Thursday, January 15, 2009

-12 below?? What??

I'm in the home stretch with Blessings and Kind Wishes. I started the actual house this morning and I'm sure I won't have much to do at all this weekend. Yeah!


When I got home from work yesterday I had a huge box waiting for me. I opened it up and inside was the Big Zipper from Bent Creek. I managed to hit the New Year's sale at the Silver Needle and got 20% off the piece. Of course it was short two kits because the terms of the sale were in-stock items only and they must have been out of the last two. So now I need to hunt them down at full price. I made myself workout before I opened the packages because I knew I would spend quite a while looking at my treasure. When I finally got a look at everything the contents of the kit kinda hit me. What was I thinking? This thing is HUGE - it's on 18 count linen (quite stiff and rough - I hate it) using pearl cotton, most of which is plain DMC. I swear the size of the linen is 36 x 36. Each piece has full size buttons. But as I looked at it, I realized that I still love the design. Who says I have to do it on 18 count with pearl cotton? Of course I've already paid way over $100 bucks for this and still have two kits to buy at $16 a piece but why can't I do it the way I want to? :-)



So I quickly made a decision. I'm going to use just the charts. I'll do mine on 32 count (maybe even 36 count) and convert it all to overdyed floss. I'll have to buy all new buttons because of course, the large ones won't work but I know that Just a Button Co. makes many tiny ones that will work perfect. And I'll spread the costs of the floss and buttons out over the year. And then I'll sell the original kit complete. I'll take a huge hit in the cost (it's $168 for the full project) of course but at least I'll get what I want and I'll be happy. And that's what it's all about right?


I'll put it up on eBay when I'm done with all the charts. Hopefully I can get about at least 50% of the kits.

9 comments:

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

You're marching right along on Blessings and Kind Wishes...you'll be done by early saturday :)
And I love the Big Project you got...it's cute and your idea is a good one!

Siobhán said...

Wow, YGG on your Blessings & Kind Wishes! You're making a lot of progress--a finish is coming soon, I'm sure. :) On the BC piece, just remember, you're saving money on framing, too, because to frame something that big would be $$$. I can always justify spending more money on stash. Plus, if it were me, I'd be more inclined to work on something if I enjoyed the materials.

Thanks for commenting on my blog! :) The name Aoife is very popular here in Ireland, especially among younger kids. My girls know so many Aoifes that we have to add their last names to differentiate between them. ;) I love the name & considered it for my girls. I also know another pup named Clancy--he's a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Our next door canine neighbor is a lab named Molly. Clearly you have good taste in names. ;) Your pups are adorable. Stay warm!

Nicole said...

I agree with Siobhan! Think of all the money you'll be saving on framing! :) You should definitely love what you stitch - I think it will be very pretty on the smaller count! :)

Carmen said...

is a good idea to change the materials and the count of the fabric, the 18 count is too big, and 32 count is simply perfect. the important thing is design, which is just perfect for 32 count fabric.

Michelle said...

Great idea to change that piece to fabric and fibers you will enjoy! Great progress on your BBD - you'll be done in no time!

Cindy F. said...

More great progress on Blessings!

You go girl!! Absolutely do Big Zipper the way you want it! I would have changed the fabric, especially the count. I learned after Rainbow Row, I'll make it the size I want...not the size the LNS talked me into!!...lol...(what was I thinking!) It's going to be gorgeous!

Sharon said...

Looks great-such pretty colors!

Glenna said...

I saw the Big Zipper, all stitched up at my LNS a couple of weeks ago. It is absolutely amazing--way better than the pictures--a completely worthwhile stitch, and yet, looking at picture of it on the web, I never realized how nice it was. I'm looking forward to seeing you stitch it up. B&KW looks great--I have it kitted up but haven't started it yet.

Jeanne said...

Love your Blessings piece. Definitely you should switch out the fabric and floss to what you love or you won't enjoy stitching the Big Zipper. I just got done doing some frogging this week on 2 projects - the colors I had put in were bugging me and I just wasn't happy until I fixed them. I hope you get a good price on eBay for what you don't use!