The Thing That Ruins Everything

What’s in the bag, you ask?

Oh, it’s just the thing that ruins everything else. Inside this bag is something that’s been nagging me for literally years. What is it? What is this thing that follows me to work and back while I promise myself that today I will work on it on my lunch break?

It’s a table runner. A 70%-done table runner I bought to embroider when we lived in our first condo in Tennessee. I worked on it, and then I got a job, and then we moved, and then I got a promotion, and then I had a baby, and then I got a big girl job, and welp, here we are.

And here’s the thing, if I don’t finish it, I’ll never be able to move on to the next project. I can’t, in good conscience, let a project that’s 70% percent finished languish in the project box while another one gets started. Because, I won’t finish the new one, either. And then I’ll have two unfinished projects in the project box. Imagine me in some kind of trippy 70’s montage falling down a giant “unfinished projects” rabbit hole and then into some kind of tornado made of embroidery floss.

Does anybody else do this? Force yourself to finish one thing before tackling the next? Is it a result of your personality or self-training? I’m pretty sure I used to do a hundred things at once, but now I don’t have the brain space to have 15 open projects.

I started embroidering when I realized how expensive throw pillows and throw pillow covers were. It seemed like a logical first step to making my own (why sewing wasn’t that first step, I’ll never know). I got real good real fast, and so I started taking on ever-more-ambitious projects. That’s how I landed in this mess.

I took a design from a Craftsman-inspired Motawi tile, printed it out, traced it onto a linen table runner I had bought off Amazon, and got going, only to get busy with life and theatre and work and being lazy.

I have a great idea and pattern sketched out for my next project, but it must wait until I finish this. I don’t even know if I LIKE it anymore because it’s plagued me so long, but by goodness, I WILL FINISH IT.

So, this was a quick little post, but my hope for everybody is that they have a little time this winter to finish the thing, whatever it is. Happy holidays, everyone. Finish the thing.