Stash Sunday!

Ugh!  I've got sinusitis, so I've been sitting quietly, cross-stitching.  I'm getting along quite well with my picture (update some time next week), but I thought I'd break off to share some recent stash haul shots.

This first lot, a bumper cross stitch magazine containing all manner of lovely wildlife pictures, many of which are those glorious Anchor designs, and three offer priced packs of Mill Hill beads came from Hobbycraft a couple of weeks ago.  Those of you who live in the UK and have a Hobbycraft in reasonable distance may want to pay a visit to your local branch soon as this is a good deal on Mill Hill beads.  Some of the more expensive items (crystal treasures, economy bead packs etc) are going for £2, but regular sized ones are just £1, which is a decent price for the UK.

I inadvertently duplicated a shade as it seems I already had the red ones.  However, I thought I didn't have frosted red as I couldn't remember owning a matte red like this.

As you can see, I didn't own one!  The two production runs were quite different and even in this photo you can see the difference in sheen on the beads, no?  So, I'm keeping them both in my red bead box.

A week or so later, I took up the Sew and So newsletter 10% discount in April offer and ordered this little lot, several Anchor pearl cotton #12 shades, more Mill Hill beads, a reel of Kreinik cord and several different gauges of DMC Coton à Broder.

The coloured Coton à Broder threads are all in weight #16 and plug a few gaps in the Anchor #16 collection, (which is totally devoid of yellow-greens!).

I also treated myself to these basic shades in #20 and #30 as well as a purple Kreinik cord I bought for the sheer love of purple!! =)

As far as Pearl Cotton #12 went, I filled in a few more gaps in my collection and got a new black, as I've used quite a bit of my old one and am likely to need another at some point in the reasonably near future.

This is the whole of my recent bead haul.

I'm toying with the idea of some fruit tree designs and so I wanted some orange beads (for oranges, of course!) and also some smaller gauge ones.  Sadly, there weren't matching orange ones in the Petite range, but at least there are some dark orange ones here and I was able to get some good yellow and greens too.  The purple, again, was for the sheer pleasure of my favourite colour!

So, now Kathy's saying to herself, 'I thought she wasn't going to be buying more stuff and was cutting down?!'  And she'd be quite right in the main.  I'm not accumulating as a general rule at the mo, but I confess to being unable to resist that 10% off offer from Sew and So.  Besides, I'm not expecting to cut my stitching stash down much, if at all, although I have already divested myself of a fair quantity of books, pens/pencils/paints, make-up products and clothes, as well as used up a number of perfumes and other things.  There are still 400-500 books to go, as well as numerous magazines, tapes and much more before we move in about 3 months' time.  My original aim was to halve my personal possessions for the move and I may well succeed, or close to it. I may grab some more beads from the Hobbycraft Mill Hill offer, as £1 is a real snip, but I doubt I'll be getting much or any more stash this year, with the possible exception of a few bits and pieces at the Harrogate Show in November.  For me, it wasn't about saving money as we have no debts and I just used the money I earned in selling some of my surplus stuff to buy these, so buying something isn't a problem generally.

A later post will cover more about the Anchor #12 Pearl Cotton collection.  In the meantime, why not have a Stash Sunday yourself and share a photo or two of some new or current stash?  Not to show off or anything negative like that, but just for the fun of sharing and eye candy. =)  I love to have a nosey into others' thread collections and so I'd love to see some of yours!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015