Slow Stitching and My EPP Project

After Miss Betty's surgery

 A couple of years ago, I went to visit my Husband while he was working out of town.  I needed a project to keep busy while he was working.  So I got some hexie papers and some fabric. But I didn't jumped into English Paper Piecing until Jeramie was hurt and we had to go to Augusta.  I did a few then and then I did more when he had his heart surgery.  A year later I took it with me when Miss Betty had her heart surgery. 

When I started this, I didn't have any plan in mind.  It was just something to keep busy with. I figured I would just make some flowers and figure it out from there. Truthfully, that is still my plan. The only thing I really have planned about this project is that; It will take a long time and it is not on a time table.

When I had showed the EPP to my daughter Tatianna, she thought that it was awfully fiddly and time consuming. I have to agree. It is fiddly and it is time consuming and I would have never started it 30 years ago. (when I was her age) I have always been a get it done, see progress type of crafter.  Projects that take a lot of time bore me and get often get dropped.  Hence the large number of UFOs in my studio.

My EPP Pouch

So I always avoided such types of projects.  Slow stitching was not for me.  Give me a machine and let me go.  That's not to say that I never did handwork, it was just not my thing.  But lately my time seems to be at a premium these days and I really need to stitch.  So I've dug out my EPP pouch (what I keep my supplies in) and started taking it with me to doctor appointments, car service appointments, etc. Basically anywhere I might have to sit and wait.  

Listening to the quilting podcasts, has shown me, that I am not the only one who has picked up slow stitching.  I have learned that many quilters do it to pass the time.  It is something they can do while watching TV with the Family. They can take it on the road with them.  They can do it on their lunch hour.

For me it is a much better way to pass the time than playing on my phone. I have worked on my EPP while sitting in the airport, doctor's offices, even waiting between church leadership meetings. I spent some time this past week working on it while sitting at the dealership as they were servicing my car. Last year, I worked on it to pass the time between all the different family functions at my father in law's funeral. 

Look how many I've made

Here's the thing about slow stitching. It can be very relaxing. It doesn't take a lot of focus and yet you are still being productive. And you meet people. It has never failed. If I am in a public place, stitching on my hexies, someone always asks about it. Then before you know it, I've made a new friend to pass the time with. People are always fascinated by it. Very often, they will tell my about their mother, grandmother, or aunt who quilted.  They would tell my how wonderful those quilts were and share their fond memories of their loved ones with me. And I am reminded why I quilt.

Slow stitching was never my thing when I was younger. But now that I am getting older (59). I am appreciating it more. Plus I am making some progress on it.  I am going to have to take the covered hexies out of the pouch and store them in something until I am ready to stitch them together.  I have a pretty canning jar that is too old to use for canning, it might work. Oh and I already decided I need to cut out more pink fabric.

Do you ever slow stitch? Has it been a life long hobby or did you come to it as you got older and/or busier?