Not the best week, but...

Stitch-wise, it wasn't a bad week, it was just the rest of the world that fell apart, but more on that later. I did actually progress with The Bride Doll Making (I really need to make sure I do that title right, half the time I say "Dollmaker" which is the artist's name, but you guys know what I mean). I left off last time here:

I worked on her for three days, although each day I did less and less. I got another 1566 stitches in an additional 9.02 hrs, for a total of 47,583/107,269 stitches, which is 44.36% and a total of 248.63 hrs.

I moved on to a new start, the 40 year-old kit, The English Garden. I remember why I never started it (I was scared of the 18ct fabric, which is hilarious now), but I don't remember why I purchased it in the first place because it's not my style. Maybe it was a gift? I really don't remember, but here is what it will look like:

I had replaced the fabric with another 18ct but, my goodness, is the new fabric stiff! Since the threads aren't labeled with their DMC numbers, I'm a bit SOL on those if I run out (other than just trying to color match them). I also can't give you a total percentage or how many stitches I have left. Since it was from a kit, and the pattern was one long sheet of pattern (and not the only of my new starts that is that way), I can't trust that Markup-RXP has the correct number of stitches total. I'll know if Markup-RXP got it right or not by the end of the project. So, I'm going to do this one like so: I did 3466 stitches in two days and in a total of 16.18 hrs.

It was weird working on a kit again, but I'm glad there were no half or quarter stitches. There will be some backstitching, but not a lot, so I'm not worried about it.

On Sunday, I started another new start, Strangely Lonely, artist Jasmine Becket Griffith and charted by HAED.

This is my absolute favorite piece of artwork by JBG, probably because I feel a kinship to this picture. But stitching it started out rough. Firstly, I got about 350 stitches in and realized I hadn't gridded it properly. I took the total measurements, split them in half in both directions, found the middle of the fabric, and counted away. I wasn't considering the fact that the first page would start at the beginning of a 10 block and not in the middle.

It took way longer to frog the stitches than it did to; a) stitch it originally and b) restitch it. Numerous times I almost just stopped altogether. The culmination of everything else from the week was really dragging me down, but I continued on. I got 1159/273,150 stitches done, which is 0.42% and I put in 6.35 hrs (I did keep the first stitching time included in that, but not the frogging). Here is where I stopped last night:

I'm not sure what will happen this week stitch-wise. Strangely Lonely is in a weird place, so I'm not feeling it, but I know I will eventually if I get through this rough patch.

On the home front, the boys went to the vet for their 6 month check-up and shots on Thursday. The news wasn't great (to say the least). Bug needs his teeth cleaned (which isn't cheap), but he's only 11 so it can still be done. Bam's can't be cleaned because he's 15, and they desperately need to be cleaned. Bam, my beautiful baby boy...his heart murmur is starting to affect his kidneys and liver and his counts were elevated. They put him on the medicine that Zander was on for years, so we'll see how it goes. Back in the day, they also told me that Zander didn't have long to live when he was 5 and he lived to 11, but with Bam being 15, they told me to "prepare myself" (although I'm trying to stay positive). Plus, Zander was sick his whole life and Bam never really has been other than being blind now. Bam also has a knee that sounds like one of mine, all gravel, which explains why he's been walking like a car drifting on sand. To make it all worse, their bill (not including the future teeth cleaning) was almost $1000 for 15 minutes worth of interaction on a 9lb and 17lb pup? Really? Bam was a bit put out by the time we got home, and me hovering over him didn't help. He got so aggrevated, he wouldn't sit in my lap, he sat in his bed, but he did stare at the chair, even when I wasn't in it and I could tell he wanted up. Stubborness is a trait that runs in our family though, so he camped in the bed all weekend!

And, if that wasn't enough, I've been having issues with the skirting around my trailer since we have high winds almost constantly now, so, once we got home from the vet, I was checking it and found something really disturbing.

I'm pretty sure it's been almost a year since I looked at that spot, but I don't remember any burn marks (and I think I would had the same reaction I had this time had I saw it before). Also, considering this is also about one foot from the incoming natural gas pipe, I wasn't feeling too good about it. So, Thursday night, I barely slept at all and I called my electrician first thing. He wasn't going to come out because he said it wasn't anything he recognized as electrical and I needed to talk to the trailer park people and find out what that was. I let work know I would be late and they just told me to take a vacation day (which I'm glad I agreed, I needed it). Once the trailer park maintenance came out, he said it was an old cable box that wasn't connected anymore and the burn marks looked old and were probably burned into the pipe piece before they placed it there to make a dent for the box. I wasn't happy with that answer, but what could I do? I had two separate "specialists" telling me it was nothing and the burn mark does look old.

But I also had a long discussion with the park people about getting my skirting replaced and potentially my deck (depending on how much the skirting costs). My deck is about like a surfboard now, you never know if it's just going to slide and collapse on itself with every step on it.

There are a lot of repairs that need to be done on that trailer, but I really don't want to invest the money in it, especially when the park owner (who lives in Texas) could sell it to a developer at any time and then we'll all be homeless (the entire neighborhood now is nothing but cookie cutter subdivisions). I was told when we moved my trailer here (almost 30 years ago now), that it wouldn't survive another move. And land here is so expensive (and exclusive as to where trailers can even go), I would be out of luck even if I could move it. But there is no way I could afford a house now, even if I had to move, so I just sit and wait for doomsday. But I figure if I keep the outside looking good, maybe they will leave me alone for now. They don't need to know what the inside looks like, right? If I'm about to get swamped with vet bills, the house can wait.

I kept waiting for that third terrible thing to happen (bad things come in threes), but it hasn't happened yet, so I'm on hyper-alert waiting for #3, because it's coming. Here's hoping that it's only two bad things, for the first time ever in my life!

Weekly Update-Slow Stitch Week

I'm not sure if I just wasn't feeling it, or because I was setting up for the new starts, but I had very little stitch progress this week, really only stitching on Saturday and Sunday, and even Sunday was a bit of a bust. I didn't touch Everest at all. I'm not sure why. But I did move on to Happy Haunts by Neni Designs (and I'm not that's still even her store name anymore, she changes it like every five minutes). This has always been one of my least favorites and now, I'm not sure why. I did OK on it this weekend, all things considered. I did have to reload it in Markup-RXP, again, not sure why I didn't do it right the first time, but a lot of symbols and colors were missing. Then, I had to remark off all the progress so far.

This was a project I haven't touched since 12-31-2023, again, probably because I hated it. The colored patterns are just too hard to work from and I really don't like 18ct Aida anymore. I really should have done this on 28ct, but I think my logic was the design is a bit pixelated, it needed to stay that way, so it was better on a bigger fabric (or at least that's all I can come up with for my 2017 brain). I had previously stopped at 28,862/62775 stitches which was 45.98% and 165.03 hrs.

This weekend, I made it up to 30,813/62775 (another 1951 stitches) or 49.08% and 177.83 hrs (another 12.8 hrs, most of which was Saturday). The Hatbox Ghost and the head of the Opera Singer is really starting to pop. I also changed out the needle minder from one of my new ones from MadForMinders. It is more of a Disneyland Haunted Mansion pattern rather than Disney World (the Haunted Mansion store at Disney World is named Memento Mori), but I'm OK with it.

I have gotten most of the new projects put on their respective scroll rods. I'm still waiting on two more scroll rods (for A Discovery of Witches and Hook, part deux) as well as the modification hardware to my stand. All the fabric is gridded up though (I still have to draw grid marks on gridded fabric to make sure I hit the lines the same since the pre-grids actually cover an entire row and column of blocks, but the pregridding saves me all the counting). I'm also having issues with storage (shock...lack of room in my house for more "stuff"). In this pic I have the Aimee Stewart Bookshelf just hanging from the wall, but I have since taken the big projects and put them in another gray bucket in the floor. But here is what the situation looked like at least until Thursday:

Speaking of Aimee Stewart, I finally broke down and emailed Michele at HAED about seeing if Rio could be charted up completely. I have the one that HAED released already even though it's not typically my type of chart:

But what most people don't know is that the full image also has Duran Duran in it! It was something Aimee did for a contest or something. Even finding images of the full image on the internet is hard and, although I have it in a file somewhere, I don't feel comfortable posting it here because I'm not sure about copyright issues. I planned on just charting it myself (as long as I don't sell or share it, that's OK, right?), but if I could get HAED to do it, all the better. Michele also said that, if Aimee agrees to having it licensed, it would be the full cost of a custom chart (which is $125), but I'm cool with that considering the subject matter. If I could get it in a max color chart (not sure if I want it super-sized, have to consider that), it would totally be worth it to have a professionally charted Duran Duran pic! We're still waiting to hear back from Aimee, so I'll either be starting another project soon, or I'll chart it up myself at some point in the future (when I rebuy some charting software...plus, I won't have to worry about dithering if I do it myself, although I'm now wondering if I can request a non-dithered pattern from HAED with the custom stuff). I'm probably getting ahead of myself on this idea, but whatever. I did not, however, ask Michele about Tudor Rose by Jasmine Becket Griffith. I still think it will appear eventually.

I also cleaned out more stuff from the Duckroom. My therapy Zoom session last week was me walking her through my house, and I'm still not "calmed down" from the process. I don't like being judged for my stuff (although the judgement is probably all in my head). Like I always say, there is a thin line between OCD and hoarding. So, since I've been so anxious about it, Friday night I got rid of all my Magic Band boxes (yes, I even keep empty boxes, so sad!). I tried to get rid of the external boxes for the Funko Marvel sets that togther make a display (the cardboard boxes, not the actual Funko boxes, those I'll keep forever), but I couldn't do it. My logic is that the cardboard is protecting the empty Funko boxes (flimsy, but it's the way my brain works). I found some old Christmas bags and, since I don't participate in Christmas anymore, I was able to get rid of quite a bit of them, well, the ones that weren't Disney. I even had an empty box from a Blu-Ray player two Blu-Ray players ago! Needless to say, it was still enough stuff to fill a giantic-sized garbage bag. Now, I just have to actually take the bag outside and put it in the can. I might be better bringing it to work and putting it in the dumpster. Work trash gets picked up every day. Knowing that stuff is sitting in my can till Friday might mean I dig it all back out again.

I've put The Bride Dollmaker in my stand to jump back into tonight. I barely touched this when I started stitching again, so let's see if I can do a bit better. But then again, I'm starting to think I might start one of the smaller new starts. We'll see when I get home. So, until next week, that's this update!

Weird Week!

Tornado after tornado this week and it's getting OLD! The sirens go off for hours, the TV weathermen scream "we're all gonna die" constantly, it's mass hysteria down here! The phrase that really gets me (and something they actually say, and not me joking) is "get in your tornado safe spot now, we can't stress this enough". Every time they say it, it sets my teeth on edge. Let's keep reminding me that I'm poor and live in a trailer! I don't HAVE a tornado safe space unless I drive all the way across town. There is no family, no friends, not even a ditch within a close distance to me, so where the heck am I supposed to go? UGH! Granted, there have been several towns within a 10-20 mile radius of me that have gotten hit pretty bad, but I've taken to the mantra of, "if I can't see it, I'm not leaving" and "if I can see it, I'm already dead anyway, so might as well die with my stuff". But, it does cut into stitching time, so I spent the majority of the week winding bobbins for the upcoming projects.

I had planned to spend the week on Alice and the B's, but that didn't happen. I left off here last time:

I did manage two more days, but the progress was minimal (another 516 stitches). Just a bit more in her eye and hair. I'm now at 188847/329175 total stitches, 57.37% and 819.42 hrs.

I decided it was time to switch, so I did actually go to Hook (like I planned weeks ago). I had initially left off on 2-1-24 at 14,418/148,750 stitches and 9.69% and 61.1 hrs.

I decided to stay out of the white and work on the colors, but I'm not sure if it's the fabric being oatmeal or what, but I had a horrible time seeing what I was doing. Hook lasted a night and an additional 308 stitches and 2.2 hrs. I just wasn't feeling it. I'm not even sure you can tell the difference here:

Once I could start stitching again, I went back to Everest, one I haven't touched since 1-20-24. This was an Etsy project from Addict to Cross Stitch.

I started in the white clouds and immediately realized white was why I wasn't feeling Hook, so I moved into the mountain and top of the rickshaw. This was just last night, so it's just one nights worth of stitching (845 stitches to be exact), which brings the total up to 8884/136,528, 6.51%, and 51.82 hrs:

But I do have EXCELLENT news on the stand front! Since I had my scroll frames ordered from Amazon, I decided to reach back out to Gaylon at BeeCreekLtd about the attachment for my newish stand (not including inflation, and considering how inflation has been in the past couple of years, I think I got off lucky). He was SO accommodating! I ended up getting the attachment (for 48" scroll frames), the travel stand, and even a tablet holder (which is what jacked up the price). The total amount was $303, which I think might have been more than the stand when I bought it, but considering it's now doubling the capacity of the stand, making it better when it's in "standard" mode, and still cheaper than the stand I was looking at, I'm totally excited about it! I literally can't recommend them enough...such nice people. I will never be able to afford an Omanik or Millennium stands (let alone their frames), so I'm making due the best I can. I've been posting daily pics to Instragram for my stitching progress, so I'll make sure to post as soon as it comes in and I've adapted my current stand.

And that's about it for this week. Will I continue on with Everest? Not sure, but I am running out of projects in the rotation. I want to start the new ones once they are all set up, I'm just not there yet. Still need more supplies to arrive. Now I just to focus on finishing a project (or two or three) before the end of the year. As of now, there aren't any in my stash that I would "die" if I don't start them now, but there is a new Jasmine Becket Griffith print called Tudor Rose Fairy that I WILL have to get if HAED chart it (or anyone else who charts JBG prints). That is my historical time jam (well, technically, one generation before, the Plantagenets, but they are technically the origins of the Tudor rose, white for York, red for Lancaster). I haven't been on the HAED forums for years, but even back then, they would never listen to my requests for projects, so I'm not going to bother asking them (it took them YEARS after I had begged for years to chart Strangely Lonely, so maybe it's just me). I'm not sure if they still do the "request a chart" where you pay to get them to chart something for you, but I'm also not going to pay an outrageous fortune for them to chart something just for me, when they just turn around and put them in the main shop for everyone else to buy as well. I don't have money to throw around like that (says the girl who has spent lord knows how much on stitching supplies for the past couple of weeks).

Weekly Update and supply news

I'm already slacking on the weekly updates because I almost forgot, but better late than never! I have also started posting daily updates on Instagram, but those posts are just basic info about the total progress so far, not a breakdown of what I did that day. I'm still posting here weekly, but the dailies keep me updated a bit better (I don't have to spend so much time searching through apps to count up my progress).

As you may remember, I picked up SS/MC Once Upon A Fairy Tale, an Aimee Stewart bookshelf by HAED last Sunday Switch day. I was still NOT feeling the Q-snaps, so the redux lasted only through Monday. Last time we were here:

And, with the one additional day, I added another 628 stitches (2103/713,265) and another 1.4 hrs (9.52 hrs total). That brings me to 0.29%.

I decided next to move on to Mini Wisdom, a HAED by artist Cherie Gerhardt. In case you don't remember, here is the model (it's a Harry Potter Ravenclaw pattern). I'm not planning on doing the other house patterns (I don't even own them). Since I am a Ravenclaw, I figure one is enough (and I don't have the wall space for all four):

I last left off on this on Feb 29, 2024 (I think the last of my Leap Year starts, but don't hold me to that) with just 645 stitches and 1.08 hrs of progress.

I spent the week questioning my choice of picking the Mini pattern versus the full size, which is quite a bit bigger (they also have a MC, but I have enough of those in stash). I was having issues with the lack of details. Ultimately though, I decided this one should be OK from far off (the same decision I made when I bought it). I worked on it through the week excluding Tuesday (work made me so mad, I couldn't fathom doing anyting but vegging in front of the TV). I got an additional 5268 stitches (a total of 5913/184,500) and an additional 21.95 hrs for the week, which brings me to 7% finished (and the picture below actually shows it better than in person, I can see the transitions that are supposed to be there, the blues and the blacks all blend together in person):

On Sunday Switch day, I decided that, if I'm going to make Alice and the B's my focus piece, then I needed to go back to it for now, even though I'm not finished with the WIP rotation. I left off on 2-15-25 (I think I gave the wrong date in my last update of this one, I'll need to fix that). I was at 186,830 total stitches, about 56.76% complete.

I had planned a full day (and night) of stitching, but Sunday was another tornado night for us, so I lost several hours of work-time and didn't really stitch much once the threat of imminent death with over with. I only got 1458 stitches in (a total of 188,349/329,175) and another 7.47 hrs (I must not have been good about clocking in and out as the storms progressed, because that is appauling time for the little bit of actual stitching), but I am now at 57.22%.

I plan to spend the week on Alice, but we'll see how it goes. I'm not great at sticking to goals lately (apparently), so no promises!

On the new projects front, I have started kitting them up, but I'm still struggling with getting scroll rods or a new stand for them (plus the two on Q-Snaps). I did contact the maker of my newish stand, because I noticed he had a center mount attachment that works on it...I wanted to see if it would go to 48". It doesn't, but he said he could make one for it for an additional fee. I also asked about the tablet extension, as well as the scroll rods that he makes, and he said he would work up a quote for me. I haven't heard back from him yet, but I'll poke him again this week if I don't hear from him. His scroll sets are a bit on the expensive side, so I may just go ahead and order the others from Amazon (or wherever). I did realize that I didn't really need the EZ Stitch rods for the smaller ones, I could get the cheaper rods, like the ones they have at Hobby Lobby. That would save me a ton of money.

I also ordered another big piece of the 28ct Easy Count material. Partly because the other order is still backordered, and partly because I'd like to have some in my stash, you know the stash I apparently never touch? Since I am a bobbin person, that whole process of bobbinating should take a while anyway, so that gives me time to debate new rod purchase and gives time for the fabric to actually arrive. There are still a couple I haven't even measured for rods, but I did at least check to see what I had in my stash, so I might be able to come up with something that could save me from additional purchases.

I hope everyone has a good week! I need to spend some time getting caught up with everyone else's blog, but I'm so focused on stitching right now, I haven't had the time. I'll get there eventually! But thank you to those who are stopping by. I know this isn't a preferred medium for stitchers anymore, but I just can't see myself doing FlossTube. Everyone has such great areas of their house to film in (such as a dedicated stitch room), but my house is just a crammed-pack density of Disney stuff, it would just look horrible! I'm also not an "on-camera" person. I don't even take pictures of myself on vacation (and even before that, only yearly school pics, nothing personal). The thought of filming myself is just terrifying. I'd like to do timelapse videos of all my finishes, but I haven't found a suitable app product that can align them properly. Again, eventually!

Weekly Update and New Starts?

Since (technically) I'm supposed to be switching projects every Sunday, I'm going to try to make Monday my weekly stitching update. I planned to spend the week on Evil Queen but, of course, I didn't do that. I did start gathering for some new starts (I can't believe how expensive this hobby is), but more on that later. As I was loading some of the new projects into Markup R-XP, I noticed I had loaded Evil Queen wrong. I had forgotten to exclude the page runover. I had to reload it, which changed, not only how much I had already stitched, but the total stitch count. At least for now, I'm not going to give totals on this one because I didn't do this change until after I had stopped stitching for the week. Next time this circles around, I'll give the totals as new. I left off here:

All the black background was wearing me out, which is why I didn't switch to Hook and its all white background. The only spec I can give is the time, an additional 5.49 hrs for a total of 23.12 hrs.

I ended up switching to The Blue Marble is So Fragile by Unconventional X Stitch and artist Borda Danut Adrian. It was one of my Leap Year New Starts for 2024. Since it's been a while, here is what it will look like:

It's one of the two projects I have in Q-Snaps because they were too big for scroll rods (I hate Q-Snaps). I left off here on 2-28-2024 and had only completed 0.85 hrs (161 stitches out of 298,350 or 0.05%)

I probably spent more time fighting with the snaps than stitching (did I mention I hate Q-Snaps?), but it did get a bit better when I moved the stitch area down. I added 11.25 hrs (a total of 12.1 hrs), another 2572 stitches (a total of 2733/298,350), and am now at 0.92%. The funny thing about this one is how tiny each page is. What you are seeing here is almost a full two pages!

Instead of being smart and switching to something easier, my brain was very much "let's get the Q-Snap debacle over with" and moved back to the biggest project I have, SS/MC Once Upon A Fairytale, an Aimee Stewart by HAED (have I mentioned I hate Q-Snaps yet?). This project could not be moved down in the snaps. As a reminder, here it is:

The multitude of projects I started on the 28th of February 2024 just to get them under the gun for the Leap Year starts meant I didn't get very far into any of them. I only did 1.53 hrs and 275 stitches for its first run:

And, even though I only have yesterday's progress to show, I put in another 6.58 hrs (a total of 8.12 hrs), another 1475 stitches (for a total of 1750/713,265 stitches) and am currently at 0.25%. Usually Sundays means 8-10 hrs, but my arms (and my brain) were tired of Q-Snap-gate. This one is already warping under the snaps and, to add to the Q-Snap hate list, even with snap extenders, the fabric is so large, it has a LOT of excess fabric on the side and bottom, which can't really be folded, so it's all scrunched up. OCD nightmare! Here is where I am now:

I have to get these two projects on scroll rods. I've already tried to make my own (massive failure), so that idea is nixed. It's been a journey to even find scroll rods at least 48" long (both Fairytale and a new start need rods that big). I'm still shopping around, but the options are limited and not cheap, plus, my newish stand won't hold scroll rods that long (it already tips with the too small 30" rods on Sleepy Hollow, that project really needs 36") and it HATES snaps as much as I do. I'll need yet another floor stand that has a center mount system. That cheap floor center mount from Hobby Lobby won't cut it because it's not tall enough or stretches over wide enough for my chair (or the couch for that matter). I have one from the 90's (the design hasn't changed) and I did try, hence failure.

Which leads me into my new projects...I had decided on ONE kit (that number will be important later) and two PDF patterns from my stash, ones I debated during my 2024 Leap Year starts, but ultimately decided against...a decision that has haunted me ever since. I ordered the thread, no problem (although don't get me started on prices). The fabric was another issue. I ended up having to get the easy guide from HAED (and only because 123 Stitch was out of stock), but I didn't figure right and only ordered fabric for the actual size of the stitch and not a 2" border all around, meaning I should have ordered the middle and largest sizes instead of the smallest and middle. I went back to HAED to order the bigger piece, but they wanted $24 in shipping...ridiculous considering the largest piece of fabric couldn't weigh as much as the smallest and middle pieces put together (that shipping was $10). I eventually found it cheaper on ABC Stitch Therapy (both cost and shipping), but it didn't say backordered until AFTER I ordered it, so it's now in waiting mode. If I wasn't so addicted to the easy guide fabric, this would be a non-issue. I probably have enough fabric in stash, but alas, I get set in my ways. Maybe I can use the smallest fabric for something else. I'm not in a hurry to start them anyway but, in case you were wondering what the new projects are (and I don't think one of these will be a surprise), it's Strangely Lonely a JBG by HAED:

And A Discovery of Witches by Modern Cross Stitch, which will be my second largest piece once I started it, at 499,999 stitches and the one missing some thread because the directions didn't give stitch counts (so I either had to guess, or didn't want to overshoot) and is also the one I still need to get that large fabric for:

Then I had to choose the kitted project. The first option was Amour et Vengeance from Dailen Ogden and GeckoRouge (although not my original option for Leap Year, that one is #2). I had originally nixed this one because I was already doing a Hook stitch, but oh well. I'll still need to buy new fabric because it comes with 25ct, which just isn't my jam, but I'll figure that out later (and, unfortunately, the smallest piece I bought from HAED is 2" too short on either side):

Choice 2: Kitchen Fun, which is a Design Works project. I've already stitched this in my youth but, thanks to my ex-husband, it came to a grizzly end. Years ago I found the kit on eBay, and it's been in my stash ever since. I actually have the whole set of the Design Works mouse kits. I've finished Tea Time already, but there are still several and, like the DoNa Stitches princesses, I'd like to get them framed all at once so they match. After years of full coverage pieces, half and quarter stitches and backstitching will be a pain, but this is an easy enough pattern. And, 14ct, sheesh! This kit is pretty old and I'm not sure if the fabric and/or floss needs to be replaced, but the floss will definitely need to be sorted. I remember that process taking for-ev-ah! It might just be easier to use my nicely-labeled stash floss rather than trying to sort through a pile of unlabeled thread. You can tell that non-stitchers created these old kits, am I right? At least now kit floss is (usually) sorted.

Choice 3: Garden Path by Monet and Yiota's X Stitch. This was from when Yiota's just started and she sent a bunch of kits to bloggers for review (including myself). Blogger threw a fit and asked her to have everyone remove their reviews, but I don't think I did...it was an honest review about the kit only, so why should I remove it? Plus, I just don't like being told what to do. I figure it's about time I actually stitched it. I've had it for literal years and it's not really that big, so why not? I'm not sure what fabric it comes with, but I'll be doing it on 28ct, so it will barely be 12x12, just a hair bigger than Faces of Faery 167. The thread is on bobbin cards, so it should be fine.

And last, but certainly not least, choice 4 was The English Garden, a kit I've had since the 80's and possibly my oldest stash. I'll probably also have to replace both the fabric and the thread for this. They have been literally sitting around for over 40+ years and I can guarantee the floss isn't sorted. How did we manage back in the day with a pile of floss shoved in a bag? I remember the reason why I never did this originally was because it was 18ct and I was scared of it! Funny now that my preferred fabric is 28ct!

I scanned all of them in and created PDF's because I wanted to see how they'd load in Markup R-XP, a step that was going to determine which kit I chose, but I think the whole process of scanning (copying in the case of Kitchen Fun and then scanning), etc, got me pumped to start them all! Bad me! Between the money I've already spent on floss and fabric, adding the already needed scroll rods (not to mention the ones not originally factored in for the kits) and a new stand will be outrageous! If I were a patient person, I'd buy new rods a bit at a time and add the stand last. But patience is NOT one of my virtues (says the multi-year cross stitcher). I want it all NOW! Oh well, who knows if I'll live long enough to finish any of my WIPs anyway! As Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble used to say "CHARGE IT!". How do people with 100's of WIPs afford it?

Focus=Low, Drive=High

For someone with the attention span of a gnat, I'm still making progress on stitching. I think both my ADHD and OCD are kicking into gear, so it's causing me to stitch almost everyday even though I can't pay enough attention to make much progress. I tried really hard to work on Faces 167, but I literally couldn't see it! I already had an eye doctor's appointment this week, so maybe I can get it straightened out next time this one rolls around. I should have never tried 32ct, it was a test run for the SS/MC bookshelves (which I didn't want to be gigantic, but I started the first one on 28ct anyway, so why did I torture myself with a test run that would be a total project?). Oh well, lesson learned! As I mentioned in my last post, I left off on this one on Jan 29th, 2024 with 14,533 stitches done out of 50,175, which makes a total 28.96% done (as well as 68.43 hrs in):

I literally worked on it for one night, moving up to only 14,817/50,175 (or 284 stitches) and another 1.84 hrs of stitching (I think I spent more time squinting than stitching, which is what you'll have to do to see the progress):

I gave up and decided on Sleepy Hollow Mural by Lewis T. Johnson, another HAED (I've been on HAED kick I guess). I left off on this one Feb 11, 2024, 10,407 stitches in out of 246,000, or 4.23% and 150.93 hrs.

The issue with this one is it is so dad-gum wide! I thought it would be easier if it was on scroll rods instead of a q-snap (I still can't get the hang of q-snaps), but apparently not. The q-snaps really warped the fabric as well, probably because I'm not good at using them. I had issue mounting Sleepy Hollow on my newish stand because it kept tipping over due to the width and the weight of it, so I put it in the stand that these particular scroll rods go on, but it's a center-mount lap stand that doesn't work well when you have a pup sitting between your legs. I literally have to sit the stand on his back, which he doesn't mind, but it makes me uncomfortable and constantly aware of the pressure I use. He is, afterall, only 9lbs and really old. I think he thinks of it as shiatsu-Shih-Tzu massage...I personally wouldn't like it if there was this constantly-moving, twice-my-size, wooden cross stitch stand moving all over my back. And it's not like I can put him down, he just sits in the floor in front of me and barks until I pick him up again. Spoiled brat! After two days of fighting with it and him (technically three, but you'll see in a mo-mo), I gave up on this one too at 11,958/246,000 (or 1551 stitches in), or 4.86%. It was an additional 6.49 hrs, making it a total of 157.42, but the third day was only composed of 0.08 hrs, so that's why I'm only counting two days on this one (and here it is in all its wide glory):

Friday night was a tornado night (it's that season again), so I was paying more attention to the weather instead of stitching. Saturday, I spent the day cleaning carpets, washing various blankets and whatnots, and putting down the new throw rugs I bought weeks ago. I also went through all the pending printed cross stitch patterns that have been sitting in a box in my entryway for over a year or maybe two. I sorted them into their various binders as well as ordering new binders for the ones that were left (not that there is room on those shelves for more binders, so I guess they will all live in the closet). Overall, it was just a crappy day for stitching. I did, however, pick up Evil Queen, which is a pattern from Thread Geeks, late on Saturday. I last left off on her on Feb 26, 2024 (one of my leap year starts) and she previously only got one day of love, which got her 3.7 hrs, 934 stitches out of 86,688 and 1.08%.

Since I only stitched a bit Saturday night, I was super-determined on Sunday and did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself! I'm sure it's because this one is a non-dithered pattern, but I literally put in 13.92 hrs Sat night and all day Sunday (and 10.5 hrs of that was Sunday alone). I'm now up to 4595/86,688 (or 3661 more stitches) which is 5.3%:

Regina is my project for this week, but I'm just gonna take it day by day (I could literally change projects tonight if the mood hits, and I'm just going with that mentality). The thing about this one that bugs me is it's all greens and tans and blacks, even though the mockup looks all blues and purples and pinks and blacks (and the purple-blue family are technically more in Regina's wheelhouse anyway):

I would chalk it up to not being at the purple-blue area yet, but there is not a single thread in the box for those shades. I'm really curious to see how it's going to turn out and I'm a bit worried as well. I would hate to get pretty far into this and realize all the colors are off (another Alice and the B's quandry). Oh well, we'll see how this week goes. I still have numerous stitch projects I haven't touched yet before I rotate back around again. Plus, as of now, all that area to the far left on Regina is nothing but black, and I'm not sure I want to get into another Hook issue where I'm stitching nothing but a solid background (and Hook will be coming up soon because the background triggered me).

Speaking of Hook, the issue with it is, I'm constantly thinking I should restart it on white and just ignore the background instead of stitching it. But I also don't want to get far enough in (like Snow White) where I can't go back because I'm too far gone. Plus, I'm thinking about the other three that make up this set (there is a Jefferson, August and Graham to match and do I really want to do all this background stitching three more times?). I left off on Hook by Tilton Crafts on Feb 1st, 2024 at 61.1 hrs in, 14,418/148,750 stitches in or 9.69%:

But, as you can see, there is still a ton more white to do yet. Ugh. I'm just not ready to let it go and start over though. I just keep thinking (and probably stupidly), what an accomplishment all that background stitching will be and how amazing it will look when finished (again, probably a stupid thought). I wish "work smarter not harder" was my motto, but apparently I missed the day they handed out "logical goals".

And, just for reminder, here is Hook, followed by Jefferson, Graham and August (and that's a LOT of white):

Here's something I need your guys help with...how do you exclusively use electronic patterns? I'm still stuck in paper world (hence the bindering up of patterns on Saturday). Since I stitch two-handed on scroll rods, they cover my legs completely and block my view of the tablet. I keep the paper copy clipped to the top with a hair clip and can use my right hand well enough to mark off with a colored crayon (but there is no way my right is dexterous enough to use an iPencil on an iPad). The paper pattern is constantly in my face and makes it easy for my eyes to shift back and forth, whereas I only use the tablet to keep track of progress by marking off the stitching at the end of the night and clocking in and out of a time keeper app for time. The project isn't strong enough to hold the iPad and I can't see a smaller Android tablet (and I don't like them, I just live in Apple world). I can't stitch one-handed anymore because, well, it's way slower, and my right hand just cramps closed around it and I have to pry it open (and it hurts). That's the reason why I had to stop playing video games, the neuropathy keeps me from knowing how hard I'm gripping something. Do you guys use a tablet stand? Not that I have any room on the left for it, but if I thought it would work, I could try it. Do you just keep pulling the tablet up and down? I can't be the only person that works two-handed, am I? Any thoughts or ideas you have would be greatly appreciated!