So. After class during week three of our second project, the world basically fell apart. I left to go spend spring break at home in Chicago with my family and at this point have not yet returned to Austin. Unfortunately, my embroidery supplies are still in the lab anyway, because I was not anticipating everything completely locking down for the rest of the semester. Whoops!
The cool thing about this embroidery project though is that these kind of hobbies and hands-on skills are exactly the kind of entertainment we need during, say, a global pandemic and shelter-in-place orders. Even though my embroidery supplies are not physically with me, I decided to spend some time watching a bunch of Embroidery YouTube tutorials and explore the extensive online embroidery community.
I was planning to attend an embroidery gathering at the Neill-Cochran House Museum in Austin as a “community of practice” event but of course that is no longer an option. My substitution for that has been scouring this embroidery subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Embroidery/.
I mean, look at this inspo:
I can only dream. And to think I was proud of myself for creating decent-looking french knot stitches…
But in all seriousness, watching other people embroider on YouTube is the next best thing to being able to physically practice. And lord knows I have the time!
Final Result and Takeaways:
As you can see, learning embroidery is…a slow process. I quickly learned that I had to adjust my expectations for how much I could actually complete in just a few hours of work each week.
This was a good project for me though, because it forced me to slow down and focus entirely on one activity. This kind of mindfulness is a good thing to practice for general productivity and wellness in life. I also learned some basic stitching techniques, which are probably useful to have as a general life skill. Most importantly, I learned that I can actually create something aesthetically pleasing if I actually stick with it and persevere. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Or however that saying goes.
Wish I could have actually physically finished my first embroidery work, but hey…life is unexpected. I can always come back to grab my supplies and finish this up whenever I am allowed to leave the state of Illinois.
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