A Pair of Hands in Too Many Pots

Yesterday, I spent a good part my day reorganizing my stash and making my priorities. I think that I need to get "back to basics" and just keep myself to two projects - one large and one small.

I've been throwing things all over the place and my craft room looks like a disaster (sorry, no pictures, I'm too embarrassed, but the offending upstairs stash area is listed as Exhibit A below).

Anyway, the other day while Terri and I were driving to our Guild meeting, she told me that I should post all the stitching that I have done! Well, after all the years I've been doing this there is a lot. But, I'm not going to do that today. Instead, I'm going to shame myself a little. Hopefully, this will result in getting the lead out, so to speak, and cleaning up some of these WIPs I've got going on. All are not cross stitch though.

I've made a little progress on The Mermaid Sampler. I really love how this is coming out - brighter than the chart picture. It's a fun stitch too, and hopefully, I should be done with it next week. There is a lot of fill-in which is perfect for those times when my brain has shut down - around 9:00 at night, which by the way, seems the time that I finally land in my stitching chair at night.

I haven't made any more progress on CHS' Adam and Eve nor Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. I've been playing with some small things just to give myself a break - some of the Country Stitches patterns. They're so adorable. I'm kind of hooked right now. They're almost like instant gratification. Although my attempt at that bird on the oil can has resulted in me having to start the darned thing over three times just because I can't count! But I think I'm good to go now and should have, at least the stitching done, today. It feels good to get some small things done.

The other day, I was back in my craft room digging around for supplies to make the bunny and I came across a bin - my WIP (or so I thought) bin. But what do I find inside:

1). An almost finished sweater vest. Okay, that's a WIP of the knitting kind, but what is my problem? All it needs are the side seams sewn and buttons put on!

2). A sampler from the Scarlett Letter circa 1990!!!! AUGGGHHHH! The only reason I can pinpoint the year so well is that there is a picture of a friend of mine with her newborn baby in with the sampler. That brought back memories of me stitching in the lounge while I was still working and I was working on this!!!! And there is masking tape all around the edges (back in the days when I stitched in hand and not on scroll rods)!!! A stitcher's conservation nightmare! What was I thinking??? Obviously I didn't know better. But I pulled this out of the bin along with the sweater and brought them upstairs to my upstairs stash closet (see Exhibit A). I think they both need a little bit of TLC. A nineteen year old UFO!!! I'm still shaking my head.

Exhibit A:

I'm embarrassed. Usually, my stuff is so organized. I realize that there is just too much stuff in here - what was I thinking? I know what I was thinking - I thought I could start all this stuff at once and have some fabulous finishes! NOT! And what you don't see are three bags full of charts, fabby and threads in bags that need to be dealt with next to this area. So most of this will have to go back to my craft room and be put back in their proper places.

Then I found this from The Examplary in the WIP bin too.

Obviously, this is not a WIP - it's never been started. How it made it's way into the WIP bin I don't know (maybe wishful thinking on my part - you know, that little stitching faeries would start the darned thing for me). I brought that upstairs too. Which got me thinking that I have just too much darned stash. Well, there are worse things right????

Then to make matters worse, I found this unfinished quilt that I would really love to finish. These are only three of the twelve total blocks:

Like I said in the title - A Pair of Hands in Too Many Pots. My problem is that I love to do all this stuff and just can't find the time to do it. I should have made New Year's Resolutions, I think (not that I follow them, of course - LOL). Or maybe what I really need is a maid and personal servant - you know, someone to clean, cook, do the wash, grocery shop and run errands, run the kids around to their activities and play dates, and bring me bon bons while I'm stitching! Yeah, right - in my dreams!

No new progress on Adam and Eve. I missed my Wednesday stitching time due to teacher conferences and massive quantities of homework that required my help and Thursday was spent cleaning (and craft room organization), and escorting my daughter to dance and running errands while she was there, so I'll probably work on it tonight. And then finally, I'll start back on Block 2 of Shores. My Sampler Guild extended the due date for Shores to next June! Kind of music to my ears. I've been having too much fun with the smaller things - the bunny pattern really set me off - it was almost a one day event from start to finish. So because the deadline for Shores has been extended I've gotten a little respite, but I'll probably start knocking off Block 2 this weekend.

To shame myself further, I've made a list of my current WIP's. Maybe I should use this as a checklist. These only include cross stitch (if I included the knitting, needlepoint, quilting, etc., we'd be here all day):

1. Ann Medd Sampler - probably 1/4 of the way done

2. The Houses of Hawk Hollow - in the middle of working on Block 5

3. The Village of Hawk Hollow - Block 1 done

4. The Shores of Hawk Hollow - Block 1 done

5. The Mermaid Sampler - maybe 1/2 done

6. The Adam and Eve Sampler - Very little done

7. Convent's Herbal Garden - maybe 1/5 done

8. Provence Mandala - hard to gauge - this thing is huge!!!!!!!

9. Frances Eden Sampler

10. The Marquoir de Justine

11. The Ideal Landscape Sampler

12. CHS Hearts and Flowers

Okay, the dirty dozen off the top of my head. I'm sure that there is something else lurking around, but I think that these 12 are quite enough! All are BAPS except for the Mermaid Sampler, Adam and Eve and, Hearts and Flowers. Now I've shamed myself and hopefully this will give me the kick in the keister that I need to keep going. Doesn't help though that I want to start everything that I recently purchased from market!

Sorry for such a long post. I intended to make this short and sweet, but I guess I got carried away. So, I'm going to go stitch now. Maybe I can get a small portion done on one of those above mentioned things before the kids get home.

Hope everyone has a stitchy weekend and thanks for all the comments you've made!