Once Upon a Time

So I've been sick this week and I have this thing about working on baby quilts when I'm sick. I know that the likelihood of germs (or in this case likely a virus) sticking to the fabric is slim and then it surviving the wash I put it through before gifting is even slimmer, but something about it just skeeves me out. So I just don't bother. Instead I've been flexing my creative muscles by continuing to work on my cross-stitch Once Upon a Time Sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. It is their 2014 sampler and every month I would get a new box to fill in with a fairy tale. The sampler is adorable and I've loved seeing what they've come up with every month, but the end of 2014 came and I didn't even have the border done. So after some serious work, I did manage to complete that. And then also finished stitching all the month names in the boxes. Next up, starting to fill in the other colors. I'm thinking of just skipping around for a bit to fill in the larger areas of color and then going back in for the smaller areas.

I've done a lot of the stitching while sitting in bed on the weekends, when I'm too lazy to get up. Or sitting in the glider that will eventually go in the nursery but is still sitting in our living room in the evenings when I'm ready to stop playing World of Warcraft but not yet ready to go to bed.

Here's how I keep my thread organized. Every time I start a new color that I haven't cut apart yet, I cut the skein into lengths of about four rotations (one rotation = one length of the skein from fold to fold). This either leaves you with one length of six rotations, or I usually cut the last several rotations in half, so it ends up just a bit longer than the other strands. Then I thread it onto a small ring with the number and keep it all on one large project ring in order by number. Once the project is done, I just open the large ring and dump all the little rings with thread into a bin that I can then dig through for the next project. I need to find a better way to store these. I had a great idea for an over-the-door organizer, but the reality of having to sew several hundred hooks onto two layers of duck cloth has kept me from completing this project. Maybe eventually this will turn into some sort of toy organizer for the seedling as the base is already hanging over the back of the nursery/craft room door.