I should be working on my BAPs, especially the TW Woodland Angel Christmas Stocking. But during the power outage caused by Sandy I got side-tracked to smalls on 28 ct linen that were easier to see when working with the light from a window on overcast days. My stitching in the immediate aftermath of Sandy and before the lights came on again yielded two small finishes. But I continued to stitch smalls all last week, adding three more finishes to the count. And now, a full week after the adjustment became unnecessary, I am still in my own little wilderness of smalls. I just keep pulling them out of my to-do binder, kitting them up with odds and ends of left-over fabric and fiber [I feel so righteously frugal!] and stitching them up. The thing is, I don't really want to stop. I have had enough of BAPs for the time being. Bring on the endless smalls! It has gotten so obsessive that I am going to have to stage a Finishing Frenzy next weekend making ornaments, gift totes and pin-pillows just to avoid drowning in all the smalls that have reached the stage of "some assembly required."
I think that as I near the end of a year devoted primarily to BAPs and complicated class projects, I am rebelling against commitment of any sort and reveling in the joys of lots and lots and lots of small finishes. I am enjoying the novelty of a new start every three days. Since Sunday, I have finished the Midnight Serenade that I had been working on and have begun Dragon Dreams' Compassion Dragon 2011. I will surround the finished piece with the words from the hymn of St. Francis, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." I have adapted this dragon chart to employ a pink colorway rather than a red one, replacing two of the reds with pink shades, making it a very pink dragon, indeed. It will make a nice Christmas gift tote for my pink fixated granddaughter. And I have pulled my favorite cardinal Christmas ornament out of the binder and rummaged for appropriate scraps of wine red linen and a skein or two of deep charcoal grey DMC 3799. Even stitching these twice over, as a back and front, I have enough linen for two more ornaments. And I have another cardinal ornament chart I'd like to try: a small suggestion of a cardinal set within a snowflake. Then there are two more Town Square shops: The Frame Shop and the Cross Stitch Shop. I have had to set aside the DMC Fiber Shop till later. After a closer look, I realized it is meant to be stitched over one on 40 ct and I haven't any 40 ct linen in a medium blue shade which is the background color I am using to unify this series. I'll have to wait till I am near the end of the series and see how many others require the 40 ct linen. So far it is just the Prison and DMC shop, but I haven't really examined all the remaining charts that carefully.
And I am still culling my binders for a few more smalls to play with for the rest of the month. What began as a pragmatic diversion from my goal plan morphed into an enthusiastic pursuit which slyly edged its way toward obsession and now is galloping madly toward addiction! I'll post pictures again shortly, once I have finished stitching the dragon. It tends to look like just so many punk blobs without the backstitching.
I think that as I near the end of a year devoted primarily to BAPs and complicated class projects, I am rebelling against commitment of any sort and reveling in the joys of lots and lots and lots of small finishes. I am enjoying the novelty of a new start every three days. Since Sunday, I have finished the Midnight Serenade that I had been working on and have begun Dragon Dreams' Compassion Dragon 2011. I will surround the finished piece with the words from the hymn of St. Francis, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." I have adapted this dragon chart to employ a pink colorway rather than a red one, replacing two of the reds with pink shades, making it a very pink dragon, indeed. It will make a nice Christmas gift tote for my pink fixated granddaughter. And I have pulled my favorite cardinal Christmas ornament out of the binder and rummaged for appropriate scraps of wine red linen and a skein or two of deep charcoal grey DMC 3799. Even stitching these twice over, as a back and front, I have enough linen for two more ornaments. And I have another cardinal ornament chart I'd like to try: a small suggestion of a cardinal set within a snowflake. Then there are two more Town Square shops: The Frame Shop and the Cross Stitch Shop. I have had to set aside the DMC Fiber Shop till later. After a closer look, I realized it is meant to be stitched over one on 40 ct and I haven't any 40 ct linen in a medium blue shade which is the background color I am using to unify this series. I'll have to wait till I am near the end of the series and see how many others require the 40 ct linen. So far it is just the Prison and DMC shop, but I haven't really examined all the remaining charts that carefully.
And I am still culling my binders for a few more smalls to play with for the rest of the month. What began as a pragmatic diversion from my goal plan morphed into an enthusiastic pursuit which slyly edged its way toward obsession and now is galloping madly toward addiction! I'll post pictures again shortly, once I have finished stitching the dragon. It tends to look like just so many punk blobs without the backstitching.
1 comment:
Hooray! I never enjoy myself more than when I am stitching without obligation!
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