Happy Dance Part 2!

Oh happy day!! I finally finished the middle section of the China piece. Once I started backstitching on it, it went really fast. As hard as it was to stitch, I'm really glad I stuck with it. I think it turned out really well. Now that the middle section is finished, the rest of the cross stitching is going really well. I can honestly say I see the end. And getting so close to finishing this is making me excited about stitching other pieces. Maybe I'll dig out another UFO to finish.

Thoughts on a Movie

I've gotten bogged down again on the China piece. I've promised myself that as soon as I finish here, I will go in and stitch on it. I'm also going to try to keep up with this blog more often. That means some of what I blog about won't be cross stitch related but I hope it will be interesting.

I saw a very good movie over the weekend. Now I love a good action, end of the world movie. I'm really not into so-called chick flicks. Oh, I'll watch them at home but I usually won't go to see them in a theater. So this weekend Dave and I went to see District 9. It was just my kind of movie. Lots of action and aliens. Also lots of violence and raw language (which I do NOT like but when spoken with a South African accent it wasn't so easy to understand what they were saying). All this being said, I've been thinking about this movie all weekend. On the surface. it was humans vs. the aliens vs. big business. But on a deeper level, it really made me think about just who are the real monsters. Often we're afraid of people or things that we preceive are different from us. They may look different or sound different or act different. But strip off all the outer trappings, and I'll bet we'll find that they are just like us. They want a home or family or love. But we label them and try to push them aside so we can't see them. I know I'm guilty of it sometimes. From now on, when I'm tempted to do that, I'll try to remember District 9 and the lessons I've learned from it.

Happy, Happy Dance!

Yes! I'm happy dancing all over the house. I finally finished the cross stitching of the center section. I was bound and determined to finish it yesterday. I decided I just needed to suck it up and finish it. So I spent several hours just working on it and voila! It's done. I even managed to start the backstitching on it. That should go considerably faster than the cross stitching. I know, I know. Famous last words. But I can see the end. So let's boogie together and celebrate!

A Little MORE Progress

Ok, I feel like this piece has become my very own Sword of Damacles. It's just hanging over my head waiting to drop. It seemed so easy when I first started it. It never occcured to me to check and see just how many quarter stitches there were in that center section. No wonder the designer looked at me like I was stark raving mad. But I'm almost done with that area. After that it should be smooth sailing. I really would lke to finish it soon. I spent last Friday organizing my stash and found so many projects I want to work on. But I really, really feel obligated to get this one done first. Maybe that's my incentive to finish it. I can start a new one when I get this one done. Or at the very least, I can return to stitching on CDC or finish the Michael Powell design. I only have a little backstitching to do on it and when it's done, I have plans to frame the 3 I have stitched. So while the race is on today, I think I'll stitch a ittle.