Because I'm itching for a new start....

I'm usually pretty good about sticking to my stitching plans.  I plan my stitching out at the end of the year for the following year.  Small things and charity stitching get added into the plan wherever they are needed, but especially for my bigger projects, I generally stick to my plan.  I like my stitching plans and the way I stitch.  To me, it all feels very planned out.  To my friends...well, I'm sure it doesn't look that way and they nearly get whiplash trying to keep up with what I'm stitching on at any given time.  But that's because I have so many charity items and smalls for myself (like hand towels or pillowcases) that it seems like every time they look I'm working on something different.  But in reality, it's all a part of my bigger plan and my "first here, then there, and next hop over here," method actually results in finishes for me.  Which, to me, that is very, very important.  I'm not a serial starter.  I like to finish my projects.

Which is why I'm generally unfamiliar with that feeling that some stitchers seem to get quite often to start a new project....for no apparent reason.  Right now I have finished one of my big pieces and met my goal of finishing in June, only missing it by a couple of weeks.  I have finished Honeybee Happenings, which was my focus piece last year and then I picked it back up in April of this year.

(Excuse the wrinkles...I haven't ironed it yet.)

So that happened.  And I still have my other focus pieces for the year a well as stitching going on for no less then three charity projects.  (Two are mine and the third is someone else's that I just volunteered for.)  But with Honeybee Happenings out of my rotation, I started to feel a bit of openness in my stitching schedule.

And I started to get the itch.

You know the one.

The itch for a new stitch.

:0)

So I decided to give in and pick something out of my stash to start on.  I chose Frosty Friends, the Eskimo pattern by Cindy Smelcer.  (It's a Foxwood Crossings design)  I bought this pattern last year at Dixie Darlin's in Pigeon Forge.  They had this little Eskimo on their wall as a model stitch but stitched on a different fabric than what was shown in the picture with the pattern.  I immediately fell in love with the pattern and that fabric.  I told the shop owner, "I want that pattern with that fabric."  So she helped me find what the model stitcher had used.  I love it.  It's a 28ct Cashel called, "Crystal Dwarf."  It has the sparkle running all through it.  It's lovely and perfect for this little Eskimo.

I'm playing around with the colors on this one and taking the called for list of threads as a loose suggestion.  That green that I've started with is much more vibrant in person.  It seems the camera washed it out.  

As some of you know, my online handle is The Eskimo's Wife.  And I am that in the most literal sense.  :0)  My husband is an Eskimo from Alaska.  So I'm always on the lookout for Eskimo patterns.  I'm hoping I can get this one finished quickly.  It's not too big, so maybe I'll have another finish to share soon.  :0)