During our four years here in Greece,
I’ve has so many people get excited when they find out that I do
machine embroidery. They always say they should have me
create this or that project. In that time, only one of them actually
did so, and I had to turn down the commission because the project was
both against copyright laws, and would not have been a proper project
to highlight my skills. Strangely, now that we are leaving for home
in a couple of weeks and my embroidery supplies are packed up,
everyone seems to want me to create something for them.
When it rains, it pours!
When I have to turn down every request,
I get one of two responses. The first is a glad assurance that their
project will just take a second. Really. The second is a
knowing look followed with the sudden remembrance that moving is time
consuming. Regardless of the response, I’m reminded of a good
reason to move. None of these people have offered true
neighborliness, instead asking me to do something for them when I
have very little time for myself.
My friends and family at home aren’t
much more helpful, but at least they understand how time-consuming a
well-made embroidery project can be. My sisters-in-law
understand that they can request projects all year long, but each and
every project becomes their birthday or Christmas present for me.
They understand that the time I spend on them is time I’m not using
for myself or my own embroidery patterns. I wish everyone
else was as understanding!
Being overseas, I don’t mind not
doing projects for others. I have to get all of my embroidery
supplies through online mail-order, so running out of the perfect
color of machine embroidery thread half-way through a project
was always a possibility. For my own projects, I could just switch
to a similar thread, but this isn’t good practice when the project
is for someone else.
This is another good reason to move
home. Easy availability of embroidery supplies, quilt
patterns, thread and more is very attractive. Revisiting my favorite
fabric stores where I can actually feel the texture and see the
colors almost has me wanting to jump on the plane tonight! I’ll
have to be very, very careful of my budget in the next few months as
the excitement of physical shopping might just overwhelm me!
If you haven’t already picked up on
it, I am not really looking forward to leaving Greece. I knew we
could only stay for 4-5 years, but the reality of it doesn’t mean I
have to like it. When I get blue about our upcoming move, I start
reminding myself of all the good things of the move. Donut shops.
Sewing machine dealers. Fast food. Faster internet. Well, I’m
sure you get the idea.
Something I’m very thankful for is
all the embroidery digitizers who offer free embroidery
designs! When I blow my budget on stabilizer, bobbins, new
tools, and donuts, I know that there will always be fantastic free
embroidery designs for me to discover. It may even put me in a
charitable enough mood to create a project for someone else, also
free of charge.
I like that!
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