Words of Wisdom

And comfort found in a fortune cookie:

"Nothing is impossible to a willing heart"

Some weeks are tougher than others, who knew I could find what I needed in a fortune cookie?

Other News:

Fairy Grandmother will not be finished by Sunday. No Olympic medal for me, but it's ok. My attitude in regards to this project has changed a lot and I do see her being finished in the not too distant future and it's not an unreasonable expectation. Wow, I sound just like those Olympic athletes, when not performing at their best, stated it wasn't about getting a medal it was about the experience.

My fingers are itching to get back to work on By the Bay's 13th Colony Bay Parts 1-3. I would love to have this finished and framed by May 1st. Great expectations? No, I've reviewed the charts and the majority of the stitching is on the bottom portion of all three parts. The top half does not have a lot of solid stitching so once the bottom half is completed on the three parts, the rest should go smoothly. Of course I'm a painfully slow stitcher, real life gets in the way, and I do tend to underestimate the amount of stitching required for various projects, see above, but I do believe this is a perfectly reasonable goal.

WIP:

My WIP pile is pretty big. One of the downfalls of guilt free January is a honkin' huge pile of projects with a few Xs here and there. One project I want to get back to once FG is closer to finished and I've made progress on my 13th Colony Bay is Goode Huswife's With My Needle. I barely got started on it when I found an error and wasn't in the mood to frog so it got set aside. I really love this piece and can't believe it's been left in a basket, ignored.

Mouline Rouge is also screaming at me from it's basket. I had intended to have page 1 finished before the end of 2005, yeah, right. I'm not thrilled with 40ct lambswool linen. I prefer 32ct but could only 40ct when I was kitting up this project. I didn't realize the huge difference in the stitch count at the time. I'm a dork that way.

Sarah Tatum is also in need of attention. My friend Siobhan started Sarah Jan. 1st and completed her just before the start of the Olympics. I'm still on the first motif, top left corner. I'm using two strands of DMC on 36ct fabric. It looks thick and sloppy to me so I'm probably going to frog what I've done so far and start over using one strand. I think it will give it a much more delicate appearance.

And They Sinned is another project that I want to focus on this year. I have yet to finish the angel at the very top, center of the design. This is another piece I had hoped to have at least pg. 1 of the chart completed by the end of 2005.

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow is on the list too. I have completed three of the houses and just have the cow to finish on a fourth house block. Finishing that cow is probably the first thing I will do after the Olympic's closing ceremony.

Some new starts I'm looking forward to:

Sonne Spot-This isn't kitted up yet but I hope to start it sometime this year.


Paradigm Lost-Is in the stash, not kitted but I think I'm going to stitch it in red instead of blue. Will probably go with a DMC variegated. My friend Sharon stitched The Hunt Homespun Samplar using a red DMC variegated and it is gorgeous! So when I get around to stitching that I'll steal her color scheme. Since she lives in NY state and I'm in Florida I don't think too many visitors are going to pop in and say "I saw that same picture at Sharon's!"

I want to start Tropical Dream(many thanks to Annette's Acre for thread enabling) and Teresa Wentzler - Mermaid and get back to work on Teresa Wentzler - Tradewinds and Teresa Wentzler - Fantasy Triptych. I'm looking forward to the end of the Olympics so that I can get back to TW Mondays. Or rather spend a little bit of time every Monday with TW. Check out Kiwi Jo's progress on her Tradewinds. Check out her gallery, she's stitched Mermaid and Romeo & Juliet too.

While I love TW's Romeo & Juliet I thought I was saved from having to stitch that until I read somewhere that someone was stitching that and Rapunzel, The Storyteller, and Fortunate Traveller and hanging them on a storybook wall. How cool is that? As much as I love TW designs I never knew what I'd do with them once stitched, now I have something to work towards, a storybook wall. Romeo & Juilet is a chart I must now add to the stash and I have a good reason to start some designs I was just hoarding. Yes, I'm sick, obsessed.

I'm ashamed to admit that the projects listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. My stitching list is long. My U.F.O. list is ridiculous, but my new project list is worse. Market did me in. I hadn't expected to like so many of the new designs out there.

I haven't sat down and dreamed about stitching in a while, but being forced to focus on FG, made me really appreciate so many of my WIP and things I have in the stash. I'm one of those people that will stitch anything just to be able to stitch, but there was a time when I thought I could be a one at a time project chick and well, the last two weeks have showed me that I do need the variety. When forced to focus on only one project, when I tire of it, I tend not to stitch at all which is what has happened the last two days. I want to stitch but not on FG, I need a break from her, so I don't stitch. I've learned it's ok for me to have several projects going, I just don't need 40 WIP. It's too overwhelming. Hopefully I'll have a finish it in 2006 kind of year and won't add too much to the WIP pile. I'm working on kitting up several things, some older Mirabilia's are definitely on the list. I think they will be a nice diversion from all the Quaker style samplers. Garden Verses Mirabilia has been in my want to start pile for years.

The scary thing about this post? I could go on for forty more paragraphs about things I want to stitch. I'll spare you that insanity.