Incoherent Scribblings

Sunflowers

Can you believe it is already time for this month’s Stitch-a-Thon over at the FGBB? I had originally hoped to work on “Stiefmütterchen” and maybe even happy dance, but instead I have chosen to work on my RR piece.

I am happy I chose to focus on “Sunflowers” though because after a pretty intense stitching session today the only thing I have left to do is the backstitching. There is still quite a lot of backstitching to do, but I think it will really do wonders for the definition of the flowers’ petals.

This has been a really smooth stitch. I had nearly forgotten how much I enjoy EMS patterns. Even though I don’t think they are especially difficult to stitch, in my opinion they offer as much detail and beauty as more challenging patterns and look just as good on Aida as they do on evenweave.

Stitching Books

It’s Wednesday and time for the SBQ. Today’s question was suggested by Angela and is:

How many cross stitch books do you own and how often do you use them?

Hmm… I am not sure what exactly qualifies as a cross stitch book. I have some “books” that have multiple patterns in them and use them when I decide to stitch a pattern from one, does that count?

If a cross stitch book is one that has patterns, stitch diagrams, finishing techniques, and the like, I don’t have any: There are a couple on my wish list that I would love to have though.

Interestingly enough even though I don’t have any cross stitch books, I do have two quilting books from my two week interest in quilting about two years ago. I think the reason I have them is because the quilting shop here in Munich that I visit occasionally has a good selection of “how-to” quilting books in English… too bad she doesn’t stock stitching supplies as well.

Exchange and Round Robin–Aholic

The title of this post is contributed to Outi who has come up with a name for a disease that many of my fellow stitching bloggers seem to be suffering from… exchange-aholism. I admit that I have become something of an exchange-aholic, but my addiction isn’t just to exchanges it also includes round robins!

I am not yet in over my head, but I think I am getting precariously close so I am going to have to put my rotation aside for at least the next week in order to make sure I meet some round robin and exchange deadlines that are rapidly approaching.

Here is what I currently have on my plate in the round robin and exchange department:

Round Robins:

• Robin’s Nest Group 1 (Post dates July 1, September 1, November 1, and January 1)
• Robin’s Nest Group 4 (Post dates June 15, August 15, October 15, and December 15)

I originally was only supposed to stitch with group one, but someone had to drop out of group four. As the organizer I knew there was always a possibility that this could happen, so I made sure that I was technically only signed up for one group. However, since group four is now short a person I am jumping in and stitching with them. Because the post date for group four is tomorrow I will only be stitching on the other ladies’ robins and not making one of my own.

Exchanges:

• SBEBB Friendship Exchange (Post date June 15 – I am finished with this and will be going to the post office shortly.)
• Robin’s Nest Recipe Exchange (Post date July 15)
• Robin’s Nest Summer Exchange (Post date July 17)
• Robin’s Nest Needle Roll Exchange (Post date September 5)
• Robin’s Nest Crazy Cat Lady Exchange (Post date September 25)

Not too long ago I told myself that I was done with exchanges. I hadn’t had any bad experiences, but I felt that I was ready to concentrate solely on robins and stitching things for myself.

However, there was interest in setting up exchanges via The Robin’s Nest and, good board owner that I am, I complied. Our board is small and as a result I felt obligated to participate in all exchanges so that we would be sure to have enough exchange participants. But I didn’t just sign up for all our exchanges because I felt like I had to. As board owner the exchange ideas were more or less mine and the reason I set them up is because I wanted to do each and every one!

Because we have exchanges now over at The Robin’s Nest, I had considered dropping off the SBEBB, but then decided against it because I have made so many friends via the board and I would hate to lose that contact. So in addition to my Robin’s Nest exchanges, I also hope to join in the SBEBB Halloween Exchange when it is open for sign-ups because I had so much fun with that exchange last year.

Yes, my name is Renée and I am an exchange-aholic.

Celtic Spring Update

I see it has been nearly a month since I have posted an update of “Celtic Spring” and since I reached the half-way milestone today, here is Mae in all her glory!

I have been working on the motifs the last couple of weekends and I am now finished with the top (minus the beading).

I thought about doing some of the side designs today, but I decided that I was in the mood to work on Mae’s dress instead. I figure if I switch between the motifs and the dress every other weekend I won’t get bored doing either one. However, Mae has so much dress that I imagine that I will probably get done with the motifs long before I finish the dress!

Growing Pansies

A little while ago I finished pansy number twelve of sixteen on “Stiefmütterchen.” If you do the math, the means that I am now officially 75% finished with this project. Yeah!

Though I didn’t post an update last week, I really enjoyed working on the eleventh square and think it is quite pretty. In fact, it is quite possibly my favorite square even though technically it contains violas, not pansies. (In English we differentiate between violas and pansies, but in German the word appears to be the same.)

I also really like pansy #12 even though I misstitched at least three times. I was too lazy to frog them out, and besides, I decided this is one of those things where you can’t tell the difference anyway.

Normally on Fridays when I am done with my weekly pansy I either put my stitching away for the day or work on something else. However, since I would like to get this project done by the end of the month, this evening I plan to begin the thirteenth pansy. I doubt I will finish it this evening, but I should at least get a good start on it.