Grand Plans.... and the Stress that Follows

Well, I am at the home-stretch with the Quaker Pocket!  My friend L-bug asked me what it is to be used for and I bet that my mom will ask me the same question once I hand it over, so I'd better do my homework!
If I understand it correctly, back in the olden days ladies did not have pockets in their dresses or skirts.  The long-pocket was worn around the waist as a place to carry things in - like those belly-packs that some people sport nowadays. I have a feeling that my mom won't use it as such, but I was thinking that it can be used as a pretty adorable clothes-pin sack in the laundry room or something similar...  Any ideas?
Anyway, I have been stitching along slowly on the pocket and I am working on the letters now...  Yep, I am saying it again - I am not a big fan of stitching the alphabet.  Of course that is why I pick this moment in the stitching process to mess up the counting; I got to rip up and re-stitch A-D as a bonus.  Don't you just love that!?  ;-)

Photo taken outside in the never ending KY spring rain...


So, do you ever feel stressed out about stitching?  I stitch for entertainment and relaxation, but I have found that I have to tell myself to calm down every now and then.
I see all the designers that I want to stitch, I look through the ever-building stash, I plan and I ponder all the gifts I want to make and give away to family and friends, I recall all the neglected magazine projects that have been stored away in my stitching room and in the back of my head.
I plan my "Exquisite Sampler Walls" around the house; one wall for all my Sandy Orton samplers (you know the series she did back in the days with a Spanish, English, Dutch and American sampler?), one wall for all my samplers containing maps, one wall for all my Fremme work and the list goes on and on.  I look through all the charts that I collected, because at the time, I just couldn't live without them...
To sum it up, I have Grand Plans pretty much all the time, but they all seems to fall through the cracks sooner or later.
Oh well, I know that there are worse things to get stressed out about, right?
Some of my Grand Plans:

• Stitch up as gifts for friends and family - ZaZa Piques tea travel pocket:

• Brightneedle's Lo How a Rose - it is a real beauty, isn't it?
• My Nostalgic Needle and Needle's Prayse charts - some are even stitched up but awaiting the finishing steps.
• All my class kits (!)
• More blackwork projects - I really do enjoy stitching blackwork.  Have you seen Tanya Berlin's fantastic kits?  I have the Fuchsia and the Chickadee at home.  I have told myself that I won't get to purchase the Peacock until I have finished the two I already have...

And the list goes on...

Anyway, the particular stress for this weekend involves finishing up the Quaker Pocket and maybe even the Birdcage and definitely the gift for Littlest Sister.  We'll see...  I already know that I have 6 gigantic - and real - birdcages to clean, a kitchen-floor that is possibly even been more neglected than those magazine designs,  a bunch of plants and bulbs that need stuffed down in the dirt more urgently than all my stitched-up and unfinished ornaments need stuffed...


Sometimes I think that the best way to fight the stitching stress is to just keep dreaming, take one stitch at the time and avoid the Internet at all cost.  ;-)   However, when Stitching Bits & Bobs has a clearance, you kinda' owe it to yourself to give in a little - lookie what I found:  Praiseworthy Stitches' Emiliana's Sewing Case for 50% off at only $12.50!  I love all the pinks in this one - it is soooo girly!

I am fully aware of the fact that I will probably not get around to stitch it for another 50 years or so....

At least I won't be bored this weekend with all theses items on my to-do list...  Pink "made me" go out and socialize yesterday - we went to an Irish pub and I pretty much felt like I was all alone in a huge crowd.  Ever felt like that?  I did have some conversations (if you can call a yelling match over country music a conversation) with some really sweet ladies, but other than that, the whole thing was kinda' depressing...  Another friend pointed out that part of the problem may be that I don't drink, but that rest of the crowd was by no means rowdy.  (One time I actually brought a cross-stitch kit to a sports bar.  Pink and DH really wanted to watch a football game and I felt like I should probably be a part of it too and pretend that I cared who won...  I am surprised that Pink and DH still have their eyes attached in their heads, the way that they rolled them when I got bored about 5 minutes in the game and whipped out the kit.  "Their" team lost.  I got a bunch stitched.  Who was the smart one?  Who!?  ;-))

Maybe I should just give in, become a hermit and sign up for Joyce's International Hermit and Stitch Weekend!

All right, time to get back to the pocket and the other goodies!  Happy Stitching and talk with you in a bit!