If I Start It…

I am a finisher. If I start something, I finish it. I was not always like that. As a child I often would start some craft project, not be pleased with how it was going and abandon it. As I aged I learned that practice makes perfect. So I trained myself to keep at things to learn how to do them better.

I have always liked production work. I like to make all kinds of things and make them in bulk. That was one of the reasons silk screen appealed to me. I could make many prints of the same thing. This served me well in college. So many friends told me at our 40th reunion that they still have a print they bought from me in college.

When I got in my head that I wanted to make needlepoint seats for my four game table chairs I knew it was a huge undertaking. I had a fabric that was on a Martha Jefferson Chair in my living room that was the perfect inspiration for my needlepoint chairs.

So I bought 110 inches of canvas. That alone was enough of a commitment. I drew out the design for the first chair and I started stitching. I had thought I would paint the canvas, but I realized that step was unnecessary since it was a fairly simple design. Each chair will be one flower from the fabric.

April is my busiest month in teaching, but I started stitching then just the same. I set a goal to be done with the first chair before the middle of August. I finished today more than three weeks in advance.

I might have stitched a much bigger background than necessary because the upholsterer told me to add 1 1/2 inches extra around the whole seat template. That’s a boat load more. This is by far the biggest single canvas I have ever stitched at 26×28 inches.

I am hoping to take the chair over to the upholsterer and have him tell me the next one can be slightly smaller.

Tomorrow I will draw out the design of the next one. I am setting the goal of being done before Thanksgiving. I hope that I can beat that goal well in advance too since I still have three chairs to do. See I have to finish what I start.