Last week I posted about my finish of Faith Hope Love by Joyful Expressions.  This left an open spot in my rotation.  Joy of joys!!  Just think of the possibilities!!  After seeing so many lovely WIPs on stitching blogs I follow, I decided I wanted to tackle a slightly bigger or more complex project.  The others I have going right now are fairly simple and with just a few colors.  For quite some time I’ve had my eye on “Heart of Christmas” by Stoney Creek.  I know we’re coming into spring and I have no idea why I am so drawn to a Christmas pattern except it has so many beautiful bright colors!  You know how I love to stitch bright colors.

Sadly, I don’t have a local needlwork shop within an hour of me, so I do a lot of ordering online.  In this case, once I got on the Stoney Creek website, I had to order a few specialty threads and buttons to go with the pattern… and I just couldn’t resist the winter edition of their magazine… and a subscription.  Sigh.  So here’s the deliciously lovely pile of stuff that arrived a few days later.  I adore the ‘clear sky’ dyed fabric as a backdrop for the pattern, don’t you?

My package from Stoney Creek!

On a totally unrelated note, I wanted to share a tip to keep your scissor tips sharp and undamaged, as well as to keep them from poking other items in your project bag.  I’ve been using knitting needle covers, which can be purchased inexpensively from most any craft store, on my scissor tips!  Here’s a photo of a few of the tool kits in my various project bags.  (I buy the plastic containers, which are meant for scrapbooking, when they go on clearance at the big box craft store):

What’s your favorite project bag or cross-stitch-stash tip?  As you can see, I love organizing almost as much as stitching 😉

Happy Stitching!