Assessing Nov Goals, Setting Dec Goals

NOVEMBER GOALS

Town Square SAL: Kit up and start stitching The Clock Tower. DONE 11/18/10.

Bride's Tree SAL: Design and Stitch October's Pine Cone DONE 11/10/10 and November's Angel NO.

Thanksgiving Ornaments: Stitch four ornaments as needed to catch up to the goal of one a month. DONE. Between 11/23 and 11/27, I stitched four of the motifs [Indian brave, Pilgrim Man & Woman, Turkey] from Cross Eyed Cricket's Thanksgiving Circle and assembled them into round padded board ornaments.

UFO: Peacock biscornu. NO. This project needs to be frogged before moving on and I did enough frogging in the past week on my Quaker projects from Workbasket to want to pull out another stitch.

BAP: Finish TW's Autumn Faerie. Only got in an hour's worth of stitching on this and that only because I refused to let another month go by with nothing done on this project.

Medium Project: Resume work on The Sweetheart Tree's Holly and Hearts Sampler. This will have to become a December goal.

SURFACE EMBROIDERY: Continue work on Encrusted Crazy Quilt Square, mastering the boullion stitch. The aim is to get in at least one hour a week. DONE. While I didn't master the boullion stitch, I did put in four hours on this project and recovered my enthusiasm for it. But before I do much more work on the piece, I'll have to practice my ribbon embroidery technique as well as that difficult boullion stitch.

SEWING PROJECTS:Finish-finish ornaments to date and stitch up two larger projects from the finishing basket. GOAL EXCEEDED. All ornaments stitched this month were finished. Other sewing finishes this month included a bookmark, three gift totes,

And the NaBloPoMo Challenge: DONE!!! Well, this has certainly been an experience and one I am not sure I care to repeat next year. Finding something of interest to blog about daily and maintaining my primary focus on stitching has been difficult. But, according to the stats feature, I have never had so many page views. The comments haven't increased though ... for the most part, I don't seem to attract the type of reader who says much. The one thing blogging daily has done for me personally is this: in an effort to find something to say, I posted more about designing my own pieces ... something I have been doing intermittently for some time now. I do believe I see more designing in my future. On the other hand, posting daily really had me scrambling for topics ... not all of which were terribly successful ... and it has given me an even greater respect for professional writers who sit down to a keyboard daily. I guess I am just a dabbler and a dilettante by nature and by habit. Ideally, I should have been born to an extraordinarily wealthy family so I could have indulged all my creative whims without any compulsion to develop them into [or support them with] an income producing career.

DECEMBER GOALS

Town Square SAL: The Fire Station

Bride's Tree SAL: Finish stitching the Quaker Angel I designed for November's ornament and stitch Workbasket's Quaker Santa for the December [and last] ornament.

UFO: Either my long neglected BAP or Medium Project would qualify as a UFO by now, so I'll just leave this category blank for this month.

BAP: TW's Autumn Faerie, no extravagant goals of finishing ... all I want to do is manage a few hours a week on this project.

Medium Project: Resume work on Victoria Sampler's Holly and Hearts Sampler. Again, no extravagant goals here, I just want to see steady discernible progress.

SURFACE EMBROIDERY: Continue work on Encrusted Crazy Quilt Block.

SEWING PROJECTS: Finish as many pieces as possible so as to begin the new year with substantially fewer finishes in the basket. This is where I really want to concentrate my efforts this month. Until I have a sewing room fixed up, my dining room is my sewing area ... and I need to reclaim it in time for the Christmas holidays.