Tuesday, April 12, 2016

All but the Eyes

When I pick a new project from my ever growing pile of TODO's, I have a heart to heart discussion with the dog (Cali).  Ask a few questions - Does this meet any of our current goals?  How long do you think this will take?  Do you remember what was going through your mind when you moved this from the Someday Pile to the TODO Pile?   Was a specific reason why this chart was purchased to begin with? Do we have the required threads, or will we have to substitute?

All the answers we came up with made great sense and I began with high hopes and great expectations.

Here he is finished - A Cardinal with a Candy Cane - just need to get the beads for his eyes.  
HOWEVER!!!!!.  I can't tell you how difficult this was for me to finish.  There was a lot of Ripping out and Restitching.  The fabric bothered me - it really is a pine green - but somehow I could never get the count right and was constantly off one line.  That was the easy part --- But the Snowflakes were a mess.  These 12 Snowflakes took me THREE HOURS.  And I think the one at the top right is a little off, and to that I say, Oh Well.  I am so NOT a Perfectionist.  And he is a 2016 Christmas Finish, a Small Finish, with a huge introduction.   


The snow is finally melted here.  Fingers crossed it is gone now until October.  A Floss Organization Project is set for the Weekend - I hate to do it, but I know in the long run, it will save me so much time later.  If anyone would like to share some great ideas on how your organize your floss, I would love some.

18 comments:

  1. All of your hard work, frustration, patience and determination has definitely paid off. Congratulations on your beautiful finish. :)
    For organising floss, I always bobbinate my skeins (1/2 skein per bobbin) and store the unused ones in thread boxes. When I am stitching a project I make sure I've got all of the threads I need and they stay with that project until it is completed. Only then will they be returned to the thread boxes. Yes, this does mean I have lots of duplicates, but it also means I get colour continuity when more than one skein is needed. Hope that all makes sense! :)

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  2. Cute cardinal! I keep all my floss on cards in plastic boxes in order by number.

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  3. I love your cardinal, and your system for choosing a project to work on!
    The Twisted Stitcher has a great post on storing threads. I have my DO on bobbins, and my hand-dyed threads are on huge key rings.

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  4. What a fun design and stitched so well. Don't tell us it's off and we'll never know!

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  5. That's a lovely little design - YAY for the finish!

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  6. Oh my, what a beautiful cardinal you stitched. Sorry to hear that it gave you so much trouble. But the result is gorgeous. Who is the designer? I love to stitch cardinals as well.
    My DMCs are on bobbins in a tool box where the bobbins fit in perfectly. The duplicates are in plastic bags where I pull them from when I kit up a large project. The overdyeds are on large floss rings in alphabetical order. Works fine for me.

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  7. What a beautiful and cute cardinal!! I love those birds, we don't have them in the UK :)
    All my DMC floss is on bobbins that fit in plastic boxes. They are sorted by number from smallest to biggest.
    My overdyed, as I haven't many, are simply kept in a plastic box loose with the original tag so that I can identify them.
    Spare/double DMC skeins are kept in a plastic bag and ready to be included in my box when needed. All organised-ish and is working fine for me too :)

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  8. Oh I love this one! Cardinals are so beautiful. I just LOVE that your dog helps you with all your questions. I'm the same way LOL. Good luck finding the way that works for you for your floss.

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  9. This is such a fun stitch! He's a realistic looking bird but holding a quirky cane. Love it!
    I store my threads in Flossaway bags on rings in numerical order. Quick and easy to find. Life's too short to bobbinate LOL

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  10. Organize? I thought that was a four letter word....

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  11. Love your Cardinal but sorry to hear he gave you such trouble with the counting and ripping out. Love the conversation with Cali; I usually just have that one with myself because the dogs only listen when I mention treats :/

    I have two of each color wrapped on bobbins. The first is in my floss box and when that one runs out I replace it with the second one and put the first one in my purse so I know which floss numbers I need when I go to the store. Works for me :)

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  12. Love that cardinal. I see someone has suggested Vonna's system. I have my threads on bobbins in boxes and my overdyeds are on rings. The usual...

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  13. I think he is adorable :) Wonderful finish!

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  14. Sorry your sweet little Cardinal gave you so much trouble. He's adorable!!

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  15. Oh no it sounds like this rascally birdy gave you quite the time of it. I think it looks really good, so congrats on finishing it especially when it was hard going at times. Well done xo Alicia

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  16. The cardinal is gorgeous. I save my thread on cards in plastic boxes. Firstly I saved them in number order but I have DMC and also Anchor floss, so I changed and now save them in colour groups. Any overdyed threads are saved apart.

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas.