I am not exactly a dedicated housekeeper. No one would ever call me a neat freak. (My family is reading this and agreeing heartily.) One thing, however, drives me crazy. Fingerprints, handprints, and other hand-related gunk is the bane of my existence. There may be dust bunnies under the bed, but I cannot abide fingerprints on the microwave. My computer screens must be clean. I am world-renowned for my mirror cleaning abilities. And, light switches are one of the first things I polish when I am cleaning.

I also have a thing about my own hands being clean. It's probably because in all my years of stitching I have learned that clean hands are a must if you don't want to ruin a project. Clean hands are a Cross Stitch Rule as far as I am concerned.

When I started playing around with the free Handprints motif I knew I wanted to do a saying to go with it, but I wasn't sure which one to select. I read some that said things about children leaving handprints on our hearts or about how their hands are large now tho they once were small, but those didn't strike me as quite right. Then I found this saying from John Heywood - "Many hands make light work."

Eureka! That is a perfect quote to go with my little design, I thought. It reminded me of taking care of Mr. Pat. As he has gotten weaker and more dependant on us, we have shared the joy (and sometimes, the burden) of caring for him with others. Whether family members or hired workers, the work is spread among us and makes it much easier to bear for all of us, including him!

I can see this design used as the header of a chore chart or hanging in a church kitchen as a reminder that working together will help keep things nice and clean. What might you use the design for?

The patterns in the free Handprints Collection were inspired by Sue Chastain's Free Graphics Software Downloads. I appreciate her allowing me to use these images for pattern inspiration.

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X_woman is a very prolific stitcher. She completes projects in "a month to a month and a half" that would take me a year (mainly because I don't usually work on one project very long without switching to something else). And they aren't just any projects either. Her choices are detailed with metallic flosses and beads and lots of back stitch.

Two of her finishes for 2009, Father Sun and Mother Moon are so beautiful that I have bookmarked them for list of "want to stitch" projects. The designs are from Joan Elliot's Bewitching Cross Stitch.
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I never seem to keep my posts completely wordless, but here are more blogs posts featuring photos on Wordless Wednesday at About.com.

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I have been dieting lately. Or rather, trying to change my lifestyle. I tend to avoid using the word diet because lifestyle plan sounds much more positive! Anyway, one of my saving graces during the times when I'd really rather be eating something other than celery are sugar free popsicles. It is amazing how sweet they taste to someone who is off cookies, cakes, and candy.

Cheryl Fall, About.com Guide to Needlepoint, must like popsicles too. Only she's come up with some that are lovely, won't melt, and won't tempt you to ditch our diet, I mean, lifestyle plan.

I am sure I could find a way to do this designs in cross stitch, but I might just try out some of the Needlepoint stitches Cheryl suggests. The designs will become more difficult as the year passes, so it will be a good way to increase my skill level.

Cheryl is also introducing an ever-expanding Needlepoint Stitch Journal this year. If you enjoy canvaswork or counted thread designs, you will want to check this out. Many of the stitches may be adapted to advanced cross stitch designs.

Don't miss Cheryl's Free Pattern Collection either - many of the patterns may be easily adapted to Cross Stitch projects, so even if you don't do Needlepoint, it's worth a look.

One thing I love about crafty people and crafty traditions is the names that we come up with for things. Like instead of calling it Judy's Fuzz Remover, she called it Judy's Boo Boo Stick. Crocheters have the Granny Square, Knitters have eyelash yarn, and so on.

Quilters really take the cake - they have all sorts of cool names for their designs and styles of quilts. Crazy Quilts sound like fun. There's the Shoo Fly, Churn Dash, Bear's Paw and the one that inspired me this week - the Monkey Wrench Block. This free Mini Monkey Wrench Quilt design is a variation on this block designed for stitching instead of quilting. It would make a cute little dolls house quilt or even a magnet or ornament. How might you decide to use the motif?

More Quilty Cross Stitch:

• Q is for Quilt
• Friendship Quilt Blocks
• Quilt-Inspired Cross Stitch Patterns