When You Fall Out Of Love With A WIP

We've all been there. You see a cross stitch pattern and you fall in love with it right away. You buy the pattern and get all excited while you plan out the project. You pick your favourite fabric count and gather all the called for floss. You finally sit down and put thread to fabric. Maybe it happens right away, maybe it happens half way through the project but...you fall out of love. Whether you are a monogamous stitcher - only stitch one project at a time until it's complete, or if you have many projects on the go, not enjoying stitching a project can happen to all of us cross stitchers.

It can happen for several reasons. It might be the pattern. Maybe there are too many similar symbols so it makes it more difficult to stitch. It could also be the subject matter. Something that was interesting to stitch at one time, no longer is. Really, there are a whole slew of reasons it can happen.

It's even happened to me recently - with one of my own designs. A little over a year ago I started stitching my pattern "Big Bright Moon" on 16ct Aida. I'm normally a 14ct stitcher but I wanted to challenge myself. I should also mention that this pattern calls for black fabric, so I was attempting not only 16ct but 16ct black fabric for the first time. I was finding it very difficult to stitch and I've even stitched on 14ct black Aida many times before. I just wasn't enjoying stitching it. I decided to restart on 14ct black Aida when I was about 300 stitches in. It is a large, advanced level pattern and has 91 colours but I have stitched patterns on the same level before with no problems. There is nothing wrong with the pattern. When I first designed it, I wanted to be able to stitch it, frame it and hang it in my living room.

I normally have 3 WIPs going at a time and I rotate them out every week. I started to notice I was dreading switching my WIP when it came for time to stitch "Big Bright Moon" and that's terrible! A pattern should not take the joy away from stitching.   All this to say, I decided to put the pattern away. I didn't want it to cause me to stitch less and frankly once I decided to let it go I started stitching my other projects even more.

No matter the reason, when you decide you aren't enjoying a pattern it may leave you wondering what to do with it. You can always put it away with the intention of maybe picking it back up again. If you have a close friend or family member who also stitches you could offer it to them to finish. It could be something they might love stitching - we're all different after all! There are also WIP swapping groups on Facebook that you can look at to give to another stitcher.

Has this ever happened to you? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Let me know in the comments.