Today I stitched “Britty Christmas Kitty” over one on 28 count Lambswool Joblean from the 2005 JCS Ornament issue and with it I have completed my 26 Projects Challenge. I started with the 25 Project Challenge some time in December of last year, but upped the number of finishes by one in order to correct myself for purchasing a chart that I “accidentally” won on eBay.
I am very pleased that I took on the challenge not only because it achieved its original goal of making me stitch patterns in my stash, but also because it helped me to control my cross stitch purchases when I didn’t have a lot of money. In fact, I enjoyed the challenge so much that I am trying to figure out a way to continue it and still be able to purchase some stash. I may do something where I must complete X amount (5?) projects before I can purchase stash or where I limit the amount of charts, but not necessarily fabric, floss, or embellishments.
The only moan I have is that I had hoped that more of my large WIPs would end up on the list than actually did. However this is not the fault of the Project Challenge, rather my own sometimes erratic stitching behavior. Nevertheless, I enjoyed stitching the small and medium sized charts too and either way unstitched charts were eliminated from my stash.
Of course, now that I am gainfully employed and have successfully completed my Project Challenge, I plan to reward myself with a little SEX. I am not going to go overboard; in fact I think 1 chart for every 5 that I completed on the Project Challenge will be the rule and I will carefully consider what I buy because I don’t want to add a lot of charts to my stash that will not get stitched.