Being Organised ...

I'm not what you could call the most organised of people. I seem to crave organisation to function well but can never manage to be organised to do it.

I am trying to avoid writing an assignment very diligently so am actually managing to organise other stuff. Kinda... I may just be making more of a mess... It is technically meant to be organising my patterns but ... I don't know how well it's working!

I took my collection of World of Cross Stitching and had a look inside and realised how many patterns I like and how many I really don't. So I pulled out the staples, cut the magazines down the centre (not as easy as it sounds.) and started organising the patterns. I pulled out all the filler pages and then organised the patterns into keep and don't keep. The keep pile was quite high but so was the don't keep. Some patterns I liked went in the don't keep because I can truly never see myself stitching them.

Then comes the fun part. I bought a pile of display folders and sorted the patterns. They aren't sorted by designer except my Joan Elliott Collection. I love her patterns though I haven't stitched many of them. So now I have to go through the rest of my magazines and then I'm going to have a big giveaway. I have a couple of piles of cut out patterns that I no longer want that I think someone must want somewhere. They are gorgeous patterns I just won't stitch them.

So when I get all my stuff sorted into folders I will be having a pass on giveaway and pass on a whole pile of patterns to other people. Just because I won't stitch them doesn't mean someone else won't! That will be in the new year though before I get them all sorted. I have to go through a few magazines... and other stuff.

 I've got eight folders like this. I had to add more pages to most of them. It's interesting what I like and what I don't

 The cross stitch gold magazines are a pain! They are wider than a normal magazine so they won't fit in the folders I have to cut down the patterns. Annoying! Also annoying because I had a lot of Joan Elliott patterns in them.

Here is my pile of giveaway patterns. I've got to sort them into rough categories so that will take time. I also need to ask a couple of my friends here to look through them so hopefully I'll have less to post around.

I've just handed in my assignment for the first unit so hopefully I'll have time this weekend for actual stitching :D
Happy Stitching
Caitlin

Almost finished doily

I have almost finished the doily. I only have the butterflies to finish. I have done one but I have another five to go.

I'm loving how it has turned out, the colours are beautiful :D

The butterfly looks gorgeous laid on the edge. The problem is it takes ages to make just one butterfly as it's in 5 parts. I was debating giving it as a gift but I don't know whether I love it too much. 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin 

Giveaway Winner!

I numbered all the comments and then ran a random number generator and here is my result.

So the winner is BEAUTY BONNET!!!!!

Please send me an email and your pattern will be winging it's way to you :D

To everyone else that entered I have a special prize as well. I have a special Mrs Claus chart that I'm going to give to everyone that entered. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Happy Stitching Everyone!
Caitlin

Secret Santa

Well I had craft group on Wednesday and it was decided we had to bring something worth roughly $5 to exchange. Sadly there were only 3 people actually there so for the last week we didn't have much of a party! But I had a lot of fun though I didn't feel like stitching much.

I don't really have any progress on anything much to show but hopefully I will soon. I will show you what I made for a gift though. I kind of got the idea from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Magazine this year with the gingerbread cupcake. But I didn't have a fancy stitchable cupcake mold so I had to glue it in.

A couple of different angles there! I made the top look like icing and sprinkles with some french knots thrown in. I followed my imagination there wasn't any pattern. It was fun to do but awful to glue in place. I had to hold it for 30 minutes to let the glue dry.

The cording was fun to do it's the pink and green I used spun together and then folded in half. I like the effect of this and for something I was experimenting on it's pretty amazing I think. Though I'm also not rushing out to make another one any time soon!! Too much effort though I might make one with one of my patterns... maybe??

I should have a crochet update if nothing else in the next couple of days as I'm getting closer to a partial finish.
Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Ooops I forgot!

Oh no! I was looking through my crazy January page trying to update it and couldn't find photos anywhere! Then I realised I probably forgot to post updates when I finished or worked on some of my projects while so stressed out through work! I wasn't in the best mind frame!

So I finished the RED gingerbread man!

 He's all ready for me to work out how to finish him entirely.

 I'm also well on the way with the Blue guy. I don't work on these much they tend to be my portable projects as they don't have many colours. So they live in my car!

I also never posted a photo of the green one up on the crazy January page so I have done that now! I'm so behind in dates and times it's not funny!

I also finished another of the Joan Elliott ornaments its the circle house. I will need to finish a pile of designs from this one though to be able to finish them entirely so I'm not sure what I'm doing with this yet!

Lets hope I can get some more finished before CHRISTMAS! It's coming up toooooo fast!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin