Here’s a quick snap of “Gingerbread Cookie,” now completed and sitting in my ready-for-finishing pile. The final stitched piece seems a bit over-sized for an ornament, so I may just turn it into a puffy pillow instead.  This is obviously a “think about it” finish.

A couple of years ago I started recording notes about my stitching projects in a little spiral notebook that I call my stitch diary. It’s full of random notes about thread count used, final stitched size, embellishments and details about how I planned and then ended up finishing the piece.

My intention was to  keep records so that if I wanted I could stitch something a second time later on and not have to do all the annoying calculating again. In practice, I’ve found that I’ve seldom ever been moved to stitch two of something. (“A Friend is a Gift” has been one exception that proves the rule, I suppose.)

Keeping records has been more valuable as a reminder of the charts I’ve stitched and to whom I gave them. It has happened that I’ve search for months for the absolutely perfect design for someone, stitched and gifted it, and then years later “discovered” the same chart and thought, now wouldn’t this be just perfect for so-and-so? Yeah, you guessed it. It’s as if I completely forget what I’ve stitched once I’ve given it away. The diary prevents that from happening. I only wish I’d started making notes earlier!