Thursday 25 August 2011

I'm So Excited!

My decision, taken a few days ago, to try and sell some of my crafts, has inspired me to get creative.  This is good, because I now feel that I have a bit of a purpose.  The day job is good, I still feel that I make a positive contribution there, but it's becoming a place where it is difficult to be really creative.  Senior management appear to be hell bent on turning everyone into clones and I have a real problem with that.

But anyway, I have set myself a goal to create one item per evening and I must say that I have not been successful ... yet! I attempted to complete the initial 'A' intending to have it stitched, back-stitched and bordered, ready to insert into a card blank.  I got as far as completing the initial and am partially round the border.  This is largely due to family demands on my time.  So a few lessons learned are:

1. Commence stitching only when dinner has been eaten and the after dinner coffee has been made
2. Check teenager requirements for the evening. Is there rugby training? Does he require running to the latest party? Will he need help with college projects?
3. The dog MUST be fed first or else concentration will be broken by incessant whining. Drooling also not a friend to embroidery.

Then and only then should I make a start, because there is nothing worse than doing a few stitches and having to put your work down to do something else, then having to find your place in the pattern again.  I need a good solid amount of time in which to work.  If we had the space I would love a room of my own, where I could leave all my crafty things out and where I could sit and stitch for a couple of hours.  I would have an uber comfortable chair and leave the radio tuned to my favourite 80's station.  Bliss!

Anyway, I have also noted that a lot of time last night was spent unpicking a border that I started to stitch from memory, having used it lots of times on cards, only to find that it wouldn't work out symmetrically with my initial.  I ended up trawling through my designs to find a suitable border for my initial letter. So I have resolved to spend a few evening with graph paper and pencil, working out designs and borders so that I can just go ahead and stitch with speed and confidence and not have to work out a border on the fly. 

I'm also planning on setting aside one evening to make card bookmarks.  I have a tried and tested design and so plan to make many and just vary the colour.  I made these a few years ago for people in a calligraphy group I was a member of and they went down well. Easy peasy to make up so I should be able to stockpile quite a few in readiness.

Now, should I go back to crochet and stitch my granny squares into a blanket?  How many squares make up a blanket?  Not sure I have that many ....

To anyone reading this, have you ever attempted to sell your 'makes'?  I would be interested in hearing your experiences.

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