Thursday 7 November 2024

Process or Goal Oriented?, Slow Stitching Always

The late October warmth meant still more flashy blooms into early November. Like the Hardy Rose Mallow. 
The center structures are so interesting too. I was surprised to see stamens and pistils here. What would you label this stunning colour? 
I've been visiting the pond at dusk to see if I can catch sight of my mystery animal that might be a muskrat. The skies are always interesting at those times of day. I was hoping the pink tinges would show stronger. But it nicely captured the trees' reflections in the water. 
Inside, I've turned to my Year at Hawk Run Hallow to add more stitches. I'm working on the Dog Days of August block and have made considerable progress since showing it last in April. That tree is massive!
And I've appliqued four more of the Everglade blocks. Staying with the original fabric choices of autumn kind of colours and fabrics.
I often stitch to Flosstube on YouTube. My favourites are folks who share both cross stitching and quilting. I grabbed this screenshot of Olivia and one of her autumn quilts that combines piecing and applique. 
Her channel is called Pumpkin Hollow Quilts and I've shared it before. Here is her Quilty show where she shares her beautiful autumn quilts.
 Process or Goal Oriented?

I was lamenting to my phone friend that I seem to just want to do all the fiddly bits with my projects, that I don't take the pleasure I should in finishing, in having a completely finished item, which is the goal of course. Truthfully there is a small part of me that doesn't want to finish any stitchy thing...I'd love to be handing it off to someone else to fully finish.

 I began to think this was a kind of laziness or being slack which defied the fact that I'm undaunted by who knows how many hours of slow stitching I put into some of these EPP and cross stitch projects. And love every minute of it.  My friend said there's no conundrum here.. that's easy to explain, you're a process person. The fun for you is in the details, not the overall outcome. That gave me pause- I'd never heard of this and of course, I had to check it out. Read Quin's article here that gave me more idea of what being a process person means and it definitely applies to me. I could think of several things that I engage in that are process rather than goal oriented. The slow stitching for one, loving the details of macro photographs, the love of sorting syllables when writing a bit of poetry. I used to joke I'm a person who sees the trees, definitely not the forest. And sometimes I will miss something big because I'm focusing on the tiny details.  It might even apply to how I always thought I was strange because I love baking...mixing the ingredients, etc. but when it's put in the oven, I'll forget about it and need a timer reminding me. 

I guess the ideal is to land right in the middle of that process/ goal scale where finishings would be just as enjoyable as the starts. I wish! 

Funny how you think you're unique or the only one with some affliction of whatever sort-medical, mental, physical, emotional, etc. and then find out it is an actual documented thing shared by many. We are never as alone as we may think. So do I have fellow travelers like myself whose journey is all about the stops and the smelling of the roses and that tiny little leaf you spy too?