The Third Quadrant

Have you ever misjudged a project so completely that it is laughable that you ever thought you would finish? 

I have.  And right now I am in the Third Quadrant of that project.

Behold:

The most complicated cross-stitch of all time

Actually, I have a history of underestimating the amount of effort associated with a project.  Like when I decided to organize my parent's photographs into albums for their 30th wedding anniversary; a project that I assumed would take a long weekend to accomplish.  Two months later I had finally waded out from underneath the sea of pictures in our living room.  Then there was the time I chose to make all of our wedding programs.  They turned out great, but only after a few tantrums (by yours truly), nearly throwing our printer out the window and a few nights of me, Jon and both of my parents tying tiny blue bows on the top of each program.  Luckily, Jon stopped my little project binge before I tried to make my own place card holders out of wine corks for all of the guests at our reception - a project that I realize now would have sent me over the edge. 

I have yet to learn the art of project time estimation.  Then came the cross-stitch.

I purchased the pattern back in October with the perfect plan.  Begin work in October, complete one "quadrant" per month of actual cross-stitching, spend one month on the detail stitching and the french knots and have a few weeks left for framing so that my beautiful finished product could be proudly displayed on our nursery wall when we brought Gretchen home from the hospital.

Let's take a closer look.  Notice the unholy number of colors; the browns, the grays, don't even get me started on the purples.  Each color has at least three intensities, examples: very light gray green, light gray green & gray green; all distinctly different. 

Update:  It's been six months since I started and I'm just beginning the Third Quadrant.  That's right.  I'm not even HALFWAY done. 

New timeline:  Finish the Disney princess cross-stitch before our daughter is old enough to decide that Disney princesses are for babies.  Plan B:  Have another daughter.  Preferably in 4-6 years, which is when I imagine this project will be complete. 

Because, let's be real, this little princess isn't exactly leaving me with loads of free time to sit around and work on my needlepoint.

One Month Old!