Saturday, December 29, 2012

Purging

I've spent the last couple evenings going through old pattern books and magazines. My primary goal was to find ONE specific pattern I have stitched before and wanted to make again. Naturally, it was in the 8th or 9th binder I looked through (rolls eyes). I have been enlisted to help make a variety of candy canes for a friend of a friend for next Christmas, and I knew this tiny patchwork candy cane would be perfect. Not only is it cute, it whips up fairly fast (see photo).


During this pattern search, I managed to purge a stack of old craft magazines. I started with ten binders full, each containing 20-24 magazines. As I was flipping through them, if there were projects I liked/might actually stitch for myself or someone I knew, I tore them out and threw the magazine in recycling.

If I tore nothing out of a magazine that I did not wish to keep, and it was in good condition, I added it to the library donation box. I've reduced ten binders of cross-stitch/craft magazines down to three binders of magazines, plus a one-inch stack of projects culled from those I discarded. Not bad!

The "down" side is that I have amassed a small pile of projects to consider for 2013. Most of these are ornaments I can complete in one or two sittings. Others are larger works one friend/family member or another might like. For example, I found a cute ballerina ornament to make for my youngest niece. I found snowmen for the two Snowman Fiends, garden designs two other friends might like, dragons for a couple others, and covered bridge and lighthouse designs for another friend.

Now to organize my project to-do list for 2013 and get crackin'! 

I think I'll start with the candy canes...






6 comments:

Yvonne said...

Good luck with your projects. Looks like fun! I wish I was more creative.

Heather said...

Thanks, Yvonne! I did a bit of crafting today while watching two movies. I did some cording to hang ornaments for a friend (a project I'll share next weekend), and started on the patchwork candy canes. The cross-stitching for one is completely done, just need to do the backstitching, and a third of a second candy cane is done. Should finish the work on both of those tomorrow!

Jana said...

I'm so jealous of your organization skills. I had high hopes of doing some serious organzational type stuff while I was at home. Want to know how much of it got done? You can probably already guess. ;-)

I did nada. Though I did have a fairly decent excuse which I won't get into here.

Heather said...

Thanks, Jana. This was an unplanned purging, but something that needed to be done.

Alice Audrey said...

That's a great project. The cleaning out, I mean. Sounds like you needed it.

Are you done with the candy canes now?

Heather said...

Alice: I have finished five of the pathwork candycanes this week, and have switched to a different project.