Around and around we go

I'm happy to report that the border is complete and that it came together properly. We are progressing. Still much remains to be done. Today I'll go to the LNS to pick up the other models and see if any of them require sprucing up. That may be the big job for the weekend beyond the remaining printing. As usual, I have to balance Superbowl Sunday with Nashville preparations. T-minus 9 days and counting. One of these days (I keep promising myself) I will be completely organized well in advance of all these tradeshows. Someday. :)

Production and productivity

This weekend, my home turned into a cross-stitch pattern manufacturing plant:

Phase one is almost done, which includes production of samples of all currently available patterns. Phase two is started, as I cut the foam core for two models that have to be stretched. Then the prototype patterns have to be developed, photography of the models has to take place, and finally pattern production of the new designs can take place as well. One of those models has a small snag:

As you can see from the needle on the left side of this picture, the model is not quite done yet! And for some reason, it is not stitching itself! Actually, it is quite close to being done, so there is no need to panic yet.

Nashville, 10 days and counting.

Busy days

Again, I have been delinquent in posting. Which I know I shouldn't be, because I love reading new blog entries in other people's blogs, so when I neglect my own, I am breaking the circle.

So here is a brief synopsis of the past two weeks. The weekend before last, I spent travelling to Baton Rouge. I had a grand time, celebrating a belated birthday with my folks, and shopping for Saints shirts after their playoff win. The whole weekend, we were anticipating the arrival of the big cold front (the one that brought all of those ice storms), but it didn't come and didn't come. When I left Monday morning it was 74 degrees. However, we were on the verge of the front, because by the time I got to the Mississippi River bridge, it was 64 degrees! Here's what the cold front looked like in Louisiana:

The reason for my trip to Louisiana was a very important one. Mocha the cat had spent the Christmas holidays at her Grandmother's house and it was time for her to come home:

She travels very well and although she enjoyed her stay in Baton Rouge (it was better than being boarded after all), she was happy to be going home.

Beyond the trip to Baton Rouge, the past two weeks have been a blur of stitching, cleaning, stitching, laundry, being slightly sick, stitching, and more stitching. Can you tell the madness of Nashville Market is fast approaching?

Nashville Nashville Nashville. Okay, I can officially go crazy now. New packaging bags arrived yesterday and my ink shipment will arrive today. Two models are pressed and ready to be stretched and mounted. One more is at a model stitcher. Yes, I am still frantically stitching on the Ancient World Sampler - 10 points to the person who guessed that it is Mayan - you are correct! Unfortunately Mayan glyphs are slightly more complicated than the other alphabets in the other samplers, which means they take multiple colors and backstitching. I have all 20 glyphs stitched and only 5 glyphs left to backstitch. Then the border to finish,the center columns, and the quote. And less than two weeks. Plus production of all the other charts to do. This is the life of a designer. But, it is looking really cool. Must stitch.

A Series of Misadventures

My first post back from the holidays was supposed to be chock full of pictures - a photologue of all the places that the cross-stitch went in two weeks. Instead there is a series of misadventures and you'll have to use your imaginations.

First, imagine sunny and very windy South Texas. When I say South Texas, I'm talking the Rio Grande Valley here. Christmas was the usual events: MIL put the turkey in the oven, then we all went to midnight mass; next day we got up and packed everything up to take it to Brownsville (about an hour away) - so the cross stitch visited Brownsville. The days after Christmas were a series of shopping events (amid other get togethers): shopping in Mercedes, Harlingen, McAllen and finally Brownsville. Alas, I forgot to take pictures until trying to go to Brownsville, which is when I discovered that the battery on the digital camera was dead. I took some fun pictures of the cross stitch and the Gulf of Mexico with my cell phone on the drive back.

On the 30th, we returned home, and on the 31st we packed for a trip to Denver, which is when I discovered that I had left the digital camera on the back seat of MIL's car. D'oh.
On the 1st we arrived in Denver, tired from staying up too late to celebrate the New Year, but not too tired to not go sledding. We borrowed FIL's camera and took the cross stitch to Aspen. We also had fun hiking in the Garden of the Gods and visiting the Denver Botanical Gardens at night (they had lots of Christmas lights up). Our last night in Denver, I discover that (1) my cell phone is missing and (2) FIL's computer is being difficult about burning the pictures we took to CD.

So, the cross stitch visited lots of interesting places, and I took pictures to show on the blog, but the pictures from the cell phone are permanently lost, and the other pictures will show up someday when the other pictures get burned to CD. On the other hand, I had lots of fun in snow - I even cleared a driveway (half shovel, half snow blower).

Progress was made on the Ancient world sampler, but not as much as I wanted - too many "family events" going on and not enough stitching time. I have replaced my cell phone, so I no longer feel lost.