Some of My Favorite People

Saturday, January 15, 2011

2011 Goals (kind of) and Finish Finishes

I kind of set a goal to pick out two of my stitched finishes each month to finish finish. I say "kind of" because I'm not going to kick myself  if I miss a month or two along the way. Life happens, right? My plan is to frame one piece and finish one piece into a small of some kind each month. If all goes as planned, by year's end I'll have 24 finished finishes.

Recently Diane invited me to join POSSIBIL(I)TIES, a blog she started for stitchers to encourage one another to finish-finish stitching project finishes. I jumped at the chance and joined right away. I am also practicing goal visualization. I have this picture in my mind of me smiling on December 31 looking over all my finished finishes and wondering why it took me so long.   

So with my goal in mind, last weekend I opened up the 6" x 20 1/2" x 14.5" tote that I use to store my stitched finishes and thought, "hmm, where do I start?"


I have no idea how many stitched pieces are in there...but as you can see, it is pretty full.  


I reached in...held my breathe...and pulled out a couple of Blackbird Designs finishes. I dug around in my stash for backing fabric, trims, buttons and charms, dusted off the old sewing machine and got busy. Here are the results: 

"Small Token"
Reward of Merit Pincushion by Blackbird Designs
Stitched on Vintage(?) 32 count linen using overdyed threads.  Finished using the background fabric for the backing and lace from my miniatures (old hobby) stash.

"Bluebird"
Reward of Merit Pincushion by Blackbird Designs
Stitched on the recommended fabric with the reccommended overdyed floss.  Finished using the background fabric for the backing and charms and buttons from my stash. 
 I attempted tacking tan rick-rack around the Bluebird pincushion but after several rocky attempts, I decided it wasn't worth the battle and frogged it all out. Not sure if I'll have another go at it or not. What do you think, should I or shouldn't I?

Thank you for stopping by today. And thank you for the comments regarding my last post. I've loved peaking at all the 2011 Challenge starts across blogland over the last couple of weeks and as a result, I'm just bursting to start some new projects myself. But so far I'm staying focused on a little set of winter themed needlework smalls that I'm designing and filling in on the CHS Alphabet.

Take care and hope you are enjoying your stitching as much as I am enjoying mine, which is A LOT! Hugs...

27 comments:

Chris said...

Great job Robin! They look wonderful and you are doing great on your goal.

Faye said...

See???? You CAN do it!!! They look great...I know I had to hand stitch the rick rack a time or two before I got the hang of it...but I eventually did.

Your plastic bin looks wonderful though..finished or not!!

Take care, Faye

valerie said...

Beautiful finishes! They both look great!

Sherre said...

Beautiful job on both, Robin. I think the 2nd one looks great without the rick-rack. I'm always intimidated by "finishing" my finishes, I just have to be in the right frame of mind to tackle that part. You do a great job!

Myra said...

Look at all those pretties just waiting to come out of the bin! I think you did a fabulous job on both of those pieces.

Jan said...

I love both the finishes. Absolutely beautiful. I like the Bluebird without the rick-rack.

Lisa V said...

Two great finishes Robin. I love them!
Look at that tub full of finishes, thats amazing.
LISA V

Carol said...

And I thought I had a lot of unfinished finishes, Robin!! Mine are mostly smalls, but I do have a few that need to be framed. Both of your BBD pieces are darling--beautiful work :)

Glenna said...

Robin, just look at all your finished pieces! Wow--I enlarged the picture so I could look carefully at each one (your backs are really nice, by the way). Wow--what is the finish with the little black bird and the two animals (squirrels?) beneath the tree? Love that. And your finishes are perfect! I don't think I'd mess with rick-rack.

mary said...

Wow! What an amazing stash of stitched pieces! You have to get them out of their hiding spot and out for everyone to see. Your first finishes are great, can't wait to see the rest. On the rick rack, I sometimes use a contrast floss and make tacking x's over the "zigs" of the rick rack which makes a pretty finish.

Astrids dragon said...

Good for you! I can't wait to see what they all look like finished!

Cindy's Stitching said...

omg how pretty. you are so lucky to have that many finishes to just finish. You will have so many this year done. Lucky you.

Anonymous said...

That's a lot of unfinished pieces! I see a few that I recognise. Good luck with reaching your goal this year - your first two finishes look wonderful!

BrendaS said...

I love your finishes! You certainly do have a lot of "unfinished" pieces but won't it be fun to see what you pull out each month?

Thanks for visiting my blog. I just became a follower of your blog too:)))

Have a great weekend.

Karen said...

Wandered over from the POSSIBILITIES blog and loved having a look around. I can't wait to see all of the great finishing you have for your box of goodies!

Joy said...

What a great idea! I have been at the computer planning my next post on this very subject! It's sad our "finishes" end up in a bin waiting to be finished...although your bin looks wonderful. Can't wait to see your progress! Your first two are lovely.

Kathy said...

Both finished finishes are just gorgeous! They look perfect to me. :)

Annie said...

You really have your work cut out for you this year. And you are off to a great start with those perfect little finishes. I'd forget the rick rack. Doesn't need it at all.

Michelle said...

Great idea to work on finishing some of those pieces! Love how both BBD pieces turned out!! I thought about using the rickrac and chickened out. LOL!

Karen said...

Wow, what a lot of pieces you have waiting to be finished-finished :-) Your two BBDs look great and I think the bluebird one is lovely without the rickrack (that's a finishing touch that I admire greatly when I see it in pictures but it looks like it would be tricky to get to look right).

Anne said...

Beautiful finish for both Blackbird designs. I really love the "Pins and Needles"! I'm the same way with my finishing, it takes awhile, but once it's finished, it feels great! Good luck with all your other finishes!!

Siobhán said...

Robin, wow!! What gorgeous stitching you have ready to finish, and your Blackbird finishes are fantastic! Personally, I love the finish with the ric rac AND without it. I am not big on fussy finishes because I have so much going on on my walls... my DH is big on not too much clutter, etc. I have pottery and samplers and all that, so I figure if I do the smalls with very little fuss, it will work out better. That said, I do want to try adding ricrac to some finishes to see how it looks.

Anonymous said...

Two beautiful finishes there, that is an amazing box of finished stitching though, I'm sure you'll have fun picking out which ones to finish this year :)

Sally said...

Your finishes are beautiful :)

Annemarie said...

What a terrific goal! And such a great way to go about it: just hold your breath and wait what comes up :o) I LOVE your finishes, and I think the Bluebird pincushion looks lovely just the way it is. I'm kind of jealous of all your finishes. If I were to do a challenge, it would certainly have to be finishing *anything*!

Ziggyeor said...

Great Goal! I'm glad I'm not alone in the stitchy finish but not finish finshed boat!

Anonymous said...

I hope you find time to finish off more finishes this year - seems a shame to leave such lovely work sitting in a drawer