SBQ – April 19, 2006

Posted on April 19, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ was suggested by me and is:

Do you do obligation or deadline-based stitching? Why or why not? If you do, do you tend to get in over your head and why?

Hahahah! Can you tell where my head was when I suggested this to Renee a week or so ago? 😆

I do regularly seem to commit myself to stitching on a deadline, whether it is a model assignment, exchange piece, gift or charity stitching. I just finished my square for Laura’s quilt, just barely under the deadline, and now I have a model to stitch, two exchange projects with May mailing dates, my own RR piece to get ready to fly in June and a July exchange project. That doesn’t include my self-imposed deadlines, which I’ve been missing all over the place lately.

I’ll also have some upcoming commitments around additional 9/11 quilts which are being coordinated by the same woman who did the World Trade Center quilt for which I stitched two panels. This includes a design that I need to chart out, repeat and modify that I will then probably stitch myself. I seem to be getting myself into a good bit of volunteer design customization lately, as well.

So, do I tend to get over my head? Um… yeah. That would be a understatement. This is probably why I tend to get burned out on stitching at least once per year. I commit to far too much stitching for other people and I never seem to accomplish much for myself. I used to be content with this, but with the amount I’ve been stitching over the last couple of years, to not have much to show for it that I’ve kept for myself is just becoming unreasonable.

Don’t get me wrong. I love stitching for other people and projects, BUT it would be awfully nice to actually complete something for me every once in a while. 😀

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Easter Break Babble

Posted on April 18, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Easter – Good. Time off from work – Better. Time spent away from home – BEST!

I really needed the time at my parents’ house this past weekend. We left on Thursday afternoon and didn’t return home until Sunday evening. Friday was wonderfully carefree. Nothing that needed to be done. Nothing to do but chat with my dad and do whatever I felt like (which was mostly nothing). It felt REALLY good to just BE for a day.

Stitching done – NONE. Boring, but it’s the truth. I thoroughly enjoyed my feeling of release from all commitments while I was away and I capitalized on it by not doing a single thing that I had intended on the stitching front.

Reading done – NONE. Yep, that’s right. I didn’t do my reading assignment for Dr. Steve. I have my reasons and I have my excuses, but mostly, I just plain didn’t do it. I have to stop apologizing for everything I do! I do far too much of that. “Ooops, I’m sorry I just stepped in between the two of you while you were having a conversation right outside of my office and I needed to go somewhere.” “Oh, someone did something not very nice to you? I’m sorry.” “I was busy working on something else and didn’t have time to look at that thing you just thrust in front of me an hour or so ago. I’m sorry.” NO! Why do I have to be sorry? I don’t. I’m just afraid of hurting people’s feelings or not meeting their expectations. The people-pleaser in me needs to take a bit of a backseat right now because I need to think about ME.

Can you see I’m developing a dose of anger at myself to toss into the mix? I’m a nutcase. Sorry Dr. Steve. No, wait, there I go again. I am NOT SORRY. It’s his job. He chooses to help people like me. Darn it!

Speaking of Dr. Steve, I went to see him again tonight. I didn’t work on my autobiography over the break like I had intended to, but I did pound out another 7+ pages today, so I feel like I can stop now. It’s not finished, but then neither is my life. 🙂

Posted in Journey to Self-Discovery, Life in General, Stitching | 3 Comments

Quilt Square for Laura

Posted on April 13, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Yes, that’s right. It’s finally finished. I am really happy dancing right now! I was so afraid that with my lack of stitching time for the past few weeks that I would never get it done in time to meet the deadline, which would have been tragic. So, without further ado, here is my addition to the quilt for Laura, a cameo of Mirabilia’s Titania fairy:


Square for Laura's Quilt

We were instructed not to use beads, so I substituted pearl (032) Kreinik braid for the beads and it just doesn’t stand out, unfortunately. I also don’t like how my name came out – it’s too large, but it’s all I had charted (from another project) at the moment. It seems like an eyesore on such a delicate piece. However, I really don’t have/shouldn’t spend the time to fix it, so it will just have to be what it is.

Posted in Stitching | 17 Comments

SBQ – April 12, 2006

Posted on April 12, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

For those of you that stitch while riding in the car or on the train, how do you cope with the bumps and the motion? Do you have any tips for others?

To be honest, I don’t really notice it that much. I take an anti-motion-sickness pill before a trip any longer than our 40-minute commute and off we go. Sometimes Pennsylvania roads can be very bumpy and I just have to wait a few seconds.

My tips for stitching in the car are to use a blunt-tipped needle, not a sharp, so that you don’t accidentally stab yourself. Keep your thread lengths a little shorter than usual so that you don’t accidentally stab the driver. And if you have a project that uses aida, plastic canvas or perforated paper, they are the easiest mediums for stitching in the car because of their large holes. Just don’t try to split squares in aida to do partial stitches while in the car. That’s just plain crazy! Trust me, I’ve tried it in a moving van on 16 count aida and it’s just not fun. 🙂

For the most part, though, it’s not an issue. Just make sure you have adequate lighting. Don’t try to stitch if it’s too dark out, including in thunder storms, because you’ll end up straining your eyes and increasing your likelihood of motion sickness.

There’s my $0.02. Do you want a refund?

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Easter Plans

Posted on April 12, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Does anyone else get as frazzled as I do when preparing for a holiday? Whether you are hosting or you are the one making the excursion, it just seems like such a big deal.

We are taking the Honda up to my parents’ house for the first time so that they can see it. Usually, they come to us because we’re always so busy and my dad likes to take a break over a weekend and make the drive down. Every once in a while, we should return the favor. 😉

So, we’ll work a half day tomorrow and then make the four hour trek up to their house. It’s not an unpleasant drive or anything, so I’m not worried, but there is preparation leading up to leaving the house for several days, taking the dog to another location for several days, etc. Things I slack off on and push off until later, like laundry and dishes, all have to be finished before we leave. Plus, the packing and hoping you don’t forget anything. Usually, by the time we load up the car, I have to remind myself that if we forget something, we can always do without or buy it there. What’s the worst thing you can possibly forget that’s absolutely critical? Just medications and those are always a high priority.

My list making begins tonight. I’m such a fan of lists, as it takes all of those “I should remember to pack … ” thoughts out of my head and puts them down on paper where I will actually remember them. 😉

But, holidays are supposed to be time to relax, aren’t they? 😆

On the stitching side, I haven’t yet decided which projects will travel with me. Many are on scroll frames that can’t travel, so it may be a mix of smaller exchange pieces and one that I was working on Q-snaps. Who knows? I’ll figure it out tonight. And my square for Laura’s quilt will be finished tonight. I finished the cross stitches last night and started the backstitching. I had planned on finishing it in the car today during the commute, but then Terry remembered that the Honda was scheduled to have the fog lights installed today, which means I’m driving the Honda and he’s driving the SUV. Oh well, I’m close enough that it will be quick to finish off. Watch this space for a happy dance photo – SOON!

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 3 Comments

The Mad Fabric Rush!

Posted on April 10, 2006 by Jenna Magee

The latest update to Silkweaver‘s Odds & Ends page came out less than an hour ago.

I somehow missed the notification that I had new mail and so I was late to the party. In this game, timing is everything. I picked up the last two parcels of 32 ct Jobelan available – one in Bay Leaf and one in Twilight Blue. I left feeling like the last cow to the stampede, trying to pick up whatever the others leave behind!

If you haven’t visited yet, there’s probably no point, unless you are an aida fan. Last time I checked, there were only a couple of lone packs of 40 ct Newcastle linen left besides the aida and larger count items.

I was really hoping to get some of the 32 ct Jobelan in Water Lily, as I have a project in mind for it. If anyone reads this who picked some of it up and would be so kind as to trade for one of my colors or arrange some sort of other trade or payment, I would be most grateful…

Posted in Stitching | 6 Comments

Famous Last Words?

Posted on April 8, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I found myself saying this morning that I would finish my square for Laura’s quilt this weekend. I am determined to do so; however, I don’t know what will happen in reality. I have worked on it for several hours today and have made good progress. The problem lies in not knowing how much stitching time I will get tomorrow. We have plans, so it will all depend on how much I get done in the morning, most likely. We’ll see. If I succeed, I’ll post a photo. If not, then … ?

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Catching Up

Posted on April 6, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I’ve been trying desperately to get caught up on everyone’s blogs today. I started with nearly 250 unread blog entries and am now under 90. So, many of you will be seeing some comments from me. My goal is to be completely caught up by the weekend, since the number of blog entries over the weekend seem to decrease, so it will be a good start to a productive stitching weekend to not have to play blog catch-up!

Nothing to report on my visit with Dr. Steve from last night. Finished up the initial diagnosis with some memory and cognition tests. Then we filled out the paperwork needed for the insurance company with the diagnosis (which includes anxiety, in addition to dysthymia), goals for the therapy and an initial timeline. He says he always projects for 6 months of treatment at first, but it can take less time or many years. Then we went more into depth on cognitive therapy and how to start. Since I hadn’t finished my autobiography, I don’t think he wanted to dig into any issues yet. I printed out two copies of what I had written, so he will review it and I suspect that my next appointment (the Tuesday after Easter) will be more interesting for everyone involved. 😉 In the meantime, I will finish off my autobiography (which I predict will hit approximately 15 pages) and email it to him.

I found out that he has a sense of humor, though. While we were going through the cognition tests, I had to count backwards from 100 in increments of 7 until he stopped me; 93, 86, 79… I told him that I didn’t enjoy math so it was a bit intimidating for me to do that, even if it didn’t seem very difficult. When he did stop me, he said, “Now, calculate the cube root of 169….” and I just about died! He started laughing and said “That was a joke!” By the time we had finished the session, I was joking right back. I asked him for a pen to write out a check for the co-payment for the visit and he asked which one I wanted (he had figured out at the beginning of the session that one of his pens had run out of ink). I responded that it depended on whether he wanted the check written in real ink or invisible ink? 😉 He liked that, so I think I feel really comfortable with him. That will make it easier when we delve into the deep, difficult issues later.

Posted in Journey to Self-Discovery, Life in General | 6 Comments

Enough About Me, What Do You Think About Me?

Posted on April 5, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I am starting to get seriously tired of talking about myself so much.

The new psychologist (Dr. Steve) asked me the last time to write an autobiography, detailed things like my first memory, my parents’ divorce, etc. He said to make it around 10 pages, so I thought “no problem!” I like to write and I like to talk about myself, so this should be a breeze, right? Wrong. First, I procrastinated about it for a few days (big surprise there). Then I tried a little bit over the weekend and was only able to type a couple of sentences. Monday night, though, I made a concerted effort to sit down and work on it. I only managed to finish a couple of pages because I was having trouble conjuring up my memories in a linear fashion. Try it sometime. See if you don’t run into the same problem. One train of thought would pop up and take me down a road of narration and then I would remember something else and have to make an effort to insert it in a way that made sense.

Wednesday is now here and I’m due to meet with Dr. Steve again. Terry made the comment to me when we went to bed on last night about wasn’t I supposed to have that done for the next appointment? Gee, thanks dear! I had trouble going to sleep because it was bothering me so badly. So, I spent this morning preparing for, observing, taking notes on and debriefing our presentation to new company employees regarding computers and IT at our company. I finally got in to my office and decided to take another stab at the autobiography. You see, while I was waiting for the previous presenter to finish up in the morning, I had jotted down nearly a planner page worth of bullet points that I could use to help me get some more information flowing for said autobiographical attempt. As a result, I have been able to sit down and crank out another 5 pages, non-stop. But now I have just reached this point where I am so mindnumbingly bored by hearing myself think about myself that I just have to stop, momentum or no momentum. Besides, in two hours, I have to go talk about myself to Dr. Steve. (And what do I do, I go post to my blog!)

So, believe it or not, even I can reach a point where I just can’t stand talking (or writing or thinking) about myself anymore! 😛

Posted in Journey to Self-Discovery, Life in General | 3 Comments

SBQ – April 5, 2006

Posted on April 5, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ is:

Do you stitch “on the go?” (On the commute to and from work, during your lunch break, waiting for the kids, etc.) If so, do you have a specific “travel” project or do you just grab whatever you happen to be working on and take it with you?

Yes, I do stitch on the go, or at least I used to. Due to the headaches and my tendency for wrist problems, I’ve stopped stitching in the car during the commute. This is hopefully only temporary, as I can get a lot done during those times. I never stitch at work (it’s partially an image thing and partially because I never take an actual lunch break) and Terry’s been the one doing all of the waiting lately, patient fellow that he is! Perhaps he needs to learn how to stitch? 😆 I have a DMC needlework bag that stays in the car which contains several small projects, like a couple of hardanger ornaments and a very small bookmark. There may be other mysteries lurking inside but, like I said, I haven’t looked in there in a while! 🙂 We’ll be driving up to my parents next weekend for Easter, though. It’s at least 3 and a half hours, so I should have plenty of time to stitch, if it’s bright enough outside.

Posted in Stitching Blogger's Question | 2 Comments