The Finished Product

I still can't believe it, but this is it.  All done.  And for about 12 cents an hour and five months of my life.

This is Miss Stitch, signing off.  

Thanks for following the journey!

Serious Technology Malfunction

Well folks, the day after my last entry an event occurred that put a giant damper on the Christmas Cross-Stitch chronicle.

I spent a couple of days in New York and while it was a great trip, my computer's hard drive died.  Without a computer it was impossible to write updates, but without the temptation to piddle on the internet for hours on end, it did afford me the opportunity to buckle down and finish this baby.

Yes, you read it correctly.  I finished this baby.

Dove-tailing perfectly with the arrival of my new hard drive which my husband deftly installed into my lifeless laptop, I stitched my final stitch and put this Christmas Cross Stitch to rest.  I can still hardly believe it, to be honest.  All day I have had to remind myself that I don't have to work on it, so clearly I'm going to have to retrain myself to do other things.

My first order of business post-cross-stitch?  Volunteering at our public television studios.  They're doing a pledge drive and I'm going to sit at the phones and take pledges!  It's exciting in a sense because I have been trying to get a job with our public radio station and since they're not hiring due to the crappy economy, I'm going to offer my time for free.  Of course I hope I can build a report with the folks there and be one of the first ones they think of when they start hiring again, but it will also be an excellent way to do a good service to my community!

Thanks to all who kept up with this project and read this blog.  I'm so thankful I finished it!!!  

(My husband is even more thankful.)

All Day Stitch-a-thon

After Last Week's Marathon Stitch Day:
After Yesterday's Marathon Stitch Day:

The Stitch family has become a bit busier now that Mr. Stitch has a full-time job. I've had to take up even more of a role as house wife and to be honest I don't think I realized how time consuming keeping a house can be! But I love doing it, even though other projects tend to get pushed aside. Namely: the Christmas Cross-Stitch.

But somehow I've managed to get at least eight hours of stitching in one day a week and I manage to make decent progress during that day. I need to pick up the pace, though. Mr. Stitch told me bluntly over a dinner date that he hates the project. This is coming from a man who is always honest, but reserves the word hate for only the most poignant of moments. He pointed out that there are so many other creative things I could be doing with my time if it weren't for this project.

I know he's right, but I can't seem to stop. I've already come this far and I have to finish it.

The Cross-Stitch Lady Speaketh

As I mentioned, I emailed Cross-Stitch Lady with a photo of my progress. Here was her response:

I Love It! Thank you for the continued effort! It looks as if you are almost done. Do you have an estimated completion date?
I have been slowly working on the 3rd cross-stitch myself... if you are still interested after you complete this one, I could pass the project off to you. Let me know.
Thanks so much! - Cross-Stitch Lady

I'm glad she loves it! I have no idea how to guesstimate a completion date. I've been guessing all along, and every one of them has been wrong. It might take me three, maybe four more weeks? Two or three more months? Halloween? Who knows.

Oh, and I will be politely declining the offer to finish the third one she wants done. That's for sure.

Check!

Yesterday, through hours of Seinfeld Season 4, I plowed through color after color until his little head was completely covered. Sometimes I would only have two or three stitches per color, but I didn't care. I hunted and pecked until all the holes were filled.

Whew.

On to corner three!

Oh, and I'm sending an update to Cross Stitch Lady!

All in a Day

Compare with the previous entry's picture and you'll get an idea for what I accomplished today.

It's a nit-picky hunt to fill the tiny holes in his head!

A Crown for His Head

Above is a week's worth of work! I've managed to almost finish the crown of his head, which will be yet another item checked off the cross-stitch list. After that, two corners and his feet will be all that's left. That's all.

When I get his head finished I will email Cross-Stitch Lady with a photo and see what she says.

***

I was catching up with my best girlfriend last night and when she asked me what I had been doing prior to her call, I admitted that I was stitching. All of sudden she shrieked, "You're still working on that?!?" I sighed and admitted that I was. "I thought that needed to be done by the end of January," she said. Apparently I'd avoided talking about the project during our catch-up calls during the last several weeks.

It was hard to admit that I wasn't finished. Soon, though. Hopefully soon?

Shades of Grey

It was bright and sunny outside, but yesterday all I saw was grey as I stitched for 3 hours and 52 minutes. I didn't really intend to use all variables of the same color, it's just what I kept seeing when it was time to move on to another one.

Just look at all the neutral-ness I added yesterday! Colors like Cream, Cotton Cream, Garlic Cream, Antique Silver, Dark Antique Silver, Light Green Grey, Ecrut, and Rope Brown! What fillers, what background!

Today, I'm seeing red!

The Day I ACTUALLY Got Paid to Cross-Stitch

Yesterday--with the full support of my supervisor--I spent half my eight hour shift stitching in the head nurse's office. Yes, it's true.

I arrived at three pm and went to my patient's room armed and ready to tackle whatever came my way, whether it be a fist, a restraint mitten, a chicken leg or an adult diaper (all of these have actually been thrown at me at some time or another), but to my amazement my patient had a full room of guests, all of whom seemed keen on keeping me out while they tended to their loved one.

The charge nurse agreed that it would be best for me to wait in his office while the family was there, so I did. For the first half hour or so I doodled in my notebook, thinking any minute someone would come in to tell me that the family was leaving. But after about 45 minutes, the daughter-in-law arrived with a carrier full of Starbucks coffees and dinner for everyone, so I knew it was going to be a while longer.

I pulled out the cross-stitch. I needed to do a large chunk of 'Garlic Cream' over the top six inches of the left side (see photo for the result!), so I pretty much went to town without needing to assess the pattern much. At one point the charge nurse came in an admired my work, saying he loves how 3D the pictures look when they're done. (Little does he know how painstaking it is to create that look). He sat down at the computer and checked his email on Yahoo.

"Hey Sarah, somebody's giving away a 52"x52" piece of counted cross-stitch fabric on Freecycle. Do you want me to grab it for you and give it to you when you're here next?"

As much as I wanted to validate the kind gesture with an affirmative, I simply said, "Thanks Ron, but once I finish this one, I probably won't do another. Ever."

Movin' Right Along

Total Time a-Stitching: 5 hours 45 minutes.

Yes, yesterday was a big one for stitching, and look at how much progress I made! It's nice to be able to focus on just a few colors and really tear through it. I can't wait to finish this corner and email Cross-Stitch-Lady with a picture. And when I do, I'm going to casually ask her if she's gotten the other one back yet. With any luck, the poor gal stitching the other one for her is taking a bit longer, too!

My husband keeps asking me if I'm going to keep plugging away at this or send it back to Cross-Stitch Lady half-finished. Of course there are a hundred other things I could do with my time if I didn't have this thing looming over my head, but on the other hand it goes against every thing in me to send it back incomplete.

I want to finish it to the last stitch.

Multiple Updates

Obviously it's been several days since I've written an update. But never you fear! I have several days' worth of progress here for you to enjoy!

I managed to get a little work done at my job last week. I mean, a little work done on the cross-stitch. It's hard to believe that I have a job that would allow for cross-stitching, but I do. Sometimes. I had it out for some nurses to see and one admirer said that she did one about this size. I asked her how long it took her to do it, and I couldn't believe her answer: two years. Two Years to do a picture of Noah's Ark that was about 11x14.

The fact that Cross Stitch Lady wanted me to complete a similar-sized cross-stitch ten times faster than that blows my mind. What blows my mind more is that I was stupid enough to agree to it. I don't know why I didn't ask around first to see if the allowed time was reasonable.

It doesn't really matter much now, except that I'm stuck in a project that may take me many more months to finish than I ever thought.

The updates below represent about twelve days of work, each picture being about three days of work.

A Good Day

As I've gone back through some previous entries, I've noticed a thread of negativity weaving its way through many of them. In all honesty, it's a reflection of how I've been feeling about this project, especially as the time keeps ticking and there's still no end in sight.

Still, being cranky about it certainly won't get it done any faster. If anything, it will only make it go more slowly. So I vow not to be cranky about it! I'll keep on keeping on and I will make an effort to reflect that attitude in these entries.

With that, I stitched for 4 hours and 15 minutes yesterday and you can see where I am at this point in the picture above. I work this afternoon so I'll probably only get to work on it a little tonight, but that's okay. I'll do all I can.

What it Shakes Out to Be

Here are some fun facts about the cross-stitch:

• To date, I've worked on it for 72 Days.

• I put in an average of 4 hours on the cross-stitch per day (even with a day off here and there.)

• That adds up to 288 hours of stitching time, or 12 days of my life.

• Cross-Stitch Lady is paying me $200.00 to complete this project.

• So far, I have earned 69 cents per stitching-hour.

Other fun facts:

• I am not quite halfway finished.

• My optometrist recently diagnosed me with severely dry eyes, most likely due to not blinking enough while stitching.

• The visit to the optometrist cost me $100.00

• Since this dryness problem is most likely caused by the cross-stitch, that reduces my net income to 34.5 cents an hour.

• If I keep at this rate of completion, I will put in almost another 300 hours, so my net income per hour will wind up being around 16 cents an hour.

Tell me, is this worth it??

Workin' Like a Fiend

My goodness! My new job has absorbed more time than I thought it would, even at part-time! I apologize for the silence, but something had to give. Above is a picture of my valiant achievement, though I'm well passed my original due date and I have three corners left to complete.

I just don't know when it will get done.

A friend of mine asked me when I really thought it would be finished, and to be honest I didn't know what to tell her. Cross Stitch Lady would have it be done right now, and I know that isn't possible.

Things are steadying out a bit now, so I'll be able to get back to my frequent photo updates. Thanks for sticking with me, folks!

No Stitch for Miss Stitch

I didn't necessarily intend to take a break from the project today, but I have not stitched one bit!

Granted, I spent the first eight hours doing more orientation at my new job (today we did aggression management training! I now feel fairly confident to get out of just about any choke-hold), but something else kept me from keeping up with the project once I got home: The tetanus shot.

It was my final vaccination and fifth stick of a needle in a week. That's more than I have had in years. (I only cried once: after the flu shot.) The aide sent me home with several Tylenol, stressing the importance of taking one every four hours. Well, despite my compliance, my stitching arm has been sore and achy ever since. It's actually pretty uncomfortable, so rather than putting myself through the agony of stitching on an arm full of nasty-bits that my body is learning to fight off, I plan to sleep it off and give it a go tomorrow!

Till then!

Pressing Forward!

Above is the progress from the last two days.

It's still not where I feel like I should be for the end of the month (read: original due date), but it's what I have accomplished.

Of course I won't quit. That's not even an option. I realize though that asking for a second extension isn't an option either.

So with that, I'll post this and get back to work!

Someone Give Me a Towel.

Oh Man...I am in trouble now. At least I feel very much in trouble. Yesterday, in an effort to gain some real ground and reach the 'edge', like I mentioned in my previous entry, I really screwed things up.

I still can't figure out exactly how I got so off, but somehow I did. Two hours of my time yesterday went quickly down the toilet. I still haven't reached the edge because I had to undo it all. We're talking counting-off, not just color-off. I've made color mistakes earlier on and they've simply been a matter of trading colors. When I get three rows, two columns off and I can see that there's just no way of getting things to line up, that's when I feel really messed up.

I want to throw in the towel. I have other things to do with my time and it's taking a lot of courage to not give up.

So I Forgot How to Count.

I'm deliriously tired as I type and I can't open my eyes all the way, but I just have to share that I came SO CLOSE to reaching the edge of the cross-stitch today. I would have done it had I not miscounted by one row and had to use my last ounce of energy undoing the mess I had made.

Sure, it means that tomorrow I'll reach the edge and I'll take a picture and it will be great, but still! It could have been tonight if I hadn't forgotten how to count.

I'm starting to feel the pressure that the end of the month is bringing. Once February hits, I'm into "extension time" and each day will be one day later than I initially promised its completion. I never turned in homework late in school, but this feels a little like how it would feel if I had.

On a happier note, our anniversary was splendid and I didn't touch the project all day! I thought about it, but I didn't touch it. We went out for sushi--one of my favorite gastronomic indulgences--and it was spectacular.

And now--to bed.

Cross Stitch Lady Writes Again

Total Hours Spent a-Stitching: 2 hours, 30 minutes

I started a new job today, so my stitching didn't happen until late tonight. The job seems great and I hardly thought about the cross-stitch while I sat through eight hours of orientation (meaning rapid-fire presentations on health insurance, customer service values, and diversity training separated by a tour of the fitness center and free sandwiches).

Well...I did think about how much I could accomplish if only I could stitch AND listen to the customer service video called "Give 'em the Pickle!", but that wasn't possible. I did well for the time I had today. The puppy's really fleshing out.

Plus, as I was uploading this photograph, I heard from Cross Stitch Lady again.

"Just checking as to how the project is coming along!"

:) Cross Stitch Lady

I wrote her back and thanked her for the extension.

Tomorrow is my husband's and my first anniversary! We're both working tomorrow and plan to go out for sushi tomorrow night. So...I may take a day off from the old stitcheroo and toast to a wonderful first year of marriage!

Look! A Puppy is Emerging

Total Time Spent Stitching: 5 hours, 15 minutes.

What a difference today! Whereas yesterday I was hunting and pecking for any tiny empty hole to fill, today I had a practically clean slate with the pattern calling for nice easy blocks of color. So even though I spent over five hours steadily stitching to yield only two and half square inches of covered canvas, I had a renewed sense of fun and purpose in this project.

It's more fun to stitch blocks of color. It just is. And look! A tiny puppy dog is beginning to emerge!

I Did It.

Total Time Spent on the Cross-Stitch: All the live-long day.

Seriously. I began at nine this morning and worked all day long. I didn't take a break to vacuum, I had to force myself to stop and eat and still it took me until 1:15 a.m. to finish the inside of that darn hoop. I'm telling you: I could have taken a lot of short cuts towards the end and believe me, I wanted to, but I didn't want to compromise my personal integrity on a few lazily-placed stitches. Plus, I have a feeling that this is a lady who knows her cross-stitch. She would take one look at the little boy on his knees and see a miss-placed Cinnamon Beige. After all I'm already pouring into this, I want it to be as good as it can be.

The hoop is now realigned to work on the second fifth of the project. I was so excited to move the hoop to a new place that I forgot to take a picture of the freshly finished inner-circle. It looks just like the example to the right, amazingly enough.

I'm going to bed.

I'm Shedding Threads

I'm noticing tiny shreds of thread in places I never thought possible. One inch, sometimes even two inch strands of Rye Beige, Savannah Gold, and Anthracite Gray have found homes in places such as my hair, hoodie pockets, and once even between my toes.

Yesterday I took a break from stitching to vacuum. Meaning: to vacuum these tiny pieces that are slowly starting to take over our house. Our choices of decor colors are becoming confused with pieces of Antique Silver, Gingerbread Brown, and something called "Ecrut" draped over everything. It bugs me almost as much as the dog hair (which isn't bad, but I still like vacuuming it up when I find it.)

I didn't finish the inside of the hoop today. I was in Philly all day and then it was my turn to cook dinner. I made Chicken Curry and it was delicious, but it didn't leave a lot of time to stitch!

I know I keep saying this, but tomorrow will be the day.

Not Quite, but Closer!

Total Time Spent Stitching: 3 hours 10 minutes.

Boy it's going to be a triumphant day when I can finally move this hoop to another section of the pattern. Sheesh. I'm close...SO close. Ugh. Maybe tomorrow. I'll toast to that.

A Picture Update

So here's where we're at today! I put in a couple of hours of stitching time once we got home from a day of auditions in Philly. We unwound to the tune of season two of "The Office," which means I listened and laughed as I focused on the stitching and tried not to lose my place.

Still, my greatest challenge is to finish the inside of this darn circle! At one point during the second episode of the season I cried out, "I'm filling in so many little squares, but there are still so many little squares!" Hm. Maybe tomorrow.

Sometimes I remove myself from the situation and shake my head at myself. I can't believe I'm crying out about little squares on a piece of fabric.

Sweet Relief!

Finally, an update on the extension I asked for a couple of weeks ago! Here's an excerpt from the email response I received from the Cross Stitch Lady herself:

Its looking Awesome!!! Thanks so much! No problem with the extension. Its
still faster than I could have done it.

Your efforts are much appreciated.

-Cross Stitch Lady

(I'm sure you've gathered this, but her name isn't really Cross Stitch Lady. It's a regular name.)

So I have until the end of February to complete this project, which if I do say so myself is beginning to look really promising. This is such a relief to me, since I still haven't finished the inside of the initial hoop. Every day I think I'm going to do it, but by the end of the day those little empty squares leap up at me and remind me that I didn't.

My real challenge now is to use the extra time to the fullest and not relax my pace just because I have time. I start a new job one week from today, which will put a dent in my stitching time. I shall stitch on!

Antique Silver vs. Rye Beige, and a Date with my Seam Ripper

Total Time Spent Last Week: A hour or so here and there.
Total Time Spent Today: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Miss Stitch is back from her vacation and is needing to jump full-swing back into this project. I managed to work for a good chunk this morning, but then I went grocery shopping because we needed milk and picked up our checks because we got paid today and deposited them because we need money and cooked dinner because it's my night.

So I didn't get to work on it much for the rest of the day.

When I did sit down with it, I spent most of the time working on correcting a serious mistake I made yesterday while we were driving the last leg of our journey. Somewhere along the Ohio Turnpike I felt confident enough to get the project out and start a new color. I matched the symbol with the color name and read "Antique Silver." I admit that it sounded a bit too familiar of a name for a color I hadn't used yet, but I shrugged it off thinking I had just noticed it when buying the colors, one month ago yesterday.

I stitched away happily as Andrew drove, and finished all that I could see within the area of the hoop.

This morning, when I sit down to return the remaining thread to its designated plastic bag, I noticed the words "Rye Beige" next to the symbol I'd done yesterday in the car. Antique Silver was just above it, and it was next to a symbol I HAD done before, which is why it was so familiar! I had misread the reference sheet and now had Antique Silver in places it did not belong.

This is a big problem in the teeny tiny world that is this cross stitch. In the actual world that we all live in, Antique Silver vs. Rye Beige is a teeny tiny problem that affects no one else but me. I understand its teeny tiny place in my life. Still, I was a bit reluctant to get out my seam ripper (a newly acquired tool thanks to my mom) and remove all the teeny tiny miss-placed Antique Silvers I'd worked on yesterday. It took me about an hour, and then I followed it up with threading my needle with Rye Beige and filling up all the teeny tiny spaces again.

When it was all said and done, I couldn't deny that Rye Beige did look a lot better there than Antique Silver.

I'm glad to be back. Really, I am.

Family Time!

Total Time Spent: About a half hour during SNL.

I'm having a great time with my family and dear friends! These times are always so precious and it always goes by too fast, so I'm keeping the project near, but I'm not forcing myself to work on it. It will still get finished, but not tonight! (Nor tomorrow.)

The updates will return towards the end of the week!