Confessions of a Cross Stitcher

[vanessanjf]

1. I don't care too much about the back (who is going to look at that when it is framed?)

2. My world revolves around cross stitch. When i am at work I am sneaking on here!

3. I have far too many kits and charts and I will never live long enough to start them all.

4. I would much rather spend a day stitching than a day/night out somewhere

[flosaxby]

I've spent hours ripping charts out of magazines and storing them all in ring binders but if I'm looking for a new design to stitch I always browse through Sew and So first! (I think I've probably only looked through the ring binders twice in 6 years!)

I always leave my WIP in it's hoop (without even loosening it! )

I am bothered by my backs being neat. I think I do pretty well but then I keep hearing my mother's words in my head about great grandma's projects being "so neat that you couldn't tell the front from the back"!! (How did she do that??)

All of my UFOs are things that I started stitching for myself but a gift for someone else was more important to finish...

Flo

[wendywombat]

1. I lick my threads to get them through the eye of the needle!

2. I cannot waste thread so I stitch until the Very Last Bit...fuzzy though it tends to be!!

3. I have more project than I can ever hope to complete....So...

4......I bought a bigger box in which to store them!

5. I NEVER use a hoop or frame! All my projects get scrumpled up in my hand, washed and ironed at the end!

6. I don't like HAED designs!!!

7. I love this Forum and spend waaaay to much time here!

[Mabel Figworthy]

1. I lick my threads to get them through the eye of the needle!
[...]
6. I don't like HAED designs!!!

Ay ay to both of them

I haven't got that many kits or charts but I do have rather more threads than I know what to do with....

[Fizzbw]

How else do you thread a needle without licking it? (other than a needle threaded) I'm a bit worried about the ATC I'm sending to the US as the stitched bit will be somewhat impregnated with fentanyl.....I hope the sniffer dogs have a day off!!

Niki xxx

[amandadawn]

1. I lick my threads to get them through the eye of the needle!

6. I don't like HAED designs!!!

1. Wait, we're not supposed to do that? Lol

6. I don't really, either! I found one pretty thing that I liked but it may have seriously been the only design without a fairy or Santa Claus (no offense to anyone who loves stitching fairies or Santa Claus, it's just not my jam).

[MaggieM1750]

3. I have more project than I can ever hope to complete....So...
4......I bought a bigger box in which to store them!

I did this too. Moved from a canvas tote bag that was overflowing, into a drawer in my filing cabinet... with things piled on top of and next to the filing cabinet.

I honestly don't know what it all is.. because I don't buy that many charts. (Have only bought 3 maybe 4 this year.. and 2 just came last week) I don't buy magazines. And only have bits of leftover fabric, or fabric for projects I am kitting up. But the drawer is full and the piles keep growing. I really should go through it but you know how it goes...

[stitchnsew]

1. I think my backs are pretty cool. Not perfectly neat, but a thick matted mess, that from a distance has the same general appearance in color as the front.
2. I really liked it when someone looked at the back of my project; I thought 'now I've finally met another serious cross-stitcher.'
3. I often stay up until 5 or 6 am stitching.
4. I will often take a low-need or home-on-call day from work just so I can have a whole free day to stitch. (not clean, shop, do yard work, etc)
5. Even if it is a perfect day to be outside, I'd rather sit in my chair, next to an open window in order to enjoy that perfect day, and stitch.
6. I get irritated when I don't get some stitching in every day
7. I just like regular cross stitch. I don't plan on ever using metallic thread again and will just sub regular floss instead, and I don't want to expand my horizons and learn any other specialty stitches.

[CayenneCat]

1. I lose needles and don't tell DH (so far he hasn't found one by accident . . .).

2. I don't care what the back of my stitching looks like.

3. I stitch many more hours a day than DH knows.

4. I am doing some cross-stitching even though I need to stop using my right hand to let it heal.

5. I think I would go crazy if I didn't do some cross-stitching every day.

[Rose]

7. I just like regular cross stitch. I don't plan on ever using metallic thread again and will just sub regular floss instead, and I don't want to expand my horizons and learn any other specialty stitches.

I totally agree with just likeing regular cross stitch and not liking or wanting to do the "specialty" stitches. That is not my craft.

I also hate beads and will always change beads to a like color in floss.

I love the look of hardanger and enjoy the pictures others post of them but I will never do any as I will NOT cut the work I have just stitched.....

I don't understand why people get so crazy about their scissors. I have several stitching and several sewing and several kitchen scissors whichever ones are closest are the ones I use for any given use. I have used my stitchy scissors for opening boxes in the kitchen.

[MaggieM1750]

....I love the look of hardanger and enjoy the pictures others post of them but I will never do any as I will NOT cut the work I have just stitched.....

Thats what I thought too.. until I did it. And the only thing that got me to cut was my instructor promising up and down that it wouldn't unravel. She said.. if I cut and it does comes apart.. she would stitch the whole thing over for me. So I thought.. well, I've got nothing to lose. I still hesitate, and take a few deep breaths, before I make the first snip in a project. I never would have snipped without having someone look over my shoulder to verify my scissors were in the right spot.

[Pengwenn]

1. When I first started stitching I stitched to the every end of the thread and then tried to knot it (without running it under threads)

2. I knot my threads when I start

3. I leave my projects in hoops, scroll frames, qsnaps for long periods of time without loosening.

4. I now have to have a needle for every color I'm using for a project.

5. I have to have a pair of scissors for every project.

6. I'm a serial starter. If I make one goal or achievement I feel I need to start another project to celebrate.

7. Most of my projects have been as gifts. The ones I've done for myself I've never framed.

8. I like spending time just going through my stash and looking at it.

9. I bought a 4 bedroom house when it's just me so I could have a craft room. My stuff use to fill a closet, now it fills the room.

10. When I'm in meetings at work I keep thinking how I could be stitching while I listen instead of sitting there being bored.

[LadyS]

This is fun!

Mine are:

#1 - I don't care about the back of my projects, if I know it'll be covered somehow. I skip everywhere in favor of speed.

#2 - Even though I read you shouldn't lick the end of the floss to thread it, I still do it as I find it faster than using a needle threader, which I'll use only when I can't seem to make the lick and stick work.

#3 - I try to avoid re-threading as much as possible when stitching, so I'll stitch with a length of thread until I have the same length as the needle and can barely move the needle to the back to finish off running under other stitches.

#4 - I leave my project on the Qsnap, and I don't even worry too much about loosening it.

#5 - If I can't use the loop method and I am not working in Aida that I can use the pincushion start, I knot my thread and use a loop start with the knot.

#6 - I've had a finished project sit in a plastic back unframed for years and years. Back in Brasil framing was cheap, now things go unframed even longer unless I put them in a ready made frame bought at Michaels.

#7 - I'm stitching HAEDs and like how they stitch, and see a few that others stitch that I find pretty, but the majority of HAEDs are not something I'd invest years on, so it's easier for me to skip the frequent sales. I tend to be drawn to the Art of the Antiquities over there.

#8 - When I make a mistake, I'll first see if it will really affect the end result, and will try to work around it so I don't have to frog anything. Let's just say in Starry Night with all that confetti there's quite a few stitches put in the wrong spot. Parking on it really helped cut those down.

#9 - I will sometimes "stitch" for hours, and only get half of that of actual work, 'cus I get distracted and stop often to admire my work or visualize the next colors and how it will look when this or that is done or the page is completed, etc. So yes, I go idle a lot while stitching.

#10 - I wish I could do all my work sewing method and in hand, but some fabric counts don't permit that. I don't care my work is all crumpled and stitches are more even in a Qsnap, I love the sewing method and have pretty good tension working in hand.

[Mabel Figworthy]

3. I leave my projects in hoops, scroll frames, qsnaps for long periods of time without loosening.

8. I like spending time just going through my stash and looking at it.

Oooh, me too, me too -- I forgot about those !

[rcperryls]

Now that I have been reading some of the confessions I realized that I certainly need to add some, especially about leaving projects in hoops and q snaps and not loosening them either. I think if I had one for each project they would never come out until actually finished. So far I have to admit that there aren't too many things which everyone has mentioned that I haven't done , but I don't lick the end of the floss to thread it. Only because I think it's harder to thread it that way.

Carole

[Carole]

I've just read through all of these and I'm nodding and agreeing with a lot of them

1. I'm a thread licker. I'll use a needle threader if the end of the thread is close to the fabric but if it's loose, I'll lick it

2. I'll leave projects on my R&R frame overnight but not if I'm putting it on one side for a week or more.

3. I really don't care what the back looks like.

4. My husband probably knows that I spend too much money on stash, but we have a don't ask, don't tell policy.

5. I love stitching but hate finishing so I have lots of finished projects waiting to be framed or made into things, sitting in a drawer.

6. I don't like Aida. It's UGLY. With kits, I usually replace it with a nice evenweave.

7. I sub to two magazines, drool over all the lovely charts in them that I want to stitch, and hoard them lovingly in pretty boxes.

[amandadawn]

This is fun!

#7 - I'm stitching HAEDs and like how they stitch, and see a few that others stitch that I find pretty, but the majority of HAEDs are not something I'd invest years on, so it's easier for me to skip the frequent sales. I tend to be drawn to the Art of the Antiquities over there.

If you like the art of the antiquities, have you looked at the Scarlet Quince website? It's only art turned into cross stitches. The projects are big, about the same size as a big HAED. There's lots of blending, though, so if you don't like that that's something to consider (but I love them, they're my favorite patterns).

[LadyS]

I've seen it, for sure. Maybe I'll get one one day, except I have a few BAPs kited up and two on the go, so I can't really get more of these for the time being. I do like that HAEDs don't have blending. Does SQ do fractional stitches?

[backafteradozenyrs]

I also leave my work on the Q-snap without loosening it.

I seem to be a serial starter, I like the thrill of kitting up a project and starting it & then....enh....

I wish I could get up the nerve to ask hubby for the $$ for a floor stand (or the guts enough to just go buy one)

[Rose]

Yes I am a thread licker, an occassional knotter and a dangler. I use the same needle for as long as it will thread even if it is bent like a banana. (For some reason after only 30 minute my 28 size needles are curved.

I have been known to use a pair of pliers to pull a needle through the thread to anchor it because I have gotten it stuck.