X as in x(cross) Stitching

I bet I am not alone is struggling with X for this blog. Often in this Blogging challenge the challenge for me has been choosing between any one of a number or equally excellent topics to write about for a particular letter. But for today's X, its been coming up with anything!

I am going to cheat and I bet I'm not alone in that! And in cheating I have two choices. (Well perhaps not cheat, but certainly stretch a point!)

The first is X stitching... ie cross stitching. I am not totally cheating with that use as I once belonged to an online group that used to used that short form in their name and we referred to ourselves as Xers (interestingly, since it was written I would pronounce that as Exers whilst others, when we had a meet up in person called us Crossers). I can't find it or any reference to it on line now so its probably folded long since. 

Anyway... I used to do a lot of cross stitching. I was a cross stitcher way before I got into patchwork. I taught or at least encouraged my daughter (known as Fangirl on this blog) in her cross stitching. I know that whilst she was learning and for a few years there after (a good few years thereafter) she had free reign over my cross stitching stash.I ended up giving it all to her in the finish as I had stopped doing it and she was forging ahead.

 Now she is the cross stitcher in the family and completes amazing projects. She designs and sell her own patterns. Check out her blog fangirlstitches.blogspot.com.au and her Etsy shop (there is a link in my side bar) I don't do much cross stitching any more. Anything I need I ask Fangirl to do (as they say Why have a dog and bark yourself). I do a bit of needlework occasionally, mainly to incorporate into my patchwork designs but cross stitching is a bit fine for me.

My last major cross stitch pattern completed in 2002

The other X is in SEX
Don't get excited. Or shocked if you are one of my regular readers who didn't think I was that sort of person to talk about sex on my blog. In quilting circles it can have a whole different meaning

SEX = Stash Enhancing eXperience (or eXcursion)  Definition from Slikstitchers

Patchwork groups sometimes arrange Sex tours when they are on a retreat or at a conference or national gathering. Its when the group tours a number of local quilting and patchwork shops. Sometimes there are special deals or discounts offered. Sometimes morning or afternoon tea is organised to happen at the shop. Sometimes there is a mini class or tutorial organised. It totally depends on the organisers and local shops as to what they come up with. I have never been on one fo these organised tours as such so can't really comment too much. 

I have been on some private seX tours.... when we took our oldest son to Brisbane for university Fixit Guy and I stayed on for a week whilst he settled in. I was still pretty new to quilting then and had looked up a number of Local Quilt Shops (LQS) and worked out how to get from one to another. Fixit Guy patiently drove me from one to another whilst I had a little browse in each one.

Trouble is - I really prefer shopping when there is something I want or need. I have never been overly good at buying things for the sake of getting something but when we had gone to all the trouble to visit a place it seemed a wasted opportunity not to buy something. Ideally if I ever get the opportunity to go on a private or organised seX tour I think I would enjoy it more if I were to have a project picked out - or else buy a pattern at the first stop and then look for something to use in that pattern at each stop. Or else have a list of things I need/want and again look for that at each shop.

When Fixit Guy and I had a 3 week tour of NSW back in 2013 after I got back from my trip to the UK I had such a pattern. I had bought the pattern in the UK just before this trip and when visiting patchwork shops in Canberra, Wagga and Coonabarabran I was looking for fabric to use in the quilt. You can read about the quilt that I made then in Teashop Open for Business