Incoherent Scribblings

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I decided to join the 25 projects challenge about a month and a half ago. At that time it was unofficial because I just made a list but didn’t make the commitment to myself not to buy any more stash.

Well, given my current financial situation I really shouldn’t be buying much right now anyway, so I figured I may as well officially jump on board and post my list for all the world to see: So if you are interested, you can find it here.

In addition to posting my project challenge list, for the past few days I have been in the mood to start something new. Since I am still debating fabric choices for “Romantic Stitcher,” I decided to look at my list and choose one of the smaller projects I have listed. After some consideration, I finally decided to stitch “Meow Spoken Here,” a Stitchy Kitty freebie that I have had on my to-do list for quite a while now.

A small project equals a fast stitch and as a result, it only took me one quiet evening to stitch it up. I have decided that it is a nice size for a pinkeep, so as soon as I raid Mom’s fabric stash and find something appropriate, I will finish it into a pinkeep… that way I will finally have some photos to go along with the tutorial that I wrote up a month or so ago.

Old Man Winter finally decided to make an appearance here this weekend. And while I would like nothing better than to sit in a cozy corner with some hot chocolate stitching all weekend while I watch it snow, it is unfortunately not to be.

Alas, I am scheduled to work instead.

I have been lucky thus far and haven’t had to dispatch any officers to an accident, but I still have half a shift tonight and a full shift tomorrow evening before this system is scheduled to move on its way.

Anyway, in a feeble attempt to fend off the weather, I decided to put the finishing backstitching touches on the Spring Cat of my Four Seasons Cats. Finishing this square technically puts this piece at only 25% done, but since this square could technically stand on its own, I have made the executive decision to consider it a happy dance… my first one of the year that is!
I had originally planned to stitch one cat per season, predicting that I would be finishing the Winter Cat, and as a result, completing the entire piece right about now, but we all know about the best laid plans, don’t we?

Well, I may not be finishing the whole thing any time soon, but provided that it is still winter and not one of the other seasons when I get back to this piece, I will still try to start the Winter Cat during its representative season.

Happy New Year! It has been a busy time for me and after a much needed break, the SBQ is up and ready to go today. So, without further ado the first SBQ of 2007 is:

Do you dream of running your own LNS/ONS? If so, tell us about your dream. If not, tell us about your cross stitch dream… maybe you dream of designing, dyeing your own floss or fabric, etc.

Why yes, I do! This question came to me after chatting with another stitcher and realizing that I am apparently not the only stitcher out there with this crazy dream.

Ideally, I would like to run a small LNS/ONS combined with bookstore and an Internet surfing area in order to touch on all of my three favorite hobbies, but I am not sure how well such a combination would work. If I decided to run a strictly cross stitch shop I would probably do most of my business online, but I wouldn’t want to run an online-only business because I am always looking for a place to go where I can physically browse through stitching supplies.

In my present area, there seem to be quilting shops in nearly every small town, but I have yet to find a cross stitch shop and I would love to be the place where people can come and find not only charts and DMC, but fabric, beads, and specialty threads as well.

Unfortunately though, I don’t have much of a head for business so I imagine my little shop will never amount to anything more than a dream.

For those of you who might be wondering… yes, I have a new guy.

I first met him the summer I was 14 and he was 20. He was a lifeguard at our local swimming pool and though I thought he was cute, it was my best friend who had the crush on him.

After all these years I remembered him though. After all, my best friend and I spent many hours prancing around in front of him that summer because it was the first year that we really filled out our bikinis. So needless to say, nearly nineteen years later he just so happened to remember me too.
Nowadays my sister works with him and a couple of months ago she started filling me in on what a rough year he had been having. In many ways his situation paralleled my own and though I wasn’t sure either one of us was really ready for any kind of romantic interlude, it seemed to me that we could both use a friend.

It started with dinner, a movie, and lots of conversation: Everything about how he remembered me in that itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini (yes, my first bikini really was yellow polka-dotted) to my travels overseas to his brief stint as an exterminator. I told him of my plans and that my stay in Small Town, Iowa was intended to be a brief one.

Nevertheless, the next week we went out to dinner again and that time we went bowling afterwards. Then later in the week I learned that he played Cribbage, one of my all-time favorite card games, and next thing I knew we were playing Cribbage nearly every evening and I was eating dinner with his family on Sunday.

I keep reminding him of my plans and we agreed that we would enjoy the time we have together one day at a time, but I know that each time he tells me about his dream of life with a white picket fence that he hopes that one day I will change my mind and offer to stay with him and live happily ever after.

And never has his wish been so apparent than the other night as a look of sadness and disappointment flashed across his face when I told him that in a couple of weeks I will be going on an interview 500 miles away and with any luck, I will be leaving by the beginning of March.

I know you can’t stand the suspense I am keeping you in regarding my 2007 stitching plan, but before I can share it, I want to show my latest progress on “Fairy Flora.”

This is the first I have worked on Flo since September and I have to say it sure felt good to pull her out of the WIP pile last week. I can hardly believe it, but I am almost done with the dress and definitely over the half-way mark on this piece. In fact, I would estimate that I am quickly approaching the 75% mark.

I would sure love to get Flo finished before March, but we’ll see. I wouldn’t say that I have been neglecting my stitching for the past few months, but I have definitely been overestimating how much I am going to get done each month. I guess that is what happens when one gets a life outside of the stitching corner!
So, now without further ado, here is my grand 2007 stitching plan!

Finish all WIPs carried over from 2006

Above the Clouds (close to 50% complete)

Celtic Spring (close to 60% complete)

Four Seasons Cats (25% complete)

Fairy Flora (close to 75% complete)

Start the following pieces:

Romantic Stitcher by Passione Ricamo

Tapestry Cat by Teresa Wentzler

Purr-fick by Margaret Sherry

Kitty Cat Row (stitch with recommended overdyes) by Bent Creek

Participate in one and only one round robin!

Participate in the following exchanges:

Winter Quaker @ SBEBB

Biscornu @ The Robin’s Nest

Birthday @ The Robin’s Nest

Others TBA

In addition, though I never mentioned it here, I sort of unofficially joined the project challenge about a month ago. The four starts that I have listed above are included with my 25 projects but since I would also like to work on some of the other pieces those are obviously not the only ones I intend to stitch… I think it is a good start though, don’t you?!