My cross-stitch LiveJournal community did a stitch olympics to coincide with the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. So here we go!

The event: The Diaper-Fundraiser
Bronze Medal: Finish 2 mini photo albums
Silver Medal: Finish 4 mini photo albums
Gold Medal: Finish 6 mini photo albums (one is a double)

The preparation (Feb. 9)

Here's the stash! I've got the copied pattern, an extra sheet of 10-count plastic canvas, my scissors, my needle (in the pvc case - don't ask where you can get it: it was made for my not-so-LNS and they don't sell them anymore), my gripper for pulling needles that I can't get a good hold of, each project in little snack bags, and the floss for most of the projects. Yes, the ones on the extreme right are DMC rayon floss. I've never used it before, but it looked so PRETTY that I had to use them!

Progress (2/10 morning)

Front complete, dark color for back complete. I'm waiting on some clarification for the inner and construction colors, so I'll skip ahead to another one for a little bit.

Progress (2/10 afternoon)

Progress (2/11 afternoon)

I got the dark color on the front with the rayon done, then decided it wasn't worth the effort. The rayon is is a little thicker than the cotton floss, so it was harder to get onto the needle (in fact, I broke the eye of my needle in half trying to get the floss threaded with a metal needlethreader). It also kinked and knotted like heck, and also snags. So, I tried.

While the baby took a 1-hour nap, I started on a black&white album. I'm kind of skipping from one to another in spurts.

I'll wait for the weekdays to post pictures, I think. The camera at work is much better than my camera.

Progress (2/16 evening)
Bronze awarded!

Well, I've been home all week (except Tuesday) and will be home again tomorrow. Mom's sick, so I'm watching the baby. My camera *really* doesn't take good up-close shots, so I'll have to wait until next week to take photos at work.
But I've earned my bronze! The teal and pewter-grey album is complete, and so is a black and white one. The blue is nearly complete, and if the baby will take a long nap tomorrow I should be able to finish it. But here are the shots that came out so-so.

This album is a variant. The pewter gray is also used as the inside overcasting of the photo frames. The silver ribbon is the closest I could get to either color (and is closer to the pewter than it looked in the store - go figure), and is a tad wider than called for. But I find that easier to tie...

This album is a variant. I was so caught up in doing the black on the front, back and spine, that I did the tent stitching around one frame before I realized that I'd done it in black! So I decided that the frames whipstitched to the front and back would be in black, and the inner double frame would be white.

Progress (2/20 evening)

One album towarrds Silver! This is for a co-worker.

Progress (2/23 evening)

Silver achieved! This is for a co-worker's wife.