September 3-5, 2008

It has been several days since my last post, but there was a reason (which I will get to later). First is an update on my arm:

I haven't been online much this week except to read and reply to email because I am still having alot of trouble with my arm. Not only am I having continued pain near the incision closest to my elbow, but also the bloodflow that was re-routed to supply the CryoVein has not redistributed to effectively supply the rest of my arm. Consequently I have large areas of tingling and/or numbness. Most of the time my hand and wrist are very cold because there isn't enough blood flowing through them. The lack of proper bloodflow has also caused the muscles in my forearm to tighten up when I use my hand and arm too much. The process of the bloodflow redistributing evenly throughout my arm could take several weeks. Until then, I will be limited as to how much I can do with my right hand and arm.




Now for a stitching suprise:
Followers of my blog may recognize this piece as Mount Coot-tha by Dinky-Dyes Designs. I started this at the beginning of July and became frustrated with it because I had to do so much frogging. Near the end of July, I decided to work on a smaller project for a "finish fix" and set MCT aside temporarily. As of Tuesday, two months had passed since my last finish, so I thought it was high time I completed something. There was just the border of MCT to work on so I knew it wouldn't take me long to get done. Walking away from this project was obviously the right thing to do because stitching went much better this time; there was not nearly as much frogging going on.
I took MCT with me when I went to get my dialysis treatment on Wednesday and made even more progress. I also stitched once I got home, as my arm allowed.

I didn't even turn the television on at all on Thursday because I was focused on completing MCT. It was a disappoint-ment that it wasn't done by Midnight, however, the last stitch went in at 2:05 Friday morning!

This is Finish #29 for 2008!
Once I got MCT put away I decided it was time to work seriously towards that "crazy" and "unrealistic" goal I set to complete 100 pieces this year. So far, I have 29 cross stitch, four pillows, two shams, and two Q-Snap covers, for a total of 37 pieces completed to date. That leaves 63 to go.

I wanted to work on some UFOs that are done except for the backstitching. First, I tried working on a bookmark that I started back in 2006. I don't have the chart anymore because I was so disgusted with all the quarter-stitches in the designs. I had to look through all my Stitch Bow storage binders to find the correct shades of purple and pink to complete this project. Unfortunately, I had to put the bookmark down because of the uncomfortable cramping in my right forearm and hand.


Next, I worked on Good Dog. I put it in my 3 1/2 inch spring hoop but I ran into the same problem: my hand couldn't hold the small hoop without cramping and Good Dog, too, was set aside once again.
Since I only have four months to finish 63 projects, they need to all be small. Therefore, I decided it was the perfect time to stitch one of my Doodles for Leftovers by Hob-Nobb Designs. I chose to start with God Bless America and changed out the fabric. I switched from the hand-dyed dark blue that the LNS included to some light blue opalescent Lugana from my stash. I chose Navy and Snowflake by WDW and Cranberry by GAST as my blue, white, and red. I hope to have this finished tomorrow so I worked on the border at dialysis and continued stitching once I returned home.