Cross-stitch: Too much progress?

Believe it or not, it's been a month since we last posted any cross-stitch photos. It's time for a few photos so you can see how things are going and it's time for some reflection too. As you can see from the photos, Susan has been working quite a bit on the project. Perhaps too much? There were a couple of weeks where it seemed like she had little time to work on it, but then suddenly a lot got done.

Now this has us asking a completely unexpected question. Is it possible for there to be too much progress on the project? This probably seems like a very odd question. You may be wondering, wouldn't it be best to finish the piece before the adoption? Surely it would helpful to complete it before we have all the excitement (and chaos) that a baby will bring into our lives. Then it would be a simple matter of adding the child's name and birth date and framing the piece which sounds like it could be done fairly easily, even with an infant on the scene.

Progress as of 7/20/12. The "A is for Alligator" block is moving along nicely.

You can see it's far from finished and there's still a lot of work to be done. We calculated it would take about 18,400 stitches to finish the piece (not including back stitches and French knots). Susan clearly hasn't gotten that far. There's another six full blocks and a border around all the blocks to be done, plus all the finishing details. We haven't counted stitches, but there's probably at least another 10,00 stitches to go.

So why would we be concerned the project is moving too fast? The answer is our expectations. While Susan enjoys cross-stitching, we expected she'd give the project a go and then have to put it down after the first or second block once we adopted. Of course, this would likely mean that the project wouldn't get done until our child was 17? 18? 19? Who knows, but it wouldn't be quick once we adopt and have new responsibilities.

John Lennon said that "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." In our case, it's cross-stitch that's happening (and other stuff too). We'll hang in there and enjoy the ride, but we'll also keep hoping we're just another block away from bringing our child home.

"C is for Cat" is done except for the finishing touches.

"A is for Alligator" still needs work, but not all that much.