Sunday, November 05, 2006

Stalled out on Jacobean

Any of you out there recovering perfectionists?

So I was making great progress on Jacobean. Then comes the part of the pattern to do the embellishments.

Ok, I've dabbled in quilting, cross-stitch, garment making but I'm totally frustrated trying to hand sew on the freakin' stem stich thingy's.

I know. Felting blurs the lines. The beauty of felting is that it doesn't have to look perfect before you do the felting. I haven't taken this out of its basket in over two weeks because I can't face the stem stitch. The stem stitch has me cowering and working on something easy (get it, EZ - Elizabeth Zimmermann? See my post on Friday)

The other part of my recovering perfectionist brain says: "Naomi. This looks beautiful. When it is felted it will be YOUR piece of art. So you did things a bit differently which makes this truly YOUR creation."



I start thinking...just leave it. Then I take the photo of it and think...no, some of those stem stitches look like sh&*.

I'm at the decision point. Do I take some of the ones I think are truly heinous, out and re-do them or do I practice my ability to "Let go"?

Funny thing. I think it is a "sign". I'm listening to my iTunes. As I'm writing about what I should do this CD comes on. It is a CD I bought while I was in Fiji. Its island music and the men singing are the ones that entertained us every night before dinner. It reminds me how laid back they are as a people and a culture. This kind of thing would not be getting any Fijian in a snit. Let it go.

3 comments:

Karen said...

Felting is going to shrink the bag overall, and so I do believe that those stem-stitch lines are going to compress and look more graceful. (They don't look all that bad in the photo.)Stems are part of nature, and in the natural world, they might be bent, jointed, knotty . . . (even before the Weed-Whacker gets to them).

bizyhands said...

It looks better than anything I could ever knit! You're right, Naomi: time to let go.
Love-Terry

Jamie said...

Girl remember you are always your worst critic and this looks beautiful!