ARE WE THERE YET?

As y'all might remember, I decided on July 24th that I was going to stitch WIP's and only WIP's until November 1st. This, of course, is in an effort to reduce the pile of things that I've started to a more manageable number (double digits would be a vast improvement over triple, trust me).

There have been five finishes (along with resulting Happy Dances, of course):

LHN: My Needle's Work

Jennifer Pudney: Tall Poppies

CCN: Garden Girl

CCN: Needlework Shop

LHN: Traveling Stitcher

I swore I wasn't' going to list them, but methinks seeing the actual list in writing helps motivate me to keep going. I've hit that slump that is tempting me to go up to the studio to paw through stash and start something new. So....help me Obi Wan. You're my only hope.

The next thing I pulled out of the guest room was Bent Creek's Big Zipper, which I only just today discovered is actually titled "Live, Love, Stitch". All this time I thought that Big Zipper was a rather odd name for the project, especially since I couldn't figure out where the Big Zipper came into the design. Then I realized that Big Zipper refers to the Big Zipper bag that the initial chart comes in.

Uh, paging Mrs. Duh.

For some damn reason I get bored with this really really fast. I wish I knew why, but I can't seem to just sit and stitch this one to completion. Fiddlesticks.

Next I pulled Lily Frog from the guest room. (If you're wondering why the guest room....I put all of my WIP's in there so that I won't be tempted by anything in the studio. This way I am banned from the place and can't use the excuse that "oh, this just caught my eye and I just absolutely had to put it on q-snaps and stitch it".) Before you get too excited, this is just the pic from the front of the chart. I haven't finished the entire thing yet...just the tummy and the two front paws. Or legs. Or whatever the heck frogs have in the front.

I have to confess that this is one gorgeous stitch....it's done in silk and the resulting sheen is quite lovely. Only the back and back legs to go on this one and then it can be sent away to become more frog-like. Stewey has already asked me if it will go in his toy box when finished and he's already been told a resounding N-O.

The last project that I picked up is "Wandering". OK, I'll confess that I did have to start this one over again from scratch (for the fourth time, no less), but I think I finally hit the right color combination. This might be the one that I stick with until completion, but I don't want to say that out loud and jinx myself or anything. Now for all of you who posted lovely comments telling me that you anxiously awaited my return, may I just say a 'la Sally Field..."You like me! You really like me!". Thank you very very mucho from the bottom of my pitiful Spinster heart. It does this body good to know that so many of you stop by from time to time to see what I'm up to. I guess this is kinda' like Virtual Assisted Living.

Wonder if we can market that?

***EDITED TO ADD:

Lovely commenter Carol asked me about the weirdness of the swirls on Wandering, i.e., if it drives me nuts that you can't get them to be rounded and smooth. Good eye, Carol! Now you know why I've futzed and futzed and futzed with this sucker....I am really having a hard time with that! And I think my stem stitch outline positively sucks, but I am determined to leave it on there until the whole entire thing is finished. THEN! I am going to go get some of that new DMC memory thread and see if I can tack it down around those curves to make them smooth. (Yeah, right. And then I'm going to clean the house and exercise regularly too.)