In my part of the world we say you are a fool if your passion for a pursuit overcomes all practical sense. I am a stitching fool, and I stitch foolishness.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Mutter, mutter

There has been a very small amount of needlework accomplished around here.

Isabella has her hem stitched:


Now she needs to be washed and pressed.

My lunchtime-at-work project has also been completed:


This, too, needs to be washed and blocked.

And I started a new crewel project for lunchtime-at-work:


Meanwhile, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed.

I have piles of projects I would like to start. I have way more UFOs than I am comfortable having. And the top of the auxiliary finishing basket won't close.

The problem is that I can't decide what I want to work on. Sometimes having too many options is worse than having too few.  I've spent a couple of weeks picking things up and putting them down without feeling a strong desire to work on any of them.

One of my professors in grad school said that when you can't make a decision, ask yourself, "what do I really want?"

And, as I was writing this, it occurred to me that what I really want is to have an empty bag, basket, box, or bin. I just want to have stuff done.  I doubt I'll pick one container and work my way to the bottom, but it would be a start.

So the thing I'm going to mull over now is determining what bag, basket, box, or bin is nagging at me most. And as soon as I get home from work tomorrow, I'm going to pull something--who knows what--out of whatever bag, basket, box, or bin I decide to tackle. And I am going to work on that something until I get it done.




4 comments:

  1. Lovely finishes and your new start is very pretty. Best of luck with getting some of those WIPs finished off. I hope your plan of action works well for you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to see you're feeling better and picking up your needle. Isabella is lovely and the crewel piece brought back memories. I stitched that for my grandmother eons ago.I'll send you a photo. Hope you have a relaxing weekend and pick a fabulous piece to work on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations on your finishes! Your lunch time start looks good. If you are in the mood to finish finish something, I say pick from that. If not, pick something that is close to being finished. Sometimes, that helps to jumpstart your desire. Whatever you choose, enjoy the weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad to see your post - have been thinking about you. Getting stuff done - an admirable idea and I shall look forward to seeing what you pick up. The lunchtime crewel work is beautiful.

    Don't know if rotations work for you (they're not an effective way for me to work), but I found a variation on rotations a number of years ago that might help with the things that need to be finished. Make a list of ... maybe the 10 things you decide have the highest priority. Beside each item, draw a row of boxes (helpful to have them grouped in 4s). Each box represents 15 minutes work. Work down the list, working on each item for a minimum of 15 minutes, but for as long as you want (the original said no more than one hour but I ignored that part about half the time), just remember to check off a box for each 15 minutes of effort. No skipping projects on the list. This helped me work on things I wanted to finish but had lost interest in, if that makes any sense.

    ReplyDelete