Incoherent Scribblings

Two WIPs

Although my needles haven’t exactly been smoking lately, I have been stitching.

First up is my progress on “Fairy Flora.” I still enjoy working on her and every time I put a few hours into her I know that I am that much closer to finishing her. BUT… Every time I work on her I also know that I still have a long way to go.

As a matter of fact, according to my records, it won’t be long before I hit the 200 hour mark on her! That’s right… I said two hundred hours! I have never in my entire life put so many hours into a single cross stitch piece! I guess when I finally finish her I will know that I have earned the mark of a true Mirabilia stitcher.

These days when I am not working on Flo I am working on “The Bookshelf.” I find it to be a soothing stitch and with its minimal color changes, it will be done in no time. As of this evening it is 50% complete.

Tomorrow is my SAL day with Dawn. Since she is still waiting on her Kreiniks for “Harvest Witch” we have decided to go ahead and start our next SAL piece, “Summer’s Magic” by Dragon Dreams.

I am not exactly sure what fabric I am going to use for it, but I am leaning towards something in brown/tan to represent sand (the dragons are on the beach) and have three or four possibilities in my stash.

And finally, I want to wish all of the mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day tomorrow. May you get breakfast in bed, flowers, a card, and plenty of time to yourself for stitching!

Stitching Hermit

According to a couple of blog posts I have read today, apparently I wasn’t the only stitching hermit this weekend!

Yesterday I worked on “Fairy Flora” and after deciding to fudge instead of frog an error I discovered, she now has a wing!

I have to admit that the decision between fudging and frogging wasn’t the easiest to make. Fudging meant that I would leave the mistake and although no one else would probably ever know it was there (unless I broadcast it on my blog ) I would know… Was it a mistake that would haunt me for the rest of my days?

On the other hand, if I chose to frog I would have to rip out almost half the wing and all the nasty blending filament that went along with it. Since I didn’t foresee the blending filament being in any shape to reuse it once I had removed it, I also faced the distinct possibility that I would run out of BF before I finished Flo’s other wing.

After weighing the possibilities, I decided I could live with the knowledge that there is a slight imperfection in the wing so fudging won out over frogging.

* * * * *

Today was my “Harvest Witch” SAL with Dawn and I managed to finish the skirt and get started on the “harvest.” I probably could have gotten more “harvest” done, but I have found that stitching while watching Lost: Season 1 (Yes, I am behind the times… I am still trying to catch up from living abroad!) isn’t the easiest thing to do. Luckily, I was watching it on DVD so whenever I missed something because I was looking at my stitches instead I just backed up a few frames.

Anyway, I was reading Dawn’s post and she was saying that if her Kreiniks don’t arrive this week she won’t have much more to do on Harvey until they get here. To be honest, I kind of hope they don’t arrive, that way I can catch up with her next Sunday! hee hee

And speaking of the Kreiniks for Harvey… I ordered mine (along with a special order for a friend and the beads for “Spring Queen” and “In Cupid’s Garden”) today. Hopefully by the time they get here Dawn and I will have nothing more to do but use them to fill in the blanks.

April Rotation and Goals

I was getting ready to sit down and stitch when I realized that I was ready for a new round in my rotation but hadn’t yet decided what to work on because I am at a bit of an impasse concerning it right now.

While the ten-hour rotation has been successful by and large, I am kind of tired of it. I enjoy giving each project a focused amount of time, but have been slightly frustrated at how long it takes me to get through my rotation. This was particularly apparent to me when I was working on “Fairy Flora” a couple of weeks ago because I realized that I hadn’t seen her since December. Unfortunately, at the rate of working on her for 10 hours every three months I will never get her finished by the end of the year.

This led me to consider changing my rotation to one with a focus piece and I got a lot of great advice on how to implement such a rotation, but I am not exactly sure if that is what I want to do either.

However, as I glance through my goals over the past few months I see that on average I tend to work on two of my WIPs a month (not including my “Harvest Witch” SAL), so what I have decided to do for now is work on one other WIP a month in addition to “Fairy Flora.” Although I keep track of my hours I am not going to confine myself to working on these projects for X hours. Instead, I will work on each project throughout the month as I see fit.

So, without further ado, here are my March/April goals:

For March:

1. Finish “Bearly a Wizard.” – Yep!
2. Continue my Sunday “Harvest Witch” SAL with Dawn. - Yep!
3. Stitch for 10 hours on “In Cupid’s Garden.” - Nope.
4. Stitch for 10 hours on “Fairy Flora.” - Yep!
5. Order the Kreiniks and charms for “Harvest Witch” and the beads for “Spring Queen” and “In Cupid’s Garden.” - Nope.
6. Have a blast with my sister and niece who are coming to visit me over Spring Break! - Yep!!!

For April:

1. Continue my Sunday “Harvest Witch” SAL with Dawn.
2. Participate in the April SAT.
3. Work on “Fairy Flora.”
4. Work on “Poet’s Heart.”
5. Stitch (and finish) a Christmas Ornament for my 10 Ornies Challenge
6. Order the Kreiniks and charms for “Harvest Witch” and the beads for “Spring Queen” and “In Cupid’s Garden.”

Two Years of Flo

I have been working on “Fairy Flora” this week and as you can see have a pretty good start on her wings. However, her wings are huge and even with all the work I have put in I am still only about ¼ of the way done with the first one. (In case anyone is wondering, the stitch count for Flo is 126 wide by 320 high and the right wing is 30ish wide by 130 high.)

“Fairy Flora” is the largest piece I have ever stitched and March 15 will mark 2 years since I started her.

I have been working on her so long and when she is finished it will be so worth all the time and effort, but I also think I will have mixed reactions after she is complete. On one hand I will be so happy to have her done that I predict I will be dancing for at least a week. But on the other hand, I think I will also be a little sad. I started stitching Flo during a very tough time in my life and after working on her for two years there are definitely a lot of memories attached to her.

Nevertheless, I am very anxious to complete her sometime this year so I have been thinking about revamping my rotation and making her a focus piece so that can happen.

SBQ: Stitching Weaknesses

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Rachel and is:

What is your cross stitch weakness? (i.e., What do you have to have when you see it, even if you are supposed to be on the Wagon?)

I think that my cross stitch weakness has changed over time. When I made the switch from casual to obsessed stitcher I felt that I had a pitiful stash and so at that point my weakness was stash in general! I had to have everything that was related to stitching that I could get my hands on! I then became obsessed with acquiring a complete set of DMC, so I went crazy buying DMC for a time.

These days I think my two biggest weaknesses are Mirabilia charts and hand-dyed fabric. I think these two weaknesses go hand-in-hand because it just seems to me that those pretty Mirabilia ladies are screaming to be stitched on equally beautiful hand-dyed fabric.

I tend to satisfy myself with plenty of “window” shopping, but every once in a while I succumb. Although I now have more Mirabilia charts than I will ever be able to stitch on the fabric that I receive from Silkweaver’s FOTM club, I seriously doubt that fact will stop me from collecting more!