January 2007Monthly Archives

I’m happy to report that my rotation plan is working well so far. I’ve been sticking to my guns and making sure I work at least 2 hours on the daily focus project before I pick up something else. Here are a couple of WIP updates from my stitching over the past few days:

Taj Mahal (Chatelaine Designs) – 5 hours of stitching:

The flash really washed out the fabric color and sparkle of the braid, unfortunately. The fabric is 32-count Ray of Light Belfast linen from Zweigart. The DMC equivalent would be 746.

Moonlit Garden (Blackbird Designs) – 5.7 hours of stitching:

I went to the January meeting of my sampler guild last night. It was a really fun meeting and it sounds like there will be lots of great projects coming up this year. Some of the teachers lined up already include Merry Cox and Tricia Nguyen. I also paid for my kit for the March meeting which will be My Stitching Chair Necessaire by Hillside Samplings.

This year also marks the 15th anniversary of the guild. In honor of that event, one of the members designed a beautiful tri-fold scrimshaw holder for us. I got the kit last night and it’s just so beautiful. Now I just have to figure out when I’ll have time to stitch it. Here’s a couple of pictures. The first shows the front when it’s folded, and the second shows the outside when it’s unfolded which is why the alphabet panel is upside down. The inside is lined with a beautiful goldish silk with little pockets for the various pieces of the scrimshaw set.

In other news, my new TV arrived yesterday! What a difference from my 10 year old 27″ television. Thanks for the input on getting the HD service. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it will be practical for me right now. My apartment complex uses a shared dish for each building and they’ve not yet upgraded them to HD-compatible dishes. If I want the HD service, I would have to get written permission from the complex to have a personal dish on my balcony and would then have to go through a DirecTV installer to get the dish and DH DVR receiver. They would also require a 2-year commitment for the service, and since I’m planning on moving out of this complex this year, it just doesn’t seem to make sense. I don’t want to lock into a long commitment and then end up in a complex that has cable instead of satellite.

I hope everyone is having a nice week! I’m off to work on my Gameboard Sampler since it’s Tuesday. Happy stitching!