Tale of a Shooting Star…

1. How do you store your floss?

2. Do you keep a complete set of DMC?

3. Do you buy new floss to “kit” up new projects or do you use out of a master set?

1. I assume that this is more geared to just DMC cottons; however, I’m going to expand my answer to include overdyeds and silks. Which will make this a long answer. 😆

Let’s see now… DMCs are stored in (or on) a mixture of floss bobbin boxes (my oldest DMCs), Stitchbows (which I’ve decided to eventually wean off of, as well) and floss bags hung on a ring. Overdyeds are stored in a mixture of floss bags and their original packaging. The same goes for my silks, except for the spools/skeins of Au Ver a Soie silks (Soie d’Alger, Soie Perlee and Soie Gobelin) which reside in stacks in plastic boxes (one for the Soie d’Alger skeins, one for the Soie Perlee/Gobelin spools). I think that covers the mish-mash of organization.

Ooooh, I just had a thought! Since I just blazed through a Java class the other week, I should write my own web application to organize my stitching projects and materials. Woohoo!

2. Yep! 🙂

3. I only buy new floss as I run out of what I already have. I might buy more as I kit up a larger project that I think will need more. If I were doing a large sampler or other project in all one overdyed color, I would try to buy as many skeins as I might need (and more) so that they are all from the same dye lot.

1. Do you have an online gallery somewhere with your cross-stitch?

2. How often do you take WIP pics?

3. Do you ever spend time looking at other stitcher’s galleries? If so how often do you look at them?

1. Oh my, YES! And if you haven’t visited my online photo gallery before, you really should!

2. WIP pics are not so frequent with me. I prefer finished stitching pics. However, for larger pieces or mystery/staged pieces, I do take photos as I’m going along.

3. I do like to browse through other stitcher’s photo galleries from time to time. I find that it gives me great inspiration to see the amazing work that others do!

1. Have you ever participated in a SAL on one of the BB’s or with people in RL? How did it go?

2. If no, why not? and would you ever consider do so?

1. Participating in a SAL can keep you motivated… until you get really behind. Once I fall too far behind, though, I almost find it to be self-defeating because you know you’re never going to catch up, so why bother? It goes both ways. 🙂

What “rules” do you make for yourself regarding your stitching? (These can include finishes, starts, purchases, rotations, hours, fabrics, flosses, etc, etc..)

Rules, schmules. Who needs rules for creative arts? That would take all of the fun out of it! 😉

Seriously, though, I really try not to impose a lot of rules on myself. Rules and commitments lead to lack of enjoyment of my creative activities, which is where I’m at right now. And since these are my outlets from the real world, I can become quite cranky as a result.

I am trying to limit my purchases right now and go back to stash only stitching. I would say that it’s time for me to hop back on The Wagon for a while, but that usually leads to a serious crash and burn stash expedition, which is hard on the wallet. I’ve already had a couple of them this year, so some restraint on my part would probably be a good thing! 😆

I prefer to stitch on evenweave and next comes linen, but I will stitch on just about anything, if the end use calls for it. Certain stitching mediums and uses lend themselves towards certain fabrics. I’m not a huge fan of aida, but I stitch quilt squares on it and don’t mind.

With me, everything’s pretty freeform. Which likely explains why I have so many WIPs… oops!

Over the past couple of weeks, Renee has received two SBQ suggestions that request pictures so she decided to put them together for an SBQ picture
day. Feel free to post pictures concerning either or both requests.

Woohoo! Fortunately, I already have pictures to answer all of these questions, so I’ll post thumbnails and let you click to bigger photos.

The first request comes from Vash who is requesting pictures of the back of your stitching… are you brave enough to give this one a shot?

I just did this one recently, but I’ll highlight different photos this time. They aren’t quite as neat. 🙂 I like to show both fronts and backs so you have a reference point.

The second request comes from Singular Stitches, and she is asking for “a pictorial tour of [the] special place that you go to create your wonderful stitched creations.”

I’ll just show you my stitching corner in the family room and then two pictures of my craft room. Once you’ve clicked onto a larger picture, you can use the navigation text in the top right corner to take a look around my “Craft Space” album by clicking on Craft Space. I’ll tell you, though, I wish I had half the space the Singular Stitches has! I was drooling over her “Craftatorioum” pictures yesterday. 😀

1. What types of stitching and design styles appeal to you most?

2. What types and styles don’t appeal?

1. I’m not sure exactly what this question is asking, so I will answer it in a manner that makes sense to me. 🙂

As far as stitching goes, I like everything. Straight cross stitch, speciality stitches, drawn thread work, pulled thread work, hardanger, ribbon embroidery, etc. I tend to like designs that will hold my interest by mixing up a variety of stitching types. I like celestial, oriental, realistic and fantasy designs. Dragons, fairies and angels are good. So are band samplers. I really like geometric or symmetrical designs, so I’m drawn to square Just Nan, small Sweetheart Tree and most of the Chatelaine designs. I also like Mirabilia and Passione Ricamo for realistic and “realistic” fantasy designs. Throw in The Victoria Sampler for hardanger designs and I think that’s the heaviest hitters in my repertoire. Not that I don’t or won’t stitch other things, of course. 🙂

2. I am not a big fan of primitive or country types of designs. Whimsical can be okay, depending on how it’s done. Anything too cute is right out.