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Receive a gift from a friend, relation or lover - one that is handmade, handsewn - please know that it is made with great effort. I'm not tooting my own horn by saying this. It's just that in the age of the store bought easy solution, so many fail to understand the effort and time that goes into creating things with one's own two hands.
I'm almost at the end of over a month of working on a cross-stitch design for my boss' wedding gift. I've been at it night after night, weekend after weekend. And now... I see it is beautiful. I know his bride will like it. But I'm so dang tired of it, I just can't say.
My fingers HURT. They are stiff and tired. My eyes... Just imagine having to look, to focus on a white or cream canvas for hours on end. To see each square that make up the whole of it. Thousands of them. And imagine having to constantly count and count and count - then recount to make sure you've got each stitch correctly placed - because you have NO IDEA how horrid it can be to get something wrong in the design early on, only to have to try and working around it/fix it weeks later.
Thousands of "X"s made one at a time, in so many colors your vision blurs. And then.... You finish the design, only to have to go back and sew in the outline to the piece afterwards so it'll look complete.
Average of three hours every night, and soooo many tasks that you don't get to do which you miss and wish you could do instead. (Writing being the biggest of them.)
I'm not complaining, I'm trying to express what it's like. And how much it does in the end - "COST" the one who made it. (Side comment, I once had a woman try and offer me less than $50 dollars for a piece I'd done - a pillow that was 12" by 12" - completely filled in with cross-stitching until there was no canvas showing. It had taken me over three months to do, so many hours I can't describe - and she wanted to give me what probably amounted to 1 cent per hour for it - and thought I was rude when I politely declined. Grrrr...)
So remember, if you are fortunate to have such a friend/loved one - and in this case, employee who's broke and can't spend with the big boys...lol - know that it has a uniqueness, a value that should not be ignored or diminished. (Of course, sometimes it feels this way when you write a fic and then hardly anyone sends feedback, too...lol.)
Hugs
xof
I'm almost at the end of over a month of working on a cross-stitch design for my boss' wedding gift. I've been at it night after night, weekend after weekend. And now... I see it is beautiful. I know his bride will like it. But I'm so dang tired of it, I just can't say.
My fingers HURT. They are stiff and tired. My eyes... Just imagine having to look, to focus on a white or cream canvas for hours on end. To see each square that make up the whole of it. Thousands of them. And imagine having to constantly count and count and count - then recount to make sure you've got each stitch correctly placed - because you have NO IDEA how horrid it can be to get something wrong in the design early on, only to have to try and working around it/fix it weeks later.
Thousands of "X"s made one at a time, in so many colors your vision blurs. And then.... You finish the design, only to have to go back and sew in the outline to the piece afterwards so it'll look complete.
Average of three hours every night, and soooo many tasks that you don't get to do which you miss and wish you could do instead. (Writing being the biggest of them.)
I'm not complaining, I'm trying to express what it's like. And how much it does in the end - "COST" the one who made it. (Side comment, I once had a woman try and offer me less than $50 dollars for a piece I'd done - a pillow that was 12" by 12" - completely filled in with cross-stitching until there was no canvas showing. It had taken me over three months to do, so many hours I can't describe - and she wanted to give me what probably amounted to 1 cent per hour for it - and thought I was rude when I politely declined. Grrrr...)
So remember, if you are fortunate to have such a friend/loved one - and in this case, employee who's broke and can't spend with the big boys...lol - know that it has a uniqueness, a value that should not be ignored or diminished. (Of course, sometimes it feels this way when you write a fic and then hardly anyone sends feedback, too...lol.)
Hugs
xof
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no subject
I know what you mean about lack of appreciation. It's irritating. I was once in a store where a Baptismal Gown I had made was hanging on the wall. A woman looked at it and said, "Wow, that's beautiful! I bet it costs a hundred dollars!" I was dumbfounded. The owner of the shop said, "Um...try adding a zero..." lol.
From:
++huggs++
From:
damn grammatical errors
I make afghans. Crocheted afghans. As you said, anything worth making takes forever. Our next door neighbor threw one out!(Not one of mine) It's laying across her chain link fence! Idiot.
I made one for my daughter years ago. She kept it across the back of her couch. In 1993, during the sixth great lake flood, they lost everything. What did she miss most? That damn afghan! Of course, I made her another..but she still talks about the first one.