Weekend Progress Report: March 20, 2011

Another crazy weekend. Saturday's schedule: the last Whole Community Catechesis event on Bullying during regularly scheduled class time, another First Confession prep lesson for the one-on-one Special Needs class, another 7th grade weekend seminar session [3 hours] for nine students, and a final consult about weekend use of the auditorium by five different groups involving the logistics of changing all floor plans. Sunday's schedule: 11:30 Mass, a bit of last minute office work preppng for the Confirmation retreats, and the last session of the 7th grade weekend seminars. And finally home to meet the husband and head out to dinner with two of my children who are meeting us at our favorite sushi restaurant, shopping for the Confirmation Retreat and returning to the school building to check up on the set-up at 7:00pm. Monday and Tuesday are each going to be days that start at 7:30am and go non-stop through to 9:00pm. I am seriously considering taking Wednesday off as comp time ... but it all depends on how much office work piles up while I am attending to the Confirmation retreats. The mantra I keep repeating to myself is "Easter break is coming. Easter break is coming." Ten whole days to catch up with my housework, my garden and my home-improvement projects ... and perhaps some stitching.

Crazy January Challenge: Dragon Dreams' The Ice Dragon's Kingdom: I got a bit more of the half-stitching in the background done. Once that is complete, only the corner motifs with beading remain. It was not enough progress to warrant a photo. I'll post a snap once I have a finish and once the weather turns sunny again. I'd like to take this finish photo in natural light in an attempt to do justice to all the subtle variations of color and texture. I hope to be working on my CJC Day 3 project by Wednesday: Homespun Elegance's The Stitcher.

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."

Monday, Monday

This is going to be another busy week with two more Whole Community Catechesis Events, another 7th Grade Weekend Workshop, and a Catechist Meeting in addition to the regular schedule of classes. Next week will be just as frantic with two Confirmation Retreats and 7th grade quarter finals in addition to the regular classes. But today, thanks be to God, starts slowly. Since I work until 9:00pm today, I don't have to be at my desk until 1:00pm. I have spent the morning unloading and rreloading the dishwasher, generally straightening the kitchen and catching up on the laundry [4 loads]. However, laundry is not a continuous job like it was in my grandmother's day. So, in between the sorting, loading, drying and folding I have found some time for stitching again. Albeit not much time, but it is nice to take needle in hand again and get back to The Ice Dragon's Kingdom.

Here is a photo of the small progress I have made this morning. I have begun to fill in the right wing. My apologies for the less than wonderful photo. I didn't have time to press the piece before photographing it. And until I do the backstitching it is hard to see the #32 VFB that fills the wing ... it does seem to fade into the fabric. I hope to show you a much better photo by mid-week: the whole wing finished and the rest of the dragon back-stitched!!!

Weekend Progress Report: March 13, 2011

I haven't stitched at all for three days ... most unusual for me ... nor is it likely I shall stitch at all today. Exhaustion kept me abed till 10:45am DST, I need to get to the 11:30 Mass and then I'll be teaching a 7th grade weekend workshop from 1:00-4:00pm, followed by dinner with husband, son and daughter at a local sushi restaurant, followed by total collapse once home. And it all start over again tomorrow: another 6 day work week. I am too old for this!

It's been a very busy week ... lots of special events at work, lots more time in the office and lots less time at home stitching ... so progress has been minimal at best. To further complicate matters, I seem to have found reading more relaxing in what little down time I have had this week. I have been re-reading the Brother Caedfel mysteries ... and am up to #20, Brother Caedfel's Penance, this week. It seems appropriate reading for early Lent [as much as any fictional book can be] since it deals with the issue of living one's vocation in the real world and the many challenges one faces in reconciling conscience and practice as well as resolving the conflicting calls of spirit and natural affection. And, hey, there's even a murder and a civil war and a captive languishing in a dungeon to keep the ghoulish and very secular part of my nature satisfied. Ellis Peters does a good job with the psychology of the crimes and manages to show respect and genuine understanding for the monastic vocation ... something relatively rare in recent times when authors try to outdo one another in their fierce attacks on anything Christian, but particularly on anything Roman Catholic. The novels combine English history, suspense, well wrought characters and an honest understanding of Church in the High Middle Ages ... what could be better? Besides, I can't seem to read the novels without seeing and hearing Derek Jacobi with my mind's eye and ear. My fondness for the actor makes this an added bonus!

A New Home for the Ort Jar

Ultimately, there were eight contestants for this little piece. I used the randomizer to select a number between one and eight and came up with this winner: #1, rspory. Since Rachel and I have met and corresponded before, I do have her address and may actually be able to get this off in the mail in a day or two.

I want to thank all who entered this contest ... I loved reading your comments.

Weekend Progress Report: March 6, 2011

I am posting this two days later than usual ... I had a very long weekend. In addition to the usual Saturday morning classes, I taught a 7th grade mini-course for three hours on Saturday and another three hours on Sunday ... spending 6 hours in one weekend with five 7th grade boys is many things ... but relaxing is not one of them. I also had to lector at Mass on Sunday and help out with the hospitality after the 9:30 Mass ... so when I finally, got home at about 5pm Sunday all I was in the mood for was a glass of wine, a bit of a meal and an early bedtime. The scary thing is I have to teach two more mini-courses over the next two weeks but at least there will be a blend of boys and girls in the next lot. Girls tend to be a little easier to deal with.

Last week, Monday's news of the death of Lisa Roswell, the designer who was the creative spirit behind The Primitive Needle, began the week on a very somber note. Oddly, many of her designs had to do with death: tombstone angels and epitaphs, a catalog of the Salem Witch Trial victims, and similar thematic material. One has to assume she had thought much about death [she was, after all, an RN working in a cancer treatment facility] and had come to terms with it as an abstract concept. At 51, she probably would not have thought to confront death as an immediate and personal and concrete concept ... at least, not in the ordinary course of events. But we are reminded that the ordinary course of events is a fantasy with which we all console ourselves in the face of uncertainty. This is not a predictable universe in which we live. Reminders of mortality, like Lisa Roswell's tombstone charts, are everywhere if we but open our eyes.

The loss of such creativity diminishes us all, but her work does remain: memory made tangible. I doubt that is much consolation to her family at this stage but perhaps, at some later time, they may take comfort in the knowledge that many stitchers continue to bring Lisa Roswell's vision into being with needle, floss and linen.

The Primitive Needle's The Black'd Skie is the Day 15 project of my Crazy January Challenge ... though in light of recent events I may decide to move it into my stitching rotation a wee bit earlier than that ... as a personal reminder to pray for her family as they struggle with their grief.

For the moment, though, I have concentrated on this piece during the past week:

Dragon Dream's The Ice Dragon's Kingdom. The needed flosses finally arrived so I have been able to stitch more of the dragon and backstitch more of the outline. The Ice Dragon no longer fades into the background but is beginning to stand out a bit. I decided to finish stitching the trees first. I wanted nice easy-to-handle DMC instead of specialty threads since the last few days have left me a bit weary. Even so, it seems there is some frogging in my future. I'll be moving onto the wings when I am ready to tackle some frogging and recounting since I can see that the wings are not meeting up with the tree branches as planned. Still, I continue to be optimistic about finishing this second Crazy January Challenge piece and starting on the third sometime before the end of the month.

After I get all the Crazy Challenge stuff taken care of, I am going to pull out Dragon Dreams' Dragon of the Winter Moon and Dragon of the Summer Sky, to complete my quartet. I stitched Storm Bringer many years ago. When I finally have a craft room, one wall in it will be designated as the Dragon Wall since I have many, many dragons stitched from a variety of designers: Teresa Wentzler, Vickey Mackey, Cross-Eyed Kat and others.

Ort Jar: I did stitch the cording onto the ort jar I am using for my March Giveaway but I confess to being slightly wounded ... a little after lunchtime on the 4th I checked to see how many folks had signed up to participate in the giveaway ... with 78 page views noted for the day there were still only 2 people who wanted the giveaway enough to comment. And I thought the thing was such a cute stitching accessory. It just goes to show that I am way out of step with mainstream stitchers ... either that or folks are not all that impressed with my little offering. I bet if I had offered the fat quarter of St. Patrick's Day material [which had been my other thought] there would have been more takers ... or maybe not. I have noted in the past that I am not all that good at gauging which of my giveaways will be popular and which will not ... those that I think will be quite popular tend to bomb and those that I figure won't be all that attractive seem to take off into the stratosphere. I am so clueless! Since that first day, a few more folk have signed on for a chance at the Ort Jar ... so I am feeling a little less wounded.

March Giveaway

I reached my 100th follower on January 4 [after I had already posted a chart giveaway], but since I stage my giveaways on the 4th of every month and 2/4/11 was devoted to celebrating my 500th post, the celebration of the 100th follower was deferred to March. At this time, I actually have 110 followers. I thought it would be nice to do something different, something more personal. So I prepared an ort jar with a lid stitched in a nice multicolored floss.

If you wish to enter your name for this giveaway, the following conditions will apply:
-- open to all stitchers

-- leave a comment below as to why you are interested in the giveaway
-- include an e-mail address in your post if clicking on your name will not lead me to an e-mail link
-- a winner will be selected on the 10th of the month and informed by e-mail


Good luck to all who enter.

Why?

Why does one project capture the imagination to the point that one simply can't put it down and another project doesn't, even though the second project is equally beautiful if not actually more so?

My obssesion with the Ice Dragon continues, with this result. The flosses needed to finish the dragon's body arrived in the mail on Tuesday. But as I get home from work at 9pm on Tuesday, I had to wait till Wednesday to put them to good use. I see a finish in my not-too-distant future!

There has also been some small progress on The Autumn Faerie. When last seen, the faerie looked like this. It is very difficult to find the exact spots on the chart to reference to fill in in the empty spaces in the full wing ... lots of counting and recounting ... and then pouring over the full page of symbols to find the right floss or combination of flosses ... it takes confetti stitching to the nth degree. It is somewhat easier to stitch the other, partially hidden wing. But my goal is to have section I complete by the end of the week, so both wings need to be worked on. Since I stitched the border first, parts of Section II, III and IV are already completed. Section II is not quite as densely charted as Section I ... considerably more white space in the design. And Sections III and IV each cover only a third as much chart as Sections I and II. So once Section I is completely stitched, I'll feel like I'll have gotten over the biggest hurdle for this project. I am hoping that will give me the momentum I need to finish this piece. As long as I seem to be in the one-project-at-a-time zone, I may as well go for another big finish! Here is another photo, with the progress made over the past few days. The casual observer may not discern much progress, but I assure you hours have been spent on this project between the first and second photos. Anyone who has ever stitched a large Teresa Wentzler piece will know exactly what I am talking about!!!

I am hoping to transfer the narrow focus that has characterized my stitching on the Ice Dragon to The Autumn Faerie. The Faerie is a three year WIP and long overdue for a finish. The Ice Dragon, on the other hand, will have been a WIP for just a little over a month before becoming a finish. Go figure!!!

Loss

A few years ago, I discovered Lisa Roswell of The Primitive Needle and promptly began purchasing and stitching her designs. I had read a charming article about her work in a Just Cross Stitch issue and was intrigued by her vision.

Today, I read that she died ... victim of the flooding rivers fed by snowmelt in northwestern Ohio ... her car washed from the road. I read in her bio on her website that she was an RN ... so death was no stranger to her. It was clearly a topic on which she had thought much ... as evidenced by the many tombstone angels and epitaphs in her designs. I can only hope her own death was serene and peaceful, though I know nothing of the physiology of drowning.

My prayers are now for her family and friends. As to the stitching community, we have lost a bright light in the design firmament, a comet that flashed briefly across The Black'd Skie.

Assessing February Progress, Setting March Goals

I am starting with a photo of the Ort Jar ... lots of blues, whites and pale greys/silvers ... all the icy colors of The Ice Dragon's Kingdom which dominated my stitching in February.

FEBRUARY GOALS:
BAP: Continue work on TW's Autumn Faerie: worked on this only one day, Feb. 28. Not a lot of progress but just enough to qualify as a goal met.
Crazy January Challenge: continue working on the 15 projects in chronological order, insofar as the back-ordered floss problem permits. DONE. Completed Day 1 project [Sue Hillis's Cookie Santa] on 2/3 and nearly finished the Day 2 project [Dragon Dreams' The Ice Dragon's Kingdom]
Sewing/Finishing: Get as close to the bottom of the finishing basket as possible. Nothing.
Surface Embroidery: work several hours a week on Encrusted Crazy Quilt Block. Nothing.
WIPs &UFOs from 2010: Continue work on Workbasket's Quaker Sampler, the Jacobean Elegance afghan, the Fertile Circles Needlebook and the Beach Find Pansies panel. Nothing.

Another of the reasons that I didn't get to any of my 2010 WIPs this past weekend was that I was indulging in one of my other pastimes, reading. J.D. Robb's latest entry in her ...In Death series hit the bookstores last Tuesday. I ordered Treachery In Death directly from the B&N website since it saved me approx $13 over buying in the store. It arrived on Thursday. So this weekend, several hours normally devoted to stitching were diverted to reading.

MARCH GOALS:

BAP: Continue work on TW's Autumn Faerie

Crazy January Challenge: Complete the Day 2 and Day 3 projects [Dragon Dream's The Ice Dragon's Kingdom and Homespun Elegance's The Stitcher respectively]

Sewing/Finishing: Get as close to the bottom of the finishing basket as possible.
Surface Embroidery: work two hours a week on Encrusted Crazy Quilt Block project.
WIPs & UFOs from 2010: Continue work on Workbasket's Quaker Sampler, the Jacobean Elegance afghan, the Fertile Circles Needlebook and the Beach Find Pansies panel.