Closer and Closer

Carriage House Samplings - A Primitive Stocking.  Finish #26.  Used called for NPI Silks on 25 count Vintage Country Mocha Lugana, two over one.  Worked on it for three days to finish it.  Seemed like the right thing to work on for Christmas Eve.  Finished the final three letters Christmas Day.  Really happy with the results on that fabric, and a fat quarter is enough to do it easily twice, maybe three times.  And certainly enough thread to do it at least twice or three times.  Finished area stitched is about 16 x 7.  But stitching it several times, you could place the toe area under the heel of the previous one, flip the material so the toe fits at the top and body of the stocking is where the thread is in this photo.  You would not have a three inch border around each one, but you have the sock outline on the pattern.  As long as you stitch whatever first, I think easily three fit without crowding anything too tight. 

Long Dog Samplers - Pandemic.  Used more than 11 skeins.  All the motifs are completed.  I still have backstitching yet to do.  You CAN probably do it one over one in 12 skeins of dmc on a 28 count, but you sure can not do it in 11 skeins.  I started with 12, I am gonna make it.  Because I do stitch over one, there ARE backstitches I leave out.  But if you are watching to see how much floss - I would want at least 14 skeins of dmc.  So it's still not done, but it will finish after just a couple more days of working on it.  

I am going to spent a time reorganizing my pile of started things.  I started this year with a started already list of projects.  I stopped counting at 87, and there would have been a couple more.  There were a few new projects along the way.  I started Pandemic, and started and finished a Modern Folk Embroidery pattern, and also a With Thy Needle and Thread pattern.  And a few other things got started... but the point was to end with less than the 87 I started with on that list.  Some things got worked on and tossed back into the pile.  Some things never got touched and are still waiting.  I had two of the monthly SAL projects, I still have those to finish.  I already love the Modern Folk one for 2021, but wanna finish the 2020 final parts.  I pushed to get close to the end of Pandemic, and since I am at just fill in a bit of backstitching, I am fine with being slow with a final month of that finish.  I started with only a list, and the plan of "less - not more", at the end of the year.  I still bought things I loved, I still started new things, things from my stash too.  But the key was - try to grab from the started already pile.  Reach into that.  And there was a large Courtney Collection finish.  I still want to do the mirror version of that, but I wanna finish things from the started pile.  I am not ready to die, but I'm too old to have a pile with 100 projects in it.  A few things just got kitted and not started.  But it's not even about if I finished #15 or #25 this year.  The point is - less.  And I think it's time to touch all my piles of started things again.