Cross Stitcher - UK (2019-12)

CROSS STITCH CONNECTIONS

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Jessica Savage

H

Worried you might mess up a project? Jessica Savage encourages

reluctant crafters to feel the fear and stitch it anyway...

ullo! I’d like to welcome you all to

my arch nemesis – fear of creating.

Of all the words in this

Affi rmations collection, this one is

the hardest for me to embrace, which is

bizarre as my job is creating things!

I know the feeling very well myself as

soon as I sniff a new project – that desire

to back away, to put it off , to suddenly

defrost the freezer.

I enjoy creating once I get going,

but I get so worried beforehand about

making ‘bad’ art or screwing it up

that I can fail to start. The thing I’ve

noticed about this particular fear is

that it’s driven by how other people

might judge my art. The key point in

that sentence is ‘might’.

I can’t control what anyone else

thinks or likes and, honestly,

I wouldn’t much care to. But so

much of me goes into my art that

I sometimes feel like I’m naked and

on display! In the past, I’ve tried to

counter this by att empting to make

my art perfect. But, in a shocking

twist of fate, it can never be perfect, so

I end up not beginning. I have boxes

of supplies that never became art due

to a creative form of atelophobia (a

fear of the imperfect).

I wish I could tell you that I’d

conquered this fear and that I have

three easy steps for you to use

yourself. Alas, I’m still working on it,

although one of the best pieces of

advice I was given regarding creating

anything is – “Just play, Jess!”.

It might seem odd to remind

myself to play when I have to work,

but we’re often taught that creative

things must be ‘just so’ or done ‘the

right way’. Trying to adhere to

boundaries when we want to break free

is stressful and pointless!

In creating anything, the right way is

whatever way feels best – just let the

pieces fall into place! So, if we’re

suddenly overcome with the desire to

switch colours because we’ve decided

we’re bored with 976 Golden Brown,

we should do so without any further

consideration whatsoever!

Kids don’t worry about playing

‘wrong’, they just play, create, and

explore! So, when I feel worried about

starting something, I fi nd an easy

starting point and dive in (I fi nd it easier

to keep going once I’ve started).

As the ancient proverb says –

a patt ern of a thousand crosses begins

with a single stitch!

Stitch boldly!

Jess