Stitching...

It's been a good week.  I brought order once again to the room where I store craft materials.  And I have settled on yarn in my stash for a new Dahlia blanket to begin when the mood strikes.

Feeling a desire to bring a little discipline to my crafting, and wanting to finish some languishing cross stich and embroidery projects, I decided it was time to do just that.

Being the perfect temperatures lately to spend time in the sunroom, I set up a little corner to work in.

I may end up moving to the other end of the room as it cools off because the three large windows at the far end of the room are south-facing and that spot warms up some on sunny cool days.

But for at least another week or so, this spot I've set up overlooking the backyard, and pretty changing colors is where I'll park myself to work on this on-going cross stitch sampler.

If you've been a reader here for more than a couple of years, this project is the infamous mystery sal that I decided to jump into in 2020.  It was a free offering by Linen and Threads, and it was to be my "covid piece".   As we're approaching the end of 2024, I'm happy to say I'm about half-way finished with it.  I might just finish this before the decade is over!

Last week, I set myself a goal of working on this project for at least 30 minutes every day that I could.  I managed to stitch three - maybe four - days, and, of course, once I started, I kept stitching beyond 30 minutes.  

Progress

~~~~~

Another project I pulled out is a slow stitching scrappy thing I started last autumn.  

After a few hours of stitching, I concluded that I really don't like it.  At all.  I'm not even going to sew on the buttons.  Before you tell me it's not that bad, let me assure you, it looks better in the picture than it does in real life.

That said, I'm deciding it wasn't a waste of time.  It may be the first time I've embroidered something based on an idea and a sketch I've made.  

So that was kind of satisfying - even if my embroidered rendition looks more like house centipedes than wheat stalks.  If you're unfamiliar with house centipedes, look it up.  

And I think I've concluded I'm not all that into frayed edges on stitched pieces - even if they look cute when others do them.  I loved stitching up a small kawandi a few months ago, and I enjoyed the scrappy nature of that, so maybe I'm just happier with finished edges.  And prettier colors.  

I'll try my hand at scrappy slow stitching some other time, but I think the next stalled WIP I'll turn to is something more predictable - like cross stitch, or embroidering a printed design.  It sounds a little boring perhaps, but my brain will appreciate the break from second guessing the multitude of choices that are involved in a scrappy project.

Until next time...

Handwork...

I am now three quarters of the way through my chemotherapy, am climbing out of some rough days after my last treatment, and I am starting to feel some new motivation.  

I'm at a place I couldn't even imagine being just a couple of weeks ago.  On my good days I do fairly normal things, am sometimes out around people (though I do have to be smart about that with a compromised immune system), looking perfectly fine...   Halfway through a chemo cycle, if you didn't know I'd had chemo 10 days prior, you wouldn't know!   That said, I have lacked any real motivation for getting back to a lot that is normal for me.  In this post, I'm referring to hobbies I used to enjoy.  I see them sitting there and I want to want to do them, but I have lacked the motivation to actually do them.  Things like crafting, embroidery, cross stitch, slow drawing (if you don't know what that is, think of it as purposeful doodling)...  

But something seems to be changing inside me, and I am so thankful for it.  I've even begun to consider taking up sewing again - like maybe clothing.  I haven't sewn clothing since...   Wow - how long has it been?   I made some maternity clothes 29 years ago.  And I made some flannel pajamas for our boys when they were little.  Okay, I've sewn here and there over the years.   Craft projects, even home projects have seen me sitting at the sewing machine.  While it was over a decade ago, youngest son would benefit each semester from my sewing skills when he needed a costume (usually something adapted from the thrift store) for a high school drama he was in.  My sewing machine has always been fairly handy, but I don't think I've sewn an article of clothing in 20 - 25 years.  

I know what has piqued my interest.   Greg has recently posted some old pictures to a family Facebook group, and in two pictures I recognized I'm wearing things I made when I was young.  In fact...  just for fun, here is a scan of a newspaper clipping of young me sewing a 4-H project.  I remember the reporter coming over to interview me and take my picture for the 4-H Fair supplement for the local paper.  Recognizing the Mickey Mouse t-shirt, I'm getting jr. high vibes, so I suspect I was around 12 or 13:

ETA 3 years later:  Wait a minute...  the description above says I was sewing a division 1 project, and I know that would have been an apron, and I would have just finished 4th grade.  Which means I would have been 10!  You know...  I do think that's right because I got glasses around 4th/5th grade, and the fact that I'm not wearing glasses makes me think I was younger than jr. high age.  I just saw a picture of 13-year old me, in my wire-rimmed granny glasses, and I was definitely older than the picture above.

So, anyway...  I provide this as proof that I used to be a sewer.  Or maybe the better word is sewist.  A maker of garments.  Seeing pictures of things I had made (and me wearing them) made me think of other pieces of clothing I've made in years' past.  These pictures and memories sparked something inside of me.

Okay...  I'm not sure about getting back to sewing clothing for sure.  I'm just dreaming at the moment.  But dreaming feels good.  And a little doing recently has done me good.

It's funny what can come along and push us out of our inertia when we are struggling with motivation.  With cooler weather right around the corner I've started looking at my clothes to see what still fits me at this point, what can take me through fall and winter, and what might benefit from some simple altering.  I found a few tops that, by altering the neckline, should be very comfortable and decent looking for me to wear.  And I'm so surprised at what has happened.  Simply putting thread to needle, and doing the easiest of clothing alterations has inspired me to want to do more handwork.  

It led me to pick up another needle and thread and start working on my Quaker Sampler again.  

I don't know how many times I can show a picture of this sampler in progress before losing all credibility that I'll ever finish it.  But I don't care.  I'm back at it for now.

And I've even gotten some ideas for hand-stitched Christmas ornaments - some "scrappy" slow-stitching kind of projects. 

This is actually a fairly ambitious project (for me), and if I'm being completely honest, I'm a tiny bit scared I'll not follow through.  Wish me well that I have enough gumption to get it started, let alone finished.   

I am so relieved to be feeling motivated again to play with fabric and thread.  To just be dreaming of things I want to make is quite the improvement.

There is nothing wrong with setting aside activities, even abandoning them completely as life changes, but that's not what I wanted.  I have wanted for so long to get back to making things - really, since our move nearly two years ago I haven't been overly motivated to do handcrafts.  And this year, with all the cancer business, my zeal for "making" has just been completely zapped.   I'm feeling relieved that something seems to have changed in me.   

I'm curious...  What do you do when you find your motivation for favorite activities waning?