SFS - June

For more information as to what Stitch From Stash (SFS) is, please click the button above.

From last month the carry over was € 49.27

This month:

Month: June
Budget:  € 25.00
Spent: € 55.05
Earned: € 16.12
Left:  (€ 49.27 + € 16.12 + € 25.00) - € 55.05 = €35.34
Carry over: There is no carry over as the 6 month time for group A has now ended.

My spending:

What with one thing and another I had a bit of a spending spree this month. First of all I needed more red Kreinik very fine braid for Wolf. They also had the last of the Tentakulum Matisse on sale - I thought I was getting just the one skein but it turned out I got 3 for that price, which was a pleasant surprise. I also picked up some end of bolt bits to add to my stash: 18 ct off white Aida as I was out and use it quite a lot and some black and pale blue 28ct Jobelan, another fabric I have taken a liking to. I spent € 21.15 excluding shipping.

Some experimentation had shown that the Kreinik cord I was planning to use to add backstitching on the red would not show up as much as I wanted it to so I needed a thicker thread. I looked at the Kreinik site to see what options there were and saw that not all threads had a thickness mentioned in the super useful chart they offer. So I asked @KreinikGirl on twitter for assistance. She was super helpful and helped me decide what to use: #4 braid. As I do not have any gold Kreinik #4 braid and time is running out for Wolf I knew I had to find a shop that did fast delivery AND had the colours I wanted - this proved difficult but in the end I found the 002C (gold cord #4 braid) and 002J (Japan #4 braid) over on peddles and they were fast! I got it the day after ordering. I also got a small bit of 20 ct Aida that I have been wanting to try for ages - it was only 3,50 so not too bad really. I spent € 11.90 excluding shipping.

Last of all I gave myself a treat for working so hard and redoing the living room. I had found the site of a French lady who hand dyes thread and I was really curious to try it out. She has a series of freebie patterns she's given out over the years to customers upon purchase and offers a kit + fabric (and in some cases including ribbon) as well as the pattern for a reasonable price. The site is le fil atalie and has some wonderful threads and she even ships world wide! I spent € 22.00 excluding shipping.

My total spending is: € 55.05

My subscription stuff:

I have a monthly subscription at Jodyri for the monthly hand dyed fabric, monthly hand dyed thread and a subscription for a set of 5 threads from the standard collection. June's theme was Pink Elephants on Parade, which unfortunately has not arrived yet - bad postie!

My earnings:

The June ornaments:
This month I finished 4 ornaments using the patterns I've made for my Ornament of the Month SAL as this month there are 3 birthstones (I did Alexandrite in 2 colours). The fabric is 16ct antique white Aida  that I got last summer when I was in the UK and 18ct Aida I had in stash. The threads are from my stash, most of which were collected before 1995 though of course I have since added any new colours and topped up colours I finished. Any craft thread used was given to me by my bf. The seed beads are a mix of things I bought, was given or already had.































The ornaments are all 35 stitches square so each ornament earns me $ 4.00 each for a total of $ 16.00 which according to the currency converter today is € 14.33

Fob a Month June Edition:

The June fob was inspired by Pinkythepink's Mucha princess patterns which can be found in her Etsy shop. 
The fob is 28 stitches square so it earns me $ 2.00 which is 1.79. You can find the pattern for the fob here: A Fob a Month - 4


This brings my total earnings at:  € 14.33 + € 1.79 = € 16.12

This is the last report for SFS 2015-A. I have given it much consideration and have decided not to continue with the B group as I find that I personally tend to spend more now I have "permission" to spend - before I had my brain wired to "I must not spend" and I generally didn't spend much. I definitively know that this group really helps you stop and think about what you spend and why and especially makes you look at your own spending habits and find reasons for them - I have my answers thanks to the group. I would definitely encourage people to sign up for this as it really helps!

SFS - May

For more information as to what Stitch From Stash (SFS) is, please click the button above.

From last month the carry over was € 29.59

This month:

Month: May
Budget:  € 25.00
Spent: €20.00
Earned: € 14.68
Carry over: (€ 29.59 + € 14.68 + € 25.00) - € 20.00 = € 49.27

My spending:

This month I bought some beads to do my May and June ornaments. In the photo's on the bead site the beads to the left looked like they were transparent with a nice rainbow like sparkle but in reality they are blueish rather than anything else so will not be use able as "moonstone" for the June ornament. The green beads were bought for May's Emerald ornament, I was happy to find I'd chosen a good colour. On the far right you can see beads that are for July's ornament. The string of beads below them all are real moonstone chips. As I had a coupon I only had to pay € 20.00.

Gifts:

As always the site kindly included some lovely beads for me as a gift packed in a cute gift bag, this month the string of beads did not match what I'd already bought but were the same as I'd received previously, which means that I now have more in stock - a wonderful thing!

At the end of April my darling bf came to visit and somehow managed to fit all this into his bag for me and the kids, including 2 cross stitch magazines and 5 packs of craft thread to top up what I already had. Much feasting was had due to the yummy foods brought along and I spent an age putting the 100 skeins of craft thread onto bobbins - 2 of each colour per packet, with only a couple of overlaps between the packs and between what I already had.

Here you can see all my craft thread in their box just waiting for me to need some for tassels, cord or anything else I need a lot of thread for - I just love having this on hand!

My subscription stuff:

I have a monthly subscription at Jodyri for the monthly hand dyed fabric, monthly hand dyed thread and a subscription for a set of 5 threads from the standard collection. May's theme was Birthday Candles as it's the site's second year of doing business.

 

My earnings:

The May ornaments:
This month I finished 2 ornaments as usual using the pattern I've made for my Ornament of the Month SAL. The fabric is 16ct antique white Aida that I got last summer when I was in the UK and the threads are from my stash, most of which were collected before 1995 though of course I have since added any new colours and topped up colours I finished. The seed beads I bought this month and the pendent beads I already had.
















As you can see the photo's were taken on different days, in reality they are both the same colour. The bigger ornament is 47 stitches square and the smaller one 35 stitches square so each ornament earns me $ 4.00 each for a total of $ 8.00 which according to the currency converter today is € 7.34

Fob a Month May Edition:




















For May's Fob a Month I made a two sided fob - one red and one blue. I used fabric thread and beads mostly from older stash, but one of the threads was bought last month. You can find the pattern here:  A Fob a Month - 3. It's 28 x 36 stitches, which according to the rules should be calculated to a square (28+36 = 64/2=32) so the fob earns me $ 4.00 per side for a total of $ 8.00 which is € 7.34

This brings my total earnings at:  € 7.34 + € 7.34 = € 14.68

I have not finished anything else yet but I have been working very hard to make June's ornaments as there are 3 birthstones in June, one of which has 2 very different colours depending on the light source, so I designed a pattern for each! I will also have to complete Celtic Wolf - the beading was a disaster so I'm back to stitching the neck area after all - the deadline for this is June 30th. So next month there will be lots of finishes.

SFS - April

For more information as to what Stitch From Stash (SFS) is, please click the button above.

From last month the carry over was € 15.81

This month:

Month: April
Budget:  € 25.00
Spent: € 31.24
Earned: € 20.02
Carry over: ( € 15.81 + € 20.02 + € 25.00) - € 31.24 = € 29.59

My spending:

This month I decided it was high time I added all the "new" colours of Colour Variations to my stash that have not yet become readily available in the Netherlands yet. I also was running low on E168, 712 and 814 so I got them as well as a water removable marker pen as my old one had run out. Total spent excluding the pen:  € 31.24

My subscription stuff:

I have a monthly subscription at Jodyri for the monthly hand dyed fabric, monthly hand dyed thread and a subscription for a set of 5 threads from the standard collection. Last month I had not yet received the package so I'm showing it now:


The theme of March was Bill and Ben - most UK people will immediately think of  The Flowerpot Men, an old 50s programme that was revived a few years ago and brought back to the BBC for the kids of today to enjoy.


April's theme was Amethyst and boy what a grand job Jodyri did with that colour! I don't like purples much but this one is wonderful.

My earnings:

The April ornaments:
This month I finished 2 ornaments as usual using the pattern I've made for my Ornament of the Month SAL. The fabric is 16ct antique white Aida that I got last summer when I was in the UK and the threads are from my stash, most of which were collected before 1995 though of course I have since added any new colours and topped up colours I finished. The pendant bead and the bead on the tassel are the beads my bf sent me and the edging beads are the beads Carla sent me last month.

The bigger ornament is 47 stitches square and the smaller one 35 stitches square so each ornament earns me $ 4.00 each for a total of $ 8.00 which according to the currency converter today is € 7.28

Fob a Month April Edition:

For April's Fob a Month I made an additional pincushion pattern as the pattern was too big for a fob and just the one flower is pretty but more is better! You can find the pattern here: A Fob a Month - 2. The scissor fob is 26 stitches square which earns me $ 2.00 and the pincushion is 40 x 36 stitches which earns me $ 4.00 for a total of $ 6.00 which is € 5.46

Randje Per Week January rows:
Last of all I started and worked on a band sampler - it's a pattern that's given for free in weekly instalments and is called "Randje Per Week" or band of the week in English. You can find the patterns here: Randje Per Week. It started in January so I'm well behind, but this does mean I can work on a month's worth of patterns at the same time. I saw on some photo's on google image search that some people were adding motifs and I thought it was a fun idea to do, so I decided to do a butterfly this month, an old pattern I have in my scrapbook that was cut from a magazine some time in the 80's. The fabric was bought last October and the thread was already in my stash as well.

To make it easier to count I'm going to only count stitching if it's part of a whole month's worth of patterns - so as January had 5 Saturdays there are 5 instalments so 10 rows.  Each row is 103 stitches wide. I have not counted the 3 stitch gaps between the bands and decided that due to the lack of coverage I would also not count the motif in the calculations to give a more fair end result.

Week 1 is 11 stitches high
Week 2 is 6 stitches high
Week 3 is 5 stitches high
Week 4 is 8 stitches high
Week 5 is 6 stitches high
Giving a total of 36 stitches high x 103 stitches wide

36 + 103 = 139/2 = 69.5 stitches square for the calculation which gives me $ 8.00 which is € 7.28

This brings my total earnings at: € 7.28 + € 5.46 + € 7.28 = € 20.02

This month was a good stash month! Not too much enhancement but enough to have the colours I might need and a fair bit of stash use which is the main idea of all this.

SFS - March

For more information as to what Stitch From Stash (SFS) is, please click the button above.

From last month the carry over was € 8.14

This month:

Month: March
Spent: € 42.83
Earned: € 25.50
Carry over: ( € 25.50 + €8.14 + € 25.00) - € 42.83 = € 15.81

My spending:

Unfortunately the Kreinik Solar Silver I got last month was not enough to complete the stitching of Wolf so I had to order more, of course when ordering one wants to at least make it worth while, so a few additional bits found their way into my basket.

In addition to the 2 spools of Solar Silver, a spool of petite facets as well as DMC Memory Thread 6200 (not in photo), DMC Colour Variation Thread 4025 and 4240 (neither in photo) were added. Total cost: € 19.27

It also became clear that I had nowhere near as many beads as I needed for Wolf so I had to go and get more.

I got 2 x 2 different types of dragon beads to add to what I had already and as I was planning to bead another section of Wolf I got some beads I thought would suit, sadly this was not to be, he didn't like them and I ended up stitching the area. To get the free shipping I spent a small amount extra (which is less than the shipping costs so worth it) and got myself the white beads. I also had a 5% coupon which I used for this order. Total cost: € 20.66

I also found that the shop that sells the cases got them in so I was able to order them too - as well as more boxes, though after Carla's gift (see below) I had to order even more cases and boxes! These do not count fortunately or I would really have issues money wise hehe.

I ran short of black floss so got some more as well as some needles and a new type of needle threader, which has so far proved it doesn't break as fast as the wire ones. As only the skeins count for SFS the cost was: € 2.90

Gifts:

This was my lucky month! First of all my bf surprised me with these large 6 x 8mm Swarovski beads

The shop where I bought all the storage boxes gave me these: 

If you want to read all about the storage of my beads have a look here: So.. I got organising...  

The shop where I got the dragon beads gave me these:

Last, but certainly not least, Carla blessed me with the Gift Of Stash - and more! The photo below is a tad hazy, it was a quick excited photo made with my tablet shortly after it all arrived. The 3 patterns are Stephanie Seabrook Hedgepath's Rescue the Rain Forest, Graphworks International's Age of Romance: Beauty and the Beast, and Sitka Stitches Designs' Totemic Whale.

If you look carefully you can see the amazing DRAGON! I have never had a needle minder before so will need to see how that works for me. I later found out that the ribbons and lace were from her friend Leah - such an awesome gift!

 

This is what it all looks like after bobbinating and sorting into bead boxes - 65 in total so you can see why I needed to get more. It has all been merged into my stash now giving me even more options when I make things.

My subscription stuff:

I have a monthly subscription at Jodyri for the monthly hand dyed fabric, monthly hand dyed thread and a subscription for a set of 5 threads from the standard collection, however it's not yet arrived so I can't show it now.

My earnings:

This is the place where I make my spending somewhat less scary and where you get even more pretty photo's to look at! 

The March ornaments:
This month I finished 2 ornaments using the pattern I've made for my Ornament of the Month SAL. The fabric is 16ct antique white Aida that I got last summer when I was in the UK and the threads are from my stash, most of which were collected before 1995 though of course I have since added any new colours and topped up colours I finished. The beads I used are also from my stash. The thread I used for the hanging loops is craft thread my bf gave me last September. 
















The bigger ornament is 47 stitches square and the smaller one 35 stitches square so each ornament earns me $ 4.00 each for a total of $ 8.00 which according to the currency converter today is € 7.29



Celtic Wolf:
I finished all of the cross stitching and back stitching this month so decided to use those stitches now as earnings rather than waiting for the beading to be completed as they do not count. I checked with Mel, who confirmed that the beads don't count as they are new and said that to cover for the fact that the fabric is new and not from stash we are counting half of the stitches, which I think is fair.

I adjusted the size of the grid to remove the area that might have been covered with the beads as they don't count anyway and took half of each side's stitch count which came to 67 x 77 stitches. This means that I can count $ 8.00 for Wolf which converts to € 7.29

The Fob a Month March edition:
I have started a second SAL: a Fob a Month where each month I stitch a scissors fob and share the pattern here on my blog, with the main aim being to use what I have to hand and try and avoid buying anything new. This month I made this:



The fob is 24 stitches square on each side which gives it an earnings value of 2 x $ 2.00 which converts to € 3.64

The Sophie Card:
I also stitched a freebie from the CrossStitcher magazine: Sophie Card. I added more of the accessories than perhaps was intended by the creators but it was fun doing so.

It is 35 x 37 stitches which gives it an earnings value of $ 4.00 which converts to € 3.64

The needle book: 

And lastly during the IHSW I designed and stitched this little needle book, which you can read about here: ISHW end report & a finish. You can find the pattern here: Pattern: Blue floral needle book

The embroidery part is 35 x 48 stitches which gives it an earnings value of $ 4.00 which converts to € 3.64

This brings my total earnings at:  € 7.29 + 7.29 + € 3.64 + € 3.64 + € 3.64 = € 25.50

I need to get better at using my stash for things, preferably the older stuff!

SFS - February

For more information as to what Stitch From Stash (SFS) is, please click the button above. Please note that this month some photo's were made with my tablet and are of a lesser quality than usual.

From last month the carry over was € 7.80

This month:

Month: February
Spent: € 44.32
Earned: € 19.66
Carry over: € 44.32 - (€ 19.66 + € 7.80 + € 25.00) = € 8.14

My spending: 

I needed some beads for my February ornament but couldn't really see the colours of the beads properly so decided to get several different ones so I could decide on the final colour once I had received the beads. I also got a string of real amethysts, some rose petal beads and some dragon scale beads. The shop was wonderful and also sent me some matching purple glass facet beads (light purple string) and the purple sachet with some lovely square beads in it as a gift.
The beads cost € 23.45 total.

Getting the beads made me have a look at the mess that was my bead storage - beads were everywhere in all sorts of containers and I didn't really know what I had other than that I had no nice purple beads. I looked around and finally settled on flip top bead boxes with clear cases to keep them in. I ordered 1 pack of 20 of each size knowing I'd have a use for almost all of them and found I was short.

So I ordered a bunch more in the sizes I needed for the big organisation project. Sadly they didn't have any more clear cases and had to order them in from the USA, I'm currently waiting for their stock to arrive so I can order the rest of the cases I need and finish this project.

As all of these cases are for storage they do not count for SFS and I will spare myself the heart attack of seeing the cost for all of this again lol.

Unfortunately this is NOT where my spending stopped as I needed some Kreinik #4 braid for my current project and as I could not get the braid in the Netherlands where I live I had to order from the UK.

What you see here from left to right is: 001J - Japan Silver, 001L - Solar Silver, 021L - Coptic Copper and 021HL - Copper High Lustre. I have used about 2/3 of the spool of solar silver and will need more. Total cost: £ 15.17 which is € 20.87 

My subscription stuff:

As we are encouraged to show off all our stuff I am also including the subscription items that I received. The January batch didn't arrive till after my SFS post so I'm going to included it here.
I have a monthly subscription at Jodyri for the monthly hand dyed fabric, monthly hand dyed thread and a subscription for a set of 5 threads from the standard collection.

 January's theme was winter sunset and we were lucky to be given a winter sunrise thread as well

 February's theme was Lonely Hearts, which you can see below with the threads on the fabric this time.

 

My earnings:

This is the place where I make my over spending somewhat less scary and where you get even more pretty photo's to look at! In February I finished quite a few projects, all small so they don't earn me much but every little bit helps.

First of all my February ornaments:
This month I finished 2 ornaments using the pattern I've made for my Ornament of the Month SAL. The fabric is 16ct antique white Aida that I got last summer when I was in the UK and the threads are from my stash, most of which were collected before 1995 though of course I have since added any new colours and topped up colours I finished. The beads I mentioned above so are new however as they are only used for the finishing I am not going to "count" them. The thread I used for the hanging loops is craft thread my bf gave me last September.

The bigger ornament is 47 stitches square and the smaller one 35 stitches square so each ornament earns me $ 4.00 each for a total of $ 8.00 which according to the currency converter today is € 7.15

This little owl scissor keep and fob were a freebie kit with my February issue of my CrossStitcher magazine subscription.

The scissor keep is 32 x 56 stitches and the fob is double sided and is 20 stitches square. So that's 2 x $ 2.00 for the fob and 1 x $ 4.00 for the scissor keep = $ 8.00 for both, which converts to € 7.15

January's CrossStitcher magazine brought me an alphabet necklace however the hanger on the metal frame was broken so I used some quilt fabric from my stash to back it. I added a line of stitching around the edge and did some backstitching in addition to what the pattern said.

The final size is 22 stitches square which gets me $ 2.00 which converts to € 1.79

Next up is another small project I finished - an owl ornament.

This ornament is done on the black Aida I bought last month but the pattern is free and the thread I already had in my stash and according to the rules this then also counts. It's 42 stitches square so earns me $ 4.00 which converts to € 3.57

This brings my total earnings at: € 7.15 + € 7.15 + € 1.79 + € 3.57 = € 19.66 (YAY!!)

I am so glad I did so many small items over the last month as that really saved my budget.