How do I organize my unfinished cross-stitch projects?

Do you have a closet full of unfinished cross-stitch projects? Is your New Year Resolution to attack those projects and get them done? How many times have you vowed not to begin a new project until all the unfinished ones are completed, only to have a wedding on the horizon that just calls for a special sampler for the bride and groom, and the vow is broken…? What has come to be known as the “rotation system” may be the answer to all these questions.

You will need to begin with a bit of organization. Put each project into a separate bag and label the bags from one to whatever (it might be only three or it might be twenty-three!) Work on each project for a specific period of time, then move on to the next one, etc. The time allotted to each project may be as specific as twenty hours, if you are prone to keeping track of the hours you work on a project. It could be that you will work on a project for one week and every Sunday move on to the next project. It should not be a very long period of time – that would defeat the purpose of the system. If you finish a project during its allotted time slot, you then treat yourself to a new one and the remaining time is allocated to the new project. Another version says that when you finish one, the balance of that time slot goes to the next project and you add a new project at the end of the rotation.

This is a good way to finish all those projects that your really want to do, but are so large as to be overwhelming. It is a way to get gifts done while still doing projects for yourself. It is a way to get through the one or two bands on a sampler that have stitches you really don’t like to do, yet you know will make the piece look perfect.

Information from Cross Country Stitching Magazine columns "Ask Judie" - Judie Solomon, Thistle Needleworks & "Carol’s Crafty Corner" - Carol Rice, The Craft Menagerie

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