(okay… maybe a teensy bit of one)

One of the things I’ve decided is causing some of the stall in my stitching is the fact that I keep sticking on the same half dozen projects. I’ve been telling myself that I’m not allowed to start anything else in my stash unless I finish the projects I have… and well… that’s turned more into a curse on my progress, honestly. Part of the problem also is just – my Teresa Wentzler addiction. I have plenty of pieces in progress, but those are huge slogs of pieces. I need some smaller – or just easier – pieces to add into my rotation so I get occasional "happy dance" celebrations with completions.

So I decided to allow myself to kit up the following projects to add some variety into my rotation:

• Legends of the Dragons (Teresa Wentzler) – only because it’s part of a stitch-a-long on the TW message boards
• Mirror, Mirror (Abbey Lane Designs)
• The Catfeeder (Cedar Hill)
• Lazy People (Calico Crossroads)
• Wee Beasties IV (Dimples Designs)
• Dragon’s Tea Party (Dragon Dreams)
• Sleepy Hollow (Glendon Place)
• Autumn in the Square (Just Nan)
• Leaping Cat (La-D-Da)
• Witches Dance (Lavender Wings)
• Coffee Menu (Little House Needleworks)
• Dragonflies, Ladybugs & Bees (M Designs)
• Spring Queen (Mirabilia)
• Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof Designs)

I already have tons of fabric from which to choose for these projects. I just needed to check my floss status. And that’s where the problem starts.

About two weeks ago, I plunked on the couch with the projects I’d selected, a bunch of craft organizer tubs and my main floss stash. Like many stitchers, I keep a "master" supply of floss that I’ve collected over the years – either through leftovers from previous projects, or pickups from friends and family and the occasional yard sale. I always try to pull from that supply first, and then I’ll fill in missing colors from the store.

This does mean that any given moment, I may have a bunch of the same color of floss sitting between projects – but to make sure I don’t mix older DMC dyelots with newer ones (or just deal with the natural fading/aging of thread as it stores), I won’t share a color between two concurrent projects. If I wind up with a bunch of leftover, fine – it makes it easier to pull in the future. But I’d rather have the leftover than run out halfway through a project, buy a new skein of the same number… and it doesn’t match.

So anyway… I go through and make a very messy scribbled list of floss color numbers I’m missing. I clean it up during the quiet period of work last week – and this morning, headed off to the craft store to pull colors.

And well… I guess I needed a lot more than I thought I’d need:

It’s fairly deep, although you can’t tell that well from that photo.

The receipt, however, is better proof of what’s going on. (this is my embarrassed smile – Erich wouldn’t allow me to make a terrified face). Pardon the PJs.

The cash register clerk HATED me. Had I known that he had to ring each skein in individually, I’d never have pulled it all at one store.

So yeah – um… $65. All but five skeins are normal, run of the mill 37 cent DMC.

And the really sad thing? I still need to go to an actual cross-stitch store and purchase the hand-dyed threads and beads for a few of these.

(hides and quietly begins winding bobbins)