Incoherent Scribblings

March Goals

First off, to the left you will see a long overdue update of “Catch the Wind.” I am sorry that I have to put it away tomorrow because if I didn’t I could get Jane finished. However, with all of the looming March RR and Exchange dates just around the corner, I don’t see that I have a choice.

Speaking of all of those impending March dates, I suppose it is time to post some goals for March… so here they are:

1. Mail Jo’s SBRR to Cathy. (Mailing date: March 1 Already accomplished! Mailed yesterday.)
2. Finish and mail Laurie’s SBSRR to Dawn. (Mailing date: March 15)
3. Finish and mail Cathy’s Birthday Exchange. (Mailing date: March 15)
4. Start, finish, and mail Spring Exchange for XXX. (Mailing date: March 30)
5. Work on “Catch the Wind” at least on Tuesdays (my SAL day with Cathy).
6. Finally start Lavender and Lace’s “Celtic Spring.”
7. Start Mirabilia’s “Fairy Flora.”

That’s it but I’m sure it’s plenty!

Johari Window

Cuz I’m a copy cat, you can check out my Johari Window here.

Christmas in February

I have been diligently working on my square for Laurie’s Seasonal RR the last couple of days. Her choice of patterns is four “Prairie Schooler” designs and I have chosen to do “Winter,” though the proper title of this pattern is actually “Christmas Eve.”

Instead of starting in the middle like I usually do, I started this pattern by stitching the border and have been working my way up the chart. I was required to do this because Laurie only left one stitch around her basting stitches for the pattern and if I didn’t get it exactly centered it wouldn’t fit in the allotted space. Therefore for the first time in my stitching career it seemed wiser to start in the corner as opposed to the center and amazingly enough it has worked quite well thus far! (Knock on wood.)

Since tomorrow is my SAL day with Cathy I plan to devote my stitching time to “Catch the Wind,” but I estimate that “Christmas Eve” is about 40% done so if I don’t get distracted by something else I think I can probably finish it this week.

The Guest Room

Because I no longer have a room of my own at either of my parents’ houses, when I go back to Small Town Iowa to visit my family I am required to take up lodging in my mother’s guest room. I don’t mind staying in this room, but whenever I step into it I feel like I have entered a time capsule.

On the surface the guest room contains my maternal grandmother’s bedroom suite, a few pieces of furniture from my childhood, a closet full of clothes that should have been taken to the consignment store years ago, and various other things that my mother labels as her “antiques.”

However to my surprise, as I peered into drawers, opened boxes, and looked under the bed I found more than junk and ancient relics. I discovered reminders of my other lives: There were boxes filled with nearly-forgotten souvenirs of my high school glory days, mementos of my often idealized college years, and evidence of my life as a single career girl.

And as I listened to the cassette tapes of my favorite “hair bands” on my dorm-sized stereo while teaching my six year old niece to arrange books in alphabetical order on the bookshelf that my grandfather made for me when I was her age, I had a thought: The room wasn’t so much a time capsule as it was a living memory.

A Jet-Lagged Happy Dance

Well, I made it back to Germany on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, my luggage (which included ALL of my stash – old and new) didn’t arrive on the plane with me! I had a very short layover in Philadelphia and my luggage didn’t make it onto the flight. It was supposed to arrive on the next flight from Philly, but that wasn’t going to be until the next day (Thursday!). Luckily for me, my stash and other luggage arrived home with little fanfare on Thursday afternoon.

Besides the fact that I didn’t have any of my current projects to stitch on until Thursday afternoon, I have also been very jet-lagged the past few days. As a result, I didn’t have much ambition to stitch until today, but this afternoon I sat down and finished up my square on Jo’s round robin.

As I have mentioned before, I stitched this same pattern for myself about two years ago and I must say that I like it as much now as I did then. I really like the way the Kreinik’s give the leaves and the umbrella the appearance of being wet… it makes you think the little bird is really trying to keep her eggs dry!

I am glad to get this finished up because it has to be mailed out by Wednesday. In addition to that, I also have another robin that is due March 15, a birthday exchange piece that also needs to be mailed out around the 15th, and my Spring Exchange needs to be done by March 30. I guess I am going to have a busy stitching month in March.

Oh, and one other thing that I should mention: I have made an executive decision to move “Stitcher’s Sampler” to the UFO pile. I just have no desire to work on this piece anymore.