September 2010 SBQ

From Lake Stitcher - September SBQ Is there anything that you do while you are stitching that is kind of weird or unusual?  A quirky habit maybe?  Or anything that you do that makes you think, Hey...I wonder if anyone else does this?

One habit Ive been noticing I do is that after most thread pass-throughs I rub over the thread with my left thumb and nail.  Only thing I can figure is that Im rail-roading of sorts.  And of course now that I notice it, its starting to bug me! 

Another thing is that I seem to tilt my head to the left(sometimes way over).  Im attributing this to where my lamp is compared to where I stitch but I have no excuse when I do this when not using a lamp...

SBQ

I am late in adding my coppers to this question but it is a good one to ask, even to ones self.

Lee asked this in July

Stitching is an activity that tends to be solitary.  Sometimes I wonder if we choose stitching because we are more comfortable with pursuits that we do alone, or does our stitching cause us to be loners?  So what do you think?

My answer

A bit into my background.  I am a loner and pretty much have always been quite comfortable with that fact.  I will remove myself from a group if Im not enjoying myself, Life is too short .  I make sure never to lose my own arguments and have promised myself to get checked out if that ever happens.  So far so good.

When I got back into stitching 3 years ago, I really didnt have any friends outside work.  Just hung out with the boys and Man of the house and was content.  Getting back in brought a good friend back into my life and along with her, lots of new friends.

What brought me to finally answer this question is getting home from a fun evening at one of those friends stitching with yet more friends of all ages.  We come from pretty much all sides of life and I could not, would not change it (them) for anything.  Everyone has their niche of stitching, life references, and knowledge.  Its wonderful to get a group together as you never know where conversations will take you or what finishes will be brought to oh and ah over or that one piece someone started that you now have to kit up for yourself.

So to really answer – Stitching while comfortable to do alone can be great fun when in a group.

Signage question

How do you sign your projects?

I normally just do first and last initial with the year and call it good.  My quandary is now that I’m working on more heirloom type pieces do I want to sign my full name and year?  If so, would I do it at the bottom and possibly on the back so it could be visible when its framed?  If only to help keep the history of the piece as its hopefully passed down (yes I have high hopes :o) )

 

How do you sign your heirloom pieces?

SBQ

More of a stitchy journal question

What do you count as the final date when entering journal info on projects? The date you finished stitching the project or the date it finally got in its finished form (framed, flat fold, ornament...)?

I realize this is more of a how we as individuals decide, I am just curious.

I am currently noting the date I finished the last stitch and entering the date of when it got into its final form.

SBQ: Dyed fabric vs floss

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Dawn and is:

If you had to choose, would you rather spend money on overdyed floss or hand-dyed fabric?

While overdyed floss is beautiful, its too expensive for my taste as some skeins can be as much as the fabric. 9 times out of 10 I will get the hand-dyed fabric over overdyed floss for my projects.

SBQ

8/7/08: What do you do to your thread clippings? Do you just scrap them or do you use them in something else? (submitted by Outi)

Well at the beginning of the year Jennifer had a post where she talked about her massive ort jar and ideas on what could be done with the clippings. Sounded like a good idea so I started one of my own using a clean jam jar (sans lid). Up until that point I had been tossing them in the recycle bag or garbage.

Still not sure what I will do at the end of the year, place them in a clear ornament so I can see all the fibers I worked with during the year, I also toss in a few threads from the fabrics as they fray off, or add them to a pillow orni with the year on it.

SBQ

Today’s SBQ from http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/ is:
How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations such as work, household chores, etc.?

Stitching for me is a stress release. I do notice how much more I feel stress when I havent taken the time at night (or on the weekend) to stitch. So I treat it as a treat and enjoy my stitching time. Household chores are mainly done Sat morning (big, lets clean the house chores) other chores are handled as needed throughout the week (laundry, dishes, cooking). Work is work - and the main way I pay for stash!

Stitching question

SBQ:

How many of you keep a journal of your stitching work? How many of those do you keep track of the number of hours spent stitching each project?

I ask because I have seen several blogs stating the number of hours a stitcher has worked on a project.

Thoughts?

Weekly SBQ

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Jan and is:
Do you ever get to a point working on a project that you’ve had for so long, you start to wonder what possessed you to start it in the first place?

I havent since I started back up cross stitching (had a 7 year break - see DL for the excuse :P) but I do have some old projects Im now wondering why they got started. There are a couple I want to restart for various reasons (fabric wrong for the pattern, frog nightmare and maybe a new piece of fabric will ward them off or best yet - because I changed how I stitch and cant stand looking at how I stitched the older pieces) but Im so far along it seems a huge waste. One of these is actually a piece for my dad but even with that hanging over my guilty head, I just cant get going on it again.

Too pooped to stitch?

Didnt get much completed yesterday. Did have a nice B-day with D, well, until he pulled the Birthday Card. He was playing Rock Band, doing the singing parts (with me laughing when he had trouble hitting the high notes), saw me sitting there and went "you are so going to join me, Cause Its MY birthday and thats what I want" *sigh* What could I do? So I joined in, creating my own character (duh) and we got quite a few songs done - me singing and he on lead gitar. We did pretty good, mostly 4 out of 5 stars. Of course this kept us up well past our bed time and we were both tuckered this morning (darn baby birds and the early light). Im now half wanting to get something out to work on or crawl into bed at the early hr of 8:30pm (way too early, Id be up at 5am!)

Still we had a great time.

This week's SBQ is:
For seasoned stitchers: Define a stitching term or acronym for new stitchers.
For newbies: What stitching term or acronym would you like defined?

A term new to me this year is PIG (Project in a Grocery bag). I picked this up from a wXSw SAL in January