Show Your Stash: Patterns

Thank you for your kind words on my recently finished Thistle and my latest WIP "Our Souls." And for not thinking I'm a coconut for rejecting the notion that Wuthering Heights is a great romance.

I had meant for our Show Your Stash meme to be very regular, but my god, when have you ever known me to be very regular? Today I want to see your patterns!

When you shop for patterns, do you buy on impulse or do you buy only what you need? Define "need", amiright? I'd say about 80% of the time I buy on impulse. 

How do you sort your patterns—by designer? theme? Season? My designs are sorted by theme ("flowers," "houses," "verse," "sampler," etc). I consider the seasons themes. I do not alphabetize them in any way, however, (unlike everything else in my house including spices) because the visual is the important thing, rather than the titles, which I can never remember.

How do you store your patterns? Most of my patterns are in folders in a filing cabinet. Patterns from magazines are in plastic sleeves in three-ring binders. The patterns that are kitted up are in baskets.

Which designer do you own the most patterns by? I went to consult the database I created several years ago and the computer I had it on is dead but I did find a copy. The copy is corrupted. So, wild guess, Cricket Collection.

Which designer have you stitched the most patterns by? Maybe Shepherd's Bush?

What tips do you have for building up a well-rounded stash? Be overly-optimistic about your capacity for speed stitching.

When do you say enough is enough? Never.
How do you whittle your stash down when it's gotten too large? Giveaways. I've turned into my grandmother pawning stuff off on the unsuspecting!

Do you have a current favorite in your stash? Let’s see it! I have a lot of favorites! Some of which I am stitching, and some of which I just like to pull out and look at. (Silly, I know.) I think if I chose one today it would be different tomorrow. Seriously, I've been going through the patterns, and I like different ones for different reasons and the feelings have similar intensity. I can't pick a favorite!

Santa, Day 7

Today's Santa is one I stitched ages ago. It's a Mill Hill Buttons and Beads Kit. I know I had this in Los Angeles, so I'm guessing mid- to late-90s. I was a poor grad student and wouldn't spring for the the frame they offered on their website. I think the shipping was exorbitant. But I digress. I love stitching Mill Hill kits on perforated paper. Goofy that way, I guess. I love the texture of his beard.

And for those of you who want to make your own Santa, here's Punto croce--a little Italian cross-stitched Santa freebie.

Vintage Pyrex

When we were helping my parents clear out their home of 30 years, my mother offered me some vintage pyrex my grandmother had given her when she cleared out her house (possibly also of 30 years...). I loved. They were so cute and so hopelessly retro. But I was in a downsizing frame of mind because...well, because I was standing there ass deep in my parent's accumulated crap. I'm sure they've long been scooped up by someone in southern New Hampshire who frequents the Salvation Army stores.

However, there's a freebie chart which will allow me to remember what I had to pass up. Check out Hancock's House of Happy for a cross stitch pattern of vintage pyrex designs! {via craft magazine)

Have You Seen This?

This Blackbird pattern is coming soon. I want to stitch it for my mother, but instead of putting in children and grandchildren (since that will be pretty pathetic given the current lack of  progeny in our family), I'd go backwards. I'd like to have my mother's matrilineal line as far back as I can take it...or eight generations because there are eight trees. I'm only at five--Maureen, Marguerite, Mary Anne, Maria Eugenie, Mary (whose initial are MOM). If things don't pan out, I can always put myself on there because I make my mother a mother, right?

And if you're one of those people who recognize patterns, no I don't feel bad that my mother didn't name me a name beginning with M. Maria Eugenie was probably called Eugenie because that's how the French Canadians did things back then. All Catholic girls were named Marie and all boys named Joseph with everyone going by their middle name. Although usually it's "Marie" rather than "Maria" so I wonder if her name were more deliberately chosen? Who knows? She's the one who got married in Lowell, Massachusetts one day and then two days later got married in Nashua, New Hampshire. (Probably a religious thing, but two separate marriage licenses. AND she lied about her age on both of them.)

You can probably tell what I've been doing instead of stitching, right?

Le Marquoir Justine

Siobhan stirred many stitchers' desire...wait...um, that didn't sound so dirty when I was writing it. Siobhan's story about her Le Marquoir de Justine stirred many stitchers' desire to obtain and stitch that lovely pattern.

About a month ago, I starred a post on Violarium. They've got the pattern in stock.

To Market! To Market!

Hillside Samplings, "Autumn Willow" You know about the pumpkin obsession, but there's a willow obsession too. Camp is in three weeks and I have three gift certificates to spend.
Workbasket, "Bunny Attitude "Loyal readers will recognize my dedication to spirals. Love it!
Plum Street Samplers, "Dead Man's Chess" The dude (chess rating 1665) took one look at it and said, "Do you know what's wrong with the chess board?" Since I have been subjected to that question a hundred times, I knew right away, the board is set up wrong. The square in the lower left corner should be white. I have been with him in a variety of places where he has told people their chess boards are set up incorrectly (stores, showhouses). In one showhouse there was a "no touching" rule that they broke so he could reset the board--in that case, it wasn't just the right hand corner, but also some of the pieces were in the wrong place. And don't get him started on that ad for some sleeping pill with Abe Lincoln. He goes nuts, e v e r y t i m e he sees it.

Leah Enables

Leah has found the pattern. Jacob's Sampler from Cedar Hill. But here's what's weird. I think I was in Cedar Hill's booth! Am I just confusing this pattern with another? BestPal, you were there. Have I lost my mind?

Anyway, Leah's link is not lost on me because I am looking for a sampler to do for a cousin's baby, and Cedar Hill had a cutie.

In more news of Leah's enabling, I actually started the marquoir. There's not much to show at this point. I am using black and 921. It's going to be perfect in the dining room, you know, in 17 months when it's done.

Pardonnez, mes amies francais

Last year at Hershey, I saw the cutest sheep pattern. The daughter of the shop owner was working in the booth, and as charming as she was all she knew about the pattern was, "it's French." So I sort of put it out of my mind, because really, do I not have enough patterns? This month, I was flipping through the online stitching magazine, The Gift of Stitching, and there was the pattern! In an article about cartonnage (making cardboard boxes). I wrote a note to the editor, but she doesn't speak French, so she can't help me. That's sort of a lame response, but I won't go there. She suggested I go on their forum. And, I should, but I am so adverse to fora.

The picture features three fat sheep, grey, black, and white (l-r) under the letters "ABC" and above the lowercase alphabet. Je voudrais le modele!

If you have a hint of who the designer is, please let me know!

Merci beaucoup.

Oh, and Lee asked how I found yesterday's link. I was reading someone's blog and decided to click on a blog I didn't normally read, then another, and then I found myself at the website. It's like synchronicity.

Three Hundred and Counting

The scary thing about spending 30 minutes a day organizing the craft room is that I am getting an accurate count of the patterns that I have. I have created a database, so that I can keep track. I know which patterns feature sheep, and I can still pull everything by designer. I should so be a librarian. (One in the family, well, I'd say is enough, but I know too many librarians read this.)

Anyway, this weekend, the pattern count went over 300. If I never bought another pattern, I could stitch for twelve years. And I have Heart's Content kits and Sandy Cozzolino Santa kits still to add.

I think I'm going to have to part with some. Otherwise, I'll never be able to justify buying another pattern. OTOH, I don't want to part with some of the ones that I stitched that I kept notes on. The Wee Chicken by Heart in Hand on which I wrote the start date and finish date and "for mom." First, no one wants the Trilogy patterns I've stitched and, bored, traced the star, bird, and heart that grace all their patterns. And second, I might need it. Oh, let's face it. I am never going to stitch Homespun Elegance's Folk Art I. But I've seen how little I buy stuff for on ebay. And I don't want to sell it for that little. My ebay threshhold is $4. I don't ship anything out for less than that.

Maybe I should just open a shop.

My Pumpkin Patch

Well, the Glendon Place pattern arrived. And I did buy the Trio of Pumpkins that came with a Duo of Trees on ebay. Here are all my pumpkin patterns together. Because I just have the sneaking suspicion that this is what my pumpkin patch will look like for a few more years...

Here's the list, if you can't make them all out: Glendon Place, Pretty Pumpkins; Sheepish Designs, Scarry [sic] Wabbit; Twisted Threads, Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin, Itty Bitty Trio of Pumpkins, and Pumpkin Gingham; Heart in Hand, Fall Fobs and Monthly Mania October; Lizzie*Kate, Plumpkin; Bent Creek, Pumpkin Patch; Window Garden Designs, Pumpkin Sampler; Holiday Sparrow, Boo Guys; Hillside Samplings, Jack O'Lantern; Historic Needlework Guild, Seasonal Pins II; Marilyn and Jackie's Collectibles, Ribbon Pumpkin; Homespun Elegance, Shabby Chic Autumn; ThreadBear Creations, Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater; BOAF, Scared Silly; Cricket Collection, Frost; Sisters and Best Friends, Autumn Thanks and Button Border Pumpkins; and 4 My Boys, Pumpkins Three for Thee. Whew.

Pumpkin pattern total: 20.

Stitched: 0.

Ones I don't even care for anymore: 2.

Me: pathetic.