SBQ: The Essentials

Don't look now, but I'm actually answering an SBQ for the first time in a very long time...

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Terri and is:

What items do you consider essential to your needlework that you keep in your stitching bag?

Let's see. In the caddy on the arm of my stitching chair, I can find:

• A variety of needles stuck in the pincushion; everything from 28 to 22 tapestry needles to #10 crewel needles (great for beading or for ending threads) to long beading needles.
• A tekobari (Japanese laying tool) in a wooden case.
• Two pairs of good scissors, one Gingher and one Dovo (because I like them both and I need to be able to find scissors easily!).
• One pair of serrated-edge scissors for cutting metallics (so I don't ruin my good scissors)
• Hemostats, which are wonderful for pulling needles through the back of tight canvas stitches for ending off threads. These are rarely needed for linen work.
• A pen
• A pencil
• A telescoping magnet, which is necessary for tracking down errant needles or scissors that fell off the arm of the chair.

In my main stitching bag, I can also find more packs of needles and clean cosmetic sponges (great for dampening unruly/kinked threads). Also, I take my Elan lap stand with me to all stitching events, since a pinched nerve in my neck means I can only stitch "in hand" for very short periods of time.

Great question!

SBQ: First 2008 Happy Dance

A quick SBQ today...

This week's SBQ is a yearly favorite in January:

Have you had a happy dance yet this year? If so, tell us about it! (Or just point to the entry that mentions it.) If not, when do you predict it will be?

If we're just talking about finishing a project, I've had two so far this year. See the posts here and here. I'm looking forward to a major happy dance when I finally finish the first round of my WIP-loss challenge and I'm able to start something!

SBQ: Favorite Pastime

It's time for another Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week!

This week's SBQ was suggested by Outi:

What is your favorite past time while stitching? Do you just enjoy silence, listen to music/audiobooks or do you "watch" TV/movies? Do you have specific favorites you listen to/watch while stitching?

Strangely enough, it depends on the season. For this purpose, there are two seasons: baseball season, and "not baseball" season.

• During baseball season, DH has the TV tuned to Yankees games as much as possible. Which means we're watching the Yankees five to six nights per week. Ok, he's watching, I'm stitching and listening, until he says "watch this replay". Baseball games are great while stitching, because the action usually comes in short bits, which will usually be replayed at least once.
• For the other six months of the year (mid-October to early April), I try to catch up on all the audiobooks I've downloaded from Audible. I'm on a plan where I get two credits per month, and most books are one credit. If I listened to normal-length books, I could probably keep up. Most books are in the 6-10 hour range. Generally, though, I enjoy long books. Right now I'm listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which is 26 hours long.
  

SBQ: Holiday Gifts

It's time for a Stitching Blogger's Question!

This week's SBQ is:

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

Yes, I did! In fact, I unwrapped the same book twice! There was a little lapse in communication on this one. :-) I received the book "In Praise of the Needlewoman" by Gail Sirna . This book is a result of Gail's research into paintings that feature people (yes, mostly women) doing some sort of needlework. The definition of needlework here is rather loose: it includes embroidery, needlepoint, bobbin lace, knitting, crochet, weaving, tatting, etc. Each painting includes a facing page with text describing the painting and the needlework apparently being done. It's a gorgeous book, and I plan on enjoying it for years to come. I could see this being a coffee table book if I had a coffee table! It will probably find a home near my stitching chair and get pulled out when I'm just a bit too tired to stitch. For more information about this book, a full book review can be seen here.

I also received two gift certificates to my LNS. I'll have to think about how I want to use them!

SBQ Backlog

Since I haven't answered any SBQs (Stitching Bloggers' Questions) in a very long time, I'll at least catch up on the last few weeks of questions today.

This week's SBQ is:

When you have to frog out stitches, do you reuse that thread or do you start over with a new strand?

Ok, first a stitching glossary refresher: "frogging" refers to ripping out mistakes in stitching: "Rippit, rippit!"

Generally, I do not reuse a thread after frogging, since it often becomes frayed or at least loses its luster. The exceptions might be if it's only a stitch or two OR if I'm really low on the thread needed. In fact, if I have to rip out large areas, I generally cut the threads in several places to make frogging easier, which means I can't reuse the thread.

The SBQ for October 31 was suggested by Ternezia:

If you were a cross stitch designer, what would your design style be?

I can't see myself designing cross stitch. I have designed a few hardanger pieces (one of which is actually done), and have put many ideas for geometric needlepoint down on paper. Waving hand - hello, engineer here! Geometric designs are easy for me!

Here's my completed hardanger design:

The SBQ for October 24 was :

Do you railroad?

Another stitching glossary definition: Railroading is a technique to make two floss plies lay side by side. To railroad, before pushing the needle through the fabric to finish a stitch, you separate the two strands of floss by passing the needle between them. It's hard to describe without pictures. Check out this page for a better description.

Now, to answer the question. I will sometimes railroad a stitch or two. Generally, though, I prefer to use a laying tool. It seems that when I railroad, one ply ends up twisted too tightly, and the other gets all fuzzy because it's untwisting. Somebody once described it as ending up with one ply like Marcia Brady hair, and the other like Jan Brady hair!

(If anybody would like it, I'll try to post pictures of how to use a laying tool. It may have to wait a bit, because I'll need assistance with taking pictures of it. Using the laying tool takes two hands!)

The SBQ for October 17 was suggested by Jennifer:

What proportion of your stitching is for your own personal use versus gifts?

The majority of my stitching is for my own enjoyment while I'm working on it. I don't always frame or otherwise "finish" every piece I complete. Many of them are tucked away into a closet. That said, I don't necessarily want to give them away, either. I only give stitched pieces to folks I know will appreciate it. If I'm not sure, as in a wedding piece from earlier this year, I stitch something very simple. Since I don't like to stitch simple pieces, I don't do a lot of this!

So I haven't really answered the question! I suppose I give away maybe 5% or less of my stitching.

Have a great day!

SBQ: Love and Hate

It's been almost a week since I posted, and that's partially because I haven't been stitching much this week. We've had landscape contractors here, ripping out shrubs & weeds, and fixing the flower beds so I can repopulate them with nicer things! Anyway, on to stitching!

I'm so far behind on SBQ's (Stitching Bloggers' Questions), I won't even try to catch up! This week's question applies to one of my current projects, though, so it's getting me back into answering SBQ's!

This week's SBQ was suggested by The Wagon:

What do you love to do that many people hate? What do you hate to do, but do anyway?

All right, I'm strange, but I find french knots very easy, and really like doing them. It seems that so many people avoid french knots or replace them with beads or other types of knots!

For the record, I make french knots with one wrap around the needle (although most diagrams show two), and sink the needle just a little bit away from where the thread came up through the fabric. Maybe some people don't like them because they try to go back down in the same hole and the knot slips to the back of the fabric. That would frustrate me, too! Try moving over a bit (or over 1 thread of linen/canvas) when bringing the needle to the back, and it becomes very easy!

Here are my most recent additions to Fantasy Remembered - french knot raspberries:

I've even picked up one of Theresa Layman's kits (Snow White, Rose Red) that is nothing but french knots!

As for what I hate to do - that's easy! BACKSTITCHING! I'll do it if it's just a bit here and there, but nothing will make me put a cross stitch chart down faster than tons of backstitch to define the shapes in the picture. It's as if the designer has never heard of shading. And if the backstitching is used as a separate element, like a tendril on a vine, I'll stitch that in double-running so the thread on the back doesn't show through to the front.

SBQ: The Wagon

A "Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week" arrived in my mailbox this morning!

This week's SBQ was suggested by Danielle:

Are you on "The Wagon?" If so, how long have you been on and how "serious" are you about it? If not, have you considered it?

First, for my friends who aren't active in some of the stitching forums online, let me take a step back and explain what this means! The idea behind "The Wagon" comes from some of the 12-step programs like AA, NA, etc. In these programs, "being on the wagon" means that you're refraining from the activities that brought you to the group in the first place, whereas "falling off the wagon" means you've slipped into old habits, however temporarily.

For stitchers, this phrase is in regards to stash enhancement. It's easy to get caught up in buying much more than we can possibly stitch, resulting in melted credit cards, especially after industry trade shows when lots of new beautiful designs debut! When a stitcher is "on the wagon", it means that he or she is refraining from buying new stash, or at least being very selective about it - setting a budget, setting up rules for what can or cannot be purchased based on limited availability, imminent plans to stitch the item, etc.

Now, to respond to the question! I am not really "on the wagon", but I have become more discerning regarding what I purchase. I have a long time until retirement, yet I have enough stash to likely make it to retirement and beyond! Because of this and my tastes in stitching, I don't buy a lot of new projects.

I have developed a few rules:

• If I know something's going to be around to purchase when I actually think I'm going to stitch it, then I won't buy it now.
  

• I will take a second look if I know there is limited availability on a piece, or if I'm visiting an out-of-town shop and they carry something I like that I can't easily get at home.

• I will (and do) invest in class projects, both via correspondence and in-person, because I like learning new stitching concepts.
  

Here's a few examples of how I've spent my stash money over the past year or so:

• I have 5 guild GCCs (group correspondence courses) due before September (2 finished, 1 in progress, and 2 unstarted), and I'm signed up for 2 more to start later this year. I'm also going to the Mid-Eastern Region EGA seminar next month and am signed up for two classes.
  

• As I've mentioned before, I am subscribed to Jim Wurth's Dodecagon Series of ornaments, which are kitted and come every other month. When I signed up, I promised myself I'd keep up with stitching them, because these kits are costly enough that I don't need 12 of them sitting there, still waiting to be stitched, at the end of the series. So far, so good!

• I'm also getting the monthly installments for the Redwork Mystery by Gay Ann Rogers, but that was all paid for up-front, so there's no more $$ being spent there! I'm also keeping up with this project (although I've only received two installments so far!).
  

• Ok, I admit it. I'm a sucker for the multi-color Quaker samplers. These are about the only "regular" charts I've been buying recently, mostly because many of them are so limited in availability.
  

• I purchased 4 repro sampler charts from a local historical society. These were reproduced from the exhibit they've got until June. I don't know if these charts will be available for very long after the exhibit closes!

SBQ: Blog Criteria

It's time for another Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week!

This week's SBQ was suggested by Heather:

How do you decide which stitching blogs are worth repeat and/or regular viewings? Are there certain things you look for in particular? Are there things you wish there were more of? Less of? Is your blog a good example of what you like to read?

I generally look for two things when deciding to save a blog link:

1. Frequency of posts: If I visit a blog and find that postings are generally months apart, it's not one I'm going to visit again soon.
   
2. Content: The majority of the posts should have some needlework-based content (with a few pictures, of course!). If I'm looking at a blog that claims to be about stitching, I'd like it to be mainly about stitching! Some people might like their blogs to be well-rounded with all aspects of life. I'm just not one of them! As much as I love my DH and two greyhounds (Sophie & Tucker, if you care), they aren't (and won't be) main topics on my stitching blog.

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Since my stitching group meets tonight, I have limited time for a post. Isn't it fortunate that this week's SBQ (Stitching Blogger's Question) arrived in my mailbox?

This week's SBQ, suggested by Cindy, is:

Do you have a system for organizing freebie charts in your stash? If so, what is it? Do you print out copies of all of the freebies that you find on the web (that you think you might actually stitch) or do you maintain electronic copies of them until you are ready to stitch them?

I'm afraid my system isn't very fancy - almost all of my freebies go into one file folder, marked "Freebies" (of all things!). There are exceptions, though. There are a few designers that have their own folder in my file drawers, and freebies from those designers go into these.

As for the second question - I don't generally print out freebies to stitch. If I find one I might eventually stitch, I'll generally save it electronically. Although I think I can count on one hand the number of freebies I've actually stitched in my stitching career. I can't think of any off the top of my head, actually! I tend to like large projects, and that generally doesn't fit into the freebie category, except for an occasional mystery project from some of the French designers!

I'll be back tomorrow with either a completed Tiramisu (if I finish tonight) or another "A Stitch in Time" post. I'm off to dinner with the ladies...