November Manifesto

Before I get to my November Manifesto, I had two final finishes for October. Stacy Nash's Jack Treat Bag and Hallows Eve pinkeep:

Jack Treat Bag

Hallows Eve Pinkeep

32ct antique white linen

DMC

Fabric aged by moi

Back of Jack Treat Bag

Fabric used for lining treat bag
Backing fabric for pinkeep-yeah, my homespun has a touch of bling, that's how I roll

November Manifesto

My plans for November are many:

1)Finish Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie

2)Make solid progress on Scarlet Letter's Emma Lerch

3)Finish the oldest son's Christmas stocking-Drawn Thread's Stefan's Christmas Stocking

4)Start the middle and youngest son's stockings-still debating a pattern for the middle son but the youngest has chosen BOAF's Wish Upon a Star Christmas Stocking.

5)Stitch some ornaments(designs and who they are for to be determined later)

There are probably more but right now these are at the top of the stitching priority list.

The other goal is to finish Nanowrimo this year. I have a writing schedule, I know the story I want to tell and with the oldest son finally employed I can do it. I am allowing myself a shitty first draft, thank you Annie Lamott and I'm just going to do it. I have a series planned, I know the stories of the first three books, I have a YA spinoff series and a prequel series and another spin off series. I just need to not have to share a computer and now for five hours Mon-Thurs I don't have to. I am going to do this. If everything goes as planned, of course it won't, I'll finish the first draft early, won't look at it again until January. Then I'll rewrite, then let a few friends read it, then rewrite it again, then see if my agent is interested and since she doesn't represent this kind of book, she won't be, then I begin the search for an agent. I have seen this book published, It will happen.

I love creative visualization. Creative visualization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyone remember that scene from An Officer and a Gentleman where Debra Winger tells Richard Gere that if he sees himself flying jets it'll happen? Yeah, my life's philosophy based on a movie. If you see it, it will happen. My mantra. Kind of like George Costanza's "If you believe it, it's true" philosophy.

YouTube - Jerry, just remember. It's not a lie... if you believe it...

Happy November 1st!

Writing and Stitching

Stitching and writing. I love November, it's nanowrimo. This is the first year I've officially participated. Other years I'm just kind of writing along but this year I'm writing outloud so to speak, at least with my word count. I should be at 8,000 something words and I'm up to 5,139. A little behind where I should be at this point but I'm into my story and honestly don't want to stop writing. Don't know if it's good, but writing it is making me happy so there's that.

Stitching--I want to write about cross stitch too. My friend Elaine passed away unexpectedly Oct. 18. I haven't written about her because, well, I guess the shock of it all. But I'm getting ready to start Jane Atkinson-Scarlet Letter and the DMC I'm using is DMC that was gifted to me by Elaine. Elaine knew that I used tons of DMC, I love the overdyes but the fact is, DMC is my friend. At a stitching weekend one year she brought me a tall kitchen garbage bag stuffed full of DMC. She had been gifted with about 5 skeins of every color so she gifted me with a skein of each color. The fabric I'm using was purchased with a gift certificate from Nordic Needle from my friends Sharon and the blogless Siobhan at a very sad time in my life, so Jane will be a very special piece for me. Stitching her with materials provided by my stitching sisters. Each X on Jane will remind me of how connected we all are, even if the connections are created at first by a machine, the computer, we become sisters in real life, and every day I am so thankful for my stitching friends and so aware of the void that is left when one passes from this world to another. I know that if there is a Heaven Elaine is looking down shaking her head and thinking to herself that Melissa is starting one more BAP that she will never finish. So all is as it should be here on Planet Earth.

Things I've Learned

First of all, the button hole stitch sucks. I hate it. I can't make a flower on BBD Beneath the Sunlit Sky. I'm weighing my other stitch options at the moment. Eyelet, Smyrna, Satin? I know that the buttonhole stitch is evil.

Second, when a design calls for GAST Wool thread, don't try to use Red Heart acrylic yarn, even separated it's too thick and it shreds. I'm passing this info along just in case you thought, like me, it might be an alternative to the GAST Wool thread, uh, it's not. It's a very bad choice. Of course if I were using a larger count fabric it might have worked, but I don't have any loosely woven 10ct laying around the house. So I'm back to using good old DMC. Maybe I'll have a finish to share tomorrow.

Nanowrimo-current word count, 1,100, I should be somewhere around 8,000 but what I have discovered is that I don't have time to write. Maybe now that the election is over, I can look away from the tv and other distractions and get my story down. I'm also editing as I write and I hate that. I just jumped into the story and am trying to get to a certain point but my writing is dragging and I keep hitting delete, not good for word count totals. Time to get inside of my head, cut loose my inner editor and just write the dang story. I'm also finding that I'm kind of protective of these characters. I want people to love them like I do. I love these people and it's entirely possible that no one will "get" the story I'm trying to tell. But I need to tell the story first. It's a never ending circle.