Stitching Status - Jan 2008

The last couple of years, there has been a dearth of stitching. I mean ONE finished project (Hi, Damaris) in TWO years!!! That's just not going to cut it given the size of my stitching stash LOL. On the other hand, I don't want to short my knitting time.

I did pretty well with only having one knitting project plus a car project OTN at one time this year. So that will continue. I reserve the right to add another project when I'm working on great big lace - the Sharon Miller shawls for example, and tablecloths (the Rose of England is on my wish list). A few pairs of socks interposed into the acres of lace may be all that keeps me sane LOL.

I'm going to try to put in 45 min or so a day (and an hour a day on the weekends) on the stitching projects. That shouldn't cut into my knitting time a whole lot, but will give me about 25 15 min blocks of time a week. Why 15 min blocks? That's about how long I can stitch before my hands and back protest and I need to stop and stretch.

I'm going back to my rotation of one historic, one modern, one pictorial. I'm also going to try to whittle down the 'unframed and unfinished' pile by picking out one of those each time through the rotation list and getting it DONE done. Five hours per project will make a good stitching month. I've set up a little xcel sheet to help me track my progress.

This is the rotation I'm starting out with. You've seen a couple of these before

MODERN

This is "Letter 'K'" by M Designs (link to their website in the sidebar). This is the over one piece that I've been working on for a while. I should finish this one either this month or next and will finish it as a doorhanger.

PICTORIAL

You've seen this one too. JC's USMC seal by Just Cross Stitch (see the chart picture in the sidebar link). I'm fast approaching the point where I have to figure out what to do about the lettering. I really don't like the way the designer just used very long floats to put the lettering in. I want to do it over one, but that means recharting the whole area - ouch.

HISTORIC

Since I just finished a big historic piece a couple of days ago, I pulled out a little freebie that I had started. This bookmark is from Prairie Schooler - a semi-local company that is nationally known (this is so old that the free chart is down off their website, but I provided a link to them just because their other freebies are also good). The fun thing about this one is that I'm doing it in 7 step marking cross, so it should be very close to reversible!

I'm going to put up this progress report around the first of each month. Just to keep myself honest and to show you all why I'm not churning out a hat or a sock a week this year!