Tuesday, January 29, 2013

I Wish I Drank

Although alcohol does not make a person's problems go away & in fact sometimes creates more, I sure do wish I had a bottle of something right now.

As I described in my last post, I had a bit of a problem with HE's Along for the Ride.  I had placed 2 stitches between the snowman's back & the reindeer's tail when there should have been only one.  This made the reindeer longer than it was supposed to be ... a rather wiener dog effect.  I had also missed dropping a stitch before I started the last row of the reindeer where his legs hang down.  This is akin to the Chinese water torture to an OCD person.  Even though no one would've really noticed these errors unless I pointed them out, I knew they were there.  As one thing so often leads to another, these stitching errors in the reindeer threw off my placement of the house & everything else underneath him so I had to fudge the smoke plume coming out of the right chimney to make it line up.  Add to all this the fact that the suggested color of floss for the reindeer & the suggested color of the linen were very similar & I was thinking that I should've stitched the reindeer in a darker shade.  (I was also thinking some thoughts about HE's designing of this ornament but I think it's best for me not to share those thoughts in polite company.)

I decided to put this project aside & work on something else for a while.  I stitched a Stacy Nash bell ornament design which I shared with you in my last post, & then I went on to stitch her SNOW stocking ornament design.  I stitched 2 of them actually since I had enough room for 2 on the piece of linen I had chosen to use.

Okay ... so I stitched the bell & I stitched the 2 stockings, but I couldn't stop thinking about Along for the Ride.  I'm not a "stitch more than one thing at a time" person & I knew I had to break down & work on Along for the Ride if I wanted to give myself any peace.  I took a look at it & considered my options which were (A) leave it as it is & continue on, (B) unstitch the reindeer & stitch him correctly but still have him & the snowman & the moon lined up one row of squares too much to the right, or (C) unstitch the reindeer, the snowman, the moon, & the plume of smoke coming out of the right chimney & make everything line up the way it should be.  It took a lot of strength on my part but I decided I could live with just unstitching the reindeer & restitching him correctly, leaving the snowman, the moon, & the plume as is.  

After unstitching the reindeer I was faced with the similarity between the color of the floss & the color of the linen.  I decided to replace the suggested floss color for the reindeer with one a shade darker.  I then began to stitch & got a few rows in before I decided the darker floss color ... even just one shade darker ... did not look good.  I unstitched again.  Once again I took the floss suggested by the designer & began stitching the reindeer.  

I worked carefully to avoid making any stitching errors.  It seemed the second skein of suggested floss was a tad darker than the first one I had used so the similarity of the reindeer's color & the background fabric was not glaring out at me.  I finished my stitching & I was pleased.  
If you take a close look at the space between the snowman's back & the reindeer's tail here, & then compare it to this area as previously stitched & shown in my last post, you will see that just the one stitch is now there, as it should be, instead of two.

I sat back in my recliner with a look on my face that I'm sure matched that of Mona Lisa.  I felt quite pleased & that all was right with the world as I started to back stitch the reindeer's antlers.  Instead of the black brown (or brown black) suggested by the designer, which seemed too stark in contrast in my opinion, I decided to use a chestnut sort of brown.  You can see it in the above photo.  I began back stitching the antlers but quickly realized that something wasn't right, but what?  I looked & looked & looked some more & there it was.  When I stitched the snowman, I missed stitching a whole line!!!!!  Because of that, the antlers are going to be way off the mark if I leave Frosty as is.  I don't believe this!!!!!  I could've gone ahead & unstitched the snowman & the reindeer & the moon & the plume coming out of the right chimney & stitched them all over again, matching them all up as they should be to the house & everything else below!!!!! Now, after having restitched the reindeer, I have to unstitch Frosty & restitch him & everything is still going to be off by one!!!!!  

Upon discovering this, I felt the urge to do two things.  The first was to grab my scissors & plunge them through the center of the design, scissoring frantically as my maniacal laughter frightened Sophie into hiding.  The second was to fling the Q-Snap, with that design cursed by the devil himself still clamped into it, across the room ... possibly then getting up & jumping up & down on it & then opening the front door & kicking it out into what is a very dark, windy, & rainy night.  It took every ounce of self control I have to not do either of these things.  Instead I just sat there in my recliner, shed a few tears, & wondered if maybe picking my nose & making snot sculptures would be a better crafting choice for me.         

25 comments:

Angela CG said...

I am so sorry you are having so much trouble with this piece. I recall having the same problem recently on a Scarlet letter piece. I think I ended up froging 6 times in the same night before I finally put it down. My little one kept looking at me as if I was going crazy because I kept muttering and cursing under my breath every time I realized I made a mistake and had to frog it all again. I hope that the next time you pick it up this piece will stitch smoothly for you.

aprilmecheelesdulllife said...

I am sorry I am laughing at your post Shirlee!! lol I can just see you kicking that qsnap out the door into the night!!! lol I have done the same stitching mistakes.. I good cry always helps!! I hope it all comes together soon...

Grit said...

Lovely stitching.
Liebe Grüße Grit

Krista said...

oh, Shirlee, Mama always said there would be days like these :) Sometimes better to walk away and look at it in the light of another day to make it look fine. Have a good day!

Teresa S. said...

OK-Shirlee-
I was reading along on this post and feeling so sorry for you and wishing I was more like you ....

Then I got to the last few sentences and I'm sorry to report that I snorted and laughed out loud and now am trying to forget the picture in my head of your "better crafting choice" he, he, he, he

Only because I can relate, ok??

Marilyn said...

Oh, I feel your pain!
I think I would put it aside for awhile. lol
You've stitched too much again to throw it out.
Marilyn

Siobhán said...

You crack me up. I think it looks great as is, and I'd just fudge whatever I could. My friend Elaine, God rest her soul, would always say that she left mistakes in unless a man riding by on a galloping horse would be able to spot the error(s). LOL Nice job on the Stacy Nash!

Chris said...

AAARGHHH!! Time to really put that project aside. Hide it, stop thinking about it.

Mii Stitch said...

I really think it does look better now... :)

Maggee said...

I would consider these choices: throw it OUT and MAYBE start over, or fudge it and make it work at this late stage! Fudging doesn't always work, so throwing it out would be my final answer. Life is too short to get so dang frustrated over a CRAFT that is supposed to make us happy!! Just my humble opinion of course! In my circles, it is called 'doing a Mary' because a fellow stitcher at my LNS stitching group had worked a LONG time on a beautiful piece, was nearly done, found a mistake NO ONE would ever notice, and CUT IT UP!! ALL of us would have taken it and finished it or fixed it, but she got so angry! So, now when we say we did a Mary, EVERYone knows we destroyed it or just threw it out! Well, that was fun... Hugs!

Rhona said...

I hate when you have problems like that...it just seems to be one thing after another! We've all had projects like this. Hopefully the rest of the stitching will be uneventful.

Tricia T said...

LOL! You poor dear! I hate it when I make a mistake like that. If you weren't a perfectionist, I'd say just finish it, cuz no one will notice, and then give it away so you don't have to look at it. : ) But rather than frogging the entire piece, I think I would just restart it. I think it's adorable!

Tricia

Dawn said...

Oh my goodness, I've got tears in my eyes laughing at the way you are able to put this into writing.
You truly have bad OCD friend. Try to have a great day Shirlee!

Vickie said...

Oh Shirlee! I just began a Valentine stitch last night, only to find out this morning it is all wrong. I will restart. But I just began. There is too much put into this one already. Fudge Shirlee. You can do it. C'mon, just try it! It would be better for your health!!(Maybe??)

Marsha said...

LOL - Really! I say, give it to whoever wants it - as is. Meaning, take it off those q snaps NOW. Stuff it in an envelope. Calmly get a new piece of linen and start again OR start something else entirely. Some pieces just seem to be cursed. I wonder if HS was having a bad day when they designed it. Anyway, good luck. This is supposed to be relaxing, right?

Pam in IL said...

Seems like there is always a design that causes so many problems. I hope you find a way to work around the mistake so you don't have to start over.

geeky Heather said...

Oh my gosh, you poor thing!!! I have done this same kind of thing before...the good news is, I can't remember on what piece! So when you are done with this lovely thing, you won't remember the pain.

Although, I did once throw a temari ball across the room into a brick wall. It was awesome. Very cathartic. Then I was able to calmly start over. (LOL!! Auto correct turned "calmly"-or whatever I typed-into "Valkyrie"!!)

Peggy Lee said...

Every once in a while I get a chart that has been cursed and no matter how carefully I count and recount, it always ends up "off". One time I had a little design like that and I got so frustrated I ran it through the paper shredder. I think I took pictures and blogged about it. Boy did I feel better! I sure did get some hateful comments though about how I was wasting perfectly good linen and threads. I figure since I paid for them it was my choice.
I wish you good luck with your cursed design.
You don't happen to have a paper shredder....do you?

Kath said...

OMG, there is actually someone else out there with stitching OCD like me! I feel your pain of having to rip stitching out repeatedly. I've now graduated to counting OCD....meaning I count multiple times to be sure I'm starting the next stitch in just the right spot especially when it's a border or part of the pattern that's not right next to the last stitch.
You did have me laughing at the end with the image of a new blog and craft for all of us. LOL Keep stitching..I can't wait to see it completed.

Judy said...

Gosh, I know exactly how you feel!! It usaully takes awhile to figure out even 1 stitch off. And it sure is aggravating.
I am sure it will all work out for you. In the meantime, the stocking design is super cute.

Judy heartland stitcher

Anne said...

I don't feel it's the right place or time to have a giggle, but your last 2 lines in your post sure made me giggle. Sorry!! I know exactly this problem, as I've done it myself. Get one thing frogged and fixed and start again and there's that little error somewhere else. yikes.... I hope the restitch works well for you and no more frogs hopping all over your stitching!! :)

Carol said...

Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through this "hobby" of ours, don't you, Shirley... I'll bet most of us who stitch are the perfectionist type and want things just right... Hang in there, my friend!!

Karen said...

Sorry to say, I laughed at the end, too!! Not at your dilemma but at the solutions...lol. I'm a relatively new to cross stitching and I just went through the same thing with Wee Santa 2011. I ended up 2 rows off in his beard, which is where I started, and didn't realize till I was working on his right arm. However, it taught me some valuable lessons...like I need to count up and down and not just across, AND the big one...I can leave it and adjust for it and no one will know unless I point it out. I read once, I don't know where, that the Amish leave a mistake in their quilts on purpose, because only God is perfect. That gave me a whole new perspective on my tendency toward perfectionism!

butterfly said...

Just read your post before , so your sewing really did go Along for the ride, ha.

Andrea said...

Oh dear.

Shirlee, do you photocopy your charts to use as a working copy and then highlight where you have stitched as you go along?

Have a good weekend.