Hot Tips

A really, really darling friend of mine became a dad on Friday (9 days early). I've been working on a baby blanket for the little one, but as you may have picked up, I'm much better at starting projects than finishing them. BUT I'm wild about this friend, and come heck or high water, the darn blanket is getting done.

SO, here are the things that are working today:

1. If I pack enough paraphernalia into a canvas sack, and hole up in an unused meeting room during my lunch hour, I can get much more done than I do at home. At home, I have the attention span of a gypsy moth. Hot tip #1: Craftiness over my lunch hour is great, because it's a mental break from work without leaving the building, and I get WAY more done.
2. I used a silver marking pencil to plan out where I was going to embroider flowers on the gingham side of my blanket. I got about a quarter of the way through this when I realized it would be just as effective, and much smarter, to mark the back of the cloth. And then I realized how hard it is to use a fabric eraser on flannel. Hot tip #2: If I blog the pencil with clear packing tape, the marks come right up, and they don't screw with the nap of the fabric!

Progress has been made! If I can just reconcile myself to the fact that it isn't going to be perfect, and that it's good to do it anyway, we'll be all set.