Tuesday, May 3

&...because it's fun

I promised there would be a new pattern from me soon but there isn't one yet and I would like to explain why.  Not sure what happened but sometime, earlier this spring I lost my embroidery mojo a tiny bit. Only a tiny bit... On top of that  I also felt slightly pressurized to release a new pattern. Seeing that others make one pattern after another and my last pattern was months ago! I guess the final straw, was what happened to me a couple of weeks ago (I kind of wrote about it here) which took away any fun that was left in being creative.  So considering all this it was not strange that the pattern I was working on (not the one pictured!), was not coming along smoothly. I'm sure many of you would think it is lovely as it is but I don't want to put anything out there that I'm not 100% (or at least 95%) happy with....

So I put the pattern aside, even though I had been working on it for weeks, and it felt like a big relief! I sorted out my floss, went through my WIP's, dug up this small Ampersand embroidery and finished it! I also went through some older sketches I had made for patterns and found some nice new candidates for (smaller) patterns. After all that my embroidery mojo was back and I'm stitching away on a new pattern idea. Besides that, I also signed up for two fun embroidery projects.

One is the Phat Quarter Swap, I just had to play along this time because the theme of the swap is books! I also know from previous embroidery swaps that it's great for your creativity, even if you are simply following an existing pattern.  The other project, Embroidered Digital Commons, is a bit high brow, which is probably why I don't understand half of it, haha. Several groups are stitching terms from the Digital Commons. I'm in Mr. X. Stitch's group and we are stitching the term 'Fractal'. I was designated  to stitch the words 'In the same way'. I think I can do that!

Another thing that felt really good was opening my own shop (see previous post) with downloadable patterns. Hopefully I will be able to put something new in there soon (but I'm not promising anything!)...

7 comments:

  1. Glad you got your mojo back! That's one of the BEST things of embroidery (IMHO). A project can be put down for an hour or a year, and then picked back up & finished later (i.e. it doesn't "spoil"). :)

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  2. I had the same sort of problem the last few months. Maybe it was just something in the air!

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  3. I love your work. And am happy that your embroidery mojo is coming back. I almost signed up for the 'book' Phat quarter swap, but chickened out. I can't wait to start seeing the photos on flick of what everyone creats.

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  4. Yay for the re-born mojo!

    And wow, the digital commons project looks fabtastic! ... yippee! I'd love to take part so I've emailed em ... thank you for the link :)

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  5. Glad you have got your mojo back and are back in the game. Sometimes it helps to have a psychological break. I go off the boil too sometimes and am always in awe at those persistent crafters who churn out projects like theres no tomorrow, I envy their staying power but suffer horribley from crafters block sometimes.
    Not sure what the story is behind your post (sounds like you have had a bit of a troll bashing?) but keep your chin up and keep doing what you do because you are super awesome!

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  6. No way! That's the very same background fabric I used for my rainy day April stitchalong project! :)
    Funny! I love the ampersand.

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  7. Funniest thing! I lost my 'spark' for embr. for a little while recently also, but did not know the right word for that :) I thought a few times: This would never happen to Nicole!
    Since my 'spark' has just come back tonight, for my traced-out pattern (skater!), I thought I would check your blog, to cement the inspiration- thanks for your honesty..
    Little skater is out of season now, but her colours are ready, and she will come along :)
    Good luck to you- new store is lovely!

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