Just for fun - and just for me....

I so very rarely create with absolutely no idea what I'm going to make or where it is going. 

Even less often - do I make anything for myself. 

This post is all about both of those things. 

It's also about this little issue I have with  hoarding 

 uh - 

 I mean keeping good stuff. 

I have this storage box - and even though I posted that it was an organizing tool - the damned organization just magically undid itself. 

I got into the habit of stuffing floss leftovers in the top compartment. 

Resulting in this. 

This is all good quality floss - but not numbered. Most of it is left from kits. Or came in a sewing box I gathered up while thrifting.  Just a jumble of threads. 

I'll be 49 in July. (I know that seems random, but it isn't)

I was stuffing yet another bit of floss into the compartment and I decided that I MAYBE could make an "inchie" sampler for myself out of this box. 

So off to the studio for a bit of 14 count cream AIDA cloth. 

I put inchie in quotes because I'm doing 10x10 stitch squares instead of 14x14.

But I started a square with the first color I grabbed from the box. 

It will be 7x7 squares - each a different color. 

Then I'll embellish it to MY liking. 

Well - I had lots of that floss color left - so I gathered me some scraps of other cross stitch fabrics.

Because I keep all kinds of good stuff. 

Then I randomly started stitching. In repeat type patterns using that color. 

When I get one finished (or to a stopping point) , I tuck it in my cheese dome. 

Then I wind the remaining floss and put it into a compartment in the bottom of the storage box. 

Not tangled and easy to use. 

Yes - the button was in that danged mess from the first picture. 

This is one of my favorites. Three stitch stair steps.

I keep the whole shebang in a plastic bag by my chair. Grab it and stitch a bit most nights. 

The repetitive stitching and easy patterning are relaxing and since there is no "deadline" or even a "planned use" for the these I feel no pressure working on them. 

In the picture above, see that bit to the far left. Well often I have just enough floss for a few stitches left in the needle. For those bits, I grab this strip of the fabric and add stitches until that bit is gone. TOTALLY random numbers of stitches. It's a fun little piece. 

Then there is this little bottle. 

It came from Cracker Barrel

Held a single serving of their syrup. I kept it with the idea I could use it. (Remember - I keep all kinds of good stuff.)

I have stuffed thread bits in it for years. 

I started stuffing when I made the stitching for the pillow from this post.

Mostly because so much of that stitching was done in the car and or at various ball games and I needed a way to corral them. 

I keep stuffing - and its funny, I can remember where a lot of the visible threads were used. I'll keep saving them and then someday it will be full. Then I can sit it on a shelf and one day, my kids can say 

"see my mama had issues, she even kept this REALLY GOOD stuff." 

As I wrote this - I actually giggled out loud. 

It's really just a fun little bottle that has no purpose at all other than to corral the trimmed bits. But it makes me smile to look at it. 

So there - 

I'm organizing stuff.

I'm kind of using the stuff. 

I'm creating and I NEED to create for my sanity. 

This creating is NOT costing me any extra money. 

But - aside from the "inchie" sampler I'm making to commemorate my 49th year - now I need to find a use for these little stitched bits. 

Or maybe I can just keep them. 

Because - well - you know - I KEEP SOME REALLY GOOD STUFF.

Life is beautiful.