So I did that thing I shouldn't do where I started a new pattern. Oops. In my defense, I was gifted the full kit so it's hard NOT to start a new project when you have all the fabric and floss, right? Right.

In my previous post I said I would work on the Legendary Creatures Alphabet until it was done. That was the plan. Until I made a mistake in it, had to frog most of my work, and got frustrated. Deciding I needed a break from it, that's when I started the Surprise Stitching.

I also created a projected stitching queue, which I've posted on the upper left side of this blog. This queue is the plan, anyway. We'll see what the actuality is.

The other thing is I lost track of my timer so this is way more than 10 hours of work. Oh well!

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This is the Super Size Max Color version of the chart - 104 pages, 238 colors, 699,300 stitches, and the finished product will be just under 40"W by 28"H. H³ saw me stitching it (remember, he doesn't know what the finished product will look like) and asked me if it was my "magnum opus." I mean, probably not because I have a few SSMC patterns at this point. But I like a big impossible challenging piece. The picture above has 5 colors in it so far, even though you can't tell. I'm really having a great time stitching it - it's a really good balance of blocks of color and confetti, which keeps it interesting.

I also really love having a kit and might just do that going forward for any pattern I start - order the kit from HAED (if it's a HAED, of course). There's something satisfying about having the set amount of thread and watching it disappear as you stitch a piece, being left with nothing (or scraps), and knowing the rest won't go to waste because it was all used.

In other events, I've been quiet on the blogging front because I've not only been working a lot but we also went on vacation for a few weeks in October. We celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary in Vienna, spent a day or so in Dürnstein, then went on to Krakow and Warsaw. It was a great trip, very relaxing, and I certainly didn't want to come back. But I didn't take any stitching with me so, in a way, I was glad to come back so I could stitching again.

So here we are. It's NaNoWriMo this month so I'm juggling between that and stitching. This is the first time I've ever been on track with my NaNo word count so I'm hoping to keep on top of it, but I go back and forth between writing and stitching throughout the day on the weekend. It keeps me motivated and prevents me from getting burned out on one or the other.

For all of you out there, happy stitching!