Stitch From Stash - The Beginning of my Journey

Hi, my name is Kelly, and I have a problem with my cross stitch stash.

Yes, I admit it.  Since I've moved to Vegas and am only working one full-time job (instead of the normal full-time plus a part-time that I've done for about 1/2 of my adult life), and have had lots more stitching time, I've spent WAAYYYYY too much money on stitching stash...

• 25% off fabric sale at my LNS in June
• 30% off fabric sale at Silkweaver Fabrics July 4th weekend
• 25% off "Christmas in July" fabric sale at Picture this Plus
• Purchase of  1816 Vierlande Sampler pattern (2 magazines to get the full pattern), along with 1/2 yard of PTP fabric and 9 skeins (90 yards) of The Gentle Art floss to do it
• Purchase of a few, OK it wasn't a few, it was 16 more Barbara & Cheryl patterns to add to my collection
• "Wings and Things" chart, spider charm & some fibers to complete it (hey, this one is already completed!)
• A couple of charts that will be stitched for future gifts
• And I'm sure there's probably other stuff I'm forgetting

As you can see, my purchases have been a little out of control.  This prompted me to decide 2016 was going to be the year I would do my own "stitch from stash".  Then I decided, as the saying goes, why put off til tomorrow what you can do today.  That means my "stitch from stash" officially begins today.

As I've seen other groups and people talking about this on their blog posts, I decided I'd do some research to find out what the "rules" are.  Some of them were actually really complicated with forced check-ins, credit based on the number of stitches you've completed, etc.  I don't need complicated, so after a little bit of thought, I created my own simplified rules, since this will be my own thing.

And the rules are:

My stitching account will start with a $0 balance

I will earn spending "credits" for each finish, regardless of whether it is one of my design models or a "just for me" piece

• $1.00 per ornament/greeting card stitched
• $5.00 per piece stitched using a 8 x 8 or smaller Q-snap frame or comparable sized hoop
• $10.00 per piece stitched using a 10 x 10 Q-snap frame
• $20.00 per piece stitched using a 11 x 17 Q-snap frame
• $30.00 per piece stitched using a 17 x 17 Q-snap frame
• $50.00 per "mega project".  These will be pieces that are larger than a 17 x 17 piece, afghans, etc.

I will lose "credits" for all stitching purchases.  This means charts, fibers, fabric, embellishments, magazines, etc.  The only thing exempt is the cost of finishing & photography of my design models, as this is an essential part of my business and doesn't contribute to my stash. 

I'd like to learn how to crochet this year also.  If I choose to do that, I think my purchases will fall into my STS rules.  I'll just need to figure out how I earn credits for the pieces I finish.  But, that's another issue to be determined later *if* I actually learn to crochet.

On the first day of each month I'll do a blog post sharing my successes/challenges from the previous month, along with an accounting of any monies I did spend.  Hopefully each month I'll be carrying a credit balance forward. The next post will be done on December 1st, which will encompass the last few days of October 2015 and all of November 2015.


Not only will this be great for my budget, but I think it will be fun to see how much money I can "save" while stitching from my very large stash before I actually need to start buying more stuff.  I'm thinking possibly years!  

 If you have a STS challenge you're doing, feel free to share links to your blog with me and I'll add them to mine.  We can cheer, or commiserate if we go over "budget", with each other along the way.

Hope you enjoy the journey with me.  Until the next time...Happy Stitching...on a budget!