I have done cross stitch, but I really don't like it. My first needlework love was needlepoint. Then I joined Embroiderer's Guild of America and learned all kinds of other needlework. I took Japanese Embroidery for five years, have done a lot of silk and metal stitchery, pulled and withdrawn thread, and recently got into stumpwork.
EGA has a nice notice on their web page right now about what to do with stitching supplies when you no longer need them:
What To Do With Those Needlework Leftovers
By Sue Hacker Nelson, Director, Marketing
In follow up to the article I wrote for Needle Arts v. 45, n. 2 (June 2014) on planning for your stash once you're gone, I received a nice note from Jenny Ewing form the Desert Threaders Chapter about a unique way they address this issue:
"At last we have a way to keep our leftovers and extras out of the town landfill! We now donate these odds and ends to Charlene Reeder of Paraclete Designs located in Phoenix, Arizona. Besides designing original cross stitch patterns, she organizes and ships multiple boxes of our leftovers to orphanages and schools in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Russia, South Africa, New York State, Ohio, and Oklahoma. She donates her own time to sort and reorganize our leftovers into boxes that are shipped and used in poor areas where children are being taught to cross stitch."
If you'd like to learn more, you can find it here (
http://www.paracletedesigns.com/projects.aspx).
http://www.egausa.org/index.php/resources/ega-blog/747-leftoversI've appointed one of our EGA chapter members to be my needlework executor. If she's still around when I kick the bucket, she will be responsible for disposing of my stash and needlework library. I'll have to update that every so often since I may be like my mother and outlive everyone in every group she belonged to. But it's in my will right now just in case!
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