dianec42

Stitching progress, Upon A Star from the book Cross Stitch In The Forest by PigeonCoop Designs.

I bought additional skeins of all 3 shades of blue, thus guaranteeing that I'll have enough of at least 1.

Why do I have a day job again? I swear, the weather has been gorgeous every day this week. It's Saturday so of course it's gloomy. On the (relatively) bright side, it hasn't actually rained much since this morning, buuuuut it's looking pretty threatening still.

In spite of which, I walked into town today. Dropped off some pairs of Mr Diane's pants for mending at the quilt & alterations shop; totally forgot that she carries embroidery floss, AND that I need some more of a few shades. Back on that bright side again, I am the world's slowest stitcher so I can hold out for a while; but also, sigh.

I then found myself watching the Bennington Pride parade go by. I saw a sign that said "Pride is important because someone still thinks it's better to be dead than to be gay" and I started crying. A stranger from the parade came over and asked if I was okay. They gave me a hug and a flag. It was heartening to see so many people walking in the parade, and so heartbreaking thinking about everything going on in the world.

And now, stitching and tea and thinking about lunch. And wondering if I can somehow make a post-it big enough that I WILL ACTUALLY SEE IT AND PARSE IT that will say "Buy some DMC 517, 518, and 519 when you pick up the mending!!" Any bets?

As it was written in the spreadsheets, so it has come to pass.

New project: Upon A Star by PigeonCoop Designs from the book Cross Stitch In The Forest.

Have I learned my lesson about dark Aida, many similar shades of one colour, and fractional stitches? No. Have I learned to check HOW MUCH of each shade I'll need when using threads from my stash? Also no.

Floss toss to confirm I still like the colors:


The first few stitches.


First project to clear off the backlog: 1960s mod lady for the cover of my sewing notebook. There will be text "Sewing Notes" vertically in the blank area on the right. I did the French knots for the eyes a while ago and they have gone horribly wrong - the knots have both pulled through to the back! Lesson learned, don't do french knots as part of a tour of traveling backstitch. I am just going to do new knots over the top of them.


Bonus, I found the missing small Permin kit tucked away in the folder with the mod fashion lady! I guess this was my emergency backup stitching when we moved. Way to go, Past Diane! You put it in a safe place all right.

I just made a spreadsheet of all of my cross stitch works in progress that I can think of, and sorted them by "joy quotient" and then by effort remaining. Ta dahh! I have prioritized my backlog.

I gave each WIP two numbers from 1-10: How satisfying would it be to finish this (higher number is good), and how much effort remains (lower number is good). "Joy quotient" is satisfaction divided by effort.

I should probably do something similar with my spreadsheet of planned projects, although "planned" is really too strong a word. Yes, I have separate sheets for kits and charts. No, I have not catalogued every chart I own (we would be here until the heat death of the universe and probably also crash Excel); just the ones I have formed some vague intention of doing and/or have purchased materials for.

Parting thought, any kits I bought before about 1995 should almost certainly get yeeted. (Yotted? Yeeten?)


Edited to add: I did this for my backlog of charts and it came out sorted perfectly by effort (easiest at the top of the list). Hahahahaha.

I made the list of kits from memory and I have a terrible feeling that in reality I have tons more than I think I do. This is already discounting things like the pile of beginner kits I bought to teach my coworkers at game night in 2020 (RIP).


Edit edit: Strictly speaking these are UFOs (UnFinished Objects) rather than true WIPs. My one actual work in progress is Deer Trail and that's nearly done.

I got to drive with the sunroof open for the first time this year!!

Took Friday off, drove a few hours, did a ton of shopping, then went to the Celebration of Needlework. Did some stitching, hung out with an old friend and some new friends, got lots of walking and fresh air and good food. Oh and did more shopping. Because I need more projects!

Best of all, I have achieved PANTS.

EIGHT announcements of delays before canceling my first flight.
THREE HOURS on the tarmac before canceling the second.
NO COMPENSATION other than a meal voucher that's barely enough to buy a snack box in the terminal, and a 10% off hotel coupon that I COULD NOT USE because every hotel in the area was full
Bonus, web site that screwed up the reservation that I tried to make (and didn't have a space to put in the discount code???)

Extra bonus, SENT ME A SURVEY WHILE I WAS STILL STUCK AT THE AIRPORT.

Bite me.

I daren't say spring has sprung, unless I want it to snow! Still, happy First-and-a-Half False Spring, everyone!

Crocuses and snowdrops are blooming out front:



Hyacinths were grown indoors but are being introduced to outdoors when it's nice out (in other words, twice):


As a bonus, my strictly indoor African violet is starting to bloom!

I accidentally ended up running my work's book club last month. I pitched "How Long 'Til Black Future Month" in the Slack channel a few weeks ago so we ended up reading a few stories from that.

I somewhat randomly picked 4 stories (one because it's only 4 pages so people could read just that if they were really pressed for time):
* The Ones Who Stay and Fight
* Red Dirt Witch
* The Trojan Girl
* The Elevator Dancer

We had some good discussions!

Unfortunately(?) I started reading a couple of the other stories and staying up way too late.

For Women's History Month I'm pitching Katie Porter's wonderful "I Swear". I'm such a troublemaker.

Today I topped up the gas in my car, and bought lunch (for 1) at Burger King.

Lunch was more expensive.

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