10:29 p.m. - 17 March 2003
N is for Needle
N is for Needle
My mother is not what is ordinarily thought of as a "crafty" person. She can sew, but she generally prefers to limit her sewing to repairing missing buttons – and even that can be a stretch sometimes. The only painting she ever does is on walls, and then it's all one color (except for the kitchen, but the effect she did in there is so subtle it's hard to notice at all). She would much rather be out in the shop, building the cabinets for the kitchen than arranging knick-knacks on the shelves. So how come she gave birth to three daughters who all cross-stitch?
Our neighbor in Wilmington cross-stitched, and she taught me how shortly before my sixth birthday. Well, she taught me the basics, anyway; it wasn't until much later that I discovered the row method of stitching, which was much faster than the random Xs I started out with. And it was even later that I discovered that all the stitches should cross the same way.
I tend to go in spurts with my stitching; I'll stitch every day for a couple of weeks, and then neglect it for a month. If I've got a specific deadline I'm trying to meet, I can go for a while. The sampler I stitched for my grandparents' 50th anniversary got done much more quickly than it would have otherwise because I had a way to get it back to them. Of course, the opposite holds true, too; I still have the sampler that I stitched for Nina's daughter because I don't know the next time I'll see her. Eventually, I'll get around to putting the names and birthdates of both her children on it, but I'm not holding my breath it'll get done anytime soon.
I have several projects that just need to be washed and framed, actually. I stitched a Snoopy Flying Ace for Lee that has been done for a couple of years. We won't even talk about the sampler that's dated 1989 that still hasn't been finished. Of course, there are projects nearly the same age that aren't even ready to be finished, either.
These days, I try to keep my attention span in mind when I choose projects. I've done tons of the little beaded ornaments from Mill Hill because I know I can finish them during a couple of nights in front of the TV. I tend to do a lot of stitching during football season because I can always use instant replay if I miss a play or two. It's much harder to stitch during basketball, because there aren't as many natural pauses, but I'll sure as hell be trying for the next couple of weeks. I don't think my beloved Blue Devils will go very far this year, but I never count them out. Even when they're down by 15 in the second half. And basketballs need a needle on the pump to be reinflated, so this is all still topical.
Actually, my stitching tends to reflect my life: I spend a lot of time just organizing it and moving things around, but little time actually doing what I'm supposed to do. I go at it fast and furious for a little while, and then drop it completely. I spend money I don't have on things I don't need. But mostly, and this is what I always tell people when they ask me how I could spend so much time making little bitty Xs on fabric: it teaches me patience. And that's always a lesson worth learning.
This has been an entry for AlphaBytes. I'm working my way through the alphabet backwards just because I can.
