Too Much Stitching?

I think I must of OD'ed on stitching this week. I put in 29 hours on my model, at times stitching 7-8 hours a day. By Thursday night I was SICK of the sight of my model. I didn't touch a single project all day Friday or all day Saturday. I stitched about 4 hours today. But I'm definitely under pressure now, I've got to get that model done and in the mail by next Wednesday.

I did celebrate a bit of a milestone with my model tonight I finished page 4! This means I am now past the 1/2 way point! This is good!

But Monday is back to work, and back to Taekwon-Do. I'll be back to stitching in the evenings again.

Happy New Year!

Hmmm a new year for new chances and new ideas. What do I hope to accomplish this year. Well I've got to start training for my black belt physical in June. That's 16 laps of the track, 6 minutes of skipping, 250 push ups and sit ups both done over a 5 minute period so that's about 50 a minute. This means eating healthy, getting back on the treadmill and attending TKD religiously.

Stitching wise, no true lofty goals. I want to get my model stitching under control and out of the way. Or at least down to one project! Also to make my needle available to my favorite designer ;-) You know who you are! I want to stitch two Christmas ornaments a month, a goal I managed to almost keep in 2003... I kinda flunked out over October/November but I was trying so hard to get Peacock Tapestry done! Personal projects I have in mind for 2004? Well keeping up to date with Chatelaine's Mystery VI and today I'll be starting Celtic Banner from Butternut Road (Lavender and Lace). Also every second Sunday of each month I hope to work on a Dragon Dreams design. Very lofty ideas... lets see if I can keep to them.

As for stitching wise over the last two days... I've now put in 22 hours this week on my model. Pages 1-3 are done!!!! Page 4 doesn't have much to it, and that will be the top half of this design done. I don't think there is as much stitching to the bottom half. But I've eluded myself before! I realized tonight why I don't like stitching this design (besides the fact its on aida... evil stuff that is). Almost all the time when I'm stitching I'll pause or stop and hold my fabric up at an arm's length. I'll be awed by the design, be it how realistic, intricate, or the neat effect with this stitch or that backstitch. This design doesn't do that. Only one very small part has, I was putting the backstitches on this "fabric" being held up by one of the figures in the design, its a paisley fabric and by adding a touch of yellow backstitch it really made it appear like fabric with paisleys. Anyhow I'm rambling but I hope you get the point.

Today ... I mean yesterday (you can tell I like to blog late at night) I managed to finish off my second Christmas ornament for December. Just Nan's Christmas Peace Ornament c2003 This is stiched on a mystery fabric from my stash (that means I have no clue what it is or what colour, or exactly count). Definitely linen and I'm pretty sure 28ct using DMC floss and Mill Hill beads.

So Happy New Year and Happy Stitching!

Procrastinating

That is definitely what I've been doing this month! I'm still not enjoying this model and I'm pretty much forcing myself to work on it at this point since the deadline is in 16 days! I find myself constantly on the computer, eventhough I don't need to be, taking a nap, little things to avoid this model. But oh the crunch is on! I was a very good girl today I did put in 9 hours on my model and at this point (almost midnight) I've had enough stitching! Maybe tomorrow I'll manage to finish all the cross stitch on page 3.

Behold... Mystery VI - Part 1

Here it is... the long awaited unveiling of Mystery VI - Part 1 c2003 Chatelaine. This took wayy longer than I thought it would! Its fairly dark in colour so far. I did make one change when it came to threads. I replaced the Anchor Marlitt used for the black leaf shapes and used black splendor Silk from Rainbow Galleries. Now I have to wait until February 1st for Part 2. I guess this means I can focus on that model now.

My webpages are being updated today so feel free to have a look later tonight or tomorrow to see what I've managed to stitch for 2003!

I Feel Like I'm Getting No Where Fast

When I downloaded the first part of Mystery VI and printed it out. I figured a good solid two days of stitching and it would be done and I'd be back onto my model. But alas! There is much more to this section than meets the eye! So far in this portion I've worked with Petite Treasure Braid, Vicki Clayton Silks, Gloriana Silks (very yummy), and Anchor Marlitt.

The Anchor Marlitt I am not enjoying. It doesn't seem to want to lie flat on the fabric, I do not like how it behaves. Or how it lies. But it dose have a nice sheen to it. All the cross stitch that is required in Marlitt I've done. However I just couldn't live with how it looked when it came to some blackwork/backstitching. The lines were not crisp and sharp which I love. So finally I ripped it all out and replaced it with Rainbow Galleries Splendor Silk. I would of liked to have found something with more of a sheen, but that's all my LNS had in black. It does look much better. Hopefully sometime on Sunday I'll finally have that scan up for you!

A Day of Rest!

Once again its been a couple of days since my last blog. Until you blog (unless you already do) you don't realize how hard it can be to do this on a daily basis. I like to blog before bedtime, a way to wrap up my day and share with you all my progress! The last couple of days have been filled with getting ready for Christmas... having my family over on Christmas Eve and spending Christmas Day with the in-laws. Todd and I have decided we aren't going anywhere today, we're just staying home and relaxing!

I had one small pre-Christmas finish. A little design from The Cross Stitcher December 2001 issue. Its called Happy Stitching. I thought it was the perfect little Christmas piece to stitch! You can see it here. I stitched it on Ivory Jubilee with DMC floss and Kreinik metallics.

Christmas Eve once the house was cleaned and the food was prepared to the point where I just had to cook and serve I had a couple of hours to sit and work on my model. Page 3 is now progressing nicely. Just before the family got here for dinner I saw that the password for Mystery VI had just been released... I never had time to go and see what Part I looked like :-(

Christmas morning I finally had a chance to look at and print out Part I of Mystery VI! Oooh it looks pretty and very much like Martina's other large mysteries. Once I took my brother back home I had about 2 hours to sit down and start stitching on it. I worked a little more on it last night after we got back from the in-laws. But I didn't last long, I was exhausted from the last two day's activities.

Guess what I'm working on today??? Hopefully I'll have a completed scan for you by bedtime!!!!!

Descent Progress Today

Yes Sirrrr, I made some descent progress on my model today. I put in seven and a half hours. I've now completed page 2 and I'm onto page 3... there are 8 pages in this design. It looks to me like this page, 3, has the bulk of the stitching so I may be on it for awhile. But in consolation there's not much on page 4. Once I have the first 4 pages done that'll be the top half of the design completed.

I'm also getting anxious for Christmas... we'll finally be getting the first installment of Mystery VI. Oh I soooo wish I could dedicate every stitching moment to part one. But there's this model deadline. Hopefully I'll have some time to play with it on Christmas day. Everything is organized and ready to go.

My mind seems to wander lately when it comes to what I want to stitch! I want to start EVERYTHING... and work on EVERYTHING. But I just can't do that, I go crazy having too many projects on the go.

If I only had 4 arms...