2013: The Year of the Frog, apparently

So, as we have previously promised to each other on a drunken night of cross stitch admiring, on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, some friends and I have all started to stitch a new Mirabilia project, as we agreed. And although I have only been working on it for three days, I already had to frog at least five times, which is annoying, but it will not put me off! I am stitching Stargazer on Stephanie's beautiful opal fabric called Midnight Tryst and this scan was taken after the first day. I promise to finish this one before the year ends.

Under a spell

Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden

You might know me as the Queen of Procrastrination and the Knight of Many Projects, so it is highly unusual of me to start a design and never touch another 'till it's done, even if we are talking about something tiny. But Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden is not tiny. It is breathtakingly beautiful though. I joined Abi's Yahoo! mailing list, The Stitch Specialists, specifically for this design after I saw it being stitched by some of my blogger friends. I had the chart for months, but I kept delaying the start with different reasons; mainly because I have so many WIPs already, but also out of fear if I will be able to do justice to the design. I have never used so many specialty stitches in one design. I am a near perfectionist, I put the bar real high for everyone and even higher for myself. In the TSS group I regularly marveled at the beautiful stitching of others and while on one hand they have inspired me to join their ranks as a ToS stitcher, they also made me worried if I was good enough. Correction: they had me worried if I am as good as I imagine I am or am I just conceited? I have seen several versions of the tree, different fabrics and colours and sizes, and I wanted to make mine a bit different. I wanted it to reflect my own personality, the way I like to think of myself. And some of the adjectives I like to flatter myself with is versatile, complex and diverse. So I whipped out all of my hand dyed floss and tried to arrange them to form and represent the full colour spectrum. Took me weeks to decide which ones to use, but it was worth it! I started stitching five days ago and hardly stopped since! Tree of Stitches has allowed me to experience the flow of creation, making me forget the time and everything around me, forget mundane things, such as eating and sleep, kept me up 'till 3 a.m. and still leave me with more energy than I had before! And behold the magnificent sight now! The beading is still to be done, but she is already a breathtaking beauty! Is it a sin to be in love with your own stitching? Well, guilty as charged!

February NaBloPoMo

I have signed up once again because I need motivation to achieve anything. I set the goal of 28 posts in February, but I will not whine if I can't make it, that much is sure. Usually it's starting to type that's problematic. I have so much to say about, umm, practically anything, I just tend to not bother because a, I can hardly imagine anyone giving a damn about my opinion, and b, I have been alone for such a long time that I am used to not having anyone to talk to.
Back to topic, the theme for February is character, I can think of blogging about that in several ways, the most obvious being my WoW characters and their adventures. Of course, SaS is an will remain a stitching/parenting/depressing themed blog :) but it will be fun to experiment with various tones and personas.