Obsessive Craft Disorder (OCD)

I've been surfing around the Internet (Google, Pinterest, etc.) looking for patterns to continue adding to my denim shirt. I came upon this hummingbird pattern that stopped me in my tracks.

It's the Floral Hummingbird from Canadian designer Nest Embirdery Yes, that is spelled correctly. 

I love the colours and the specialty stitches that make up the design. AND it was available both as a kit and as a .pdf. Into my shopping cart it went - remember, I still have a substantial credit in my PayPal account.

I went through my stash and checked to see if I had all the floss colours. Substitutions were made for any I didn't have. Reading through the directions, I felt a little bit overwhelmed so I put it aside for now. 

Whilst further perusing the .pdf patterns available on the website, I came across this one. 

So simple! Only three colours. I raided my fabric stash and found a Silver Fox, 40ct Fiber on a Whim remnant that measured 9" x 20". So I cut an 8" piece from it and ironed some fusible interfacing onto the back to stabilize the linen a bit; then printed the pattern onto the Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy and adhered it to the front of the linen; and popped the whole thing into a 6" hoop.

I started this whole process at about 10 o'clock last night... did I mention that I'm somewhat of a night owl?

I got most of the bee's left wings and the yellow bits done before I turned in for the night at about 12:30.

The instructions weren't clear as to when two strands should be used or only one strand.

This morning I zoomed in on the photo which really helped me figure this out. Then got the other wing outlined and most of the body done.

I have really enjoyed doing the lazy daisy stitches and French knots. I put off doing the leaf stitches because I thought they'd be too fiddly but they turned out quite nicely. Still more of them to do on the thorax. The legs are all done with one strand. I can probably finish it this weekend. Then the dilemma of what to do with it. A small sewing project would work well, or maybe the lid of an embroidery hoop box?

While I was hopping from one project to another, the thought popped into my head that I have Obsessive Craft Disorder - OCD. It's WAY different from the real, clinical OCD in that I function well in situations that aren't pristine or ultra tidy. There's organization to my untidy surroundings - except I couldn't find my Morgan hoop the other day when I was looking for it.

No, my type of OCD stems from my mind that won't stop whirling with craft ideas and projects. I love starting projects - picking out the threads, fabrics, project bag to put it all in, etc. I love the process of working on the project. I enjoy finishing most of them. My real sticking point is fully finishing a lot of them and as a result, I have grown quite comfortable with not necessarily finishing all the projects I stitch. I do like to finish sewing projects, though, and am pretty good at doing that. 

The other factor in my OCD is I have lots of time to do all this crafty thinking, Internet searching, and YouTube channel watching.

Speaking of the Internet, I have recently noticed my 4+ year-old laptop is starting to slow down. I have deleted a lot of stuff, updated a lot of drivers and apps, and don't think I have a virus. But it's still slower responding to my ultra high speed Internet service. So I have begun the search for a new laptop.

I don't do any gaming. Because I have a keyboard on my iPad mini, I really only use the laptop for editing photos, posting my blogs, doing the spreadsheets for our household expenses, Zoom and other video calls/chats, and often searches for online items when I want to see things on a bigger screen.

Since Skip and I have more or less been 'grounded' as we deal with his cancer treatments, my new motto has been, "What else are we saving our money for?", A lot of our disposable income used to go towards travel.

So I'm keeping an eye on sales for a 15.6" laptop with at least 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD hard drive, and fairly favourable reviews.

Speaking of cancer, I'm getting my stitches out this Thursday and will get the pathology report. Fingers are crossed it was all excised. If not I'll need more treatment. I'm meeting Lorna for lunch afterwards.