Incoherent Scribblings

Even before I was close to finishing either “Above the Clouds” or “Poet’s Heart” I knew the pieces that were going to fill their rotation spots when I was done. I planned on filling the spot vacated by Confetti with TW’s “Tapestry Cat” and “Poet’s Heart” with “The Bookshelf” by Little House Needleworks.

“Tapestry Cat” is my absolute favorite TW piece and I have been trying to start it for almost two years. In fact, I was so determined to start it that I bought a fat quarter for it shortly after I received the chart and I almost started it two or three times while I was still working on Confetti. However, given the problems I had with Confetti on different occasions, each time I sat down to kit up “Tapestry Cat” I decided that I better wait until I had finished one TW before starting another one.

Well, as we all know, I finally finished “Above the Clouds” a couple of months ago and although I wanted to jump into “Tapestry Cat” right away I thought I should make progress on some other pieces before I did so. I worked on Flo, finished “Poet’s Heart,” and then the other day I decided “Tapestry Cat’s” time had come.

I rummaged through my stash until I found the chart and the fabric. I was so excited that I danced around my dining/cat/craft room singing nonsense to myself as I washed the 28 count antique white Cashel linen and began to iron it in preparation for those long-awaited first stitches.

But then I remembered something.

I remembered using a chunk of the fabric here and there for a couple of smalls because “Tapestry Cat” didn’t need the entire fat quarter and suddenly I wasn’t sure whether or not I had enough fabric to start “Tapestry Cat” after all this time.

So I got out my tape measure and measured.

And then I started “The Bookshelf” by Little House Needleworks.

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Jennifer and is:

What is the most complicated piece you’ve ever completed?

Hmmm… I suppose I would have to say “Above the Clouds.” Although “Above the Clouds” didn’t have any one-over stitching or specialty stitches it had plenty of blends, confetti stitching, and quarter stitches… All the things that make TW designs (in)famous.

I am so happy I am (almost) speechless, so I will let the picture do the talking.

Above the Clouds
by TW Designworks
April 2006-February 2008
32 count Self-dyed Belfast “Turquoise Sky” Linen
Stitch Time: 97 hours
DMC Fibers

Well, not only did I finish my ten-hour rotation on “Spring Queen” last night, my new camera arrived in the mail yesterday so I was able to take a decent picture of my progress. I would like to keep working on Queenie until I finish the rest of her chest, but since that is the way that I get off track with my rotation I won’t. Instead I will put her away and move on the next piece, which is… (drumroll please)

“Above the Clouds!”

Yes, the illustrious Confetti is next in my rotation. As I have stated the past three times that it has come up in my rotation, I would love to work on “Above the Clouds” until it is finished, but as most of you know I have nearly burned out with it and demoted it to a UFO each of those times. Therefore, this time all I want to do is to stitch on it for ten more hours.

However, since I keep putting it off, it is very likely that I will start the first in the series of Christmas ornaments that I want to do for my family instead.

In other news, since I stopped doing exchanges I have considered doing a PIF a couple of times as a way to continue to stitch small gifties for my fellow stitchers. Obviously I have never gotten around to doing so, but yesterday when I signed up to be PIF recipient at Cross Stitch Happy I decided the time had come to officially commit myself to it. Details concerning my PIF will come shortly in a sticky post…

I know it has been a while since I had any stitching progress to show and while I could blame it on all the time I have been spending with a certain someone that is not the whole story.

As anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows, I am very, very close to finishing “Above the Clouds.” So close, in fact that I thought with a little concentrated effort I could finish Confetti by the end of November. That was my goal and I have tried very diligently to meet it. However, after almost 20 hours I was tired of Confetti and wanted very badly to change projects.

At that point I decided to start working on Outi’s belated birthday exchange piece. It was a good distraction from Confetti and I thought I was on a roll: I would finish Outi’s present in no time flat, get back to Confetti, and voilà! my November goals would be met and all would be well.

Unfortunately, things were not to be that way…

I was about one-third of the way into Outi’s exchange piece when I discovered a huge mistake. Because it was one of those boo-boos that couldn’t be fudged, I ended up having to frog out almost half of what I had stitched. As you can well imagine, by the time I was finished frogging I was so frustrated that I knew that it had to be put away for a while. (I am still going to try and get it to you by Christmas Outi!)

I keep saying that I am so close to finishing “Above the Clouds,” (and I am!) but it is a TW and as a result, needs full attention and unbroken concentration to really make any progress.

However, by Thursday afternoon I thought was ready. So with my tummy full of turkey I sat down and attempted to make some more progress on Confetti. Within fifteen minutes my desire for that after-Thanksgiving-dinner nap had taken over and Confetti was put away for the day.

The next day I tried yet again to make some progress, but I was restless and couldn’t find my stitching groove. After about an hour I gave up and began to wonder if I was in danger of temporarily losing my stitching mojo.

Disappointed at my lack of progress on Confetti, it was then that I started fondling my stash. I wrapped my DMC 100s, rearranged my bobbin boxes with the help of the kittens, and began flipping through my JCS Ornament issues.

I thought perhaps I needed a happy dance: Something simple and fast that would make me feel like I had accomplished something. Soon I was inspired. I found a scrap of fabric and within minutes I had started “Spool Ornament” by Sue Hillis from this year’s ornie issue.

After the errands were done and before the snow started falling on Saturday, my needles were flying. By the time I was ready for bed that evening “Spool Ornament” was (mostly) finished and I knew that I hadn’t lost my mojo, I was just sick of the things I was “supposed” to be working on.

Yes, I would still like to finish “Above the Clouds” before the end of the year, but I have decided that if I don’t it is no big deal. I will finish it when I am ready.