The Zen of It All

The other night I finished the design for the lid for Behold Thy Beauty.

And then I immediately started planning out my attack on the panels that will make up the sides of the purse/box/basket thing that will hold everything else.

The calendar was consulted and the number of potential hours available to stitch this extensive section calculated. I was getting really close to running time tests when sanity returned.

I stitch for pleasure. I stitch for stress relief. I stitch for the joy of taking thread and needle and creating something that it will make me happy to give or to own or to display in my home.

Needlework is not a competitive sport, at least not to me. I do it because I love it. I talk about it and blog about it because it's brought me into a group of other people who are also as fascinated by this art as I am.

So I sat myself down and had a conversation about how deadlines and time tests are for work.  If I make this unpleasant by imposing both on this project, I will not enjoy one minute of the stitching or owning the finished project.

This is where I am today on the first band.  I am back to enjoying the process. Not surprisingly, I'm making much faster progress than I would have it I'd stressed about it.

I'm going to take the same approach to blogging. I've been so concerned about deadlines for the past few months that the blog has suffered from neglect. I've missed it, so I'm giving myself permission to spend time writing about stitching. I think I'll enjoy both stitching and blogging that way.

Now, with a lovely long afternoon ahead, I'm going to decide what I want to marathon on TV and stitch for awhile.