Good Juju

I'm totally off the rotation this week: working on the quilt for my niece and making Valentine's day cards for my grandmothers--still trying to write to them every month! And our home computer is having "issues" which are stressing me out. I told the dude to go buy a new one last weekend, but he'd rather just yell at this one. Why not? So it takes ages to get two photos onto the blog. Anyway it's sapping my low energy.

However, CinDC blames my lost poll for sweeping her box of floss off into the great wide open. Let's help her find it.

A Different Kind of Lost

It's Friday, time for a poll.

I'm sure there are other answers. If I haven't listed yours, you know where to stick it...in the comments, why, where'd you think?

Least Favorite

Quite some time ago, Jo "hinted" that I should do a poll about people's least favorite stitches. I didn't forget.




Mine's not on here. I hate satin stitch. I am completely convinced the stitch always looks better on the back than the front. No matter which way I hold the fabric when I make the stitch.

Poll: 32 Shopping Days...

Now I feel like I have set some sort of precedent. You come here on Fridays and think, "ooh, I hope there is a poll for me to take." As my boss once said, "People like clicking!" (She said this to justify hiding information on our website under some crazy titles like "Get informed" "Get connected" and "Get something else that makes no sense and you will never find what you are looking for because someone wants to stick with this silly 'Get something' format!" We objected. She responded, "people like clicking; they like interactivity!" Yes, but they don't like searching for information that should be plain. D'oh.)

You like clicking, so let's get to it.

How are you doing on the preparation for Christmas or other end of year holiday you may celebrate?

Poll: UFO Follow Up

Thirty four people took the poll on November 2, and owned up to roughly 600 projects on the go. So how did we get here? Whether the projects are actively being stitched on or are resting in a basket/rubbermaid tub/"The Pile," why have some of these projects become UFOs? (I'm calling them UFOs even though some people distinguish between UFOs and WIPs, and we're still only counting needlework projects.) This poll allows multiple choices. If you have other answers, please add them to the comments section. There's a love. (There are going to be lots of "other" answers. I couldn't even fit in all of my own responses when I made the poll. Like: "all that's left is backstitching...too much backstitching!")






By the way, thanks for sticking with me even though yesterday's post was cuckoo.

Needles with Ink

Today, google thought I should know about a story that a Harrisonburg, VA television station did about The Tattooed.

Annie Holloob spends a lot of her time reading to kids and [doing] arts [and] crafts from crocheting [to] cross stitch and needlepoint. She also has several tattoos.

You're kidding me! A tattooed woman does cross-stitch? Or is it a cross-stitcher is tattooed? It's just so crazy! (You realize that is sarcasm, yes?)

So here's a non-Friday quiz:
Are you tattooed? If you are, pop a note in the comments telling us what it is. If you're not tattooed, you can still play: what would your hypothetical tat be?

Poll: Complete but not Finished

For me, the worst thing about stitching is the finishing. Once I've put in the last stitch, I am so over the project. And then, I have to finish it--make it into a pillow or ornament or frame the piece, etc. (Which the stitchers know...apparently, I am writing for the, what, one person who reads the blog but doesn't stitch?)

Like Nicole, it's all about the process for me. Once it's done, it goes right into a plastic storage bin or, if it's large, onto a skirt hanger in the closet. Unless, of course, I decide to give it to someone else, then it gets finished. Right now, these bins and hangers--and a plastic bag of ornaments that just need to have trim attached--contain 78 FUFOs.

So, own up. How many FUFOs?

And really, you don't have to blush if you have more than 81. I wouldn't.

Poll: Projects on the Go

Recently on Knitting Daily, they had a poll to see how many works in progress everyone has. Since I don't think Interweave will ever make "Stitching Daily" (though they do have "Beading Daily")--frankly, I'm not sure what there'd even be to say in Stitching Daily, though we may find out here this month--I thought I'd see how many projects we are talking about when we talk about things we've begun--just to be clear, you've had to have taken a stitch. (What you have kitted up doesn't count.)

I'll go first. I have: Anna’s Bird (Good Huswife), Elizabethan Rose (Moss Creek), Majestic Rooster (Eileen Bennett), Tree of Life Window (Heartland House), Watercolor Geraniums, Apple Sampler (Curtis Boehringer), Summer Place* (Cross Eyed Cricket), 18th Century Knot Garden (Liz Turner Diehl), Tall Flowers Sampler (Liberty Street Designs), Snowman Stocking (Bent Creek), Ancienne Marquior Bleu et Rouge (Gigi), St. Basil’s Cathedral (Dimples Designs), Hardanger Napkins (Stella Bjerg), Merry and Bright (Heart’s Content), Toy Gatherer (Shepherd’s Bush), Treasured Tulips (Nutmeg Needle), Santa kit on black fabric (this is from memory), Scared Silly (BOAF), Animal Samplings (Hillside Samplings), Jillian’s Stocking (Shepherd’s Bush), Noel ornament (Fancy Work).

I'm hoping I have not started anything else that I've forgotten about... Some of these are shockingly close to being finished. But if you had asked me how much I had to do on those, I would have told you that there were still weeks of stitching on everything. (I can just hear you saying, you mean she hasn't finished Toy Gatherer, yet? Doesn't she just have to put in the beads?)

Interestingly, while I was going through the archives, I realized I have held steady at the number of projects I have had on the go since 2004. Maybe I should just be a twenty at a time stitcher. I own it.

*I should retake that because I have more done on that one now. DD I have looked in the baskets, but I'm looking in the other places you suggested tonight! Then, we're buying a new camera, which we promised ourselves last Christmas.