I am making progress on the Sampler that I am doing for my DH's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. We feel really fortunate to be able to celebrate this special occasion with them and we are looking forward to the trip to California. I am hoping to have this piece finished up sometime Monday or Tuesday but that may be a bit optimistic :-). I want to send it to Jill Rensel Fine Art for framing. Jeff's grandparent's are very "artsy" and I think they'd love it if the matting had handpainted touches on it.
I've been thinking a lot about simplifying and being a bit more practical about what I can and can't accomplish. I am fortunate to have a large number of designs in my personal collection or stash as we stitchers call it :-). Lately though I am realizing that I have more than I can finish in this lifetime. What strikes me is the excess of it, it's not that I don't love my hobby or that I never want to purchase a new project again but I do want to feel like I am being a little more discriminating in what I do get. I am really serious about this. I feel like I need some balance in this area of my life and I want to change the attitude that is behind accumulating all this stash. I've been chatting with some of my stitching friends about how to accomplish this and I've made the decision to go on a "diet". My start date will be 1 January, I wanted to start a the beginning of the year. I will go cold turkey, no fibers, linen, or charts and I am going to do it for {gasp} 120 days so the end date is 1 May. The only exception will be my autos, the Loose Feathers and BC Snappers and those only through the Autumn Snapperland series. After that if I still want to do them they will fall under whatever my new standard ends up being. Between now and then I am going to be very discriminating, I think whatever I get is going to go under the Christmas tree. When I am done with the "diet" I am considering possibly a two for one thing where I can't get something new until I finished two projects with a few exceptions, but I am not sure yet. I don’t want to think of this as restrictive but as an effort to simplify and be a little more practical about what I can finish. It's definitely not to take the fun out of it either, because like I said, I love my hobby. I just need a bit of balance. I know I am not the only one who feels this way because when the subject came up several of my fellow stitchers resolved to join me :-). That said, this is a personal thing that I want to do for myself and I certainly don't think because I feel this way everyone else does. I think everyone should do what makes them happy and allows them to enjoy stitching to their heart's content!
