Incoherent Scribblings

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!

Hopefully this will be the last progress picture taken with my cameraphone that my readers will have to suffer through. I should be getting my new camera (Canon PowerShot A720 IS) sometime this week.

Anyway, if you use your imagination you can see the progress that I have made thus far on “Harvest Witch.” This was week three of my SAL with Dawn and I am pretty pleased with how nicely Harvey is coming along. I actually stitched a little more on her hat last night after I took this picture, so both sides are done now.

I really love the fabric I am stitching this on. My cameraphone may not produce the clearest pictures of the stitching, but I will confirm that it has actually captured the color of the fabric pretty accurately. It is called “Tangerine Sparkle” and is a 32 count opalescent Belfast from Silkweaver.

Originally I was a tad concerned about how orange this fabric is, but a floss toss served to put my mind somewhat as ease. And then when I starting putting the green and purple stitches in I was quite pleased to see that instead of clashing with the fabric, the floss colors are practically popping off it.

It is really hard to put Harvey away until next Sunday and I suppose Dawn wouldn’t be upset if I worked on her a little more, but right now my rotation seems to be working for me so I will put “Harvest Witch” away for the rest of the week and get back to finishing my 10 hours on “Spring Queen.”

Seeing as I haven’t been home in about 10 days, I had a whole list of things to do when I got home tonight. However, I was pretty wiped out after working all day today and driving all day yesterday, so I decided the cat litter can wait until tomorrow and the laundry can be put off until the weekend.

With the decision to put off today what I can do tomorrow, I sat down to relax the best way I know how: Yep, I pulled out my needle and started on Flo’s wings. There isn’t much there yet, but they will grow soon enough. I would love to continue working on her some more, but I reached my 10 hours on her so tomorrow I will switch to something else.

But what…?

Normally I like to keep my WIPs around 5 (currently 6) but I have some things that I want to start pretty badly so I have been tossing around the idea of having a “Guilt Free January.” After all, with my “Harvest Witch” SAL with Dawn, I am already planning at least one new start this month, so why not a few more to add to the WIP pile?

And speaking of “Harvest Witch…” I have decided that I want to stitch her on hand-dyed fabric and think she would look good an orange/peach color. I am still debating between 4 colors: Silkweaver’s Autumn Sunrise, Tangerine Sparkle, Sundown, and Peachy Keen. I think all but Peachy Keen are also available in opalescent. I usually prefer linen, but I like Autumn Sunrise in Lugana. It is a tough decision. I think I need to study the actual pattern a little more and see if as I do so it calls out to one of the fabrics.

I bought some stash while I was visiting Dawn that I want to share and I finished my last two projects of the Project Challenge into fobs, but (like the SBQ) it will have to wait for another day.