New in the new year

Ya’ll I am still undecided about what I am going to stitch in 2018!!!!!!! I just can’t make up my mind.
 I can pull several charts I want to stitch from my embarrassingly large stash to come up with a new Start for 2018. But I am torn because I have an equally embarrassing large list of WIP list of things I want to finish. I have so many WIP that I really want to finish that in order to make a dent  in that long list I need to concentrate on pulling work from it instead of starting new things that will add to the WIP list. I know that I want to finish Mary Wigham and 5 Fat Men by Lizzie Kate first out of the work basket. I have other Quakers started that will follow Mary and I will have to pull something from the WIP for a travel piece after 5 Fat Men are finished. Since lighting can be an issue my travel pieces are usually on a bigger count than my samplers and normally smaller in scope. But all that lovely stash just begging to be started! What to do! 2018 its just hours away...... I have got to make a decision. Sigh for now I am back to Mary Wigham and binge watching floss tube. Happy New Year’s Eve my stitchy friends.  Marjo

Accessories old and new

i love all my stitching tools. Many I have been gifted, many I have purchased. I must admit I love them all but these are some I use all the time to keep my WIP rotation organized.

On my stitching floor frame I keep this cute pincushion gifted by a fellow stitcher. I use this to park my needle in, to keep pins that I use to get knots out of my thread. Love the fabric and design. Next up are my stitching tins. The smallest was a gift and the other two are garage/consignment store finds.

The smallest one holds my small pieces that I use frequently on my day to day stitching.

Needle threader, beading needle, thread end catcher, beading thread, butler brush, decorative thimble, Shepherd’s Bush painted magnet I got on a trip out to Utah. Next up is the medium one which goes in my travel stitching that holds some larger items.

This has scissors, emery, thread, needles, straight pins on a teapot magnet, needle threader and card for floss bits. Next is the holiday tin which holds my ornaments to be stitched. Silent night by LHN is in the hoop. There is a magnet on lid, an old jar (think this was an old Avon jar that a scented cream came in of my Mom’s.)

My favorite pair of scissors when I am not stitching at home.

My newest and most lovely accessory is my new stitching bag. All of my other bags are enormous and I seriously wanted something smaller to carry to my stitching group to force me just to carry no more than 2 projects at a time so I didn’t just go from one to the other with no finishes or lost parts or pieces which has been a terrible struggle for me this year. Trying really hard to get it all under control!

I have a roll-up for my bigger  hoop project (Mary Wigham right now) so I don’t get hoop marks. This is something that I ordered from Attic Needlework. I don’t carry this project because I need good lighting to work on it so this is not a travel accessories. This picture shows the actual colors of my trave bag better than the previous picture does.

I also use a Daylight clip on magnifier and hoops and qsnaps, scroll rods, project bags- so many essentials but these are my favorites I thought I would share with you today. I hope you find lots of stitchy time in your day today. Marjo

in which I begin again

Wow, cannot believe it has been so long sine I posted! I wish I could say it was because I was so busy stitching but sadly that is not the case. 2017 has been a tough year on a lot of fronts for me but something made ,me decide today was the day to start again. It all started with computer problems as far as blogging went and from there it was a downhill rush. Brakes are on, back to stitching and blogging!
This is all about my current WIP’s and plans for next year. I have been drawn to pull out an older WIP of my favorite comfort stitch Quaker Mary Wigham is in the hoop.( Please forgive the wrinkles but I literally took it out of the hoop to take a progress picture to post.)

I have no idea when I started this pattern from Needleprint but I love stitching it and pick it up more and more frequently of late. I have just started the middle motif which is a bush sort of design with a large squirrel in the center. It calls for black on the leaves which I spent a bit of time checking because black leaves just looked wrong to me. I am doing this as a reproduction so black they will be but I thought maybe I had made a mistake with the symbol and did a double check. Mary is done on Lakesides linens buttercream (i think) and using a floss conversion by Attic Needlework. I am only on part 2 but I am trying to work on it a little every day.
Next up is my travel piece which currently is Lizzie Kate’s 6 Fat Men flip it patterns which are a fun stitch. They travel with me to my Thursday night Stiching group ( I love those ladies!!!!!). This is on 32 count Amber linen and WDW threads as called for on the Designs. I chose to stitch them all as one but they would be equally attractive as smalls in a snowman bowel or basket.

Those two are the only WIP’s currently getting any stitching time but in my next post I will have some new to me stitching accessories and some plans for 2018 to share. Excited to be back to blogging. Hope your day is full of stitch time! Marjo