Working Ahead and Behind

I am still working on a Christmas present for my sister. Thanks to Covid our Christmas plans to be together were scrapped, giving me an extra month to finish her present. At the rate I am going I will be lucky if I finish it in that time. I won’t say what it is or show a photo because I still want it to be a surprise, but it is taking up all my time right now, not giving much time to do anything else that I could blog about.

Today I took a little break from working on that present to go and get supplies for my next year needlepoint gifts for my two needlepoint exchanges. I am designing my own ornaments for those friends so I really just needed blank canvas, but while I was there and Chapel Hill Needlepoint was having her annual 25% off sale I treated myself to more canvases than I really need. But need is never the right word when describing needlepoint.

I want to go ahead and get my exchange ornaments done as soon as I finish my sister’s gift so that I won’t have to worry about getting them finished in time for Christmas. You think I am crazy, but with Pandemic living needlepoint finishers have more work than they can handle. I tried to finish an ornament myself and it was a horrible mess. I know where my skill lie.

In the last few years I did a good job of working down my needlepoint stash, but I am afraid with my haul today I am back up to an unreasonable amount. I need to stitch almost as much as I did the year I finished 63 ornaments.

I must admit I hate working behind and much more prefer to be done with things way in advance. That means I need to start inventing what other gifts I can make for my family for Christmas now. It’s not the making that is hard, but the inventing what to make. I need something that is fast if I am going to do all this needlepoint for myself.