Assessing March Goals: Setting April Goals

MARCH GOALS

2010-11 WIPs: Stitch Block 2 of Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie. Block 2 finished 3/28.

2010-2011 WIPs: Stitch four blocks on Jacobean Elegance Afghan. One block finished 3/14.

2012 New Start: Start work on TW's Woodland Angel Stocking for Liam. All I have managed to do is kit this up.

2012 Start: Stitch Halloween themed gift for Jo. Cross stitching finished 3/17.

Class Project Challenge: Resume work on Phyllis Mauer's Japanese Kogin Tea Cozy. Yes, I put in several hours of stitching on this project but am now concerned that the fabric provided by the instructor just isn't large enough for any of my 6 - 8 cup teapots.  I think I may have to stitch the entire ground fabric, then fold it in half and run some zig-zag stitching 1/4" on either side of the center fold as stay stitching and then cut between the zig zag rows, giving me two pieces large enough to work for one of my 4 cup teapots.  Then it will be simply a matter of assembling it with batting and backing fabric and some double fold bias tape.

Sewing and Assembly Finishing: Two pillows. In between the errands and gardening and housekeeping and cooking, that made up my normal Friday routines yesterday, I enjoyed my brand new electronic sewing machine, the Pfaff Ambition 1.50. I have been easing into using it by practicing basic straight and zigzag stitches as I bind the edges of cross-stitch linen and evenweave fabrics for various projects and preparing already-stitched ornaments for assembly. And I have managed a few pillow finishes as well. I am curious though about the specialty stitches that are available but they will have to wait until I have time for a few classes at Creative Sewing.
TSS Scissor Keep Exchange: Design and kit up a keep, buy scissor.   The scissor is on order but I have yet to dig out the magazine that contains the chart I want to use and the materials I need.

Off goal stitching:  Finished Papillion Creation's The Peacock [from WIP List] on March 9.  Stitched another of the lighthouses on Prairie Grove Peddler's Lighthouse Candle Mat [from the WIP List].  At least this month my off-goal projects have all been from the WIP List, instead of new  starts ... I suppose that is a discipline of a sort.  If I keep up this practice, I may actually empty my "current stitching" bag of all partially completed projects.

APRIL GOALS

2010-11 WIPs: Stitch Block 3 of Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie.

2010-2011 WIPs: Stitch four blocks on Jacobean Elegance Afghan.

2012 New Start: Start work on TW's Woodland Angel Stocking for Liam.

2012 Start: Kit up and start the next Town Square SAL ornament: The Primitive Shop.

Class Project Challenge: Finish Phyllis Mauer's Japanese Kogin Tea Cozy.

Sewing and Assembly Finishing: Two pillows.

TSS Scissor Keep Exchange: Stitch scissor keep and fob.

Off goal stitching:   One hopes that there won't be anything in this category by the end of April.  What with the Woodland Angel, The Primitive Shop and the scissor keep for my TSS exchange, my appetite for new starts should have been satisfied.

Thursday's Child Was The Lighthouse Candle Mat

I know I should've been working on my Jacobean Elegance afghan yesterday even though there is little or no possibility that I'll ever catch up to my monthly goal for the piece.  That would involve getting a block and a half done today and tomorrow.  It takes me fairly steady stitching for 10-12 hours to finish each block.  Sure, I am off today and on Saturday, but I do have a few other things to do above and beyond stitching.  Much as I sometimes think I'd like to do so, I can't devote entire days to the sedentary activity of stitching.  Laundry, house-keeping, ironing, gardening, grocery shopping and errand running are all clamoring for my attention this weekend.  My doctor is also doing some rather insistent nagging about getting more exercise.  Yesterday, though, I indulged myself with stitching one of the small lighthouses in Prairie Grove Peddler's Lighthouse Candle Mat and starting another ... these lighthouses work up fairly quickly and travel nicely, an important consideration for the last workday of my week.  In my 90 minutes of early morning stitching I finished the  second lighthouse and a bit of the greenery around it.  My lunchtime stitching saw the finish of the greenery.   And some post-work stitching was enough to get a start on the third lighthouse.  I have to say it is a bit odd to stitch one lighthouse sideways and another upside down - to keep all my crosses going in the same direction -  but it is perfectly doable.  What is really hard to believe is that I have been carrying this piece around in my "current" stitching bage since late June 2011 when I stitched the first lighthouse while vacationing ... and that this is the first time I have gotten back to it!  I'll probably continue to work on this for the remainder of the weekend.  I can't say I'd mind adding one more finish to my pathetically short sidebar list of 2012 Finishes.

Well after a busy morning and afternoon of errand running, banking and grocery shopping, I finally settled down to some stitching at 4:30pm.  I pretty much watched some Cadfael DVDs and stitched on and off [more off than on, if truth be known] till bedtime, with the above result.

Black'd Skie Progress

Block 2 is stitched, with the slight change of substituting my father's last year for the charted 1797 which has little or no significance for me ... though, now that I stop and think, wasn't that the year Pride and Prejudice was published?

Weekend Progress Report: March 25, 2012

And my progress this past week on March goals:

Lori Birmingham's Jacobean Elegance Afghan:  I didn't even manage to start on my fourth block.  I was distracted by my new toy, a Pfaff Ambition 1.50 electronic sewing machine.

Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie: Block 2 is nearly done.  The date I put in the memorial is the year of my Dad's death ... the charted 1797 simply had no particular significance for me.  All I have to do is finish filling in the marble facade of the memorial stone.  I'll post a photo when it is complete.

But don't expect much stitching over the next day or two.  Today, Monday, is a marathon of a 14 hour day.  It started at 7:00am with grocery shopping for the Confirmation Retreat, a quick run at 7:30am to Bagel World for 7 dozen bagels for my Confirmation candidates' breakfast, the actual retreat ran from 8:30am-2:00pm, and will be followed by office work till classes begin at 4:30pm and 7:00pm,  the whole shebang ending at 9:00pm.  The Confirmation Retreat was a kind of mixed bag of wonderful moments and some unexpectedly disappointing behavior on the part of the candidates.  This particular 8th grade class has been one of the better ones in recent years and on the rare occasions when they misbehave it always takes me by surprise.  Of course, I laid on a heavy helping of Catholic guilt ... "I am so disappointed by your uncharacteristic behavior, I have always expected better from this group, this is so unlike you guys, etc., etc."  Now it's a matter of getting through the next few hours ... I need two substitutes for two absent catechists and another for a catechist who will be arriving a half an hour late in the 4:30 session.  The 7:00pm session will also be a challengte with some volunteer catechists simply choosing not to meet deadlines for progress reports.  Some days it's just not worth coming into work!  Tomorrow will be one of my usual 12 hour days.  Wednesday & Thursday will seem like holidays with only 8 hours on the job. 

An Odyssey

This post was actually written yesterday but I was too exhausted too wrestle with the "new" formatting of photos on blogger to post it.  Truth be known, I fell asleep for a very long late afternoon into early evening nap shortly after this was composed.  Anyway, please make all the necessary mental adjustments that this time line requires.

Today starts another of my three day weekends.  Unfortunately, I haven't done any at home stitching Monday through Thursday and it was the at home time that was slated to be about the afghan.  But sinc I worked 11am-9pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I was just too tired and mind-fogged to stitch when I got home.  Thursday was an 11am-7pm day and though that was a bit better, all I wanted to do after making supper was do a page in my NY Times Crossword Puzzle Book and go to sleep.  It's a wildly exciting life I lead, isn't it?  Anyway, the only progress I have made thus far this week has been on my travel piece, Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie, squeezing in about 3/4s of an hour at lunchtime each day.  Here is a photo of my progress thus far. 

And today has been a mad dash around town for various errands.  First to the bank to deposit my March 15 paycheck.  My husband gets exasperated with me when I don't get to the bank in a more timely fashion.  My attitude is, basically, that's it's not like we use my salary for current expenses so where's the rush.  My money goes to paying down principal on the mortgage over and above our regular monthly payment, adding to retirement savings and providing vacations and other luxuries ... in that order.  Then it was on to the jewelry gallery to pick up three murano glass beads to complete my Pandora bracelet that has the astrological signs of self, husband, daughter and two sons as well as selecting a simple cross for the gold chain  my husband gave me for our anniversary.  After that, we headed out to the pen shop where a fountain pen that needed repair was awaiting pick-up.  This shop also has a giftware and jewelry section.  I couldn't resist some lovely green Swvarski crystal earrings that caught my eye while my husband was seeing to his pen.  Then, onward and upward, to Barnes and Noble where I found two Jospeh Campbell titles that have been missing from my library and the latest Laura Childs' tea shoppe mystery ... now there's a mind-boggling stretch!  What can I say ... my tastes and interests are wide-ranging and eclectic, to say the least.  While at B & N I found a charming little display of Beatrix Potter items and what could be better for the grandchildren's Easter mailing than these little lovelies: a classic edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, a boxed doll sized tea set with Beatrix Potter illustrations, a Beatrix Potter lunch box containing a jumbo Potter puzzle, a Beatrix Potter china mug and these two sweet Peter Rabbit totes to carry the items.  So far so good.  Ordinarily, I don't like shopping so when I finally get up the nerve to do some, it becomes something of a marathon.  Well the next stop almost destroyed my will to carry on.  I have been mutterring for some time about the need for a new sewing machine.  Nothing fancy: just something adequate for crafting.  So I figured Sears would be a good place to start.  They had exactly 6 floor models on display ... none of which were plugged in.  Once I flagged down a "blue shirt", I asked where and how I can try out the models.  His stony response, "We do not demonstrate sewing machines."  Okay, my next question was about the return policy.  Obviously if I took it home and didn't like the machine, I'd want to return it.  "Of course you can return it" ... but, get this ... "if the box is unsealed you'll have to pay a 15% restocking fee upon return."  Well, hell, how do you try out a machine that's still sealed in the box?!?  When I commented that Sears could avoid returns in the first place by setting up a demonstration area for the machines, we were back to "We do not demonstrate ..."  I left quietly without buying anything.  But, in my imagination, I stormed out of the store like Malificent in the old Disney Sleeping Beauty film, kicking objects aside and shouting "Fools!   Imbeciles!  Morons!"  I find rerunning that little snippet of film very satisfying whenever life gets in my way ... if only in my innermost thoughts.  I'll never get an ulcer with that kind of release to fall back on.  With the Malificient momentum fueling me on, I proceeded to a wonderful little place called Above and Beyond Creative Sewing.  I spent a very pleasant half hour playing with three Pfaff machines.  I selected one that was almost three times as expensive as the Singer machine I had been considering at Sears.  In addition, I purchased a rolling lime green travel case, extra bobbins, some vanishing ink marking pens all at 10% off since I bought a sewing machine today.  I'll be going back for free lessons and the warranty came with five annual cleaning/servicing coupons.   Sears lost a $400 sale and Creative Sewing gained a $1500 sale and a likely repeat customer for fabrics, notions and future classes.  Who knew anger and disgust with one vendor could be such a marketing tool for another?  I may regret this once the adrenalin ebbs but I doubt it.  I finished off the shopping trek with a stop at the local Orchards to stock up on produce and baked goods and enough root beer flavored candy [licorice, barrels and barley sticks] to keep my charming husband in a blissful sugar-induced high for at least a month.  In all likelihood, this shopping tour has exhausted my meagre shopping mojo for the next six months.  I just may muster up the energy to visit the grocery store and pharmacy but only because their products are absolutely necessary to my continued well-being.  If I could convince them to start up a personal shopping service with home delivery, believe me, I would.

But for the next two days, I am determined to devote what stitching time I have available to the Jacobean Elegance afghan.  The weather has already warmed to the point that having that much afghan draped over my legs is no longer cozy.  But cooler and more seasonable March weather is predicted  for Saturday and Sunday, so I am hopeful that I can really settle into my stitching chair and accomplish a great deal.  I'll post a progress photo at the end of the weekend.

As you can see, I finally gave up wrestling with the picture formatting and just let blogger do what it pleased.  I promise to master this in the future but for now please just deal with the crazy placement which belies bloggers claim that "images will be loaded directly to the insertion point"... yeah, that's tight!

A Different TUSAL Schedule

I know that most people run their TUSAL [Ort Jar] from Jan. 1 - Dec. 31 of any given calendar year.  But, being me, I must do things a bit differently.  Since I save my ORTs to put out as soft nesting materials for the backyard birds I feed year long, it makes more sense to save ORTs from Spring to Spring.  So, today I made a little ceremony of emptying my ORT jar into a shallow planter dish that I left on my patio table for the birds to access ... a short prayer asking St. Francis of Assisi to bless their nests and keep them and their broods safe from the neighborhood cats and hawks and other predators, and the semi-annual sanitizing of the bird feeder and a refilling it with regular songbird seed mixture generously laced with extra sunflower seeds completed the ritual.  Not a bad way to start the day, at all, at all!  So here are a few shots:  the first of the ORT jar filled to brimming with the thread ends from all my projects since last Spring and the second of those same thread ends filling a shallow planter.  I hope the birds find all the colors as attractive as I did and make good use of them.  I find I really enjoy the birdsong each morning and I hope to attract many more birds to my feeder this year by adding a bird bath and perhaps a hummingbird feeder to my patio.  I also want to buy a few more large containers and plant vegetables this year using the old Square Foot gardening method.  I wonder, does anyone else remember that PBS TV series?

Moving Right Along, Not!

I decided that this week I would concentrate on two projects till Friday and my next day off rolls around.  They will be Lori Birmingham's The Jacobean Elegance Afghan on the home front and Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie as my travel piece.  Then on the weekend, I would revert to the afghan alone.  If I am to have the remotest hope of stitching and lining the afghan in time for Christmas giving [to my Mom], I will need to complete another 17 blocks by mid November.  That's a little less than two blocks a month.  Still, I'd like to do a bit better than that since I would also love to stitch and finish Christmas Stockings for my two grandchildren.  A third grandchild will be arriving in late September, but until I know the sex of the new baby I am not even going to consider a stocking for him/her.  Christmas 2013 will be soon enough for the new baby.  So with these three Christmas projects in mind, I need to put on a bit of a push. 

BUT ...  There hasn't been much at home stitching going on so far this week since I have had to work till nine Monday and Tuesday and will do so again today.  All I have managed is a bit of lunchtime stitching on Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie.  I have filled in all the leaves on the tree, put an urn beneath the plant stitched on Sunday and got a start on the grave stone.  There are still two or three birds, a squirrel, a heart, a sun and the rest of the memorial to stitch.  Did I mention that this block is very busy with all sorts of motifs?  And typical of primitive designs the motifs are placed without any reference to reality or common sense: the solar disc and the half moon and the stars are all beneath the tree canopy and there is a heart floating in mid-air.  With all that in mind, here is a progress photo to compare with that of Sunday's post..

Weekend Progress Report: March 18, 2012

This week's progress on March goals:

Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie: I spent the better part of Sunday stitching on this piece, but I am still less than hafway done with block 2.  This is a much more detailed block than the first. 

Lori Birmingham's Jacobean Elegance Afghan: After spending all of this week's home side stitching on this project, I finally finished one more block on Thursday, 3/14.  Three more to do if I am to meet this month's goals which seems unlikely, at best.

Gift stitch:  Stitched on this project on Friday and Saturday.  Finished the cross-stitching on 3/17.  I still have the assembly to do, though.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I thought I'd just show a few of my Irish finishes, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

I believe this is an old Shepherd's Bush Tie Pillow ... but it has been so long since I stitched this up that I can't be quite sure.  I like the colors in this little piece.

This is an old Secret Needle Night piece, finished as a classroom door banner.  It used to have a little clay button of a pot of gold but that poor button has not survived the years of fascinated children touching the piece.  I have come to like it better without the button.  Less cute, more of a classic tailored look.  I took this banner into work on Monday and hung it on my office door for the week. 

And here is a Celtic Heart, which I finished up as a tote and gave to a Welsh stitching buddy.  What can I say, we are all Celts together!  The chart was an old magazine chart and I cannot at this point remember for certain who was the designer.  I am thinking it might have been M Designs but I wouldn't swear to it.  I stitched it with a series of Needle Necessities overdyed cottons in flame colorways.

The bookmark is from a kit, purchased while on vacation in Maine, of all places.  I have fond memories of stitching this up while sitting on the back porch of a cottage perched on rocks overlooking the Atlantic.  It's a pretty piece and is currently keeping my place in George Carlin's Last Words.  Now, there is a truly terrible Irishman: clever, literate, brilliantly funny as so very many Irish-Americans but so embittered and angry it makes one sad to think of him.  My pastor, Msgr. Foley, grew up in the same apartment building, remembers him well and has some very ugly stories to tell of the verbal abuse Carlin sufferred at the hands of his mother.

Next up is a small freebie chart.  Again, I do not trust my memory as to designer and no longer have the chart to refer to.  All I really remember is that arrived with an order from The Silver Needle.  But I like this little finish.  Fringed pillows are such easy, no fuss, no muss kind of finishes.  No searching for matching trims or embellishments.  Just utter simplicity: both chart and finish.

The last is my version of a Log Cabin Pillow finish using one of Heart in Hand's Tall Bird charts as the centerpiece.  I have a few of these charts for various seasons.  I can't quite explain why they appeal to me: just that they do.

So there you have it, my stitching tribute to the maternal side of my ethnic heritage.  I must confess, when it comes to the culinary tributes, I much prefer the paternal ethnicity, Sicilian.  I'll be eating a luscious, cannoli cream filled St. Joseph's Day pastry on March 19 and skipping the fatty, gassy corned beef and cabbage on March 17th, thank you very much!

Thursday's Here, Thank the Lord!

Thursday is the end of my work week: normally I put in two 12 hour days [Mon. & Tues.] and two 8 hour days [Wed. & Thurs.].  But this week has been a bit different since I had a catechist meeting to run on Wednesday night and a catechist formation class on Lesson Planning to teach on Thursday night, turning my two 8 hour days into 10 or 11 hour days.  Happily, there are no additional duties this weekend adding to the tally.  So, three glorious days all to myself.  Maybe I'll get that sewing machine, finally.  I'll try to squeeze in a visit to my mother, some gardening, loads of laundry and some cursory house-keeping.  And on the stitching front,  I did finish my third block on the afghan.  I am going to wait to photograph it again till I can get my husband to stand holding it up.  That way I'll be able to show the whole afghan rather than a block at a time.  I also got a bit more done on my gift stitch this morning.  So, of course, there'll be no photo of that till it is finished, sent and received.  As for my three days off, I'll try to finish up my gift stitch and another block on the afghan.  March seems to be slipping away just as quickly as February did and I am not at all certain I shall be able to meet all my goals this month.  But I will give it my best shot.