Incoherent Scribblings

I received word today that Outi’s belated birthday exchange finally arrived in Finland.

Did I mention that Outi’s birthday is in July? It might be (slightly) amusing if she just received this exchange from me after waiting for it since July, but that is actually not the case.

Outi was in the birthday exchange group that I moderated at The Robin’s Nest and her partner never contacted us to indicate whether or not she ever received the gift that Outi made for her or if she ever made anything for Outi. I found this to be quite a shame since Outi and her partner shared the same birthday, but oh well.

Anyway, as I followed this dilemma I told Outi that since her partner flaked and we never knew for sure if what she stitched for her partner arrived that she did not have to stitch a replacement piece. However, as the moderator I felt obligated to stitch something for Outi’s birthday.

Outi was happy to have me stitch a replacement and was extremely tolerant that I didn’t get something stitched for her right away because I was going on job interviews and moving and all that stuff.

It really didn’t take me long to decide what I wanted to stitch for Outi. I knew it had to be a needleroll. I don’t know why, but something just told me Outi needed one to add to her collection.

Choosing the right pattern took a little longer though. I really wanted to emphasize her birthday, so I looked at a lot of July-themed things before I chose The Victoria Sampler’s “July Needleroll.” I must admit I was a little worried about whether or not Outi would like it at first because she isn’t really “in” to flowers, but I suspected that even with the flowers she would appreciate it because The Victoria Sampler has such beautiful designs.

And in an attempt to make her belated birthday exchange just a little more worth the wait, I also included a chart from her wish list.

Happy (EXTREMELY) Belated Birthday Outi! I hope your year has been and continues to be a wonderful one.

Today with the finish of the winter cat from the Margaret Sherry patterns in the December 2007 issue of The Cross Stitcher, I have a semi-happy dance. Since these patterns easily stand alone, I could count today’s finish as 25 of my 26 Project Challenge. I decided to stitch all four cats together on the same fabric though so I am not counting this as a happy dance until I stitch all four. Nevertheless, here is the first one out of the four.

In addition to working a little bit on “Fairy Flora,” I now am completely finished with Outi’s belated birthday present. However, I am not mailing it until after I return to Texas because I am waiting on a little extra for her package. I am quite pleased with the way her present turned out. I just hope she likes it.

Woot! I just finished happy dancing while watching the first season finale of Heroes! (I absolutely heart that show!) Yep, the stitching on Outi’s belated birthday exchange is now complete and it is just waiting for the finishing. I really wish I could show a pic of it right now because it is so pretty, but I guess it will have to wait until she receives it.

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Since I don’t have any stitching photos to share let’s do the SBQ. Today’s was suggested by Kathryn and is:

Have you ever helped anyone else learn to stitch? Have you ever helped anyone learn a new stitch or technique?

As some of you may remember, I started teaching my niece how to stitch last year. Considering that she was only six at the time I just taught her the basics, but apparently it was enough to keep her excited about it. Every time I talk to her on the phone she tells me that when she comes to visit me over spring break that she wants to make sure that we spend some time stitching! I love the fact that it is something we can do together and maybe one of these days we will actually finish that beginner piece of hers.

Of course, since I had such good luck getting my niece excited about stitching my mom also took the opportunity last spring to “volunteer” me for a 4-H workshop where I had a chance to introduce stitching to 6 girls between the ages of 8 and 12. I wasn’t 100% satisfied with my teaching technique that day and if I ever get the chance to do it again I have some ideas how to do it better.

As far as new stitches or techniques go, the only person I have ever helped learn new ones is myself. I taught myself hardanger and a variety of other specialty stitches with the aid of good diagrams. In fact, I just learned the double herringbone stitch Monday night while working on Outi’s birthday exchange piece.

As you can see, I worked some more on “Kitty Cat Row” today. I think it is safe to say that next time I post a picture of this piece it will be a happy dance.

In other stitchy news, I also worked on Outi’s belated birthday exchange piece today. I have now restitched everything I had to frog and made a little more progress to boot. Hopefully the rest of the piece will stitch up without any drama. I think I could very well finish this by Christmas but I will probably wait until after the first of the year to send it off to Finland nevertheless so the chances that it gets lost in the mail will be minimized. I hope you don’t mind waiting a wee bit longer Outi!

And finally, I wanted to mention that Bea’s robin made its way back to her in Spain this past week! She was part of The Robin’s Nest round robin that I organized almost a year a half ago that fell apart due to a number of bad circumstances. Three of the original participants of this robin stitched squares for Bea and the fourth was done by Dawn.

Dawn kindly offered to be a substitute stitcher if I needed one, so I took her up on the offer. She did a great job choosing a pattern for Bea’s “cutie” theme and I could tell from the translation I did of Bea’s page that she was very happy to finally see her robin in person after all this time.

Thanks for helping us out Dawn! I really appreciate it.