Going round in circles . . .

I have terminal Stitcher's ADD.  No sooner do I start on something than something else just as pretty/challenging/elegant/lovely flies into my radar and I have to stick a needle in it.

And this creates problems.  Like about 487 UFO's (the number is fictitious but wouldn't surprise me.  I'm afraid to count.)

I was pondering this dilemma in the middle of the night, when I ponder all dilemmas.  Thank goodness this is the only dilemma I currently have to ponder, but it is a dilemma.  I'm getting a little nervous about standing in the room on the first floor under the room on the second floor where my stash lives. I'm a skein of floss away from the floor up there collapsing, I'm afraid.

This summer has been a case in point.  Suddenly, there were a LOT of SAL's, online classes, cyberclasses, and just neat stuff that called my name.  For awhile, there was a package of stitching loveliness appearing on my doorstep every week.  Dearly Beloved was starting to look askance.  And this is even when I let a couple of offers lapse--I'm still kicking myself for not signing up for Dorothy Lesher's Gift of the Magi at Shining Needles.

Now I am organized and efficient in my work life.  I was organized and efficient in my student life.  It seems only in my stitching life that I can't focus.

I'll take that back.  If I'm stitching a pilot, I treat it like a job.  With organization and efficiency.

So, all this pondering has led to a decision.  I am going to try a rotation system, sort of.

Back in the olden days, in one of the early newsgroups devoted to needlework, someone came up with a rotation system.  Pick out ten projects in varying stages of completion, work on each for 10 hours, then rotate to something else.  I tried it for awhile but it felt too inflexible and you "should" keep track of your time.  Too much bookkeeping for something that is supposed to be a joy.

So . . .I'm trying my own version.  I'm calling it the group system.  I'm clumping a batch of projects together and I'll work on them during the next few months.  All of them are parts of online classes or SAL's of some sort or another, so they have lessons or class assignments that will come at regular intervals.  Some have been going on for awhile, so I'm playing catch-up on a couple of things. But we'll see how this works.

There will be updates.  And hopefully switching from one to another will ward off Stitcher's ADD for awhile.

The projects are:

Ann Wheatley, SAL from The Attic.  I'm a little behind on this but should be caught up by the end of August.

Rebecah French, online class from The Essamplaire.  I am almost ready for Lesson Two, which was posted today.

Journey, ANG cyberclass from David McCaskill.  I'm two months or so behind on this.  Originally it was going into the "I-love-this-but-not-quite-ready-to-start-on-it-yet" pile but there have been a couple of very minor problems with the instructions and I'm afraid I won't remember to print out the changes and then will be grumpy at some undetermined time in the future when I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do.

Bluebird Needlecase from Shining Needles, taught by Marsha Papay-Gomulla.  Very sweet and has a bit of stumpwork, which of one of those areas in needlework I really want to explore more.

Dresden Lace GCC from EGA, project my chapter is working on.

Nantucket 1800's House Workbox from The Binding Stitch.  One of my goals for this year has been to get over Fear of Finishing--and I love the scene, both on the top of the box and on the inside.

St. Margaret's Star, another Shining Needles project taught by Carole Lake and Michael Boren.  I love the design and I love, even more, the fact that a portion of the fee for each kit goes to a charity.  I am on schedule with this one.

So this is the first group.  If I stay focused, I should have about half a dozen finishes by the end of October.

(Of course, we are in the honeymoon stage on all these projects at the moment.  The linens and canvases are all neat and taut on their respective frames, the threads are nicely arranged in their floss-away bags on their rings, the directions are still unwrinkled and crisp.  We'll see how these relationships hold up as things start to sag and bag and crumple. )

Ann

We're experimenting with pictures . . .

Technical assistance is home for a bit more, so we're attempting to add pictures to this lovely blog--which would be ever so much more interesting with visuals.

So, let's see what this does:

Woo Hoo--I have a picture!!

(Now I need to see if I can do this again . . .)

OK, I just successfully added two pictures.  I am exhausted.

(The one at the top is Gay Ann Rogers' Margaret Rose.  The one below is Sherri Jones' Blue Ribbon Sewing Box.  Both are among my absolute favorite things I've stitched.)

I distinctly remember . . .

I have been stitching away on a pilot piece for Gay Ann Rogers.  I pilot stitch a fair number of her designs and I am very happy to add this one to my Christmas decorations, but . . .

I distinctly remember receiving the envelope with the bead packet in it.

I distinctly remember opening the envelope.

I distinctly remember taking the bead packet out.

I distinctly remember deciding NOT to open the bead packet in case I misplaced one of the little envelopes of beads within the bead packet.

I distinctly remember putting the bead packet BACK into the envelope.

I do not, distinctly or otherwise, remember WHAT I did with the envelope.

So, today will be a search and destroy mission until I locate the envelope.

(I do know where it is NOT.  It is not with the instructions, the canvas, or the thread ring.  It is NOT in my major stitching bag, my traveling stitching bag, my chairside stitching basket, or either of the two tables near my stitching chair.  It is NOT under said stitching chair.  It is NOT under the seat cushion in said stitching chair.  In short, it is NOT anywhere it SHOULD be.)

Ann

Technology is my friend . . .

Technology is my friend, technology is my friend, technology is my friend. . .

Maybe if I say it enough, I'll believe it.

I embroider.  I like to embroider.  I like the rhythm, the pace.  I like to embroider.  A lot.  There are times I think I may have fallen into the 17th century (with side trips into the 18th and 19th), and I can't get out.  The main things I like about living when I do are modern plumbing, modern medicine, and the modern idea that people may not be discriminated against on the basis of race, creed, or gender.

I've resisted a blog for awhile, because it involves technology.  I remember when computers took up whole rooms and were programmed (somehow) by the use of cards that were punched with arcane symbols and one punch when you didn't mean it meant the whole program failed.  I still require tech support (aka daughter) for most anything that involves the computer.  The IT folks at work think I'm a total moron when it comes to my simple little laptop.

But here I am.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get a picture on this silly thing, and personalize it, and make it a place you'd like to visit.  Bear with me.  It will happen.  Eventually.  Meanwhile, I think I'll go embroider.

Ann