Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

I visit often but not much on commenting. Just got my stitchy bug back after almost a year, and am starting to enjoy it more. Love looking at all the stitching you all are doing, and hope to get a little more active. Have a hard time getting on the computer because of the pain reaching the keyboard causes to my right shoulder. Funny thing is the only thing that doesn't affect it is stitching. Even reading sometimes hurts and I hold the reader with my left hand too. Go figure.

I'm just wondering about Rose. I noticed she is still listed as a moderator.

I think I'm probably one of the disappearees! I had a breakdown at the office just over a year ago following a family bereavement, a near-family bereavement, a close relative having serious relationship and mental health issues, and work stress all going on at the same time. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, lost interest in everything and spent the next few months pretty much staring into space. I still get the odd panic attack but on the whole I'm much better and starting to rediscover my interest in things, including stitching. I now work from home doing a job that is much less pressured and more enjoyable so I have more time for stitching now.

Great to hear from the others, and thanks Vanessa for bringing us out of the woodwork.

Hi Liz and welcome back! Sounds like you have had a really difficult time but are feeling better. It is so good to hear from you. I've been wondering how you've been and remembering when we met in London when my sister and I were in the UK several years ago (I so want to go back). And I agree with you that this thread was a great idea from Vanessa. We've made it a "sticky" thread so that whenever one of the "disappearees" does check in, she or he will see it and drop us a note. Hope you will stick around. You have been missed.

Carole

Welcome back Liz and great to know you are on the mend and slowly getting life back together again - it sure was a horrible time for you I am sure.
Yes Vanessa's brain wave for starting this thread is certainly a great one to bring our "missing" friends out of the airwaves and back to us here.

Thanks, guys. It's good to be back and I'm going to try and stick around this time. I've done quite a bit of stitching on Cat in a Window over the last couple of weeks so I will post an update soon.

Welcome back, Liz. Sorry to hear about your recent struggles but it sounds like you're working your way back to healthy and happy, which is great.

Hello from another disappearee!

Last summer I had posted a hello thread about how I was hoping to be a regular again and then almost immediately stopped checking back in again. The last year and a half or so have been very chaotic, and I've not felt like myself across all areas of life. It's be a long process, but I'm getting things back on track in general, and I'm slowly getting back the brain space to be able to be a obsessed with needlework as I was.

Probably also related is that I've slowly been picking up more and more fiber arts, so that now I also can call myself a quilter, seamstress, knitter, spinner, and as of last week, weaver! Knitting has been the one constant because depending on the project, it can be nearly mindless, which has been about all I've been able to handle the past year or so.

But I agree with what everyone else has said, there is no other community like this one that I've found, and I've often thought of the forum and the people here with fondness and a desire to get back to checking on what everyone's up to and taking part myself.

Here's hoping I stick around this time for good!

that you can stay with us. Don't forget there is a thread on the 'index' for any other craft too.

Squirrel wrote: that you can stay with us. Don't forget there is a thread on the 'index' for any other craft too.

Yes. Welcome back and we love looking at other crafts too. We've seen beautiful knitting, crocheting, weaving and spinning too! So good to hear from you !!!

Carole

We're always happy to see all sorts of crafts! (I'm afraid quite a lot of non-cross stitch makes it into my regular WIP thread...)

I think we can all forgive the lapse, Mabel, seeing as how it's you...!

I took a break from stitching after the first of the year as I was wanting to do some thread crochet. Recently I started on my annual hats I crochet for charity so they will be ready for fall. Truth be told, I'm anxious to get back to my stitching. I would like to start on my Christmas card stitching. In the middle of all this, my entire family had the flu during Feb. and March. It was odd as half of us had flu shots and I haven't had the flu in almost 30 years.

I don't post pictures of my work but I miss seeing all the gorgeous projects that are posted here.

I'm late to the party! Which is kinda funny when the topic is "Where has everyone gone?"

I had a few things change for me life-wise. 1) We have a little homestead now so gardening and chickens occupy my time much more now. 2) My husband has decided that he wants to play World of Warcraft again, so I spend some of what was stitching time running around Azeroth once more. 3) I used to have a work station where my computer was set up and then I had my easy chair where my stitching station was set up. I could get up from my computer station and my stitching station was ready and waiting for me to sit down and stitch. My computer tower died and so I set my easy chair up as a work station and I use my laptop for work now. I can finish work and unplug everything, break down the desktop and install the wing boards, then pull out my stitching. Then when I'm done stitching, I put the frame away, take off the wing boards, put the desktop back on, plug the computer peripherals in...... :::sigh:::: Yeah, that doesn't happen. So really, between spending time on computer-game entertainment and not having a dedicated stitching spot, I haven't been stitching and I miss it terribly.

I also am in some stitching Facebook groups, but it's so impersonal. I don't know who the people are, the posts are so scattered, you really don't have a chance to get to know anyone. If you didn't catch the conversation when it was first started and add your own post or put the conversation on "follow", there's no way to catch up. It feels like Facebook is just for folks who have the time to sit and monitor it all day. If you stop in once in a while like I might do, there's no way to catch up. I much prefer forums.

My stitching bug is getting really insistent. I've started talking to my husband about making a dual-purpose station at my easy chair that makes it easy to switch back and forth between work and stitching. He's happy to build something for me, I just need to figure out what will work and then design it.

A few of the gang: (Ignore the pink dots)

New stitching station definitely needed!

But love the new denizens -- what make are they? Presume they are layers? A homestead sounds exciting -- argues "acreage"! Lucky you. My house and garden(s) occupy about 1/3 acre, and isn't terribly secure (despite hedging and walls) and so no room for livestock.

Love your fowl gang! And yes, new stitching station definitely needed. And yes, Forum much nicer than FB for catching up!

It is so good to hear from you again. Definitely need a working/stitching station that makes switching easier. So get busy designing when you're not feeding the chickens or tending the garden.. I couldn't agree more with you about FB. I have never been able to really get involved with it. I used to keep joining FB groups and then never participated because it has always seem confusing to me. I much prefer forums where I feel I get to know people better and can follow conversations easily and catch up if I've been away for a while.

Looking forward to seeing any updates you might have for us on that lovely TW Birth Sampler too. Oops, I didn't miss the finish I hope. Now I'll have to do what I just said forums are the best at: finding your thread, which shouldn't be too hard, and catching up!

Carole

Serinde wrote:...But love the new denizens -- what make are they? Presume they are layers? A homestead sounds exciting -- argues "acreage"! Lucky you. My house and garden(s) occupy about 1/3 acre, and isn't terribly secure (despite hedging and walls) and so no room for livestock.

They're Delaware chickens. It's an old Heritage breed that was almost extinct a couple of decades ago. They were originally bred as meatbirds and are now classified as dual-purpose. We're breeding them as meatbirds so we can have meat and eggs from our flock. We have only an acre, but the house is very small (500 sq ft) and we do container and square-foot gardening which gives better yield and takes up less space than gardening in rows.

rcperryls wrote:...Looking forward to seeing any updates you might have for us on that lovely TW Birth Sampler too. Oops, I didn't miss the finish I hope. Now I'll have to do what I just said forums are the best at: finding your thread, which shouldn't be too hard, and catching up!

No updates since whatever I posted last. As much as I love that design and I was so looking forward to stitching it, I was slowly growing to hate working on it. We gave the parents some things that they needed for the nursery, and I think I'm going to put the birth annoucement on the shelf for now. I very much want to get back to the Color of the Wolf redo.

Understandable that stitching and the forum had become difficult to work out and you have been sorely missed. Great to see you back again and I hope you soon work out a design so you can once again visit often and stitch when you want/need to.

And I'm yet another one. Been missing pretty much for the last couple of years. Have moved house and am getting married again;. Less than 2 months to go so I am a bit distracted!!

I have my stitching out in the lounge but very rarely seem to pick it up. Since I was very ill 6 years ago I still struggle with my fine motor skills and as a result I find stitching quite frustrating.

Nice to be back here again.