Stashing and Stitching pics

Spent most of the morning looking though my cross stitch magazine stash. Let me share a bit of it with you. These are first run pics, none of the mags are duplicates and I have not posted these pics before. There are LOTS more, but for now, these are all my arms could carry. They are very heavy.

New Stitches Magazine, UK

Quick and Easy Cross Stitch Magazine, UK

If you are thinking that going through my stash is almost like going shopping, you are right! There is a lot of it and sometimes, although rarely, I duplicate stash unknowingly. Usually, if I have a duplicate of something it is because I planned it that way. There are times that I will buy two magazines, one to stitch from, one to save. When I finish with the duplicate mag I will trade it for another because it is still in awesome condition. Of course, I have purchased duplicate mags with the purpose of trading them with stitchers from other countries that may not be able to find them where they live.

Living in NYC has its benefit of being able to find lots of the foreign magazines in bookshops. Here in the US, we purchase the magazines in both bookshops and local cross stitch shops. Well, there aren't any local cross stitch shops in NYC, we need to go to Long Island, but you get the idea. I find that to be a great plus of living here. The most popular are the UK mags. I have not been able to find any French magazines. Lately my favorites are the French mags because they have wonderful finishing ideas in them. I love seeing what the French stitchers are creating because they have unique insights for smalls.

As you know, I have been stitching and blogging. Happily, I share 2 progress pictures of my patriotic UFO. The major reason it's a UFO is because I am stitching it on Cashel linen. I really thought I would like stitching on linen, but I don't. My preference is evenweave, preferrably Jobelan.

The Salute
Color Charts

Because I have been a good stitcher and worked on my UFO, I have allowed myself to start on a small Disney project. I am so thrilled about Disney stitching. The characters come to life so well. Yes, they are a bit advance with all the 1/4 and 3/4 stitching, but they are well worth the time.

Keep on stitching..........

Re-read some of my own blog

For the last few months I have been reading other people's blogs and loving it. Today, I re-read my own older posts and I must say that I liked them. They made me remember why I started this blog and why I should blog more often. I am inspired to jazz up my blog by reading other blogs, but so far, I think I have done a good job.
There is much more to do, most importantly to stitch. To that end, I have posted a WIP.

My WIP, The Salute, is an OOP design by Color Charts. It was a UFO this morning. Today I worked a bit on it which made me realize that I still like it even though I purchased the chart over 15 years ago. I think longer, but then I would date myself.

My tastes have not changed much, I still love patriotic pieces and the more difficult cross stitch pieces. As always, Disney patterns are still my favorites. So much so that I am thinking about opening some of my Art of Disney kits and starting to stitch them.

On another blog I saw a stitcher starting a Disney Round Robin. It is soooooo cute. I really enjoyed her "Doc". That started a whole slew of ideas in my mind and I have to start putting them in motion.

I was able to finish the USA hat that I posted a few weeks ago as a WIP. It is very nice. I enjoyed stitching it and will probably stitch it again.

In my fabric stash I have lots of patriotic cotton fabrics and am thinking of using them to back my patriotic smalls.

There is a biscornu orange variegated top that I have stitched and hope show next time as well. I need to start stitching the bottom still.

As you can see I have lots of hope to stitch more and more. I will turn on that "stitching battery" and come up with great finishes... I promise you and I promise myself to relax and stitch.

Wishing you lots of stitching time .....