Incoherent Scribblings

Mid-Year Stitching Report

The end of June is quickly approaching, so let’s see how the 2007 Stitching Plan is coming along, shall we?

Finish all WIPs carried over from 2006

Above the Clouds - Making slow, but steady progress.

Celtic Spring - Finished!

Four Seasons Cats - After a five month break, I have recently started working on this again.

Fairy Flora Making slow, but steady progress.

Start the following pieces: Ha! Ha! Though I still have every intention to do these pieces NONE have been started yet.

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

Instead, I have started and finished (unless noted) the following pieces so far this year:

Meow Spoken Here

Home for the Holidays

Stitcher’s Tools “Scissors Finder”

2006 Snowman

Quaker Flower

Angel of Friendship

“N” Pansy Needleroll

Biscornu no. 16

Tiny Little Quaker

Pansy Fairy

Caterflies Cat #1

Americana Sampler

Poet’s Heart - In Progress…

Participate in one and only one round robin!

I am still trying to sort out a messed up robin from last year and have made the executive decision to put any other round robin participation on hold until further notice… I am burned out!

Participate in the following exchanges:

Winter Quaker @ SBEBB - Yes

Biscornu @ The Robin’s Nest - Yes

Birthday @ The Robin’s Nest - Yes

Others TBA - I participated in The Mystery Exchange and the May Flowers Exchange and signed up for one last exchange, a monochromatic exchange, which posts sometime in August. After the Monochromatic Exchange is finished, all exchange participation is put on hold until further notice… I have to admit I am burned out on exchanges too!

As usual, I have not followed my 2007 Stitching Plan exactly to the letter. However, I am stitching away and completing things in accordance with my 26 Project Challenge… And in my opinion, that is the most important thing anyway.

Americana Sampler

I finished this cute little sampler last evening and since I would like to have it on display for the Fourth of July holiday, I plan to finish it into either a needleroll or a flat-fold very soon (i.e., sometime in the coming days). Mom suggested I just simply frame it in order to be sure I would have it displayed by the Fourth, but I poo-pooed the idea. After all, I didn’t learn all those finishing methods for nothing!

For this particular piece I think the finishing method will largely depend on what type of finishing materials I find. If I can find some ribbon with (American) flags on it then I will finish it off as a needleroll and if I find some fabric with (American) flags I will make it into a flat-fold.

Though the Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays, I am far from patriotic. Instead, I have always looked at the Fourth as a celebration of summer. Therefore I really like the way this pattern combines the flags with the more general summer symbol of the watermelon… I hope you do too!

Belated Birthday Exchange

I received word that Catherine-Michèle’s birthday exchange finally arrived in Canada yesterday, so now I can share what I made for her: A Delftwork Quaker Biscornu.

From the moment I learned that I was paired up with Catherine-Michèle for this exchange I knew that I wanted to stitch her a biscornu. It took a lot of searching to find the right design for her, but eventually I chose a freebie from Papillion Creations entitled “Tiny Little Quaker.”

Though I contemplated stitching each side of the biscornu in a different color, similar to what I did with the biscornu I stitched for Outi, in the end I decided to stick with the one color and call it Delftwork.

I hope you enjoy your belated birthday gift Catherine-Michèle! Sorry it took so long to arrive in Québec!

SBQ: The Choices We Make

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Kathryn and is:

When you start a new work do you look for something small, do you look for another huge project or do you consider your UFOs?

When I start a new project there are so many variables that I can’t say that I look for small, large, or unfinished: Rather I say that I start projects based primarily on what kind of a mood I am in at the time.

My large projects (i.e. Mirabilia, Lavender and Lace, etc.) tend to be planned, so when I start them it is the conclusion of weeks or months of admiring the pattern, contemplating the floss and fabric, and finally making that first stitch. I start (and work on) large projects when I am in the mood to stitch.

Conversely, I begin small projects when I am in the mood to finish something! My small projects are usually started on a whim and always when I am the mood for a relatively quick happy dance.

As for my UFOs… The reason they are UFOs in the first place is because I don’t want to stitch them anymore. I’ll be honest: When I start something new they never even cross my mind.

Summer Cat Border

With the completion of “Four Seasons Cats’” summer border I seem to just be buzzing through my new ten hour rotation system!

The spring cat’s border only took me six hours, so I was a little surprised that the border for the summer cat took the entire ten hours of this round. However, I think that is because my stitching speed seems to have slowed a bit lately. For some reason, perhaps because I am much more prone to stitching interruptions, it takes me much longer to get into my stitching groove these days. Oh well, c’est la vie!

Technically, “Fairy Flora” is next in line, but yesterday I was suddenly struck with the overwhelming desire to stitch something to celebrate my first 4th of July back in the States. As a result, Flo is on hold until I finish a miniature sampler entitled “Americana” from one of the cross stitch magazines that I got at that yard sale a few weeks ago. It is a quick stitch though, so I fully intend to have a happy dance by the end of the week and then move on to Flo and the next round of my rotation.