Too many watched cooks never sing for their supper

Here's a rather delightful transfer from Superior, simply titled "6 Towel Appliques" which is a bit of a shame, given that the transfers are rather fun. The marketing team at Superior could have taken a leaf out of Vogart's book and claimed that "these designs will put some sparkle and fun back into the kitchen!" or told us that "your kitchen will rise and shine with our cheerful appliques." But no, the envelope back only has stitch descriptions and colour suggestions. So we have: a watched pot never boils, sing for your supper, too many cooks, time to shine, a penny saved, and sugar and spice. The packet also contains the shape transfers for you to add fabric as well. (I think I might give one of these a go actually, they've rather charmed me.)

This pattern combines applique, embroidery and cross stitch, so it's definitely worth giving a go, if you're not a cross stitcher, as the "zany" placement of the text is very forgiving for a beginning stitcher. I'll add "sing for your supper" later, as I think that's the sweetest, but in the meantime, here's "too many cooks". I can relate to this one, as Mr Stitchy is the chef of our household, so much so that when I'm cooking, he can't help himself from pottering around next to me and keeping an eye on what I'm doing. And yes, if you're curious, my stitching is much better than my cooking!

Couple'a stitchy thoughts

You may notice a new poll in the sidebar, I've put it up for a month to gauge what you think of cross stitch. Vogart put out a lot of cross stitch patterns, which I'm rather fond of, but I'm not sure if stitchy folks out there share my opinion - do you like cross stitch or not? What do you think?

Another issue I'd like your opinion on...people selling photocopies of their patterns. Recently on e-bay I was bidding on the original of one of my Vogart wishlist patterns, the auction was due to end, I went to bed and asked Mr Stitchy Britches (the night owl) to keep an eye on it, and bid for me. He forgot about it, and so wanting to keep Stitchy-me happy (bless him!), tried to find another copy on e-bay. He came across a "buy it now" one and thought, "bonus, here's one for her", and bought it. The next day he told me, I wasn't too fussed on missing out (as these Vogart patterns seem to be like buses) - "thank you", said I, "but oh, is it an original or a copy?" He looked at me somewhat blankly and then checked out what he'd bought. He was dismayed to find he'd spent money on a photocopy, and not realised. I said, that's fine, I can still stitch it, so all good. (The auction did clearly state it was a photocopy, by the way.)

But, what do you think of this? I'm happy to support people that reprint transfers that you can iron on and use, but somehow, to me, charging money for a photocopy seems a bit wrong. I know it's free enterprise etc, but I don't operate that way, so it doesn't sit well with me.

Any thoughts?