A Quick Tip to Help You Cross Stitch More

In this episode, I share a quick tip I have been trying to help me cross stitch more, particularly in the evening. You can listen to the episode below or keep scrolling to read the blog post.

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I found myself in a little cross stitch rut of an evening a couple of months ago. I was stitching regularly on my lunch break but when it came to the end of the day I was just too tired. But I love stitching in the evening. It stops me scrolling my phone and helps me relax more and sleep better.

I wanted to get back to cross stitching in the evening. Especially as it’s summer right now so I have that natural light for a little longer.

A happy accident

I discovered this hack by accident. I had a pattern that I had to finish but I didn’t have enough time during the day to do it. So at the end of my work day (around 4 pm) I got the project ready. I made sure I had all the floss and pattern loaded on my phone and put it on my sofa so I wouldn’t forget about it come night time.

Well, that evening when I sat down after cleaning, sorting the kids etc I saw the project and started stitching straight away. I didn’t feel too tired like I normally would have at this time.

I dug into what was different and it’s because I didn’t have to expend any more energy to start stitching. Deciding what to stitch and getting everything ready during a time in the day when I had more energy was the difference.

Have you ever gotten to the end of the day and just can’t make one more decision? This is what was happening to me. Even though I wanted to cross stitch I couldn’t even make the decision on what to stitch when I was so exhausted from an evening rushing around. And cross stitching gives me energy. Once I started doing this every day (getting the project ready beforehand) I got so much more studying done in the evening and had more energy too.

My season of life has changed so much this year; my kids are in more clubs than ever, I teach swimming some afternoons/evenings and we are just generally busier but I wasn’t updating my personal routines to match.

So if there is a time of day that you really want to stitch but are finding it hard because of energy levels follow these tips below and see if they help.

Decide what to stitch before you sit down

I now decide what to stitch in the evening during the day. Making this decision during a time when I haven’t already made 10000 decisions that day is much easier. I even try and decide exactly what I’m stitching on the pattern; what elements/colours/pages etc.

If you want to stitch more on your lunch hour, for example, don’t take 5 projects to work with you. Decide in the morning which one you will take. This will free up more time for stitching than you would have spent deciding what project to stitch that hour.

This is why planning out the projects you are stitching can be so helpful. I share how to organise your WIP projects here.

Get everything ready

I have spoken so much about having each project in one bag with all the floss you need etc. But I know that sometimes we need to take the scissors out for something else or we need the same floss for multiple projects etc.

Once you have decided what to stitch, take 5 minutes to make sure all the floss, fabric, scissors etc are in the bag. And don’t forget the pattern. Print it and put it in or if you work from a tablet/phone make sure it’s downloaded and your device is charged.

Joyce recently shared that she took the Sea Shell pattern to stitch near a lighthouse and when she got there she had everything apart from her fabric! She had taken it out and forgotten. It’s always worth double-checking even if you’re not leaving the house with your project. Sometimes I’m upstairs stitching and if I can’t find my scissors I don’t have the energy to look for them.

Put it in your spot

Wherever you are planning to stitch out your project in that place ready. If you’re taking it to work/holiday etc put it in your bag ready. If you’re stitching on your sofa put it on your sofa. This extra step might sound trivial but I can tell you from experience how much more likely I am to stitch in the evening if my project is on the sofa next to me rather than downstairs. spoiler … 99% more likely.

This is just one small thing I’ve been doing but it’s been so effective in making sure I take that time in the evening to do something that fills me up rather than getting bored and scrolling my ohne. There’s nothing wrong with that; I like a good scroll just not every day!

A Quick Tip to Help You Cross Stitch More | S3E109

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