Making Minutes Count
23 August 2005
As most of you may or may not know, I am currently a housewife. For the past two years this has been a very comfortable lifestyle for me and I have taken the opportunity to immerse myself in my stitching.
I have been able to track the time I spend on my projects by hours, not minutes, because up until this week when I sat down to stitch it would be for at least an hour at a time and could easily stretch into three or four. In fact, one more than one occasion I have literally spent the entire day stitching because I had nothing else to do that demanded my attention. On those occasions I found it tremendously satisfying to see how much progress I would make on a project in such a concentrated amount of time.
But times change: This week I started down a path that will in the coming three to four years transform my stitching time from something that I do to pass the day into a precious moments that will allow me to temporarily escape from my hectic schedule. However, at the moment I am a little perplexed on how to integrate my stitching into such a demanding schedule.
And though this is not technically this week’s SBQ (I have one already ready for tomorrow) I am actively soliciting the advice of my readers by asking how you manage your stitching time with your other obligations.
It isn’t that I don’t have other obligations: I do. However, at present the majority of my stitching is done during the day when hubby isn’t home so I don’t really feel that I am trying to juggle my stitching time with our time together.
Be that as it may, I know that most of you have far more obligations than I currently do; such as going to school, working, or raising families. Therefore you are required to balance your stitching time with your numerous other responsibilities and I just wonder how do you do it? If you stitch during “spare minutes” (like work breaks) how do you maximize your stitching time?
Because I am used to taking my time when I sit down to stitch, even if I have the project that I am working on kitted up and “ready to go” it seems like it sometimes takes me 10 or 15 minutes to settle down enough to get that first stitch into the fabric. Once I am settled I can do at least 25 full cross stitches in that amount of time, so how do I add those 25 valuable stitches to my project in this time rather than fondling my floss or searching for my needle? How can I make these minutes count?
No matter how crazy my schedule becomes, I am adamant that I will not give up my stitching or put it aside for an indefinite amount of time, so I want to get things under control before they get out of control!
