Acorns and Threads

The most shocking thing about digging through my stash of cross-stitch charts is how I'm still excited about most of the same things I absolutely loved almost fifteen years ago.  While I was sorting through the latest batch of boxes, this magazine turned up. For me, the May 2001 issue of Stitcher's World was a complete and total game changer. 

I'd only been stitching for a couple of months and up to that point my entire stash had come from big box craft stores or thrift shops. This was the first cross-stitch magazine I bought and when I  read the article about Birds of a Feather I fell in love with these two patterns. They were among the first non craft store patterns I bought. I still haven't stitched them up, but I can see that changing soon.

That same article mentions Acorns and Threads in Portland, Oregon and as soon as I read  their description of the shop I was planning a road trip. There was lots of pretty cross stitch stuff at Michaels at that time, but I had no clue how many other gorgeous possibilities there were. I bought a lot of patterns there over the years.

On Thursday, I was up at Acorns and Threads for the first time in years, hanging out with some of my favorite Flosstubers. It was all kinds of fun and I fell in love with dozens of new projects, especially after switching to a sock to give my eyes a break, which also freed them up to take in everything that was hanging on the walls.

Someone please remind me that I absolutely hated the last Mill Hill kit that I stitched and really don't want the haunted barn or haunted hotel.