Big Weekend For Cross Stitchers

Market, Market, Market!

This weekend is Market. I'm so excited. I have a wish list of the new designs I have to add to the stash.

I think it goes without saying that all of Kathy Barrick's new designs will eventually end up living at my house. I do have a dilemma. I love, love, love the mermaid stocking, but it's punch needle. This is the first punch needle design to make me even consider going down that road. I do not need one more hobby to get sucked in to. But more thoughts on that in a moment.

More designs that have caught my eye are the new releases from Plum Street Designs. Gameboards are cropping up all over the place and I have to say Dead Man's Chess is a must stitch for me along with her tombstone piece. I'm debating on how to display my tombstone pieces. I've stitched two of Kathy Barrick's, have another ready to go, and was thinking about hanging them all together in my hallway with Village of Hawk Run Hollow in the center since it has that Burial Ground block. Then I think maybe that's too much so maybe I should scatter them through the house for a quirky kind of thing or is it just kind of morbid?

A few more I like are the new Hands to Work designs. My Beloved Tennessee is a must for me since I was born and raised in Memphis. I like Hannah Miller and Education too.

Now back to punch needle, I'm a cross stitcher. I piddle in other crafty areas because I enjoy learning new things, but I have also discovered that that piddling really cuts into my cross stitch time. I try to quilt because I'm too cheap to buy quilts when it seems like I can just make my own. I enjoy handpiecing, it's just all the prep work getting to that point. I'm learning to knit because I believe it to be something that might come in handy one day and I like to make things that are functional. I really enjoy using my knitted wash rags. Seriously. They make me happy and almost make cleaning up the kitchen painless. There's a difference in a handknit wash rag than a terry one. I don't know what it is, but there is. It's not even something I think about but I love my knitted ones. They scrub up messes really well too. So the time spent on those is time well spent, and pleasant and doesn't take too much time from my cross stitch. I'm knitting a scarf. This is my second year on this particular scarf, I've started it over several times because I'm a dork and forgot to check right and wrong side when I was picking it back up. It's the Alien Illusion scarf from Stitch N Bitch. I have two alien faces completed maybe by next winter I'll have a handknit scarf. Fortunately I live in North West Florida so my winter at it's longest is 2 months. Usually runs about 6 weeks. But it's a really cold six weeks. I crochet. I have an afghan I've been working on for my mom's new house since she started having it built. I crocheted it in about a week but am procrastinating on putting it together. It's all Lionbrand Homespun will that even fit through the eye of a yarn needle? But putting it together will take time, time away from cross stitch and I've got a lot of projects to get done doncha know? So now here we are with the whole punch needle issue. I will have to learn punch needle, I will have to purchase punch needles, probably a special punch needle hoop, not to mention punch needle kits on which to practice because we can't just jump into the mermaid stocking, do I really want to do this? Is one design worth crossing over to the darkside? And of course we have the whole issue of, "I really like this punch needle stuff, more, more, more!" Do you know how much that will eat into my crafty time? Kathy Barrick's Tombstone punchneedle piece might be good practice and can hang on my tombstone wall if that's the way I decide to go with those.

I do love Market Weekend. It's like Christmas for stitchers!

Have you all heard about the Goat Lover of Mossy Head, Northwest Florida Daily News
big news around here. Here's another story, Northwest Florida Daily NewsGoat2. Other towns have drugs, murders, we have goat lovers. Got to love the Redneck Riviera.