I have a new strategy

I've been finding it hard to get my Mystery parts done, and they seem to eat into my stitching time because I procrastinate against them rather than being excited.

So, here's the latest strategy:

• Work each day on one corner/quarter of the design, when it's done stitch something else for the rest of the day
• take a break (stitching something else) the next day if a break is needed
• the something else works on a 10 hr rotation which is Froggy Frog World, Hope, From the Ashes, one of my other SAL pieces

Im not a perfect little rotationer, I'll get odd and let pieces that are in my rotation scream at me so I'll pull another project out when I'm supposed to be working on one occasionally, but it keeps me happy.

This is as close to a rotation as I think I will be able to manage this year with two SALs going - I love these designs, but I don't think I'll do the big Mystery next year. Maybe one of her other designs (a sampler mystery, or a box, or a quilt or something) but not the massive one, I want to be able to stitch for myself on rotation again. Or else I'll stitch it (if it really calls to me after a couple months worth of WIPs) but stitch it on a rotation like everything else. I've got so many BAPs that I already have, that it seems silly to start yet another Chatelaine. I've still got Convent's Herbal Garden (MII)'s kit packaged up sitting on my shelf waiting to be started! Deary me...I'm hopeless arent I!

Updatingness

Firstly, and most importantly:

it is RAINING! PROPERLY! for someone in the middle of the worst drought australia has seen EVER, this is absolutely wonderful.

ahem.


Okay, stitching. I've finally finished page 2 of the Tranquility Sampler, and here it is:

YAY all that red thing is done - at least for that page.

Also stitched on JOB for my SAL with Tash, though I forgot it was Monday (oops) and stitched it on Tuesday instead:

I've finished all the cross stitching for the panel, and have started adding the details. The bird is incredible, and the picture does not in any way do it justice, amd the pine cones and everything are pretty awesome too. This whole piece is so awesome - Martina is a genius. It's going to be so great to have it done and displayed!

And stitched on my lovely Periwinkle too, and gave her part of a wing - there are sparklies, but they're not very obvious.



Now that it's raining and it's a lazy day (I woke up at 12.30) I'm going to settle back with some Strawberry Rooitea and stitch on the sampler a bit. I like all of the motifs on this page, except the last bit of red which I am in the process of finishing up, so it should be fairly quick and enjoyable.

Part 3 is DONE!

Look! Look!

All that beading!

SBQ and today's to do list

Are you on "The Wagon?" If so, how long have you been on and how
"serious" are you about it? If not, have you considered it?

Yes, I am. Troy put me there, and won't let me off until either I finish a BAP or he gets to buy a sword...yes, I'm marrying a geek. And yes I said sword. At least he has decent taste in them, some of the ones he likes are really pretty. They're just expensive - $500ish US!!

How serious? Well, I'm determined to get a few things FINISHED, and I really need to stop buying stash. So my exemptions are that I can use birthday money, and that I can buy gifts or things necessary for completion of already owned projects. So I can buy floss for current projects, and it also means I can kit up/buy fabric for charts I already own, but Troy's the failsafe - I have to ask him first! It saves me a lot of money...goodness knows I have enough charts kitted up and I haven't got anywhere near starting them. It is fun to kit though. At least I have Periwinkle Fae who will be done soon-ish given how fast she's stitching up, and a QS to stitch for my friend Meg (QS Cat Nap Fae - awesome, means I get to stitch that adorable chart twice since I want it too, and she picked the chart) and QS Red Witch already kitted up so it will keep me busy, and allow new starts periodically.

I need to make a To-Do list for today, a few things really need doing. This way I can post my progress! Hey, it works for stitching (and some of this is stitching related)

• finish the beading on part 3 of mystery X (#$*&#*#*$ lol) - done!
  
• enjoy finally starting part 4
• stitch something on Tranquility Mystery
• stitchbow-ify the last few threads for periwinkle fae QS
• organise my projects into little bags of their own
• raid the house for calico bags for ^
• spend at least some time in my room consolidating the chaos (I cant walk in there at this point in time)
• go through clothes with Troy and get rid of anything that doesnt fit/I wont wear
• ditto shoes
  

QS Periwinkle Fae

I haven't got a decent photo :( but oh well. It doesnt want to play nice.



Yay she has hair now! And the beginning of a wing. I've figured out that one strand of the DMC light effects works beautifully over one on 32ct, so she's got a little bit of sparkle in her eye but you can't really tell. There's lots of sparkle in the wing though, so it will be easier to see then.

I really should post more often

Sorry, I know its been more than a week!

I'll list the projects I've worked on, and comment on each of them, since I can't think of any other way to do it!

Mystery X:
I got thoroughly fed up with the beading, and haven't really stitched much on it this week - bad Kyrie! I'm so close to finishing part 3, but I have other pretties to distract myself with and I haven't worked on it since that picture until today. now another of those beaded borders is almost done, and I've half frogged the one that I wasn't happy with. Frustrating, but worth it. If I work at it this afternoon and tonight, I might even get it done today! Part 4 is gorgeous and not big - mostly backstitching, with some corners in the same beading pattern as these borders, and a little bit of cross stitch. Shouldn't be hard, and will look great. I'm very curious as to what part 5 will be - Troy's mum and I reckon it will be a hedge between the corners and above the borders, but we'll have to see!

From the Ashes:

I worked on her for the SAL, which was most enjoyable until I finished the top 30 rows and discovered I didn't have a lot of the threads I needed for her wing - *sigh*. I did do a lot of the background confetti though, and filled in some of the solid colour background as well, and stitched most of the wing that I could leaving the gaps to be filled when I get the floss. This new method I've discovered for stitching her seems to be working really well, which I'm very glad of! It's sad to put her away for the time being, but hopefully I'll get a chance to work on her again before the next SAL, if when I get my threads.

Tranquility Mystery:
I've got almost all of page 2 done, except for some of that massive red thing - I like the design, I hate stitching it. I am going to have to grit my teeth and get it done too! I really need to catch up on this... the yellow motif is my favourite of all of them so far, and I love the yellow colour too!


Japanese Octagon Box:
I got my finishing kit from Judy the other day, which was very very fun, and I got the old key from Martina as well which meant that I could stitch on the grass this monday. I frogged all the incorrect stitching, and added some more, and it looks wonderful. Photos really do not do justice, but I will try.


apart from all this, I also did lots of fabric dyeing for prac 1 for craft this year too - with Peta (future MIL) and was MUCH FUN! We got dye everywhere and the acid ate the foil off her reflector thing that she puts in her car....but it was worth it, even the clean up! See?


Also, I've discovered somewhere that sells 100% cotton sheeting...white, 2.5m wide, for about $7/m which is GREAT, and I bought 4m. 2m of that got used for the dyeing, and 2m I have kept because I will use it to make the mockup of my dress, the patterns for which should be sent today by the people I ordered them from - I sent them an email inquiring and they're sending them *now*, about 3 weeks later!!! grr. Oh well. I will get them and then have fun making the dress. What Peta and I have decided is that I'll make a proper mockup, with long sleeves, then cut the sleeves short, make an underdress, and dye both. I want the underdress a solid colour, but the overdress dark at the bottom shading up to light at the top, thinking a turquois-y blue with a dark blue underdress or a deep pink with a purple underdress, and then stitch cutwork dragonflies all over it. Sounds like fun! I can't see the point of making a dress, even a mockup, that I wouldn't be able to wear, so I'll get a nice summer dress out of it too. And dyes mean that if I buy some nice ribbon we can dye the ribbon too to match the dress...*grins*

I also want to use the sheeting to make underthings for the doll I've been meaning to dress for years. It's cotton, so it should be good! It's also good for petticoats, which I may have to do something about. I love the rustle and feel of petticoats, and they look good under full skirts.

Oh, and if you're wondering what I look like while stitching, here I am:


I was putting a hoop on the aida for the samurai that Troy has just started stitching. He's almost finished something else too (just needs to finish the backstitching) and when he does I'll post it :) it looks really good!


EDITED: to add photos

Beading! Gak! And other things.

I've been working on my mystery X wip...and the beading keeps going and going and going...
See? This has the beading a little more than half done...


I stitched the beads in the outside borders all in the same direction, but even when I sacrificed four beads on each side it still buckles, so I'm thinking about unstitching them and restitching them.

I also did some more work on Japanese Octagon Box for my SAL with Tash and got some more border and some more grass done - but the colours looked strange, and I went on the board only to discover that there are two colour keys and I was using the wrong one - didnt have the first one - and the group has been deleted! Ack. I think I will be begging Martina soon... Anyway I went from there to working on the border a little bit, but I didn't get as much done this week as I would have liked.


Tranquility Mystery has the first part done now too:



I've started the next page, but no photos of that yet - I want to try and get it finished on time this time!

From the Ashes is on the frame this weekend coming too, for the Challenge SAL - it will be good to get into it again.

Oh and I got the fabric for my restart of Froggy Frog World too - 32ct Carol's Meadow Jobelan by Silkweavers. Should be fun, it's gorgeous fabric.

And I got a birthday present too...from Peta (Troy's mum) who is an excellent future MIL :) she has a beautiful needlecase that she made and I've been envious of it since I first saw it, all beaded crazy patchwork with pockets.

Imagine my surprise to open an early birthday present that was this:

Weekend & Japanese Octagon Box

Well, this was a fun weekend. Two new mystery parts, and a new start. How could I not enjoy it?

I didn't get as much done on the tranquility mystery as I'd like, but I did get about 1/3 of the purple motif done. This is my carry around project, so I'm not working on it at home (chatelaine mystery takes priority, then one of my other BAPs - hope currently) but hopefully I'll get page 1 done this week. I'll work on it Thursday night if I have to to get it done before Friday night when page 2 will be released.



and I had my SAL with Tash on Japanese Octagon Box yesterday. I finished the tree and got some more done on the black border, and started the green. The bottom green - such a pretty one, called renaissance green, is all done and I started the next one. It stitches up wonderfully quick, which is a relief - I tend to think of chatelaines as being long-slog but worth it projects instead!
Here's this week's picture:

What I've been up to

Well, got the tranquility mystery printed out and started, with one of those elements of the purple motif done. I need to get stuck back into and get the rest done, but I really really need to get the chatelaine done so the tranquility mystery can wait and get done sometime this weekend.

Martina released Part 4 of Mystery X early this month, and it's gorgeous - another small part, which I am glad of, because I'll be able to get caught up and get something done on my poor neglected other projects. More crystals for this part too, which is fun - even though I don't put mine on until the end I can put them on the fabric and enjoy the sparkliness.

Part 3 is almost done - I might get it finished this afternoon, we'll see. I would like to get the stitching done this weekend anyway, even if not the beading - beading can be done while watching tv this week. And then those gates - yay!

JOB will be out on monday again as well, which will be fun, I'm enjoying that tree.
I'm looking forward to seeing Tash's progress too.

Goals for April

Right. I'm very not good at this goals thing, I think. I'm going to try and be reasonable this time, though I do have the holidays - two weeks of stitching, yay!

Last Month:

Stitching:

• catch up the Mystery, with part 3 done - almost. Pretty much just need the beading done, now, and I might attack that today.
  
• stick to the new rotation - eh, heh! I think I'm rotation impaired.
  
• stitch along with Tash when I get my JOB stuff - yes! Once, because that's the only chance I've got to do so.
  
• not start anything new except JOB - nope, started the tranquility mystery, but no new starts now for a long time.
  
• stitch in the HAED QS SAL with periwinkle at least twice this month - yes, second and fourth weeks
  
• stitch in the 2nd weekend SAL with From the Ashes - yep, and achieved more than I expected.
  
• experiment with cross country on From the Ashes - yep - great! I'll continue this way.
  
• think about getting new fabric for frogs...anna and waychie (who have actually seen them), do you think they're worth starting over on jobelan with white silk? Or should I just stick with them as they are? - ordered, a pearly grey. It's in the mail.
  
• not buy ANYTHING else! - fail. mystery. but at least it wasn't expensive...
  

Life:

• keep my room relatively clean - lol. um.
  
• actually pray my rosary at least once each week - nope, which annoys me.
  
• get fabric together for quilt for school (find it all!) - still planning, so we'll see.
  
• get fabric for quilt that's still needed (solid colour fabrics) - see above
  
• keep up to date with school - yep, all up to date.
  
• try to get to bed at a reasonable hour each night - yes and no. No 3am crashes at least.
  

This Month:

Stitching:

• catch up part 3 (almost done) and part 4 (small) of mystery X
• get stuck into hope and try to get at least something done!
• stitch on from the ashes during the SAL
• participate in at least 2 QS SALs
• keep up to date with the tranquility mystery
• get everything set up for taking my dragon to school and working on him there

Life:

• clean and archive my room
• get blankets and sheets for my birthday present - yay for practical presents, and yay for my parents!
• enjoy my and Troy's birthdays
• get everything together for Troy's present by his birthday!
• try and stitch every day
• enjoy the holidays