Shelf Love

I'm happy to report I finished the cross stitching on Homespun Still Life last night.

As you can see, I changed the color of the towels from red to blue. All I have left now is the backstitching which I plan to start on tonight. 

My brother was in town last week so we hit up the estate sales and thrift stores in the area. I was in search of some 80s decor and did manage to find one shelf similar to the one I'm stitching. He brought me a tall four cubby shelf that I think could be turned into a vegetable bin if I can convince him to make some doors for me, similar to these with the wire...

Aida thinks it would make excellent storage for her collection of toys!

Time Travel

I decided to tackle sorting out my mess of DMC yesterday. I've never settled on any one way to organize it and I can't say I'm any closer now. Some of it is wound on bobbins that are filed numerically in plastic boxes which was my go-to method back in the 80s when I first started cross stitching. I also have a cabinet with little drawers that I use to organize skeins in. There was a lot that wouldn't fit in the drawers so all of that went in numbered ziplocs which then went in plastic bins. Then there's the Joann's bag with odds and ends because I'm too lazy to check if it needs to be wound on a bobbin, stuck in a drawer, or shoved in a ziploc. I'm telling you, it can be overwhelming!

 

I did manage to get through the bobbin boxes and made a list of what's missing. In the process I ended up getting all nostalgic about my stitching "journey". I remember wanting every color of DMC back when there were only 360 colors and you could get them for a dime. Every time Michaels would have a sale I'd run over with my list on my lunch hour and stock up. My late husband would help me wind it onto the bobbins, and I still have some with his writing on them!

 

I remember my subscription to Cross Stitch & Country Crafts was quite the splurge for a young couple but I loved every issue and would sit out in the back yard on my chaise lounge (remember the ones made with the plastic tubing?) and read every word. I still have all my issues and ended up sitting on the floor with Aida, paging through them. There were quite a few designs I had stitched and even more than I had wanted to.

 

Before I knew it I had picked a pattern, pulled the DMC from my newly organized boxes, found some linen, and got started on a project from the July/August 1986 issue! 

This is called Homespun Still Life and the designer is Lynn Waters Busa. Such amazing 80s vibes! I had so many of these knick knack shelves in my home back in the day, crammed with little houses, farm animals, and I even had the old timey iron on one!

 

I might need to hit up some garage sales this weekend in search of 80s decor! How can I not?

Gathering Butterflies

I finally finished Quilted Butterflies from the Gather Round series by Hands On Design. I swear all I had left was maybe 16 stitches and backstitching the stems but it sat there for a good two weeks. I think I procrastinate when it comes to finishing something because I know I'm going to have to face my disorganized craft room if I'm going to kit up my next project.

I'd ask Aida to help me sort thread but she has a habit of pulling the paper tags off and eating them.

 

She also has a hard time distinguishing between Q-Snaps and chew toys.