Confessions of a Cross Stitcher

Emmylou · Post by **Emmylou** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:30 pm

Would you believe I'm more organised with my cross stitch than anything else?
I will spend more time going through threads marking what I have got and what I need rather than stitching (There are organised papers of all this).

I've only got 5 on the go and I believe the "I want to stitch" pile is well within my life expectations, it probably would only take a few years.

I lick the threads as well but for my smaller needles I have no choice but to use a needle threader.

My "Stitching place" is the living room although I wouldn't mind putting a cosy chair into our small office so I can stitch while OH studies. My cross stitch stuff can take up half the living room if I don't keep it in an orderly fashion.

I don't care about the back of my work.

I like it when OH takes an interest in my hobby and all of you (it was him that signed me up to the forum).

My stash fits in 2 cardboard boxes, a stitching box, 1 magazine holder and a large + small thread box.

I pay my OH in Lion bars and pink lemonade to do some bobbinning for me

crosstitcher1 · Post by **crosstitcher1** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 3:39 am

How are earth did I MISS this section of the forums?
Here's my story.
I am a PERFECTIONIST about my hobby.
PLANNING:
I PLAN a year's worth of projects. START Jan 1-FINISH the 2nd week of Dec.
The day AFTER Thanksgiving, of the FINISHING year, I go to my hobby store, to get the NEXT year supplies.
I pick patterns, make copies, IF NEEDED, and collect ALL threads, and whip stitch, and mark top and center of fabric with 2 x's for top and 1 x for center, on ALL project fabric, the 2nd. week of Dec.
The 3rd. week of Dec, I WASH, IRON and FRAME projects.
STORAGE:
I make COPIES of my patterns from the originals and keep them in plastic bins, ea. sectioned for type of patterns, wed, baby, etc. with originals, in our youngest, she's 28 now, toy chest.
I keep ALL those fabric tubes, Charles Craft, and put inside a piece of paper with info, person's name, wed/baby/memory or other project. I have the tubes in a decorative trash can SPECIFICALLY for them. And when project is FINISHED, I roll INWARD the design and put in the right tube.
I have a 5 stack drawer cabinet that I keep material, and other supplies in.
I also have a 7 stack drawer cabinet, 2 drawers were given to grand girls for their crafts, in which 3 have the 3 MAIN binders of threads, and 2 with EXTRA thread binders. My OTHER EXTRA threads are stored in 2 OTHER plastic containers.
As I do my OWN framing, I have differ sizes of frames stored in the toy chest, some 11" x 14"s, and in a duffle luggage bag, I have 3" x 5"s, 5" x 7"s, 8" x 10"s, and in a rectangle rolling luggage bag, 10" x 13"s, and 11" x 14"s. Each CAREFULLY packed in Wally sacks.
The luggage is stored in 2 closets, along with 2 nylon laundry bags that holds the black paper that goes on the back of the projects and wrapping paper. My EXTRA hoops are in ANOTHER laptop luggage bag in closet.
My framing supplies, mat cutter, plastic container holding, tape, hammer, flexy blade knife, etc, are in 2 of those SPACE SAVING rectangle containers. Auto nailer is in separate plastic container in the rectangle container.
When going on vacations, I have a laptop luggage container that I carry with my hobby supplies that is NEATLY sectioned in it.
SEWING:
I get up at 4:30 am. 6 days a week to stitch. I START at 5 am., AFTER I START my pot of tea, take my meds, give BH his kisses before he leaves for work, M-F, and Sat, he leaves for his yard sales, and STRAP ON, like BH says, my 2 wrist bands, 1 elbow band, back brace, and a glove on left holding hand.
I sit in BH'S mother's rocking chair with legs stretched out on the computer chair.
I stitch, M-F, from 5 am.-1 pm., which I start supper at 1:30 pm., and on Sat., 5 am.- 1 pm., when we go for supper. I NEVER stitch on Sun.
I USED to have that spongy thread organizer that used MULTIPLE needles, when I worked on a big project, but found it ANNOYING at times, as for EACH project, you had to draw the symbol and write the color of thread.
When sewing, I TWIRL the LOOP of thread thru the eye, as I was TAUGHT as a child in learning to sew. I LOOP the 1st stitch and do 1/2 stitches as far as the color is needed and CROSS on the way back. When color is BROKEN and only 1-3 stitches are needed, I stitch those LAST.
I DO care about the back.
I DO take out mistakes.
I WASH my hands each time I leave my stitching.
I DRINK and CHEW gum when stitching. My cup and teapot is on ANOTHER table from threads. NEVER had a project messed up while DRINKING, EATING, CHEWING gum, SNEEZING, or COUGHING.
ALWAYS leaves project UNDONE from hoop when stopped for the day.

HAPPY STITCHING IN STITCHING LAND

TheBean · Post by **TheBean** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:45 pm

Wow, crossstitcher1, you are so organized, I'm jealous.

My confessions:

I am terribly disorganized. All of my stitching things (thread, needles, fabric, WIPs, finished projects I'm not sure what to do with yet, etc.) are stuffed into various plastic grocery bags throughout my room. It usually takes me several minutes to find what I need before I start a project, and even then, I always forget something and have to stop working to spend tons more time looking for whatever I forgot.

I stitch on my bed because I don't have anywhere else to do it and I always, always, lose my scissors and needle. I'd say by the time I finish an average-sized project, I've lost both at least 10 times. Sometimes, I have to stop stitching completely and can only start up the next day when I've found a spare needle or gone to buy more. There is probably a scary amount of needles under and behind my bed, lol.

I always wash my hands before I start stitching and before I come back to it after a break, usually more than once if I am using white fabric.

When I finish a project (especially a big one), I'm always proud of the work that I put into it, but I rarely like it. I don't have a lot of wall space so I'm super picky about what I hang up and I've only hung one design. Everything else is in a box because I enjoy making stuff more than I enjoy it after it's done. I'm always trying to convince my friends/family to take something (or trying to think of someone I want to give a gift) because I have no use for anything I stitch.

maisasofia · Post by **maisasofia** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 1:22 pm

Haha, I'm glad I don't seem to be the only one who has absolute habits to stitching!

1: This is maybe weird, but I use hair grips when I organise my strands. What I do is this: after cutting the strands into desired length, I bring the mid part of the bundle to the "loop" part of the grip. Then I bring the grip through a hole on my organiser and this way the strands come through nice and easy without tucking

Also helps when the bundle is really thick.

2: I have a thing for embellishments, big time...

3: I store my charts and related papers in a binder by theme. I also mark when I've completed a specific design.

4: On thread organisers I write on the back which kit etc. the colours are from so I can check before starting new strands. Nothing is wasted

backafteradozenyrs · Post by **backafteradozenyrs** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:39 pm

maisasofia wrote: 1: This is maybe weird, but I use hair grips when I organise my strands. What I do is this: after cutting the strands into desired length, I bring the mid part of the bundle to the "loop" part of the grip. Then I bring the grip through a hole on my organiser and this way the strands come through nice and easy without tucking Also helps when the bundle is really thick.

Hi & welcome from Florida

On that trick you do above, can you possibly photograph it & post the picture here (sometimes my mind just CANNOT put the written word in to pictures....)

maisasofia · Post by **maisasofia** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:46 pm

backafteradozenyrs wrote: On that trick you do above, can you possibly photograph it & post the picture here (sometimes my mind just CANNOT put the written word in to pictures....)

It could also be my explaining skills !

So here's what I mean:

I added the numbered phases to clarify

Raine · Post by **Raine** » Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:09 pm

When framing, I secure my piece with duct tape. Duct tape! After years of complaining about my husband's free wheeling use of duct tape in all sorts of bizarre ways, I have finally found a use for duct tape. Hey, if it was good enough to save the Apollo 13 mission, it's good enough for my cross stitch! I am considering purchasing the pink duct tape.

Rose · Post by **Rose** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 2:05 am

LilacDragon · Post by **LilacDragon** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 10:39 pm

Oh, my! Some of you ladies are very serious!

My husband has absolutely no idea how much I spend on stitching supplies. If he knew, he might stop complaining about money spent on the dog. LOL!

I, too, lick my floss to thread my needle.

I use a rachet frame and spend much more time tightening it than loosening it.

I buy all the floss I need for a new project without checking to see if I already have the floss in one of the many boxes that hold either skeins or bobbined floss. My extra skeins are organized - I have them broken down by number families in airtight plastic containers. I have 3 large containers that my bobbins go in - with all floss in numerical order, of course AND a large container that the bobbined floss for my current project. Oh. And a wooden cigar box for those couple of skeins that I had to pick up when I ran out of floss in the middle of a project.

I have a "ritual" that I adhere to when I stitch. It is really rather sad. LOL! I have to have my candle lit (ALWAYS lilac scented), a fresh cup of coffee, chocolates handy, remotes at the ready and a movie in the blu-ray player. NO new movies, ever. I can't stitch and watch a movie for the first time - if the movie is any good, I end up holding my stitching while watching and I don't get any stitching done. The movies that I watch while stitching I have seen so many times that I can tell by the background noise just exactly what is going on.

I could care less about the backs - they aren't horribly messy but they sure don't look like the front.

I always do one color at a time.

xtianfriborg13 · Post by **xtianfriborg13** » Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:58 am

I am so concerned on how the back of my work looks like.

carolanne · Post by **carolanne** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 6:36 pm

Looking at these entries made remember some things. I always try to put the finish date and my initials on the item. Recently, I gave a piece to a charity for auction, and I thought I'd been very clever in working my initials into the design. Later I heard my grand-daughter ( a grown up young lady) looked at it and said that's my grandma's, there's her initials. Also, I have a lot of stash and still continually see things I like, but lately, I seem to be prone to designs in magazines and see one and just start collecting the stuff to start it right a way. I think I am on my third one this year. I've also worked on some other things, I seem to be having a productive year. Hope I haven't jinxed it. Oh, I was at a dinner/show event recently, and it seem a long time between the dinner and the show, and I was thinking how much stitching time I was missing.

Heather · Post by **Heather** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:21 pm

I'm back to this thread because I am procrastinating.

1. I have finally paid back my 1200$ overdraft that was mostly related to buying cross stitch and cross stitch accessories. Whoops.
2. I haven't had a day off in a month. I am a freelancer and I sort of have a steady work flow, so if I want time off I have to do a lot in advance. Two more weeks and I can have a solid 12 days of sitting around stitching over Christmas!
3. I am hyper-critical about my work and will sit and stare at it, iron it, then stare at it some more.
4. I could stare at the HAED patterns for hours thinking about how much fun they will be to stitch and imagine all the colours I'll need.
5. I watch movies while I stitch - always new ones. I have a few movie channels but they don't refresh enough or add new movies - I've literally watched all the movies. So I paid 15.99 a month for a new on demand channel to provide me with lots more movies for stitching. (Before this, I also spent 50$ a month that I don't have on pay movies so I would have something to watch).
6. If I don't have the entire DAY to stitch - wake up to bed time, I feel like it didn't count. For example, working from 9-5 then stitching from 6-10 doesn't do it for me. And on the whole days I get to stitch, I find eating lunch "inconvenient" so I microwave something and scarf it down so it doesn't cut into my stitching time, and only when I get light-headed from not eating all day.
7. I constructed a hideous contraption involving a chair, a stack of books and a desk lamp so I could see my stitching at night in order to convince my boyfriend we needed to go out and buy at least 2 really decent floor lamps.
8. Sometimes I take out my boxes of bobbined threads and just look at them...
9. I keep all my current threads (for my current WIP) in a thread box... sometimes it looks messy because I get too impatient to be tidy while I stitch. So I take a few hours and unbobbin and then re-bobbin them all, cutting off the ends if they're uneven etc... they look like new, all shiny and nice when I'm done with it.
10. Unlike many of you I kick my kitties off my lap during stitching time. They are the most shed-prone, hairy cats ever and it gets EVERYWHERE. I give them lots of treats after. The dog is allowed on the couch when I stitch because he doesn't crawl all over me and try to roll around on my stitching.

... that's it for now!... I think we all may be a little crazy.

OOOO one more. HAEDs changed my stitching life, but I very much dislike fairies and that makes up the majority of them. I dislike wizards and dragons too, but I like the Spangler ones. One of the designs I would love to do has a tiny fairy in the corner and I don't know what to do about it

Nina · Post by **Nina** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 12:46 pm

I'd usually rather be stitching than doing anything else (the kids are the only exception)

Sometimes I'm even annoyed of the wasted time which I could have spent on stitching. But that happens when I get the feeling life's getting in the way and I cannot spend as much as time in stitching as I'd like. Sometimes I dream of a whole weekend, when I could just stitch, stitch and stitch and do nothing else. I have only one 'rule' when it comes to stitching. I must stitch every day, even if it's only a single stitch. Otherwise I get anxious. That probably makes me hopelessly addicted

coolpenguin · Post by **coolpenguin** » Sat Dec 29, 2012 5:56 pm

I'm currently unable to work due to my being sick with cancer and other things so I spend a lot of time on crafts. I spread myself too thin with too many different crafts and too many started projects.

I allow myself to get so overwhelmed with a project or even the thought of a project that I'm afraid to start it.

My backs look horrendous. My mom is always on my case. I've just started cross stitching and I've done mostly minis but I am trying to get better. The backs of my embroidery look much better than my cross stitch backs.

I'm obsessed with acquiring new kits. I have four reusable shopping bags filled, plus there are others. Sigh. Did I mention I'm unemployed and receive no financial assistance?

agi · Post by **agi** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:44 am

Oh, dear, coolpenguin, I am sorry for what you are going through. I hope cross stitch will give you some relief at least.

stitchingmae · Post by **stitchingmae** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:01 am