Bulgarian Souvenirs

Since they're all to the people we gave them to, I can now show you the souvenirs we picked up in Bulgaria. Everything here, altogether, was very inexpensive. I kept the books. My companion kept the copper bowl.

By far, the most expensive thing we bought was this copper bowl. It's fairly large, and I just fell in love with it. It'll get used, too.

These are just some little things. The wooden bottle on its side has rose oil inside. Attar of roses is a major Bulgarian export. Who knew? The barrel can opener just feels good in your hand when you use it. It went to my husband.

More of the Middle

I got more color done in the middle and some of the variegated edging done, too. I like the colors I've got on this and hope to get it done by the end of June.

Fencing It In

Since I had two anchor points, I decided to work more on the border lines between the eggs. I'll be working more on both the lines and the side egg next week.

My First Over One Finish

I had a finish this last week and it's my first finish over one. This is the Petite Monogramme aux Griottes from Rouge du Rein. I'll be making it into a tiny biscornu scissors fob, I think.

How I Rotate...

I've gotten some comments asking how I do this, so I'll post. It works for me; I don't know if it'd work for anyone else, but... here goes. Everything changes when I travel, too, and gets discombobulated, so that's one reason things get out of order sometimes. This is how I set it up when I got home from Kosovo at the end of April.

First, I get a sticky note pad with ten lines on it. I write down the project I am currently stitching until I have ten projects on the list. Each project gets two needles-ful of stitching done. Sometimes I'll fudge and do a bit more, sometimes a very little bit less. I do try to keep at least that much on each project. It's enough to see progress on it.

So, ten projects that I go through from top to bottom and keep going through until one's done. When one is done, I tear off that sticky note and write a new one with all the same projects except the completed one and then add a new one to the bottom. Adding a new one is my reward. Right now, I'm alternating between adding completely new projects when I finish one and old UFO's.

I also try to work extra on a project every day. Since I've been so behind on the stitchalongs, I've been doing them. I do two needles-ful of that project until it's done, or in the case of the stitchalongs, I've completed a section.

Then there are the crazy quilt round robin blocks. Because they're on a fairly short turnaround, I tend to put aside a day a week to work on them. Usually, that day is Sunday. I tend to work on that until I'm done or until I get too tired of it. When I do, I'll put it aside for the day and pick it up as the daily item until it's done.

I doubt this makes sense to anyone else, but it's how I've been doing things for several years now, at least.

Browning it Out

Next to the cream colored building, I've been stitching a dark brown one this week. I'll be working on it next time, too. This side is coming along pretty well, and I might make my goal of finishing it by the end of summer - then three more sides. I swear I'll get this done! It's only been in my rotation three years now.

Flag's Done

This week, I finally finished the last bit of red at the bottom of the flag. This means the flag's done. Now I've got more skirt to do and then the bottom flourish. It's getting close; I feel like finishing the flag's a pretty big milestone.