Something wild

After my back surgery in October, I had so many plans to read books and paint. I was going to read a TON! And then my surgery came and went and I felt like doing something active but not messy, so both painting and reading were out. I found myself online looking for an outlet, and I came across Satsuma Street on Etsy. And then I bought three patterns and ordered a ton of thread online, along with fabric and needles and a frame and bobbins and everything else I needed. And I sewed.

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, but at the time, it was a passing trend because I wasn't patient enough for it. But now that I've returned to it, I feel good working on a project, and love doing something that can be clearly and visibly progressed upon. (That's why I like vacuuming.) After my surgery, I loved being able to feel like I was really doing something, even though I was sitting all day every day in a recliner in front of the television. So I've been sewing quite a bit (I've completed four patterns, including the fox), and this guy was my most recent (and biggest, by far!) project.

I've been working on Bart (full name: Bartledge P. Rutherford, because why not) since the day after Christmas, when everything arrived from the sewing store online. If I had to give a very rough estimate of the amount of time I've spent on it, I would say around 250 hours. (!) I worked on Bart nearly daily, while watching the news with my parents, or while football was on, or while by boyfriend played video games. I sometimes even took him into work with me, so I'd have something to do on my lunch break. I didn't expect Bart to be quite as big a project as he was, but I ended up majorly committed to Bart and getting him done.

I think it was worth it, don't you? I'm planning to enter Bart in the tri-county fair this fall, but I need to figure out how the hell to frame this thing. It's hard to find an 18" square frame. But damned if that is what stops Bart from getting into the fair.