Stitching....

 My floss (the threads I use to titch with) stash...I finally combined my mom's floss with mine.  I had 6 boxes and she had 5....this is only half of the floss I have now.  This week, I pulled out all my supplies and went through it all.   I have so much, I had a lot before I inherited my mom's and some of my grandmother's things. I told Lee if I ever tell him I want to buy something to stitch, that he is allowed to kick me in the butt!  I probably have enough to last my lifetime!  It took a couple days to organize it all,  lots of fabric and different types of fibers, and all the tools needed to get the job done.  I have some needlepoint too, and that was put in its own box.  I pulled out all of the unfinished projects that I have started and never completed and put them in a basket, with the intention of finishing them before I start another project.  It is kinda nice to go through it all...it was kinda like going on a shopping spree, I had forgotten how much cool stuff I had.  

I started this piece over 7 years ago, and I have been plugging away at it the last couple of months...I finished it this evening.  It is a reproduction of a sampler done in the 1800's, by a young girl who lived in an orphanage in England.  It is stitched on white linen with red over-dyed silk threads....it is much more striking in person!  I was really sweating the red silk, I finished the sampler with only inches of thread left.  I worried, because I did not have any extra silk thread and I cannot think of anyplace near here that I could get some...I would have had to order it and wait for it to arrive.  I was also worried about the chart I was using (the chart is the blueprint for all the stitches)...it was not the original chart, it was copies I had made when I first started it.  I had lost the magazine the chart was in somewhere in the last two moves.  I almost tossed the papers away once.  

I will likely get more stitching done this week.  Lee will be using the truck to get to and from work.  He laid his bike down last week in order to avoid getting hit by a car.  It was not as dramatic as it sounds, and I am so grateful Lee knows what he is doing.  Of course the person kept on going, never stopping...I don't think they saw Lee at all.  No damage to Lee, except for being quite angry..but the bike had some damage.  It ripped the rubber hand grips, damaged the plastic hand protectors...those are easy to replace or repair, but the fall broke the mounts for the headlight.  The mounts are hard to find, Lee has made the last two sets we have had to replace due to them breaking (the headlight is an aftermarket kit and the mounts that came with it were not very good) .  Lee asked some of the guys at work if they would weld him a set to replace plastic mounts that came with the bike, and the plastic ones he has made when the old ones break. I am hoping they will be done soon.  We have rain in the forecast...finally...so, I prefer Lee drive the truck anyway.

I am off to see what is in the basket to start stitching on this week....