Cross Stitch Life
I've noticed the cutest trend ever among the people I follow on instagram.
Trays!
Everyone I know who's knitting, spinning or stitching has some sort of cute tray on their couch with them.
Hello! Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?!
I keep all my stitching supplies on the arm of the couch which frequently results in:
- dropped scissors
- pins going in between couch cushions
- little threads stuck to everyone
- general fumbling
So I went to Target last week for coffee (this month: candy cane. add one drop peppermint extract, 1tbl coconut milk & 5 drops of vanilla creme sweet drops. perfect!) and thought I'd look at trays. And I found a crazy cute one. But it was $30. And it seemed like a lot to me for some reason.
I left Target empty handed but on Sunday as I was rummaging around and sorting mail, I realized: I HAVE A CUTE TRAY ALREADY!
My father-in-law works for Sunsweet and gives a lot of their boxes of dried fruit as gifts. I have an empty box! It holds mail to be shredded! And it's big without being huge! Now I have my supplies all organized and on the couch! And if someone sits next to me, nothing falls over. Like a cup of coffee. Not that I've had that happen lately. (because I have. ;))
In my cross stitch bin I have:
- My needle minder collection. usually one is on my project, the rest are stuck to my metal gingerbread tin. I got my first minder from Lindsay (the acorn one) but you can buy them from theworkroom & 123stitch.
- Hand lotion
- Bobbin pin
- Needles
- Floss for my current project
One thing I was missing was a needlebook!
In between answering emails this morning, I made one! I used scraps and a piece of 100% wool I had. I pieced a 1.25 inch maple leaf and used some little bits of Japanese fabrics. The back is a Hello Kitty Liberty of London print and the lining is Lizzy House with a Japanese canvas pocket for spare scissors. I used fabric glue to stick on some wooden stars because I love stars! I've been trying different sized needles lately, just to see if I like one size more than another. My favorite brand is Bohin and they are very smooth and high quality. Also, I picked fabric that would match this Weekender and I already have 4 blocks made for a quilt in these colors too! I really, really, really HUGELY want to work on sewing a blue & cream quilt. It didn't help my urge when I saw Lindsay quilting snowflakes earlier this week. I'm not huge on Christmas but I adore winter.
Do you notice those little sneak peeks? A little turtledove for the 12 Days of Christmas and floss for one of next years projects! Yeah! Next years projects! Crazy to think about, right? We ordered a whole bunch of new fabric, I can't wait for it to arrive so we can get started. I think Ashleigh & I are cross stitching 8 hours a day and working on computer stuff in between. I can definitely tell that I'm stitching neater, FINALLY! I'm hoping practice makes perfect. ;)
Anyways, maybe you will have a cute tray to keep you company now when you stitch?!
Here are few things:
NPR is streaming Hilary Hahn, it's a very beautiful album, I've been listening for the past two days straight!
I'm not sure if it's a holiday thing or what but lately I can't stop thinking about star jewelry, I'm not really a jewelry person but I love stars so so so so much!
I think this would be REALLY cute as a wool applique!
My grandparents had braided wool rugs in their house, I had no idea that there was such thing as a braided wool basket! Can you imagine sewing one of these from old jeans or tshirts?
Lately I've been day dreaming about how neat it would be to have some girly clogs to wear with hand knit socks. Is it weird to wear an open shoe with hand knit socks? I feel like it would be really cute!
Speaking of socks, my goal in November is to finish a pair I started in...August. *gulp*. Yeah, it's been forever since I've knit and finished something. But hey, it's not even cold enough to need socks yet! ;)
:):):)