A little masochism never hurt anyone

I guess discovering I had over 30 UFOs and more than 40 kits ready to go just wasn't enough masochism for one week. So, I dug into the cedar closet and pulled out the Rubbermaid bin full of charts and decided it was time to inventory the lot.  The 300+ lot.  What was I thinking?

So I broke out the Excel, decided on the bar minimum of information I would need and pulled out the first four inches of books . . . 

As much as I dreaded this voyage of self-discovery, the cataloging was not nearly as awful as I thought it would be.  I've been stitching since I was 13 and used to frequent the few good local cross stitch shops and buy charts by weight (sigh).  And some of those charts were like old friends - and I made a few pleasant discoveries.

First off, I think I've purchased just about every Just Nan pattern and about half of the Shepherd's Bush kits and patterns available.  I had a long flirtation with Paula Vaughan - and actually stitched a number of her projects.  I still love the La Broderie patterns (are they even available anymore?)  I found I had already purchased Permin's Dutch Beauty and was very thankful that I hesitated in hitting the "purchase" button on that pattern a few weeks ago.    I also discovered I didn't need to buy the Donna Vermillion Giampa fruit pillow patterns since I had them in my old issues of Just Cross Stitch and a sampler I was having trouble finding was actually first published in another magazine I had purchased many many years ago.

You may be wondering how I could have been so completely out of touch with my stash.  Well - I didn't stitch for five years between 2002 and 2007 - kids, law school, my husband's new business and my perpetually dirty house pretty much precluded any hobby.  So I had accumulated and accumulated and stuffed everything in the cedar closet for five years. 

So - along with the 11 WIPS (and I still think there are a couple more around here) and the 50+ kits/kitted projects ready to go, I have a whole bunch of unkitted charts I really, really want to do.   I also have 200+ charts, 8-10 kits and about 30 magazines for which I need to find new homes.  (I just have to figure out how to sell them or give them away - and if anyone would want them)  

All in all, my voyage of cross-stitch self-discovery has not been as painful or as guilt-inducing as I feared.  I think I need this kind of "sort, keep or trash activity" every few years otherwise I find I accumulate much too much baggage - both physically and emotionally.  

And, of course, I have so much more room for new stash!!