Tale of a Shooting Star…

Okay, to be honest, I stitched this Sunday night / Monday morning, but just didn’t take the time to blog about it until now. I’m doing an informal SAL this month of the Hearts and Flowers Hardanger Collection by Twisted Oaks Designs.

I decided to use something other than white linen for the fabric, as I plan on using this set once I am finished and I’m a terrible clutz with sweaty hands, so white needlework tools just don’t work… Anyway, I also changed a couple of the thread colors, as well, so I wanted to do a little test doodle to make sure everything would work. So, I took several of the motifs and put them together on a leftover strip of fabric to make a bookmark:

It seems to have worked out okay, so I’ll start the actual project at some point in the near future. I still need to get through some obligation stitching first, though!

2006 Stitching Resolutions:
• Establish a stitching rotation and stick to it!
• Start stitching Christmas presents early
• Finish the project that was to be for Terry’s mom and mount into box for storing some of her jewelry
• Finish at least one other UFO (other than the previously mentioned project)
• See 2006 Stitching Goals for more

I only have two hard deadlines to meet this month, so the first two items are the most important:

• Complete and send back model
• Finish and send SBEBB Garden Exchange piece
• Complete stitching on SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange piece
• Work on Victoria Sampler – Heirloom Memories Sampler
• Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha
• Start Twisted Oaks Designs – Hearts & Flowers Hardanger Collection

This month was a hectic one, so let’s see how I did with my lofty goals:

• Complete and send back model – NOT done
• Complete this month’s JCS SAL ornament – NOT done
• Complete Chatelaine Tiny Rose Mandala Garden – NOT done
• 🙂 Complete 2nd Baby’s First Christmas ornament – DONE!
• 🙂 Complete SBEBB Garden Exchange piece – DONE!
• Finish, photograph and submit all 3 Silkweaver’s Stitcher’s Showcase entries – NOT done
• 🙂 Finish (ornamentify) both Baby’s First Christmas ornaments – DONE!
• 🙂 Finish (ornamentify) all remaining Christmas ornaments – DONE!
• 🙂 Finish Christmas Hearts as a bellpull – DONE!
• 🙂 Kit and start (?) Valentine’s Exchange piece – DONE!

So, I didn’t do as well as I have in previous months, but I had to insert a dose of reality into the mix somewhere in order to retain my sanity over the holidays. The first things to go were the artificially imposed deadlines, including this month’s JCS SAL ornament (I’m not eligible for the big prize anyway because I didn’t finish an earlier month’s ornament in time) and the Silkweaver contest entries. Next year will always yield another chance to enter.

I’m really pleased with how much stitching I’ve been able to accomplish in the past two days, even if it doesn’t feel as if I have spent that much time stitching. Yesterday, I completed the stitching on my gift for the SBEBB Garden Exchange. I just have to personalize it and finish it. I know exactly how I want to finish it, so it’s just a matter of taking the time to do so. I also completed the stitching on the first of my gifts for the SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange. It just has to be sewn together, so if I can find the time, I might even be able to do it before the year ends tomorrow. 😉 I then started on the second gift for the SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange and made good progress.

This morning, I woke up late, came downstairs and focused on my current model stitching project for several hours. I made good progress on the piece and need just to put two more hours into it tomorrow morning to finish a major section and be able to send an update scan to the designer. At this rate, I feel confident that I can finish before the mid-January deadline, as I think the remaining section will take about 5 hours to complete. I am very happy about this, as my inability to focus on hardanger due to my headaches over the past few weeks kept me from being able to work on this project, so I was a bit stressed about completing it on time.

After working for a couple of hours on the model, we ate, got ready to go out and went to Babies ‘R Us for some serious one-stop shopping. We are getting together with friends on New Year’s Day and exchanging gifts. One couple has had their first child since the last time we saw them, so we had to purchase the equivalent of baby shower (they didn’t have one) gifts for them. We also bought Hanukkah gifts for the baby girl. (They will finally get the Cute As a Button pillow that I finished after the girl’s birth in October.) We still had a birthday gift for the daughter of another couple because we were unable to make it to her party in June. So, she will get it for Hanukkah. 🙂 Finally, the third couple is due to have their first child in February (this is the couple for whom I’m stitching the afghan) and are having a baby shower on January 14th, so we had to buy a shower gift, plus a Christmas gift for the unborn child. I’m so glad that Babies ‘R Us has a complimentary gift wrap table! You have to wrap them yourselves, but at least I don’t have to wrestle with having enough paper at home to cover these huge gifts!

After wrestling most of the gifts into their respective wrappings (we didn’t wrap the two baby gates, for obvious reasons; I’m not that patient or that anal, folks!), we loaded up the truck and headed down the road to Chi-Chi’s for dinner. Ever since I decided to go out, I was thinking of going there for Mexican and I really had my heart set on it. How disappointed was I to get there and find no cars in their parking lot and the building mostly dark? I didn’t bother to hop out to read whatever papers were on the door, but if they are closed on a non-holiday, then I’m assuming they’ve gone out of business. 🙁 So, after a little bit of discussion and some turning around, we decided to go to Don Pablo’s for dinner. I still smell like Mexican! I left so full and even had some leftovers to bring back. It wasn’t Chi-Chi’s, but it was still pretty good! And the fried ice cream hit the spot. 😀

Once we came home, I played with my new printer for a little while (my Epson photo printer died a few months ago and I finally ordered a new Canon Pixma photo printer this week; it arrived this morning – YAY!). So, now I can print photos again and finally get back to scrapbooking! The gals that I scrapbook with will be so pleased.

After that, it was too late for me to work on the model again because I didn’t want to risk making any mistakes, so instead I finished stitching my second SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange gift and started to work on the finishing. And then I was distracted by writing this blog entry. So, I’ll get back to what I was doing and do the finish work on either the first or second of the Valentine’s Exchange gifts. If I’m lucky, I can talk Terry into going to bed soon so I can get some rest and be refreshed for more model stitching in the morning.