Ready to conquer the world

... or at least my goals list for this month. For whatever reason, I was in a really productive mood yesterday and got a stitching bag ready for the week with all of the projects (four in total) I want to make progress on. Unfortunately, half of these are gifts for people who may see this blog, so I can't share progress pictures, but I'm excited about them nevertheless.

All ready to go

I am happy to report that I have finished all of the stitching for my CFS ornament exchange gift. I just need to actually finish it into an ornament, which means I need to actually figure out how I want to finish it. I'm pretty sure it will be a flat ornament as it was intended to be, but the finishing instructions that came with the chart don't make much sense to me so I'll probably be looking around for some other, more-easily followed directions. I wish I could post a picture, but we'll just have to wait until it's actually been given to the recipient.

Nursery Rhymes is making slow but steady progress. I'm not as far along as I would like, but I needed to get that ornament done. I'm still hoping for having it done and framed in time for Christmas, which means I need to get it in gear. At least the sections I've been working on have very few fractional stitches, which is a blessing. I hope to be halfway done by the end of the month (which will be nice considering all of my other goals).

Before and After

As previously promised, below you will find the before and after backstitching shots of Nursery Rhymes. I have now completed the bottom right corner, which means I'm roughly 25% done. Yay! The one thing I definitely love about this piece is all of the detail. The backstitching, fractional stitches, and use of multiple shades of the same color add a little extra specialness to it.

Before backstitching

After backstitching

Sorry that the angle on the after shot is wonky. So far, my favorite character is the little lamb at the bottom. I believe this is Mary's Little Lamb, although Mary has not made an appearance yet. I just love the way the backstitching gives his fur detail. I also love the tails on the 3 Blind Mice.

With the backstitching came my fickle friend, the French knot. For whatever reason, French knots like to play coy with me. One day, they will come out fine and the next day they will look horrendous, with no apparent change in my technique. The row of them between the spiders on the left were being particularly difficult. I eventually switched to a smaller size needle to make it easier to get though the solid stitching on backstitching, and lo and behold the French knots started behaving. Whatever works!

I'm a tad behind schedule on this one, but it's still my top priority.

Nursery Rhymes and Study Time

This piece is currently my main focus. I am making this for one of my cousins who is about to have a baby. She is due sometime this month. It doesn't matter when really, because there is absolutely no way this will be done anytime this month, but my goal is to have it done ASAP and definitely before Christmas.

I've had so much fun working on this. The colors are bright and cheerful, and there are so many little details that bring it to life. I love thinking of this soon-to-be baby growing up and connecting each character to their nursery rhyme.

Of course, all of that detail means that it takes longer to stitch with many color changes and fractional stitches and what not. Plus all of the backstitch. I'm trying to backstitch as I go, usually after I finish a section or two. I can backstitch fairly quickly, so I usually wait until I have a fairly large area that is ready to be finished. It is so much fun to see how much the backstitch changes the look of the design. If I remember, I'll do a before and after backstitch shot in my next update.

I'm currently working on the bottom left quarter of the chart. Apparently after graduating with my Masters in Math, I lost my ability to count. This means that I've had a few incidents where I had to (1) spend a few frazzled minutes trying to figure out why things aren't lining up, (2) find where they don't line up and realize that the mistake has been there for a while and a whole section is off by one, (3) spend another minute seeing if I can make it work anyway, (4) realize I can't because all of these characters are in position relative to about four other characters, and (5) dejectedly rip out all of the messed up section and start over.

Anyway, here's where I am now!

And let's not forget my other important WIP with a deadline: Exam MLC. For those of you who don't know, I'm an actuarial analyst which basically means that I'm on the career path to someday be an accredited actuary. And that basically means that I have to pass a boat load of exams. I've passed two already (yay!) while in graduate school, and I'm preparing to take my third in November. I really need to pass this one on the first try, because next year it's changing formats from all multiple choice (really hard) to written (really really hard).

But my WIPs have appeared to not have gotten the memo saying that I need study time, because they are all demanding my attention 24/7.