Destination? What destination?

Yetzirah commented the other day that in crafts, “The journey is as important as the destination”.  That is so true.  In fact, for me, it’s all about the journey – the destination often bores me by the time I actually reach it. Which explains why I have a trunk full of “finished” projects, mostly cross-stitch that I can’t be bothered taking to get framed (nor feeling like they’re worth the huge expense of framing).  I’ll have chosen a pattern I really love, worked on it for months (or years, sometimes), and been excited by every new part of the picture that is slowly revealed by my stitches, and gloried over how wonderful it will look when it’s done, and then one day I’m suddenly finished, and at that point I lose all interest.  It’s like I’ve seen the finished product in my mind’s eye for so long that by the time I see it in reality I’m tired of it.  The few pieces of cross-stitch I’ve actually framed and put on my walls I hardly even glance at – I know every little detail of them so well.  So the rest lie neglected and unloved in the trunk.
Ironically, the pieces I’ve given away are the ones I feel the most attachment to.  I love it when I see something I’ve made sitting in someone’s home, or in a photograph (seeing a glimpse of my chicken mat sitting under Yetzirah’s loom the other day gave me a big smile).  It’s like I get the chance to see my destination through someone else’s fresh eyes, and enjoy it vicariously.
Hmm, maybe the solution to my trunk full of unloved finished projects is to start giving them away to good homes, where they can be loved and send occasional postcards home to remind me just how cool they actually are.
Or maybe I just need to start taking on projects that don’t take me years to complete!

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2 Comments

  1. You have hit on a capital idea.
    Gift your creative works!
    It IS magical!
    (The mat is a special artifact in my kitchen. Though it’s a WORKING artifact you understand…..) 🙂
    Hug.
    Y.

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