Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!

Here at Chez Fuddy-duddy, we've had a very quiet day. We fully expect our fireworks-loving-neighbors to take care of that this evening, but until then, I've enjoyed stitching and marathoning the History Channel's ten-year-old documentary The Revolution. This has become my tradition for the Fourth.

In addition, I've been rearranging my project baskets a little bit. Once again, I have realized that I am a Super Stashbuilder, a Superb Starter, and a Finishing Failure. Not just finish-finishing, but finishing at all. I fully realize I need to live to be 385 to stitch what's already in the stash, and that I should never take another workshop or buy another project again. The only way that's going to happen is if every single needlework designer and teacher immediately retires. As that is quite unlikely to happen, we can all agree that I will continue to succumb to temptation.

However, I would like to do just a little better at the finishing part of the equation. I seem to get hung up on The Middles---you know, you get halfway through a project and there's something you don't like doing, or something else comes along that you simply have to put a stitch or two into, or you're going to have company and you really need to clear off the end of the couch so everyone will have a place to sit.  And then, once you hit The Middles, you just don't get back to whatever-it-was you were doing.

I'm dealing with that at the moment with Sarah Williams. She has a zigzag band running across the middle of the sampler. There are eight rows of cross stitch, each in a different color. And it is booooooooring to stitch. This is when I will typically pull something else out of the basket that is more entertaining to work. However, today, I am resolved. I am going to get this done. Period. No argument.

Although I may stitch a strawberry or two into the border, just to mix things up a little . . .