Show Your Stash: Patterns

Back again with another Show Your Stash from Anna. This is from an old post (mid-October), but I thought it would be a great filler to use while I'm on vacation! 

When you shop for patterns, do you buy on impulse or do you buy only what you need?   Umm, what is this word "need" being used. I impulse by patterns. I can't go into a LNS without buying something (which is usually floss, but sometimes a pattern).

How do you sort your patterns—by designer? theme? Season?  Sort patterns? Funny. I "sort" mine by size. Example, small Lizzie Kate's live in my sewing box in a specific tier, but full sized patterns live at the bottom or in some IKEA furniture we have. I've been meaning to get some page protectors and put them into the 8 million 3 ring binders I own thanks to studying for actuarial exams. I bought the protectors, but still have made 0 progess on this goal. 

How do you store your patterns? I guess I answered this above! The majority of my patterns are in my sewing box that I found at a local junk store, but all the over sized ones are in my Ikea cubbies. I stitch by scanning them into my iPad, so I don't really need to have it on hand any time after that so they get stuck in various places. 

Which designer do you own the most patterns by? Probably Little House Needleworks or Lizzie Kate. I'm a smalls fan, and they both design tons of cute smalls. 

Which designer have you stitched the most patterns by? Hmm, I think it's a pretty close tie... between LHN  and L*K with maybe Lizzie Kate for the slight edge. Mostly ornaments. 

What tips do you have for building up a well-rounded stash? This is more difficult, I have many many magazines that I purchased at a book sale one time, so I guess, don't restrain yourself if everything is a quarter! 

When do you say enough is enough? When you have no room left? Or when you start buying the same pattern more than once? This is a personal decision. 

How do you whittle your stash down when it's gotten too large? Giveaways! There's probably someone who would also love what you love! 

Do you have a current favorite in your stash? Let’s see it! My current favorite is probably Plum Pudding by Glendon Place. I don't know why I didn't start it first (I'm currently working on Tiramisu), but it's my favorite at the moment.

Feel free to join us and post a link to your post below! 

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MMMM 2.2

Hi all! I'm back again for MMMM (Mega Mini Madness Month) hosted in November by Justine!

I was hoping to complete this little guy's buddy by today, but it looks like I wasn't quite there. I am really close though!

I'm bring him on vacation with me and also two patterns from Cross Stitcher magazine, I can't remember which issue right now, but it's these adorable little deer. I'm going to make two of them on this same light blue fabric!

I have a 14 hour flight (hopefully sleeping) and at least one 5 hour train ride, so I'm hoping to get Mr. Presents done and hopefully a lot of one of the deer. I also am bringing a Little House Needleworks design just in case. I scanned everything into my iPad, so it's not like, taking up room or anything!

I'm off to start packing! Hopefully I'll have another update for you next Wednesday with some travel pictures!

Anyone else travel with their stitching?

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MMMM 2.1 & a SAL

While Pull the Other Thread's MMMM might be over, the lovely Justine over at Justine's Cross Stitches decided to host in November. You have until November 5th (today!) to sign up! This one only requires 4 posts since the sign up deadline is a week into November already. I'm breaking away from the roman numerals and starting to number these posts instead.

I'm really hoping I'll manage to get 4 posts in this month, but honestly, I'm going on vacation for 2.5 weeks later this month and it might be a struggle. I do have a post or two lined up already, I'll just have to add some mini information and status updates to them! There will be a few train rides, so I'm thinking some stitching might be accomplished then.

My husband and I are going back to Japan and this time I'm looking up cross stitch stores. I don't know if anyone out there reading this knows of any stores, but if you do please feel free to let me know in the comments! I think I might have found one in Kobe, but I am not totally sure of their hours. Google translate can only help so much. I am for sure going to the fabric district of Tokyo, so I might find some cool stuff there.

I have finally started my holiday stitching! I'm 79% sure that none of my friends read my blog, so I am not really worried about posting pictures. :)

I started this little guy on Friday and he's been such a quick stitch! He's called "Festive Ted" and he's from the November 2013 Cross Stitch Collection magazine. It's amazing the difference back stitching makes!

The lack of light this time of year is really effecting my pictures unfortunately. My husband did buy me a light box, so I'm going to bust that out soon. The background is actually a lovely pale blue Monika linen I had in my stash. The bear's colors are from Victorian Motto. I think they were... shades of pumpkin maybe and a mix of DMC. I love love love Nacy's threads. They are really a pleasure to work with and I find that they don't tangle as much. Maybe because I don't keep them on bobbins, but in Floss A-Way bags instead.

He's got 3 buddies (Presents, Stars, & Mistletoe) but I think candy cane was the best. He is meant to go in a card, but I thought he would be just as cute as an ornament. I wish all of my projects where this quick!!! I think I'm going to make a buddy of his too since he turned out so well.I still have to add the year and my friends' baby's name, but it's done for now! 

I'm also getting around to stitching my swap gift up with the beads. I really don't think I'll ever do this again, my needle isn't small enough and picking up each silly beads is super annoying. I need one of those tacky bobs or something:

I have three more patterns picked out for some other people. I am hoping to start working on one of those tonight! I'm hoping to get these four finished by December so I can concentrate on one for my parents and then have a finishing day and crank them all out at once. Fingers crossed! At least I have already finished 7 of them this year so no one will be missing out on a present or anything. :D

Speaking of quick projects, or in this case, not quick for me projects, Neilteil (Stitched Up!) and I are going to jointly host a Glendon Place Amazing Desserts Stitch Along for 2015. You can find all of Glendon Place's "Amazing Desserts" Series here (scroll to the bottom). If you are interested, check out my link in the sidebar: Glendon Place SAL for more details and to sign up! There will be a fabulous prize at the end! The sign up deadline is January 1st. With your first post due by January 15th (but you don't even have to start stitching until April!) Hopefully there will be enough interest in this. If not, Neilteil and I will be doing our own!

I already have the Plum Pudding pattern so I'm asking for the floss, fabric, and beads for Christmas! I've clearly already started the Tiramisu pattern, but I think that would be an unfair advantage, so only new starts are allowed for the SAL (to be eligible for prizes).

Update: Nacy is having a 25 Days of Christmas giveaway, go and enter here! Her fabrics & threads are AMAZING. :)

Who else has signed up for another Mega Mini Madness Month? Who is interested in the Glendon Place SAL?

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