...The Friday Forum will appear on Monday so as to accommodate the following special presentation.

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I suppose it's that time again to review the State of the Stitching for the beginning of Q4. Wow. Just think - the next one of these will be the end of year roundup.

Somehow I feel un-accomplished this quarter. I didn't seem to get very far when I think about it, but let me start talking about it and see where things go from there.

Finished Items:
I managed to finish one ladybug, that I forgot to take a picture of, for the Dimples Designs Round Robin - it was the California ladybug. I think I did a pretty darn good job of it too, despite not having a picture available.

I started and finished FutureCast, which was a new 'freebie' given out by Teresa Wentzler at the Las Vegas Worldwide GTG (and can be seen at the link on the TW Gallery page for the design). Oh yeah, there was *that*. I almost forgot about the whole GTG. That was a blast - and since I'd forgotten mentioning it in my blog about it, I really got a kick out of meeting Teresa. She's a very gracious lady - with good suggestions that I should take with regards to finishing Guardian.

Sadly, that's all I finished this quarter.

Worked on WIPS
Since I mentioned Guardian I should state that I put one single stitch in him this quarter. In the border. In Vegas. As I also mentioned, Teresa had some wonderful ideas for finishing Guardian in his currently almost unfinished state - ideas about leaving off the knotwork border and background were batted around. Then I mentioned that I was using an overdye for all the knotwork, and that met with approval to go ahead and work the border.

There's a reason they call it the 'border wasteland' - I think Teresa may agree.

I finished the first two pages of Dracolair's "The Phoenix" and started page 3 before putting it down to work on a butterfly for the next round of the Dimples RR. I *should* have been done with that buggie by now, and I made a valiant effort last night while watching the Presidential Debate, but I've frogged the darn thing 6 times for no other reason than counting errors since I started it and I think that that's made me slow down considerably with stitching on it. That's what I get for starting from the outside in. But it's probably two nights away from finishing.

I continued working on Chatelaine's Mini-Mystery F, a gift from someone with acreage for my birthday, but I still haven't finished. All I have left is the last part, which I got two weeks ago, but I've been working on that darn buggie.

I put some more time into Shimmering Mermaid. I've worked into all the greens in her tail, and meant to finish that darn buggie earlier so that I could have put in all her hair and face. I want to finish her in time to enter her in the Silkweaver Stitcher's Showcase contest, but I fear that that's a pipe dream at this point. I *still* want to finish her though.

I started the TW Knotwork Bookmark yesterday - yes, on the last day of the quarter - because DH was going to a movie and wouldn't be around so I could chat with him for the 15 minutes before Curves opened. So I brought the supplies with me and started it. The bookmark is supposed to be my work project since we've had some downtime due to a network router issue, but since I brought the project I've had no downtime.

Maybe I'll make some downtime for myself.

Non-worked on WIPS
That would be everything else that was left on my WIP list: Floral Bellpull, Desiderata, Celestial Dragon, Noah's Ark, Storyteller, and The Fortunate Traveller. Again, I wish I could have pulled them out and worked on them, but I just didn't have the inclination.

I have decided that I will re-start Desiderata at some point in the future on white fabric.

I expected to have a new large model in progress this quarter, but the designer has had her hands full with an active first baby. So that's ok that I had to shelve that so I could focus on something else. Good thing too, considering the frogging that I've had to do.

Q4 plans
I should have the buggie finished pretty quickly, and then the Mini-Mystery F. I'm going to go forward with more work on the Shimmering Mermaid, and hopefully finish her. If I don't think I'll finish in time for the contest deadline, then I'll put her down and put a little more time into Phoenix and see where I go from there. I'd really like to do one more of the Mill Hill beaded ornaments too before Christmas comes, but I may shelve all of that to start work on B's stocking. If I don't work on that and have it for her for Christmas, she'll be so upset.

Not that that's my fault - the stocking she chose and I stitched (with a day until Christmas to spare) she gave to her sister and has complained about her stocking ever since. Thankfully she's chosen something simple and maybe I can crank it out without losing too much time on my other projects.

So, there you have the current state of the stitching for Q3 progress, and the plans for Q4.

Until then, as always, Happy Stitching!