SB's Question of the Week: Patience is a Virtue

"Do you feel cross stitching requires patience?"

Oh yes, definitely. I feel that patience is most required:

1. At the very beginning (when you start on your blank fabric and need to count your stitches again and again),

2. And near the end of the project, when you feel you'll soon be almost done and can't wait to see the design all stitched, but still need 5 hours of stitching or so...

To me the most enjoyable parts (i.e., when time flies!) are

1. after I've stitched the first few colors and don't need to count every single stitch any more,

2. and the final stretch, when there are just a couple of hours to go and you can fully enjoy the accomplishment!

Often I feel torn between my eagerness to see the design stitched (and to start on my next project!) and the sense that patience is indeed a necessary virtue in cross stitching... If I try to rush I'll end up making mistakes and frogging, meaning I've actually wasted a lot of time by trying to gain a little!