Stitchy goodness

Of course, I can't go to a quilt or stitching show without purchasing some cross-stitch patterns - and Sandown was no exception. I found three real bargains - only a few pounds each - 

and some others which, while not expensive, were more along the usual lines.

A simple star alphabet sampler

A summery stitchery (I tend to buy autumnal stuff all the time, so am trying to branch out a bit).

And a little house (I probably won't stitch the Home Sweet Home motto  - just the house).

Then there's a little Spring sampler with a house

and a winter piece, which I just thought was really sweet, especially with the fence going along the snow covered hill.

Another sheep themed stitchery (ok, I know, I'm into sheep stitcheries lately, but this one is very different than the virtues). 

And finally, another sampler with a house on it. Can't have too many of those, right?

Yes, I do have far more patterns than I need, but it's nice to have something to suit every mood, and I am working my way through things - I do finish quite a few cross-stitch pieces, so I don't feel too bad about buying them.  These days, I don't buy very many kits as I have quite a large collection of floss colours, both DMC (where I have tons, but still never seem to have all the numbers I need for a new piece) and some of the newer hand-dyes and over-dyes, like Weeks Dye Works, Gentle Art, and so on. 

One thing I did do recently - and I'm not sure if this makes me really organised, really sad, or some combination of the two - was create a spreadsheet for all the patterns I have, listing the colours they need. I also have a page of that sheet listing all the colours I own - this way I can easily determine which colours I need to buy to work on a project. Also keeps me from buying too many duplicates - I do check my box before buying, but if a thread is tucked away with a project somewhere I might not realise I own it - this should help solve that problem...