The current Stitching Blogger’s Question is:
What do you do to your thread clippings? Do you just scrap them or do
you use them in something else?
I throw them away, as I don’t know what else I would do with them. The only possible use I know of is a vague memory of someone on RCTN using them to fill witch balls (glass fishing floats?). I’m curious as to what other people do with them, though.
The Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week:
Do you currently subscribe to any stitching publications or have you in the past? (Either in print or online) If so, which ones?
I don’t subscribe to any at the moment, and I rarely buy them off the rack. I have hundreds of them in my stash, and I keep meaning to go through and just keep the designs I’m still planning to stitch, but I never get around to doing it! I stopped buying them because I realized that I haven’t ever stitched one single pattern in any of those hundreds of magazines.
Continue reading “SBQ: Stitching Publications”
The Stitching Blogger’s Question of the Week is:
Do you ever get to a point working on a project that you’ve had for so
long, you start to wonder what possessed you to start it in the first
place?
Of course! It has always happened with patterns I chose to do for someone else, though, rather than those I chose because I was interested in them. There are a few WIPs that have outlived the relationships that inspired them, and they may never be finished. That’s a bit embarrassing, but in at least one case I wouldn’t have ever started the piece if I’d really known what an unstable, vicious being the intended recipient was.
This week’s Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week:
For seasoned stitchers: Define a stitching term or acronym for new
stitchers.
Gah. I don’t play in the needlework newsgroup any more, so I don’t think in acronyms. Railroading is the only term that I can think of that wasn’t obvious or explained in a pattern’s instructions. There’s a decent explanation here, and an article with good photos here.
And another Stitching Blogger Question of the week, which should leave me all caught up:
At one time, I thought so. My mother has a Tigerlily piece I did for her, and my father has a big Marine Corps Emblem that hangs in his office. Unfortunately, the first piece I ever framed and gave to them suffered smoke damage, and I haven’t been able to get it completely clean yet. They haven’t expressed any interest in having it back, either. Mom stuck another piece I did and gave to her in a drawer, and forgot that I’d done it at all.
Some of the pieces I did for my first husband’s family, like a baby sampler and a nice serving tray, may get passed on. Maybe. They may have gotten rid of them because of the association with an ex-spouse. Who knows?
And another Stitching Blogger Question:
I can’t remember the last time I did a piece that used blended threads. Obviously, I haven’t gotten around to stitching anything by Teresa Wentzler 😉
When I’ve had to use them, I just blend them as the need arises. I keep most of my threads (DMC, definitely) on plastic bobbins, so when I start a project I gather all the colors required and put them on a metal ring. As I cut a length, I wind whatever I didn’t use back on the bobbin for later use, to avoid waste.
I’m behind on the Stitching Bloqqer Questions, so I’ll do them for the next few days.
What is the most complicated piece you’ve ever completed?
I’m trying to figure out how to judge how complicated someone else would judge a piece to be. Size? Different types of stitches? Embellishments?
For sheer cussedness, though it was worth it, I’d have to say that the Elemental Cosmos piece designed by Witches Stitches probably takes the cake. It didn’t use blended needles or special fibers or stitches, but there were lots of little sections of “three stitches this color, four of that color, one stitch of another” and so on. I had to do a lot of frogging, too, before I figured out some of the tricks of working on black fabric. It’s beautiful, though!
Mélange from Calico Crossroads was the first piece I did that really used a lot of different stitches. I enjoyed it greatly.
Yay! Another Stitching Bloggers’ Question:
What items do you consider essential to your needlework that you keep
in your stitching bag
The pattern, fabric and ring of floss cards for my current project, the scroll bars or QSnaps or hoop or whatever I’m using (I seldom stitch in hand), and a long silver chain on which I wear my scissors and needle case. If I’m working with metallics, I also keep—whoops, what’s the name of it? That tiny blue cube of stuff that makes metallics so much more manageable? I’m not using metallics at the moment, so there’s none in my bag, but I guess I should go look up the name of it.
I did keep a seam ripper in the bag, but I don’t have a safe case for my current ripper, so I’m afraid to do that.
Lately, I also keep a small magnifier/light that hangs around my neck in the bag. It doesn’t work so well, though, so I should probably just take it out.
I really need to replace my bag. It’s falling apart, and the zipper is stubborn. It’s been incredibly good for a freebie bag, though! It lasted about ten years.
I’ve lusted after a nice standing or lap frame for years—one of the good, sturdy ones, with attachments for a lamp and a magnifier and chart holder and a place to put your fibers and such. Some even come with cup holders! The nice ones are trés expensive, though. I don’t want to bother with the flimsy ones, as I think they’d be more frustrating than helpful.
This week’s Stitching Bloggers’ Question is:
I don’t remember actually stitching any of the many patterns I’ve downloaded. Theoretically, though, I’m sure I’d print them out, and probably put the printout in a clear page protector. I like to keep my current pattern in my stitching bag, and the monitor just isn’t a good fit 🙂
I lost most of the patterns I’d collected online over the years when my laptop died, unfortunately. I think maybe I should print them out after downloading them, and put them in a notebook kept with the rest of my patterns. That way I’d be more likely to remember them when I’m looking for an idea, too.
(I’m glad to see the SBQ back. I didn’t get a message from the list last week, and maybe not the week before.)
This week’s question is the first of some recycled questions. It was first asked back in 2005, and I don’t think I even knew about SBQ then, so I doubt that I’ve answered it before.
After you stitch a pattern or kit, what do you do with it?
I’ve done so few kits that they hardly count. I think I have just about every pattern I’ve ever stitch, though. I wish I had photos of all the items I’ve stitched from those patterns! I guess hanging on to the pattern is a memoir, of sorts, as I’m very unlikely to stitch most things more than once.
Continue reading “SBQ: What do you do with completed patterns?”
