Monday, July 23, 2007

Jumping projects

I've had a lot of fun stitching today, jumping between three different projects!

I got up and did my greek stuff with Dad, and have a few exercises from the book to work through, and we started translating 1 John. The workbook we are using for pretty much everything else works from the Septuagint, which I am absolutely thrilled with - *orthodox squee* So I will do some practice with the alphabet and things, most of which I already know but is good practice regardless.

After that I started work on my daily quota of A Restful Night - the current stitch tally stands at 6,399. I need 9000 by the end of the month! Hopefully I will get there. I've finished the wing for this row, and completely finished the overlap on the left wings, and now I'm getting into the confetti of her hair which usually is a bit slower but doesnt seem too bad at the moment. Its broken up by a big expanse of white which is her forehead in the middle though, which will be a good break before starting confetti again. Only 1,101 stitches until I get the row with her eyes *wink* I am starting to get tired and might have an early night, but I'd like to get a bit more done on her. At least I have her 20% done now.

After I got my quota on her, I jumped to Japanese Octagon Box, which I have been neglecting. See Tash! I stitched on it this week! I put it on my q-snaps, and with a bit of playing, and taking it off to fiddle with the very side border, it fit. So now the majority of the black border around the first frame is done, and I worked on the lantern a lot too. Everything I stitched today was black! I may actually get it out again before next Monday, I'm not sure. My aim is to finish the borders and first frame, and then start the second, but we'll see. I may get impatient! I'm doing my usual trick of alternating between a thread in a border and a thread of the picture, and it seems to be going well. Next time, I will alternate border - picture - rhodes stitch (there are lots), and see how that goes. I will try to have a picture of it, and all my other projects (except A Restful Night, I'll wait until I finish this row to take a photo of her) tomorrow.

My last project of the day was White Musings, which I have been missing, and is a fast stitch. I'm now aiming to get it done by the end of September to enter in the country shows - wish me luck! I have four rows completely done now: star filling stitch, two sided Italian cross, open herringbone variation and oval darning pattern. The fourth (in pattern) row is diamond rhodes, with a cross stitched border connecting them, and the rhodes stitches are done with just the border around the last two to be finished. I also started the sixth row, and the last for this part (May's) tonight which is a triple cross stitch variation and looks beautiful - like a star! I don't think I've taken a picture of it yet, so I should take one soon. I've seen it done in other colours too, which is very pretty - my favourite is one in pink that I saw posted on the TGOSM group.

Otherwise, not a lot happened. The day goes on, and I'm tired. Troy went back to uni today, and had a class in medieval and renaissance literature which he loved, and needs to buy an $80 textbook for, eep! It's nice just to have some slow days though.

So my goals for the rest of the week are:
  • send chart to Rachel
  • stitch 300 stitches minimum each day on A Restful Night
  • work on White Musings each day, aim to finish up these two rows before the end of Sunday.
I really do look forward to my happy dances!

My plans as to when these two are done are as follows:
When ARN is finished, I'm going to replace her with another QS, Cat Nap Fae - for Meglet. She's small, so shouldn't take me too long, I hope. I want to keep a QS an option constantly, so I'm always stitching a HAED, and the turnover is frequent enough to that I don't go mental. The other thing I was thinking the other day is that as long as I don't start anything new, I can swap over what is in my options list at the end of each month so whatever sleeper WIP that's calling to me gets a chance. I want to keep my focus as my focus until I stop enjoying it as much though, swapping it out with one of my options or even another sleeper WIP. My focus piece is staying ARN though, until she's done, and White Musings isn't going anywhere either. But when they're done...

The QS will not stay focus though. When I finish ARN something else can become focus, or perhaps my new start - Temptation by Sara Butcher (HAED) who I am planning on starting when I finish White Musings. It will be stitch on on Wednesdays, and whenever I feel like it, but the focus will be either Tranquility or WM/Temptation for the time being. They need love too. The goal based thing is really good too, I swear I stitch faster when I have a set goal mark for each day. It works especially well for HAEDs, which I stitch in a very organised fashion.

Anyway, enough blathering from me! I'm off to put a few more stitches into A Restful Night, see if I can get that total up to 500 for the row - a third of the way across. Maybe even get a bit futher? We'll see, it's only 10pm.

Update: squee - 512 stitches, but now my eyes and arms are tired so i'm giving it a rest for the night.

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