A Total Waste of Time....

Have you ever worked on a week’s worth of stitching and every stitch that you’ve made that week has to be frogged because you weren’t paying attention?

Well, that’s what most of my week’s stitching amounted to, especially Sunday’s stitching - pretty much a waste of time. This week’s stitching comprised of trying to stitch a freebie biscornu from Barbara Ana’s designs called Buzzing Around Biscornu, a freebie found on Cyberstitchers, and working on another Blackbird Design.

The biscornu is a cute bumblebee pattern and I thought erroneously, that it would be an easy to stitch and easy to finish little piece, something that would give me a bit of instant gratification.




How wrong I was! I stitched two bumblebees on the top row but when I stitched the third bee, I realized that the one above it was one stitch over too far. Looking at the pattern, I realized that I because I made a mistake in the placement of second bee, both the second bumblebee and the one immediately underneath it was one stitch over too far. I did this while watching American Idol. That will teach me from having one eye on the TV and the other on the pattern.

Rip, rip, rip.

I thought my stitching was possessed cause no matter what I stitched on that biscornu, it was in the wrong place, either off to the left or right or up or down a row. It was maddening.

I hoped the weekend stitching would be better.

Regarding my stitching for the weekend, I had 3 goals in mind:
1.) Stitch one length of thread in each of my current Wips - Accomplished
2.) Stitch a little on my Quaker exchange - Accomplished
3.) Pick one project and work on it for an extended period on Sunday night while watching TV

The weather on Saturday turned out to be better than predicted so I didn’t spend as much time as I hoped with my needle. I spent a lot of time outside playing with the horses, messing with the gardens, going for a walk, doing laundry and vacuuming. Plus, I watched the Derby, cheered for Big Brown but was deeply saddened by the loss of that beautiful filly, Eight Belles....It was a terrible, terrible thing to happen and I am sorry for the farm, the trainer and the jockey...and most of all the horse. Such a waste.

Anyway, I digress.

During the little time I spent stitching on Saturday evening, I worked on my goals of stitching a length of thread into my current Wips and working on my Quaker exchange. All was well and I thought I broke the frogging spell that plagued my stitching during the week. I was really looking forward to Sunday’s stitching because I was seriously enjoying it. Correcting the mistake on the biscornu would wait until another day.

On Sunday after we got home from church and did the basic horse chores, I knew the day would be MINE. See, we have this quaint, old fashioned notion that Sunday is a day of rest and after church and taking care of the critters, there is no work on Sunday. I cook a nice meal, make a great desert and that’s the extent of the expected things I do on any given Sunday. We use it to recharge and regroup for the coming week and Sunday is MY day with my needle or the paper or a good book. My day was planned, read the paper, go for a walk and groom my muddy horses. That left my stitching for Sunday evening but that was ok.

I decided that my Sunday evening stitching project would be Blackbird Designs, Where My Heart Blooms. I haven’t worked on it for a few weeks and it was calling me. I decided to stitch all the flower motifs that the blackbirds sit on. It was the most logical place to start because I finished the upper border and a good portion of the side borders. I put my fabric in the hoop and began to merrily stitch away...I was in the zone, in the groove, UNTIL I took the fabric out of the hoop to check out my handiwork. It was then that I realized that I stitched the wrong flower under each of the birds because I did not stitch the first bird in the row. I stitched the first flower under the 2nd bird and the 2rd flower under the 3rd bird...all the way across the row. And for the last hour of the evening, I spent ripping out each of those flowers and stitching the first bird.

All that thread.

All that time.

All because I wasn’t paying attention.

Gosh I hope things go better this week!