I hope I know what I'm doing

I just posted my 10-25-50 challenge rules. Now, I am having some second thoughts. Will I be able to meet this challenge? I have to be strong though and I know that it's something I should do just cause I would feel better to stitch my stash instead of just collecting it. I do love collecting though, I like thinking about where I'd hang it and what fiber and fabric I'd use. If only thinking about stitching would fill my walls and empty out my binders.

I already have another exception to my challenge rules. I will allow myself to purchase patterns that I know will go out of print and become hard to find. Mainly, those will be Quaker samplers, as there seems to be a lot of one and only printings happening. Prairie Schoolers seem to be that way too and some of the Drawn Thread patterns but not so much anymore. You can't get your hands on some of the earliest Drawn Thread patterns but I have most of those.

Everyone who's commenting on that challenge post has wished me luck. Thanks so much for the encouragement. I will try the challenge. And I will give it a good try too. But if it gets to feeling too restrictive, I'm going to give it up. Veronica is right, this is to be a fun thing, not a diet. I just want some of those patterns I've bought to see the light of day and this may be one of the ways that I will do it. Really, when I was filing patterns there are so many that I just love, I loved them when I bought them and I love them today. I am surprised that my tastes haven't changed over time.

Honestly, completing 20 patterns before I get to buy ANYTHING is like when pigs fly. It's a plan, really guys. I do want to finish my 5 WIPS and there's more that I'd like to stitch too. If it gets me to stitch some of the stuff I've bought and just put away, then good for me. I just know that this challenge will bring to my attention my blooming stash and perhaps will stop me from purchasing patterns *just because I can*. Give it a go, that's what I'm going to do.

I do want to comment on someone's post to me. Barbara said that I was sensible. What a nice thing to say about me, Barbara. You absolutely made my day. WHY? Because all my life I've been told by people who love me that the only sense I have is what I got from a book. That I only have sense because I learned it, sense is something I do not come by naturally or intuitively. So that comment meant so much to me. It is sorta like validation. That yes, I can trust my judgement and no, I didn't have to read about it in some book to execute it.

I know I am blonde...and yes, math is hard Barbie! LOL!! Thanks Barbara for telling me something about myself that I knew, but never truly believed about myself.

Lena, yes, Autumn Leaves is over one and I am enjoying stitching it a lot although I do not like the way that some of my stitches look. That's the perfectionist in me...Yes, a perfectionist control freak...YIKES what a combo. But that's me.

So the net of all this rambling is that I am grateful to all of you...and in this season of Thanksgiving, I am glad that I know you even if it's only through a sentence or so...I am grateful for ALL of you.