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.
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.
