Measi's Musings

Archive for the ‘Rotations & Goals’ Category

I expect the majority of my money to be going to updating the house this year, so I expect the majority of my free time this year is going to be spent stitching on round robins or on pieces I already have in progress (or have kitted).  I probably am being a bit outlandish with goals, but hey… dream big, right?

My current WIPs and UFOs are:

Cats on a Staircase (Bucilla)
Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Design)
Egyptian Sampler (Teresa Wentzler)
Magical Night (Teresa Wentzler)
Floral Bellpull (Teresa Wentzler)
Astrology Sampler (Witches Stitches)
Legends of the Dragons (Teresa Wentzler, Dragon Dreams, Black Swan)
Spring Queen (Mirabilia)  Will be a restart due to fabric damage
Noah’s Ark (Teresa Wentzler)
Walk in the Woods (Cricket Collection)
Garden Samplers (Prairie Schooler)  Whoops!  This was a 2010 finish!
Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof)
Fantasy Triptych (Teresa Wentzler)
Millennium (Teresa Wentzler)
Elemental Dragons (Dragon Dreams)

My Guilt Free January starts will be:

I Love New England (Sampler Needlework)
Witches Wheel (Glendon Place)
Leaping Cat (La-D-Da)

Round Robins this year:

UFO RR Sept 2010 – (ongoing) will finish in October
Mirabilia RR – starting in February
UFO RR Q1 2011 – starting in February or March

Other pieces I’d love to start this year:

Muse of the Midnight Sun (HAED)
Masquerade (Ink Circles)
Pocketful of Peppermints (Blue Ribbon Designs)
Sleepy Hollow (Glendon Place)
Autumn in the Square (Just Nan)

So in looking over things, these are my goals for the year:

1) Finish one Teresa Wentzler project on my WIP/UFO list.

2) Finish three other pieces (any designer) on my WIP/UFO list via the Wagon’s WIP Killers thread.

3) Aside from my GFJ starts, I will only start a project for each two that I complete (ornaments don’t count toward this finish goal)

4) I will put in at least a round’s worth (10 hours) of stitches into each of my WIPs & UFOs this year via the Crazy 2011 Challenge.

5) Stitch on the RR’s as they come in so I keep up to date.

6) Attend two formal stitching retreats/shows (the plan is Stitcher’s Hideaway in Feb & Celebrations in May)

7) Go to each monthly RI Stitcher event

Organize all of my stash

I know… I’m crazy, aren’t I?

I’ve switched my theme to something wintery – I think it’s cute, but I’m worried it’s a bit too busy? That could just be me not used to a three column layout, though. Thoughts?

Anyway… I’m pleased with what I accomplished on my 2010 stitching goal list! I accomplished quite a few things not on this list, too. It’s definitely my most productive stitching year to date.

Finish one TW project
Partial credit – I didn’t finish the ones I thought about when making this goal, but I did finish two TW ornaments.

Particpate in an ornament exchange
Participated in three!

Finish 3 non-TW projects
Yes.

Develop a better floss and pattern organizing system in my office
Still in progress…

Make at least one rotation’s progress on all of my current UFOs
Most of them, but a couple rested all year

Go to a stitching convention/retreat/show/thingy
Yep!

Attend or host at least 6 Stitch ‘n Bitches with friends
Yes! And we’ve kicked off a statewide stitching group through it.

Finally learn how to finish a knitted piece so I can get my scarf off my needles.
Nope.

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I have a three day weekend starting tomorrow, and I plan on spending a good deal of it on RR stitching. Right now I have three pieces in my possession, plus my prep work to do for the Mira RR starting in the next several weeks. I know one of them will be done this weekend, and I can put a good dent in my hours for a second. I don’t expect to get to the third, but that one’s not due to be mailed out until late January, so I’m still in very good shape.

The first priority is Rachel‘s absolutely gorgeous Queen of Freedom.  It’s a few weeks overdue, but not holding up the robin in any way because I knew I could finish the work on my obligated hours.  I’ve finished all of the Kreinik – now I just have to backstitch her arm and a bit of other backstitching smatterings here and there and she’ll be ready to go home for Rachel to bead.  I don’t expect my work on it to take more than three hours – it’s possible I could get it done and mailed tomorrow, but I’m shooting to get it mailed on Monday so I don’t rush and make mistakes.

Next I have Catherine‘s adorable mini-quilt.  I’ve finished one of the hearts already.  Now I”m going to complete one of the lambs, and see how many hours remain in my time allotment.  It’s due to be mailed off the day before my birthday (easy enough to remember!)  That will conclude the 2010 UFO RR.  I can’t believe it’s done already – the year has flown!

I’ve sketched my Mira RR borders:
The bottom row is identical to the top. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how I wanted to frame the Queens I’ve chosen for my theme without chopping too much of their hairstyles off. The agreed block areas are to be 2,500 stitches (approx.). So… 50 by 50, or something close to that. All but two of the Queens fit nicely with a 50 by 50 square. I’ll lose a couple wispies here and there in their hairstyles, but nothing major. The problem was that with both Summer and Freedom have longer headdress/hairstyles where I would chop off a significant amount of their uniqueness. So I decided to err on a larger square for both of them – they’re 60 wide by 50 tall, which breaks up the squares a little bit (but keeps things symetrical). There will be a decent amount of open space in those larger squares, too – so it should be fine. I’ll be adding something from one or two of the queens into the center square – I’m thinking a snippet of the floral arrangements from Spring Queen and/or Royal Holiday.

I’ve also chosen my fabric.  It’s a Silkweaver Limited Edition, 32ct Belfast.  It’s a soft green and white.  The faces of the queens should pop out very nicely against it.  I’m going to stitch my borders in a long-armed cross stitch in an”old gold” color to give it a braided look.  I have it with me at work today – I’ll put the first stitches in during lunch.  :)

The final RR piece I have in my possession is Blu‘s.  I don’t expect to get any work done on it this weekend, but it will be my commuting project starting next week, so I should have it ready to mail along with Catherine’s in mid-January.  :)

Busy, busy busy!

Now I just need to figure out my stitching goals for 2011.  There’s a lot of robin-ing in my near future.

Per my last post, I’m honestly quite happy the holidays are coming to an end… and honestly, glad 2010 is ending, too.  It’s been a rough, tiring year.  Thankfully, both Yule and Christmas were nice and quiet.  I wound up being quite ill on Yule, so didn’t sit for the Sabbat.  I don’t think I got out of my pj’s all day on Saturday.  Mom had planned to come up for the weekend, but with the nasty storm that came up the east coast on Sunday, I suggested that she not make the drive (it’s over five hours in pristine driving conditions – for which the holidays and snow would most definitely not qualify) and that we put off Mom & Daughter Christmas until later.  So… the visit is pending for sometime in January.  It’ll be a mash of my birthday and Christmas, which is fine.  It’ll be less chaotic anyway.    I have a slight feeling that Mom was a bit ticked at me for suggesting the rain check, but really – it was horrible on Sunday, and she would have been in it the entire way up.   With the dog because the timing wasn’t good for the kennel.  Just – way too many variables here for my comfort.  I’d much rather do it on a relaxed weekend later.

The storm wound up dumping somewhere between nine and thirteen inches of snow… I think.  It’s a bit hard to tell due to all of the blowing snow, but the piles on the side of the road are significant.  Sunday night was an honest-to-god blizzard.  The snow was just howling by the windows.  Sunday wasn’t much better in the wind department, although it stopped snowing sometime mid-afternoon.  The winds died down this afternoon, and it was pleasant to be outside at lunch – cold, of course, but not painful with the calm air.  I’ve heard rumors that we may hit the upper 40s for New Year’s Eve, so I’ll enjoy the snow-covered ground while I can.

I admit – as much of a pain it is to navigate at time, it’s awfully pretty outside right now.

Erich and I bought new cell phones last week as a mutual Christmas present.  We both got Droid 2′s, and I’m still trying to learn my way around it.  I loved my old phone, but with Twitter and Facebook becoming more common for me, it was time to upgrade.  We have my old phone as a standby in case something happens.  On Friday (my day off), I’ll get some photos uploaded of two gorgeous ornaments I received from Rachel, as well as my received ornaments for the Teresa Wentzler and Life’s a Stitch exchanges via Yuku.

So now this week I’m starting to get my thoughts together for stitching in 2011.  As of right now, my stitching for the year looks as follows:

• Wrapping up the UFO RR that started in Feb 2010 – pieces get mailed home in January
• Continuing with the UFO RR that started in October.
• Starting the Mirabilia RR for 2011.  My RR will be themed around the Queens.  I’ve bought the patterns I was missing.  Now I just need to prep my fabric with the layout.
• Starting the new UFO RR that begins in February.  I’ll either send Walk in the Woods or Apache Wedding Blessing for this one
• Guilt Free January – I’m keeping this pretty low-key this year.  I’ll be starting an HAED piece in January with the other RI Stitchers girls.  I also plan on starting Pocketful of Peppermints by Blue Ribbon Designs, Leaping Cat by La-D-Da, and I Love New England by the Sampler Needlework.
• Other than that, I’m planning on spending the entire year WIP-killing, STRiP-ing… however you want to term it.  I’m not going to do an organized rotation, due to the RR’s.  Instead, I’m just going to scream-stitch and see where it goes.

I’ll be tidying up my WIP list on Friday, and sometime over the weekend I’ll update my stash list.  Off the top of my head, the WIPS I really, really want to tackle this year and finish are:

• Witchy Washy
• Apache Wedding Blessing
• Cats on a Staircase
• Floral Bellpull
• Walk in the Woods

Anything other than that will be a bonus, but I’m certain that I can get these five done.

Other random aside – the Totally Useless SAL still lives for 2011!  Pop over here to join!

For October, I wanted to:

1) Stitch two more ornaments, and finish them and the two stitched pieces I already have. I did not stitch the two pieces I already have. I did complete two new ornaments, though!
2) Enjoy the Stitcher’s Hideaway retreat. ABSOLUTELY DID!
3) Finish pds’ piece for the UFO RR Done!
4) Update my supply spreadsheet with all patterns & fabric stash Nope.
5) Stitch 15 hours during my vacation week. DONE!

For November, I want to:

1) Finish Rachel’s UFO RR piece – I may be able to make this a robin HD!
2) Finish my hours for Rahenna’s UFO RR piece
3) Stitch an ornament for my mom, my dad, and Erich’s dad (finishing in Dec)
4) Update my pattern list on my supply spreadsheet
5) Clean up my craft room

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I was thrilled to see comments from my last entry – thank you guys!  So many times I feel like I’m just shouting into the wind in this blog.

Kris – I’m using a whipstitch method to complete my ornament, much like you do for biscornu.  There’s a good set of instructions here: http://www.violarium.com/index.php?main_page=extras&sivu=47&language=en Where the instructions in biscornu vs. ornaments differ is starting at #5.  Skip the pinning, and just match the top corner of each piece (front and back) together, and then start whip stitching.  To add the bead, slide a bead on before doing the whip stitch, and it will slide perfectly into place as you tighten the stitch.

My Halloween ornament follows a bead+ whip, whip only, bead+whip, whip only pattern.

Does that make sense?

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I haven’t had time to stitch this week so far, but I did finish my most recent UFO Round Robin section… this time for my friend Michelle (aka Wench).

Here are the before/after photos for my round:

Lots of confetti stitching in my section. I seriously cannot believe we’re mailing on Round 6 already. Only two more rounds to go on this robin before it’s all done. It’s been a fantastic one, too – tons of progress on everyone’s pieces!

Next on my list for round robins is the first round of 2010 UFO RR #2… I’m starting off with Lindsay’s piece. It’s absolutely gorgeous:

I’m starting my stitching on it this weekend at the monthly Rhode Island Stitchers get-together on Saturday morning.  I’d love to get to it before then, but work has me pounding through a ton of prep work for meetings and such… plus the highest-ranking manager I support is traveling tomorrow evening through a good portion of next week, so I need to make sure his expense report and such are squared away – as I’m taking a vacation week nearly as soon as he returns.

So yes – stitching this weekend, and lots of it.  I have Monday off for Columbus Day (and Erich’s planning on going fishing with the guys that day), so between Saturday morning and most of Monday, I should get a nice block in.  I expect to be focusing on some housework Sunday.  In theory, anyway.

I can’t believe it’s only about a week and a half until Stitcher’s Hideaway!  I’ve been wanting to go to this for a couple years now, and it’s finally a reality.  I’ve never been to any stitching event before, partially out of intimidation (I may be social on the internet, but I struggle in person) and partially due to lack of funds.  But this year – I’m in, and friends are coming with me!  We’re the Mystic Two group (and may comprise the vast majority of the Mystic Two group, come to think of it!).  Mystic is less than an hour from my house – not far at all.  I’ll be heading down on Sunday the 17th and then returning home on Tuesday evening after events wrap up.  I took the rest of the week off, too.  With both Erich and Matt working, I may have a good amount of time to myself in the house.  (hooray!)

More this weekend once I get past the work chaos!

General stuff first.  For August, I wanted to:

1) Finish Garden Sampler I’m so flippin’ close on this. I’m guessing I have 5-10 hours left at most. It’s in my commuting bag, and I’ve been working on it every evening on the train. By Labor Day, oh yes… this will be done!
2) Finish my hours on Round 4 of the UFO RR and mail it off a week early Yep. Done and has been received by the next participant.
3) Work 10 hours on Astrology Sampler (commute piece) Done!
4) Work at least 5 hours on Floral Bellpull Didn’t touch it.
5) Work at least 5 hours on Egyptian Sampler Didn’t touch this, either.
6) Prep my piece for the new UFO RR starting September(ish). It’s ready to go.

So not too bad. I’m happy. I just feel like I’m stalling a bit on some of my projects.

For September, I want to:

1) Really, truly finish Garden Sampler.
2) Stitch on all of my WIPs via a sprint rotation like I did in February’s Olympics.
3) Finish my stitching on Michelle’s RR piece
4) Mail my RR piece for the 2nd robin
5) Get my stitching room tidied up.
6) Plan my ornament stitching for this year.

So after a fruitful summer of stitching, I decided I needed to switch gears a bit for the autumn.  First, because while I’ve been stitching a lot – I’ve been really focusing on one or two pieces for the most part (ahem, Garden Sampler…) and neglecting everything else in my rotation.

And also because although I have been productive, I’m feeling in a bit of a rut and just need to shake things up a bit.

A few fellow stitchers and I are doing a “September Slump Stop” themed SAL, based roughly after National Novel Writing Month.  Whether it’s fashioned by the number of thread lengths you do, or the number of stitches per day, etc – the goal is essentially to stitch every day. 

My problem, of course, hasn’t been actually sitting to stitch, but on not rotating as I’d like.  So I’m being a bit fringey on this thing (me?  NEVER!) and came up with a method that goes along the theme of the SAL, but also gets my personal goals attached.  I decided that I really, really liked the “Sprint Rotation” that was used during the Stitching Olympics in February.  I honestly got a lot of stitching done using that method and touched a surprising number of my pieces.  So… this month, I’m doing the following:

• 90 minutes per project (30 minutes per day minimum stitch time)
• The only exceptions are round robin pieces, which will have 5 hour focuses each week to get my hours in.

I’m selecting from the following list of pieces (in any order) to accomplish this goal:

• UFO RR (Michelle)
• UFO RR (Lindsay)
• Garden Sampler HD 9/5/10!
• Witchy Washy rotation done 9/8/10
• Smoky Mountain Cats – going out on RR 9/13/10.
• Cats on a Staircase
• Apache Wedding Blessing
• Egyptian Sampler
• Floral Bellpull
• Astrology Sampler
• Legends of the Dragons
• Spring Queen
• Noah’s Ark
• Walk in the Woods
• Fantasy Triptych
• Millennium
• Elemental Dragon (Water)

The two crossed off are the ones I’ve already finished stitching this month.  I have Legends of the Dragons in my commute bag for this evening. 

As you can see by the notes, I’ve decided to send Smoky Mountain Cats out instead of Walk in the Woods for the new UFO RR that’s starting on Monday- mostly due to the response I got from my posting about a week back.  It’s an easy piece.  I may have a tweak to do when it gets back to me (or maybe I’ll fix it this weekend if I have time).  The counts are fine – but I think I may have stitched it with 2 rather than three threads when I first started it ages ago, then switched to the correct 3.  I’m going to take a look at it tomorrow evening and see what’s what.   It’s one of those pieces I started during a rough phase, I suppose – I have a lot of weird little things in the pieces I started ten years ago.  I’m not sure what was going on, to be honest.

I made my hotel reservations yesterday – so I’m now set to go for Stitcher’s Hideaway in October. I cannot wait – I’ve never been to any sort of formal stitching thing before. Mystic’s only about an hour from home (if I follow the speed limits), but I decided to just go and stay there. That way I can hang out in the evening with everyone and not worry about traffic issues in the morning getting down there.

Photos coming soon!

Hmm… mixed bag month for me… I’m pleased, though.

For June, I wanted to:

1) Finish the border on TW’s Angel Procession as part of the UFO RR Round 3. In progress – I’ll be a week late on completing this.

2) Post my TUSAL. Really. Yes!

3) Work 5 hours on one of my TW’s Nope… but I’ve spent 15 hours on Angel Procession for the RR, so I’m not concerned.

4) Work 5 hours on one of the pieces I’ve stalled since the Stitching Olympics Yes! Two, actually – Garden Sampler and Walk in the Woods.

5) Attend a Stitch ‘n Bitch with friends in mid-June Yes – although it was only me and one friend (the hostess).   Nice and quiet. We got about 7 hours of stitching done amid the bitching!

6) Update my stash list & organize the fabric trunk. Partially – I updated my stash list. It was too hot and humid to work up in my office on the trunk, though.

For July, I want to:

1) Complete an ornament for the LifesAStitch group by mid-July

2) Mail the UFO RR off a week before the deadline

3) Work 10 hours on Cats on a Staircase

4) Work 10 hours on Apache Wedding Blessing

5) Push forward on Garden Sampler (I could finish this in July)

6) Work at least 5 hours on one other project (any project)

For May, I wanted to:

1) Complete Round #2 of the UFO RR and get it mailed off just after Memorial Day   It’s done – need to mail it tomorrow.
2) Post my TUSAL  Totally forgot.
3) Make progress on Cats on a Staircase  Didn’t touch it.
4) Put 5 hours of backstitching in on Egyptian Sampler Didn’t touch it.
5) Make progress on Astrology Sampler Didn’t touch it.

Screaming took over this month, and I did do a lot of stitching, but just not on my goal pieces! :angel Ah well! For the summer, I’m just going to enjoy screaming, I think. Somewhat… organized… screaming.

For June, I want to:

1) Finish the border on TW’s Angel Procession as part of the UFO RR Round 3.
2) Post my TUSAL. Really.
3) Work 5 hours on one of my TW’s
4) Work 5 hours on one of the pieces I’ve stalled since the Stitching Olympics
5) Attend a Stitch ‘n Bitch with friends in mid-June
6) Update my stash list & organize the fabric trunk.

Not as great of a month for me, but I started a new job… so the schedule adjustment took over.

For April, I wanted to…

1) Complete Round #1 of the UFO RR and get it mailed on time. Done!
2) Finish backstitching the left “frame” of Apache Wedding Blessing Not completely, but I made great progress on it. Just needed to put it away.
3) Complete 10 hours of backstitching on Egyptian Sampler’s central panel Nope – didn’t even touch it
4) Start Witchy Washy Nope.
5) Stitch another cat on Staircase Nope.
6) Post my TUSAL I completely forgot
7) Stitch on at least three other projects not listed above. I stitched on two.

For May, I want to…

1) Complete Round #2 of the UFO RR and get it mailed off just after Memorial Day
2) Post my TUSAL
3) Make progress on Cats on a Staircase
4) Put 5 hours of backstitching in on Egyptian Sampler
5) Make progress on Astrology Sampler

Where the HECK did February go?!?

(oh yeah… I spent them in front of the TV watching the Olympics and stitching…)

Ready for a long post? I haven’t done one of these in a LONG time. It feels good, actually.

I started this post on March 2nd, by the way, but saved it before heading to lunch and forgot about it.  Since I’m still not as familiar with how WordPress will post things, I’m curious whether it will show up before or after the photo I just posted.

Anyway…

Crazy, crazy month. It flew by entirely too fast. BUT – it was productive, in many ways. I’ll talk about stitching in a sec – but I’ll start with the general life stuff.

Erich and I have *gasp* finally gone bowling. It’s a bit of an in-joke, really. I mean, we’ve been together for nine years this May, and we’d never gone bowling. We’d talked about it – and we live within a mile of three separate bowling alleys (although one’s duck pin only, so that may not count), but we’d never gone.

Our best man and his wife thankfully changed that when they invited us to the Sunday morning bowling hangout they’re doing up in Brockton. So… 9:30 on Sunday morning, we’re now hanging out with them at the lanes, bowling a few games since there’s a special to rent lanes by the hour and bowl as many games as you can. Cheap morning – gets us up and moving (and getting some slight exercise, at least!)

We’ve also decided to start doing one other night of bowling per week down by us – the lane in Cranston just down Rt. 1 from us does dollar per game nights on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after 8 p.m., which works perfectly for us. So tonight we’ll go after we eat dinner at home and bowl 4 or 5 games.

I’m still playing pretty badly – the last time I’d been bowling was at the end of high school, and 17 years and about 140 pounds more weight (yeah… seriously *hangs head in shame) have completely thrown off my approach in every way. I’m rebuilding it from basics – right now focusing on the swing itself to get my accuracy, and then I’ll add steps into it. Right now if I do a step-approach, my swing gets thrown off because of the width of my hip, and I swing my arm diagonally across my body just as I do while walking. If I do a stand and swing, I have far better accuracy.

The plan next paycheck is to buy our own bowling shoes – just a few times at the lanes will pay them off (and they’ll be ours, not the worn out rental ones that god knows who has used). I’m seriously debating buying a pair of tri-color bowling shoes… because they’re bowling shoes - it seems like it’s a requirement! I’ve honestly always thought the rental shoes at the lanes were cute in a ugly rebellious sort of way.

So… hooray for hobbies as a couple!

Other stuff… Doctor Who is back on air in the UK on Easter weekend, staring here in the States on Apr. 17th. So my weekends will now be full of geekery again. I’m nervous but excited about the new Doctor. I will miss Tennant a lot in the role, but hopefully Matt Smith is fantastic, too. Steven Moffat is amazing, so if nothing else – I know I’ll enjoy the storylines.

Work’s been busy – quite a bit of overtime lately. Some parts of it are still annoying as hell, but meh, that’s work.  I have a job and for the most part, I enjoy it.  I work for a good company.  The things I do in my job are enjoyable, and most of the people I work with are, too.

Oh… and since I’m in New England, I saw no snow in February. No. Really. All of that crap that dumped on the Mid-Atlantic? Never saw it. We had a decent amount of rain, but that’s all. The first storm that gave Washington almost 30 inches or whatever? The weather forecasters up here actually apologized on air for their bad forecasts because they wound up being absolute duds. Everyone called off school and declared snow emergencies, and we barely got anything that day. Boston even offered to reimburse fines and towing fees for cars that had parked on the street – THAT was how badly off they were!

Stitching Stuff

I’ll get my final Stitching Olympics photos up late this week once I know what our weekend schedule is. The final tally, however – 10 projects worked. I managed to put stitches into all but two of my UFO projects (which I define as anything that has sat untouched for 6 months or more), plus a couple WIPs, plus started a piece for an exchange for the Life’s A Stitch board called “Hush Hush.” That’s due to be mailed out on the 15th, so I’ll be focusing on that piece until it’s done and ready to go.

Two projects are now within a couple hours of finishing – Home is Where the Cat Is (finally!) and Elemental Dragon:Spirit. Both essentially have maybe 90 minutes to two hours of backstitching each. They’re both on my radar for March.

So I’m very pleased… even if my goal list for February went extremely askew:

For February, my goals were

1) Rotate through all of my WIPs and UFOs at least once  No.  I was a few projects short.  But I DID get through 10 projects last month, so I’m very happy with the progress I made.
2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is  So close – I just ran out of time at the end of the month.  I’m 4 hours away from finishing, max.
3) Finish Spirit  All but the backstitching.  So I’m about 90 minuts max on this one from finishing.
4) Put together the individual progress pages on my website  One of these months, maybe I’ll get to this.  But it hasn’t happened for 3 now.  So… yeah.  I’ll just focus on some stitching and call a mulligan on this.
5) Finalize my rotation that will start in March  Yep.
6) Remember to photograph the TUSAL this month.  OMG I finished one of my goals this month!

Seriously though, I’m pleased with what I did this month, even if it didn’t match the goals.

For March, I want to…

1) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is
2) Finish Spirit
3) Get my Hush Hush exchange out on time
4) Get my UFO RR mailing out on time
5) Rotate through my new rotation once by the end of March

Rotation for this month will be:

Hush Hush project (finish and mail by 3/15)
Cats on a Staircase (for Yoyo’s Christmas SAL)
Elemental Dragons: Spirit (will finish)
Egyptian Sampler
Apache Wedding Blessing
Home is Where the Cat is (will finish)
Legends of the Dragons (for the TW board SAL)
UFO Round Robin – Round #1

Ah yes… the UFO Round Robin. I’m seriously excited. Our first mailing date is on March 15th, and it’s looking like it’ll be a fantastic robin. Lots of diverse projects that are going around. We’re stitching as one group of eight, and the robin will take nearly a year before it’s over.

And I’m modding this shindig. Heh. I never thought experience with modding friendship book and slam swaps would come in handy!

I’m sending my Magical Night piece, which I adopted from (I believe) Annette back in 2005 or 2006. Due to the proximity to my wedding, it didn’t get the work hours I’d hoped it would. And since I have a glut of Teresa Wentzler pieces (being insane as I am), I decided sending one of them around was probably the best choice. This one’s probably the least far along – so sending it for a robin will give it a very nice push.

Here’s where it currently stands:

Like I said… it’s not far along. But next year, hopefully it will return with a nice amount of forward progress!

Until next time…

- Mel.

I’m participating in Stitching Olympics competitions at two separate message boards this month. Unfortunately the attempt on Life’s a Stitch for a stretch of 5×5 square stitching is off to a slower start due to a TON of frogging, but I’ll be bringing that piece into my rotation this week.

Over on The Wagon, however, I’ve been making some great progress. The competition I’m entered in is the Rotation Relay. Basically… work a minimum of 2 hours on a piece, and move on to the next in your personal rotation. So far I’ve worked on a LOT of pieces, as you’ll see. I’ve intentionally started with pieces that hadn’t been touched since I picked up stitching again back in October.

“Before” photos are on the left (most taken on January 28th to document the challenge). “Afters” are on the right. (photos pop)

Noah’s Ark

Hours: 3
Round finished on: 7 February 2010
It may be tricky to see, but all of my work on this piece were done on the ostrich panel at bottom center. It’s all over-one stitching and most was off-white on white (ick!).

Magical Night

Hours: 2
Round finished on: 8 February 2010
I would have done more on this piece, but I’m oddly missing a LOT of colors that I could have sworn I had. As of now, I’m planning on sending this piece around for the UFO Round Robin that’s kicking off on March 15th.

Elemental Dragon: Spirit

Hours: 4
Round finished on: 15 February 2010
Hooray! This piece is now finished aside from backstitching. I’ll be tackling that the first week of March once this competition’s over to get it done.

Smoky Mountain Cats

Hours: 5
Round finished on: 13 Feb 2010
I wound up spending more time on this than expected because it was in my bag for an extra-long commute. But hey, it’s more done in a very large field of blue.

Garden Sampler

Hours: 2.5
Round finished on: 11 February 2010
I’m working the piece on the left. I’ve discovered the piece on the right was simply some motif experimentation, so I’ll probably keep it for similar practice. This was a piece that I got out of Erich’s mom’s stash as we cleaned through her belongings about 18 months ago. She started it in colors that don’t match the pattern – I didn’t bother switching the green, as they’re only about a shade off from each other. I did, however, pick the flower out so I could match it to the rest of the pattern. It’s not my general stitching style, but it stitches fast – I expect I’ll enjoy it a lot.

Walk in the Woods

Hours: 2.5
Round finished on: 12 February 2010
This is another piece found in Erich’s mom’s stash. Again, not my normal style, but I do plan on finishing it. It’s stitching pretty quickly. I’m missing a couple colors. I do admit that I adore the top border.

So not bad so far!

Up this week in my list:
The “Hush Hush” piece for Life’s a Stitch
Home is Where the Cat Is
Legends of the Dragons
Spring Queen

I’m seriously considering rotating somewhat like this for the rest of the year – it definitely seems to be a fun way to rotate, essentially picking up a different piece every night.

I’m participating in The Wagon’s Rotation Relay for the Stitching Olympics, so my rotation this month is a very odd one for me.

The relay guidelines are to work two hours on each piece, then move on. I’ve decided to include ALL of my current WIPS and UFOs in my rotation for the month, and I’ll see where it goes from there. I’m going to do this in a screaming order. I’ll return to my normal style of rotating in March.

Project list:

Spring Queen (Mirabilia) – currently stitching
Home is Where the Cat Is (Dimensions)
Cats on a Staircase (Bucilla)
Elemental Dragons: Spirit (DD)
Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Design)
Egyptian Sampler (TW)
Floral Bellpull (TW)
Astrology Sampler (Witches Stitches)
Legends of the Dragons (TW, DD, BS)
Smoky Mountain Cats (Pegasus Designs)
Fantasy Triptych (TW)
Magical Night (TW)
Noah’s Ark (TW)
Millennium (TW)
Walk in the Woods (Cricket Collection)
Garden Samplers (Prairie Schooler)

I think it will be a good way for me to really take a look at what I want to do for a rotation, too. I have plenty of projects kitted up now, and there’s a nice mix of diversity in them. Hopefully that will help me progress on things – particularly those TW patterns which I love, but can’t always focus on stitching.

—

So onto my January goals…

1) Work on many new starts as I wish for guilt-free January YES – I started three projects.
2) Finish kitting any projects I’d like to start in 2010 YES. I may have overlooked a thread here or there, but I can start on any of the pieces I wanted to kit.
3) Sort any old WIP photos and redo my progress pages online ALMOST- everything’s been photographed, and I’ve updated my main page, but I still need to build the individual progress pages.
4) Have an uninterrupted 6 hours of stitching time YES – had a wonderful one two weeks ago.
5) Figure out which piece I’d like to send around for the UFO RR that will hopefully kick up over on the TWWRR board. YES – have this solved too.

So yes, a very productive month. I’m pleased.

So for February, my goals are:

1) Rotate through all of my WIPs and UFOs at least once
2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is
3) Finish Spirit
4) Put together the individual progress pages on my website
5) Finalize my rotation that will start in March
6) Remember to photograph the TUSAL this month.

Off to get some work done. I’ll post thoughts on individual projects this week.

Where the HELL did the first week of January go to?!?

So I’m thinking of what goals I want to focus on, both for this month and for this year. Here’s what I’ve come up with… although knowing me, I’ll probably completely change my mind mid-year. This is just for stitching. I have other goals and such in the works, too – including a 210 in 2010 Days (yes… 210.)

So… monthly stitching goals first. For December, I wanted to…

1) Stitch 10 hours on Apache Wedding Blessing Close, but I don’t think I actually got a full 10 done. Eight, maybe?
2) Start Astrology Sampler Didn’t get to it.
3) Prepare a new rotation round to start January 2010 Yes – and I’m already thinking of changing it… again.
4) Organize my stitching portion of my website. Yep! Got all of my charts organized and listed.
5) Plan my long-term stitching goals for 2010 A rough plan, yes. I’ve concluded that if I go too specific, I won’t stick to it.

For January, I want to:

1) Work on many new starts as I wish for guilt-free January
2) Finish kitting any projects I’d like to start in 2010
3) Sort any old WIP photos and redo my progress pages online
4) Have an uninterrupted 6 hours of stitching time
5) Figure out which piece I’d like to send around for the UFO RR that will hopefully kick up over on the TWWRR board.

For yearly goals, I want to do the following:

- Finish one TW project
- Particpate in an ornament exchange
- Finish 3 non-TW projects
- Develop a better floss and pattern organizing system in my office
- Make at least one rotation’s progress on all of my current UFOs
- Go to a stitching convention/retreat/show/thingy
- Attend or host at least 6 Stitch ‘n Bitches with friends
- Finally learn how to finish a knitted piece so I can get my scarf off my needles.

(okay… maybe a teensy bit of one)

One of the things I’ve decided is causing some of the stall in my stitching is the fact that I keep sticking on the same half dozen projects. I’ve been telling myself that I’m not allowed to start anything else in my stash unless I finish the projects I have… and well… that’s turned more into a curse on my progress, honestly. Part of the problem also is just – my Teresa Wentzler addiction. I have plenty of pieces in progress, but those are huge slogs of pieces. I need some smaller – or just easier – pieces to add into my rotation so I get occasional "happy dance" celebrations with completions.

So I decided to allow myself to kit up the following projects to add some variety into my rotation:

• Legends of the Dragons (Teresa Wentzler) – only because it’s part of a stitch-a-long on the TW message boards
• Mirror, Mirror (Abbey Lane Designs)
• The Catfeeder (Cedar Hill)
• Lazy People (Calico Crossroads)
• Wee Beasties IV (Dimples Designs)
• Dragon’s Tea Party (Dragon Dreams)
• Sleepy Hollow (Glendon Place)
• Autumn in the Square (Just Nan)
• Leaping Cat (La-D-Da)
• Witches Dance (Lavender Wings)
• Coffee Menu (Little House Needleworks)
• Dragonflies, Ladybugs & Bees (M Designs)
• Spring Queen (Mirabilia)
• Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof Designs)

I already have tons of fabric from which to choose for these projects. I just needed to check my floss status. And that’s where the problem starts.

About two weeks ago, I plunked on the couch with the projects I’d selected, a bunch of craft organizer tubs and my main floss stash. Like many stitchers, I keep a "master" supply of floss that I’ve collected over the years – either through leftovers from previous projects, or pickups from friends and family and the occasional yard sale. I always try to pull from that supply first, and then I’ll fill in missing colors from the store.

This does mean that any given moment, I may have a bunch of the same color of floss sitting between projects – but to make sure I don’t mix older DMC dyelots with newer ones (or just deal with the natural fading/aging of thread as it stores), I won’t share a color between two concurrent projects. If I wind up with a bunch of leftover, fine – it makes it easier to pull in the future. But I’d rather have the leftover than run out halfway through a project, buy a new skein of the same number… and it doesn’t match.

So anyway… I go through and make a very messy scribbled list of floss color numbers I’m missing. I clean it up during the quiet period of work last week – and this morning, headed off to the craft store to pull colors.

And well… I guess I needed a lot more than I thought I’d need:

It’s fairly deep, although you can’t tell that well from that photo.

The receipt, however, is better proof of what’s going on. (this is my embarrassed smile – Erich wouldn’t allow me to make a terrified face). Pardon the PJs.

The cash register clerk HATED me. Had I known that he had to ring each skein in individually, I’d never have pulled it all at one store.

So yeah – um… $65. All but five skeins are normal, run of the mill 37 cent DMC.

And the really sad thing? I still need to go to an actual cross-stitch store and purchase the hand-dyed threads and beads for a few of these.

(hides and quietly begins winding bobbins)