Patience

[Paula D.]

Several times recently, when I've been doing hand-work (usually BOM applique) in public, someone has commented "you must have lots of patience". I don't like to think of myself as "impatient" but I realize that having something to do while I wait in dr. offices, school pick-up lines, etc., HELPS me be patient. In fact, because I'm doing something that I love, I sometimes am bummed when the "wait" is over. I only find myself truly irritated when I've got some other pressing engagement/appointment that I'm about to be late for.
As a working mom (I know, we ALL work, what's a better term?) I feel like I'm going backwards if I'm not doing at least two things at a time! Granted, I do more machine work than hand-work, and I love pedal-to-the-metal sewing, I DO want to always finish the current project quickly so I can move on to the next, so maybe I am impatient?
Just thinking here, maybe b/c I finished my August BOM and am forced to wait, patiently or not, for September!
Florence

[Paula D.]

I have heard that comment too. I do what I do because I enjoy it, it doesn't have anything to do with patients.

[Patti P.]

Yeah I've wondered if it was a veiled comment like "I couldn't do something so tedious for a million bucks!" I know there are folks out there that don't understand the allure for us. My best friend had an obsessive love for tupperware. I could understand obsession of course but could never get the allure of tupperware lol!

[Patti P.]

This is very interesting to me as I have been thinking a lot about it this week.....this crazy week of "move it to college", and "put house on the market", and here I sit this morning sewing hems in outfit orders for a shop. "You must have a lot of patience", is something I've heard many times thru the years when I've always had some type of handwork with me, and in recent months I also carry a little notebook that I draw quilting designs in a LOT. Sometimes I might not be able to sew, but I can always take out that little notebook and draw.

I am not patient by nature....instant gratificaton has always been my friend, but I think we certainly appear to be patient to those around us who mostly never slow down enough to even THINK about something like "handwork".

I am mostly a machine piecer/quilter like you, but there is a strange sense of calmness that I feel when I do something like handwork. Most of the people in my everyday life never slow down enough physically or mentally to consider something like this.......so maybe in doing our various handwork, handpiecing, etc...... we develope patience without even knowing it.....at least I know that's how it works for me.

Dana in Olive Branch, MS

[Patti P.]

I too have heard that comment. I am impatient and that is exactly why I bring along hand work to do when waiting. I was a hairdresser for 20 years and I worked on a schedule. I did not make people wait who had an appointment and were on time. "On Time" seems to be an antiqueated term. On a recent airplane trip, the plane was "Late". I had become used to the term "delayed" but now they just say the flight was "rescheduled". Time to get out the hand work to keep my blood pressure from going thru the roof. Now I'll bet some one will start chatting with me about what I am doing and then I will hear "My grandmother used to quilt." Please Lord give me a smile to wear today. Betty Ann In wet Florida

[Patti P.]

Me too- I always have to have something to do with my hands when waiting-- and when watching TV. I don't do much hand quilting, but at times are tempted because then I would have hand work for those times!

[Beth A.]

Handwork is my way of turning wasted time into MY time!

I also agree that I like to do handwork because I am NOT patient about waiting.

BethMI

[Annette R.]

Early in my professional career as a speech pathologist, I worked with a lot of stroke patients and other people with late onset speech problems. Their families were usually terribly frustrated because they could not communicate with their loved one in the way they were used to. Many times the family would say to me "you have so much patience" and my response was my patience lasts just as long as the therapy session and my interaction with that patient. They had to be patient (or try to be) 24/7. My patience was one patient long!!!! Pun intended.

Today I am often the patient and I have little patience but my hand embroidery is my salvation. Dh never understands why I have to carry a certain bag to every appointment etc. Too many times I have run out of magazines and being in Texas half the year the TV is often in Spanish so my embroidery maintains my sanity. No patience involved. JUST SANITY.

ANN

[Frances L.]

I, too, often have some handwork with me. I like having something small that is always in a tote bag so I can grab it on my way out the door. You never know when you are going to have to wait somewhere. From the time my kids were small, they always had something to do whenever we went out the door so they had something to occupy themselves. It was MY sanity saver, just like my handwork is now.

[Frances L.]

I have heard the patient comment and I have used it too. UhOH,I sew everything by machine and when I try hand sewing I have no patience of this improving on my stitching even though I try from time to time,this makes me feel others have what I don't patience because there work is beautiful,my hand stitching is aweful. I believe it is meant in a good way,having patience to do things others can't. I do lack patience in hand work so I admire others uniqueness in this skill.
We all have patience and we lack some patience too. I look at this as one having great admiration to those having patience when one says you must have patience. Like I say in this moddern day the Amish must have great patience,I have admiration for thier quilt work. Patience is a good thing to have.
Kathy

[Wanda M.]

This is an interesting topic. I've always carried "something" along when I knew there would be a wait. If I keep my hands busy, it also takes my mind off the reason I'm really where I am, like when at the hosp, dr office, etc. I've even taken up playing with Suduko puzzles! I think this gives some of us stress relief! If we are doing something that we love, then the wait is not so unbearable. About the "patience", I'm not much of a patient person! It drives me crazy to have "down time"! ops:

[Patti P.]

Ann, God bless you and every health care worker who shows patience to the patients. My doctor is so impatient, I think he aims for a 4 min visit. I write things down and often loose my intent for the visit because of being so rushed. I almost kiss anyone these days that takes the time to care.

BTW thanks for my 15 min of fame today. That project was so much fun and rewarding.
-Patti

[Liberata T.]

I hate to waste time because I feel it is so precious. I either want to be reading (or listening) or doing some sort of handwork on my projects. I prefer not to drive because we all know that it requires ALL of a person's attention.
But I am also impatient and really want to complete projects. When I don't get an expected result, I have to determine if I need to unpick or if the result is the best I can get THIS TIME.

[Liberata T.]

I started to work in a library me someone that hated to read now I read all the time I would like to find things I can do when watching tv because dh is always say sit in here with me and I do not get to be in my sewing much I need to learn to say no I need to do this I have been taking a class and I said to him I have to sew sunday a get ready class on Monday and that works because he knows that I have been doing bthis for 4 weeks now. Any way I wish that my hand stiching look better may be I just need more practice Happy

[Liberata T.]

Handwork is my way of turning wasted time into MY time!

I also agree that I like to do handwork because I am NOT patient about waiting.

BethMI

Yep! That's me impatient and not wanting my time to be wasted.