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!
2 comments:
You know you have my support, 100%.
HI Katrina,
I'll tell you startring on this 'diet' to curb your stash enhancement, is going to surprise you. I started this 'diet' myself two years ago, the first year, I fell off the wagon a few times, but not too badly. By the end of the year, I was really surprised at how much I had changed my habits, and how I was looking more at what I had on hand, than on the web and locally to get new things. I would look in my stash and substitute fibers that worked with a project, instead of buying new ones. Or using fabric on hand, even dyeing them myself, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they came out. I have done several more hand dyed pieces since the first 'experiment'. VBG...This year has been the real reward though. I can say that my stash enhancements this year have been minimal...really I go months and months without buying one thing. I break down occasionally and order fabric, or some missing fiber for a project and a few patterns while I'm at it. This has so changed my focus and direction that I have gone to buying maybe 3 times a year, and generally the orders are $40 to $70 -- that was the largest one this year. But they are considerably smaller. I am only on two automatics and that's for the Loose Feathers, and just this week I added fabric to the pattern. So I'll get the fabric with the pattern in the future. The other auto is for VC silks (premium) every month. I dropped the Silkweavers automatic last year sometime and just have never rejoined. These days I am only buying what I need, including fabrics, and not spending more but looking in my stash for what I can use in place of a fabric or fiber, and I am also using more of my older pattersn. yes, there are still a lot of things that I love, but I'm learning to wait and order them when I give myself a little spending moment . Honestly at one time I could say I spent nearly $300 almost every month on stitching stash...and sometimes even more than that. I've gone to spending about $150 so far this year. So I have definitely made some significant changes in my stash purchasing habits, and it has relieved me of a lot of 'guilt' and even a little pressure that i felt becuase I knew I couldn't get to everything that I was buying and it was making me feel a bit of stress over not stitching them sooner. I don't think I will ever go back to spending like I did before. And I'm still quite content with my stash. Happy dieting! You'll be surprised in a year to see how much you have changed, and what a good effect it has had on you emotionally and financially. The great thing is you will still be stitching, and maybe even moreso than before.
Cathy
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