Friday, March 18, 2011

Cleared for take-off

I am just finishing up a month of 6 day, 50 hour work weeks. The result is that I haven't had much time for stitching so far in March. My last day-off, Friday the 11th, was consumed with banking, grocery shopping, errand running, a brief visit with my youngest son and reading. I find reading more relaxing than stitching during really stress filled weeks. Still, I have managed to get a wee bit of stitching done in the past few days.



The dragon takes flight! I have finished stitching the body, have worked the second wing and am now working on the background. I made a few changes to the right wing, though. It was charted as having a center patch made up of doubled over blending filament in the same colors as the #4VFB used for the scales, tail and claws. Now, I can always find a use for VFB but rarely use blending filament anymore. So, I saw absolutlely no reason to buy a spool of blending filament that I would use for a mere 40 stitches. Instead, I just filled in the area with the VFB. I wasn't sure that I would enjoy using the recommended half stitches for much of the background but I have decided that I rather like the effect ... not my usual take on half stitches ... but somehow, it looks right on this piece. I can sense another Crazy January Challenge finish coming soon. Which is good since I am beginning to get a bit of an inferiority complex about the few CJC finishes I have had thus far compared with my blogging buddies. However, I tell myself that, having chosen large and complex projects as opposed to smalls for 11 out of 15 of my challenge pieces, I have given myself a genuine challenge. I haven't stacked the deck in my own favor. Does that sound like an arrogant bit of self-justification from an A-type person who just can't stand to lose any sort of a competition or lag behind in any sort of race? Well, as the Ancients say, "Know thyself" and "To thine own self be true."

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

I know exactly how you feel about working all those extra hours. I'm going on week 9 of 50+ hours a week and I've got a few more to go. Just hang in there!

As for your CJC, don't worry.....you have a nine and a half more months to finish everything. You shouldn't feel bad about being behind when you are working so much. In fact, I just now finished my first CJC piece yesterday!

SnowySticher said...

your piece is beautiful

Vicky said...

The dragon is coming along great :)

Blu said...

Gorgeous stitching!

And as for choosing large projects: I've been told that when you say something, it's arrogance if you can't actually do it and confidence if you can. And considering that you've got the rest of the year and the rate you're stitching at, I say go ahead and feel confident!

Carol said...

For having to work so many extra hours, your piece is coming along very nicely!! Hang in there--it's going to be beautiful :)