Confessions of a Cross Stitcher

[DahliaDoll]

I have the terrible habit of holding my needle between my lips while I'm getting more floss.

I was doing that when my DGD (age 3) asked me, "Mimi, why are you eating that?" I decided it was time to set a better example, so I'm trying to change the habit!

[dawn0621]

[/quote]
I have the terrible habit of holding my needle between my lips while I'm getting more floss. Each and every single time I do this I have visions of something startling me and accidently swallowing the needle. Yet I continue to do it. I've stopped when working on my HAED since I have a magnetic needlekeeper attached to the fabric, but when working on smaller ornaments in my 6"x8" qsnaps, there really isn't much space for that. I really need to find a better way and actually stick with it![/quote]

omg me too! I can just see myself taking a deep breath and inhaling the needle. lol

[stitchingmae]

you guys laugh but when I worked in the ER we had a pt would had done just that ended up in surgery. I do it myself and every time I do I can see her face.

[curly sue]

I started bobbinating over the weekend. So far I've done about 100. Dgd was helping me and we had our share of knots. A few knots had to be worked out using one and sometimes two needles. I kept holding the needles between my lips from time to time and it finally dawned on me that I could swallow one. I never gave thought to the bad example I was setting.

[gparr]

If I don't have a needle in my mouth its place has been taken by a laying tool. Bad habit, especially given that I always have a needle minder on my projects. Many times I've forgotten I had a needle in my mouth, started talking, and the needle went between the cushions. Let the hunt begin.
Gary

[kmummy77]

Hmm… secrets. Considering that I enter my (few) pieces into the exhibition, I have always felt guilty about the back of my pieces and wonder how the guild would feel about my knots. Fortunately they can't see them because they're hidden on the framed piece! Other secrets… I have bought all of the Lavender and Lace Angels and have only finished two so far, almost three, and I think at last count this was 22 charts. I start looking through the charts before I have finished my last angel and think about which one I will start next. Mind you, this encourages me to work harder to finish the current project. And worst of all - my very first cross stitch was a nursery one, and my son is now 12 and we just had our last baby and I STILL haven't finished it even though I've completed those other projects. Ha ha. I think this is a common mothers problem, and I am sure it has something to do with the idea that we don't want to let go of our 'babies'.

Kirsty.

Angel of the Morning
Emma's Garden
Enchanted Alphabet
and that other one for the nursery...

[Allyn]

I must be some kind of freaky-deeky.

1) I never put my xs thread in my mouth. It was drilled into me early on that I just shouldn't do that. I have a small dish (more like a bottle cap, really) that I put a few drops of water into and then I wet the end of the thread it in.

2) I think I might have purchased two kits in my entire life. . . and both of them I purchased for the chart. I've never actually done a kit.

3) I'm not really anal about my backs, but they come out neat. My framer always comments about how neat they are, so I guess I do okay.

4) My needles and laying tool (trolley needle) get dropped on the magnets on my stitching -- which works fine when the magnets don't get moved. After I push them over to start working on a new area, I'll 'drop' the needles where the magnets were.....and then I have to fish the needle out of the pinch between the fabric and the scroll rods. Thank goodness I stitch 'in the well' or I'd be hunting through the cushions for them.

5) My needle of choice is a #28 petite. Anything else just feels too huge to use comfortably.

6) If I stitch a wrong stitch and I'm too far along to just unstitch what I've done to fix it, I will either adapt the pattern to roll with it or I'll stitch the correct stitch right overtop. . . and feel guilty over it for about a minute and a half.

7) I spend a lot of time sitting in my chair with my stitching positioned in front of me, but I'm just watching TV and hoping my hands will do the stitching while I'm not paying attention to them. Then the TV show ends and I'm disappointed when I see that my hands did nothing while I was distracted by the program.

8.) I don't fib about what I spend on stash. I think I spent a total of $70 in 2013. . maybe not even that much. I used to be a 'collector' grabbing every chart that caught my eye, because if you didn't get it when it was available, it would go out of print -- really out of print and be very hard to find again. Nowadays with the charts available in electronic downloads, OOP seems to be a thing of the past. I just don't feel the need to be a 'collector' anymore.

[curly sue]

I never knew to stitch over an errant stitch until I came here......works quite well!

[Serinde]

No one said you only learn Good Habits on the CSF...

[fccs]

7) I spend a lot of time sitting in my chair with my stitching positioned in front of me, but I'm just watching TV and hoping my hands will do the stitching while I'm not paying attention to them. Then the TV show ends and I'm disappointed when I see that my hands did nothing while I was distracted by the program.

The same thing happens to me, although I'm getting better about it. Now sometimes I have to rewind the DVR because I got lost in the story while getting lost in my stitching.

[dawn0621]

5) I will avoid Hobby Lobby at all cost unless I absolutely can't avoid it. If I can get it from the locally owned store, I will. But conversely, I rarely buy thread outside of DMC. It's just so universal... =x

I am with you on that. It is somewhat irrelevant now because they don't have a store in my area, but even years ago when I lived in an area that did, I never felt quite comfortable in their stores. Knowing what I know now, I realize why.

Why are we avoiding Hobby Lobby??

[Allyn]

Why are we avoiding Hobby Lobby??

Thank you. I was wondering that, too. I don't get to read a lot of the posts here so I figured I just missed a conversation. With my LNS closing, my only choices for getting DMC thread (aside from mail order) is Hobby Lobby and Walmart. . . .and I will not shop at Walmart.

[dawn0621]

Why are we avoiding Hobby Lobby??

Thank you. I was wondering that, too. I don't get to read a lot of the posts here so I figured I just missed a conversation. With my LNS closing, my only choices for getting DMC thread (aside from mail order) is Hobby Lobby and Walmart. . . .and I will not shop at Walmart.

NeedleandFork pm'd me a great answer. Not something we want to get into outside of pm's, but basically don't go there. I've found decent deals on ebay for floss.

[Allyn]

NeedleandFork pm'd me a great answer. Not something we want to get into outside of pm's, but basically don't go there. I've found decent deals on ebay for floss.

If you'd like to PM me the answer, I'd be happy to read it. I don't see the merit in boycotting a store that is my only brick-and-morter option for buying floss just because someone tells me "don't go there'" without an explanation.

[Rose]

I think I understand what they are talking about. I also think the owners of the company have a right to there opinion and their beliefs. If you are not in agreement that is fine but this is still suppose to be a country were your beliefs are respected.

[littleturtlegirl]

I think I understand what they are talking about. I also think the owners of the company have a right to there opinion and their beliefs. If you are not in agreement that is fine but this is still suppose to be a country were your beliefs are respected.

I don't know what is going on, but I agree if that is the reason. If there is another reason, then someone pm me because I shop at hobby lobby. They have the best deals in my area. Plus I support the freedom of all American's weather I agree with them or not. This is why I love this country, now back to stitching confetti....

[Nachstenliebe]

I have the terrible habit of holding my needle between my lips while I'm getting more floss. Each and every single time I do this I have visions of something startling me and accidently swallowing the needle. Yet I continue to do it. I've stopped when working on my HAED since I have a magnetic needlekeeper attached to the fabric, but when working on smaller ornaments in my 6"x8" qsnaps, there really isn't much space for that. I really need to find a better way and actually stick with it![/quote]

omg me too! I can just see myself taking a deep breath and inhaling the needle. lol[/quote]

This relates to me 100%! I can't stop myself from doign it either! And on the rare occasion I remind myself this is a very hazardous thing to do and put it somewhere else... I LOSE IT!

[rcperryls]

I do this also but not as often as I used to. I often stick the needle on the magnetic strips on my chart holder. Which is fine unless I knock it off, one of the cats knocks it off or I am using my iPad instead of a paper chart. I can hear my mother yelling at me for putting a needle in my mouth, and yet when I picture her hemming something (she didn't do any crafts except for the occasional paint by numbers) the needle is always in her mouth (or pins when she was pinning up the hem).

Carole

[Rose]

Don't you just love it, the ones that tell you "oh don't do that you could get hurt" are the ones you see doing that exact same thing..... Plus how many of the old sitcoms had women hemming or sewing and they all had to take the pins out of their mouth to talk, or had to talk around the pins.

[Allyn]

Don't you just love it, the ones that tell you "oh don't do that you could get hurt" are the ones you see doing that exact same thing..... ....

Of course. That's how they know it isn't a good idea. Hence the old saying, "Do as I say; not as I do."