Awards and a Stash-over

Yesterday I got a parcel of threads from Nordic Needle in the States. They can get 19 colours of Anchor #12 pearl cotton that don't seem to be available in the UK, so I ordered all of them as well as 14 shades of GAST that I didn't have. Well, I thought I didn't have, but it turns out that I goofed and got 2 duplicates. Rats!


Later on, I decided that my workboxes needed a re-think. This first pic was taken in Sept 05, so almost 2½ years ago. Since then, my tastes have 'settled down' into what I really want to stitch and I've realised that the contents of my main workbox don't really reflect this and I spend more time fishing things out of the 2nd box than I would like. So, as my interest is mostly fine work and realising that plain threads are often the best for this, I took the whole GAST collection out of the bottom drawer and replaced it with most of my #8 and #12 pearl cottons - the most useful colours to me. I also went carefully through all my GAST and WDW threads, putting the ones I'm mostly likely to use on one side and then, when I've done a couple of cross stitch patterns that need mostly these threads and may require some colours from the 'I won't use these much, if at all' pile, I think I'll be doing some selling on of threads I'm really not going to use and have just been collecting for the sake of it. I came to that realisation when I looked at the new GAST threads yesterday and had to honestly admit why I'd bought them. Hmmmm. So, there will be sales soon... Also of cross stitch magazines as well as some other designs, mags and so on.

Anyway, this is what the main workbox looks like right now. Regular 6-stranded cottons are in the middle section in bags with the whole Anchor Coton à Broder collection at the back. Then on the right hand side in the cantilever sections is the whole Anchor Marlitt collection and a good few reels of Pipers Silks. There are white #8 and #12 pearl cottons in the top section too. I used to have a black and white section in that space before and rather liked it, so have put it back - kinda. On the left at the bottom are all my spools of Kreinik thread, including about 10 Silk Serica, then there are some of the overdyes (GAST and WDW) in the next section up, but they won't stay there long term. There wasn't room for them all, so they'll go somewhere else in time and I'll probably put #5 pearl cottons in there instead. The top left section is mostly needles and scissors with some charms etc as well. Eventually, I'll make a needlecase for myself and put any spare needles away somewhere as well as the charms, (which should be with beads, I think), so that will tidy that section up somewhat. We'll be getting something as a 'telephone table' soon, something like a bedside chest of drawers/nightstand so I'll be bagging a drawer in there for some stash and will also get the current little Ikea set of storage drawers for my things, so there'll be a lot more sorting out and clearing up done yet!

I haven't been stitching over the past couple of days, but I do seem to have been winning awards! Jeanne kindly gave me my second 'You Make My Day' award and I also got a Spanish bloggers' award called 'Arte y Pico', which is about creativity, from Doris. The general rules for the first award are to nominate 10 other blogs for the first award and 5 for the second one. I'm going to bend the rules a bit though and just say that, although all the blogs I have listed on the left hand side of my blog are well worth looking at and I visit most of them several times a week, I'm just going to select my one favourite, which is Pierrette's 'Love to Stitch 99'. Pierrette does a lot of different styles of embroidery, like me, and I love to see what she's been working on. So, my award goes to her.