Weekend Progress Report: February 27, 2011

I have been ignoring everything but my Crazy January Challenge pieces so far this month ... with the pleasing result that The Ice Dragon's Kingdom is nearing completion and the less than pleasing result that everything else is sadly in arrears. This is a serious departure from my usual habits. I tend to be a rotation stitcher, not a one-project-at-a-time stitcher. But something about the Ice Dragon is riveting my attention. Perhaps, because I stitched so many smalls in 2010, I need to focus on larger pieces in 2011. Anyway, as things stand now, I have most of the dragon's body done, some of the trees and a tower or two of the castle stitched and all of the border done, except the corner boxes. For some reason, the first box was easily enough stitched. Then when I attempted to work the second, all I did was frog ... not once, not twice ... but three times. Silly, I know, since it is a really simple motif. I just had a mental block, I suppose. I have two of the necessary flosses needed to complete this project on order from 1-2-3 stitch. I received an e-mail last Thursday that my order was on its way. I hope to find the fibers in my mailbox when I get home from work today.

As last seen, my Dragon looked like this

... but it is now fleshed out so much further

With only one day left in February, it's time to return to at least one of my 2010 WIPs. On Monday, I'll work on the Autumn Faerie, exclusively. But before I do, just a small Ice Dragon-related vent: Anchor Marlitt discontinued their white floss ... I believe I have enough to complete my dragon ... after all, the chart only called for one skein and I have that. But, come on, people ... who discontinues a WHITE floss??!!?? I could understand an exotic shade of purple or some rarely called for shade of apricot or peach being discontinued ... but WHITE !!??!! What is that all about? When the kind lady at 123stitch informed that #800 was discontinued, I was flabbergasted.

However, the rest of my pitifully small goals list remains neglected: Workbasket's Quaker Sampler, the Jacobean Elegance afghan, my own Fertile Circles needlebook and the Encrusted Crazy Quilt Square. There haven't been any sewing finishes so far this month either and this was supposed to be finish-it February. Things are not looking good for the February goals.

On another note entirely: I broke down and ordered my first chart of the year: Blackbird Designs Wild Lilies, one of the latest Nashville Market offerrings. I will continue to limit myself to five purchases a year [as I have been doing for the past two years] in the hopes of maintaining some control of my stash ... as a result, I am being very selective in my choices. I saw two other maybe/somedays among the Nashville Market designs but only this one definitely makes the cut for now.