are getting removed from their scroll rods, bagged up, and binned until maybe one day the urge will strike again. They have literally been sitting out since 2015 without being touched and frankly I'm getting tired of dusting them. At least for now, it's the best choice (and it frees up at least one scroll rod, 35th's rods are too big).
I'm also thinking, depending how all these new ones work into the rotation (which I still haven't worked out yet), that Suteki might also end up in the bin of shame because I have another project that would be much better suited for my Sister that will be easier and that she will probably like better anyway, she's probably just as much a Scooby fan as a Disney fan...I like other cartoons, but I don't really "cheat" on the house of mouse...just flirt a bit with the other guys...but I am digressing:
After doing Lilo and Stitch Otherwise and working on Happy Haunts, I prefer Neni Designs on 28ct as well, so I will need thread and a needle minder for this one too (and yes, ANOTHER stupid scroll rod as well as a bobbin box...thanks to these four new ones, I'm now out of bobbin boxes too), but I'm thinking it might go a lot faster than Suteki. If I ever decide to finish her in the future, I will figure out something else to do with her (although heaven knows what).
Am I crazy (wait...should't ask that question because we already know the answer), am I stretching myself too thin? At least Rapunzel and Faces 167 have a chance to be finished easily within the year, so it can't be all bad, right? Oh well, won't know until I try, so as soon as I get paid, off to Hobby Lobby I go to buy thread and scroll rods (and then probably to 123 Stitch to order all the thread that Hobby Lobby was out of) and by then all my needle minders, fabrics, and various other knickknacks like new gridding pens and storage folders for the patterns should all have arrived by then. Maybe I'll start one (although I don't know which yet) about the time I finish this current row of Maleficent!
A thought occurred to me on the way to work one day this week...I have all these great projects in my stash, charts that I have whole collections of from a small number of designers, but I tend to only work on HAEDs or Neni's and I decided that it's just not fair to those other designers! So I chose some patterns from my favorite online designers and decided it was time to branch out...in more ways than one (but more on that in a moment).
I know I'm overdue on a FanGirl Stitches and I think the Supernatural Alphabet is calling to me (probably because I'm binge watching it yet again after finishing The X Files, again), but that's another really short project (less than a month if I force it), so they may pop up too at some point. But here's a question...would you do a Supernatural-themed alphabet on opalescent fabric? I absolutely ADORE my Once Alphabet on it, but are "sparkles" appropriate for a man-dominant show? Every time I talk myself out of it, I always think of the imaginary friend episode when Sparkle gets murdered and he bleeds blood and glitter. That episode was hilarious! It could be my own little inside joke, but what do you think? Here's the pattern:
As of now though, that one is on hold, but lets get on to the ones I chose.
I have all the DoNa Fairy Tale series and have been envious of Linda's work on Sleeping Beauty. Considering that Aurora is my favorite princess, normally I would do her first. But for some reason, Rapunzel call is louder (probably all the purple), so I decided to start with her:
I'm going to do her on 18ct opalescent white Aida, which I have already ordered and I have enough thread in my stash for the entire project. I just have to buy scroll rods (and that's the catch with all of these...I am completely out of scroll rods, I didn't even think that was possible!). Luckily, I already have a Rapunzel needle minder.
Next up I decided on Tilton Craft's Once Upon A Time's Daniel Kordek's Captain Hook (although I'm still miffed he never did a Charming...having Charming and Hook framed next to one another would literally be the highlight of my entire stitching career, oh well, I'll have to make due with Hook, The Huntsman, and The Mad Hatter - unless I break down and get Pinocchio too or maybe the one with Emma and Regina, guess it depends how horrible stitching sepia is):
I'm going to do him on 28ct Tea Monaco simply because there is SOOO much white in this (and yes, ALL that background is stitched), I can't deal with stitching white on white fabric, especially this much of it. I had almost all the thread other than the two colors that have multiples each (I prefer to buy those in the same dye lots). But I have to have scroll rods for him too. I have at least ordered a needle minder for him although I don't know when it will be in. Since I still have to get the rest of the thread and scroll rods, I have time.
The next choice was harder. I absolutely adore Addict To Cross Stitch charts and I have several in my stash, but picking that first project was a lot more difficult. In the end, I went with Everest:
I'm not a fan of the horizontal project, but I think I'm having Disney World withdrawals and this might help. I'm going to do it on 28ct Monaco as well, but probably just plain white. I had most of the thread, but I'm missing several colors and, broken record here, I need scroll rods. I have also ordered a needle minder for it as well, but I'm not sure it's the right one for the project, so I may keep searching.
Last, but certainly not least, I decided on my "small" project...it's a HAED (obviously not a new design choice), but it's my first Faces, Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Faces of Faery 167:
The exciting part here? I'm going to do her on 32ct Silver Moon Lugana...my first foray with that small a thread count which means she will only be 7x7 when finished! It's going to be a good test because, if it works out well, it will SOOO make a difference on a supersized HAED if I could use 32ct instead of 28. I'm also going to buy all new thread for her because I will be doing it 1x1 and I want new "clean" thread for her. Again, needle minder ordered as well as fabric, but I might have a scroll rod for this, especially because of the next paragraph...
So, I also decided it's time to start a "bin of shame". I don't have one, at least not a real one. Anything that gets put in a drawer is usually because it needs framing and it's never in there long (except for my Design Works mice and those are being held until they are all finished and can be framed together). Can anyone guess the first occupants of the bin? Yep, A Summer Ball and 35th Anniversary Celebration. They are getting removed from their scroll rods, bagged up, and binned until maybe one day the urge will strike again. They have literally been sitting out since 2015 without being touched and frankly I'm getting tired of dusting them. At least for now, it's the best choice (and it frees up at least one scroll rod, 35th's rods are too big).
I'm also thinking, depending how all these new ones work into the rotation (which I still haven't worked out yet), that Suteki might also end up in the bin of shame because I have another project that would be much better suited for my Sister that will be easier and that she will probably like better anyway, she's probably just as much a Scooby fan as a Disney fan...I like other cartoons, but I don't really "cheat" on the house of mouse...just flirt a bit with the other guys...but I am digressing:
After doing Lilo and Stitch Otherwise and working on Happy Haunts, I prefer Neni Designs on 28ct as well, so I will need thread and a needle minder for this one too (and yes, ANOTHER stupid scroll rod as well as a bobbin box...thanks to these four new ones, I'm now out of bobbin boxes too), but I'm thinking it might go a lot faster than Suteki. If I ever decide to finish her in the future, I will figure out something else to do with her (although heaven knows what).
Am I crazy (wait...should't ask that question because we already know the answer), am I stretching myself too thin? At least Rapunzel and Faces 167 have a chance to be finished easily within the year, so it can't be all bad, right? Oh well, won't know until I try, so as soon as I get paid, off to Hobby Lobby I go to buy thread and scroll rods (and then probably to 123 Stitch to order all the thread that Hobby Lobby was out of) and by then all my needle minders, fabrics, and various other knickknacks like new gridding pens and storage folders for the patterns should all have arrived by then. Maybe I'll start one (although I don't know which yet) about the time I finish this current row of Maleficent!
Comments
In an era when anyone can be anything, sparkly fabric for a Supernatural design will be fabulous :)
Some great choices there and the Faces of Fairy is going to look adorable over one.
Linda