SBQ - April 19

This week's SBQ is from Jenna:

Do you do obligation or deadline-based stitching? Why or why not? If you do, do you tend to get in over your head and why?

Yes, I do obligation/deadline-based stitching. I only recently got back to it, after a several years long hiatus. I stopped doing it a few years ago because life got in the way and I felt unable to meet deadlines. But I found that I missed participating in exchanges, so this year I decided to try it again. So far, I've done three exchanges this year, and had great success with each of them.

However, the only obligation stitching that I participate in now is for exchanges. I don't do round robins or "theme" projects that demand a certain genre, design size, fabric, etc. I've participated in one or two of those types of projects, and have found that I had to really force myself to finish the projects. I need more freedom in my stitching choices, I guess. My reasons for participating in exchanges is easy-- I love giving and receiving stitched gifts. It's particularly nice to send a stitched gift to someone whom I know will appreciate it.

I occassionally feel like I'm in over my head as mailing dates approach. I like for each exchange gift to be just right, and I often have trouble settling on a finishing technique. As a result, I find that I sometimes have to really push myself at the end to get things in the mail. Even so, I haven't missed any deadlines and have had a wonderful time in all of my 2006 exchanges.