Trying embroidery as a new quarantine hobby

Blog, photo and embroidery by Ellie Dunlop

I woke up in the morning with a sense of hope and determination: I decided to tackle embroidery.

I prepared my rubber gloves and mask, convinced my sister to tag along and headed to Joanne Fabrics. Since it was April Fool’s Day, I taped a sign on the back of my car that said, “Please Honk!” I was really hoping to have tons of people honking at me, which would drive my sister insane. However, not a single person honked. Not one. That infuriated me. I just wanted to bring some joy in the midst of a pandemic, but apparently the pandemic also has sucked comedy out of everyone’s lives.

We walked into Joanne’s with a set list of items, a sense of purpose, and of course I walked out with more than $100 worth of merchandise. Will I ever learn how to go into a store and only buy the thing I went for? Probably not.

We got home and I was ready to start my embroidery. I took a class in high school in which we did a lesson on embroidery, so obviously I feel like a pro going into it.

I was wrong. It took me 20 minutes to thread the needle. At that point I was hungry, so I had to take a break. Once I got back to it, I started weaving in and out, tying knots and simply making art. Boy, is this time consuming.

Three days later

This whole embroidery thing is quite frankly, a pain in my…

I enjoy it for about 45 minutes and then have to take a break. I don’t do very well when it comes to focus.

Another day later

My embroidery is finally finished! It was a long journey with so many ups and downs. I felt defeat. I felt triumph. I felt sad. I felt happy. I will honestly say, it was worth it in the end. My finished product was better than I could’ve even imagined. I feel like a true artist. I may even sell it on Facebook Marketplace.

Ironically, it says "Choose Happy" when choosing embroidery did not make me happy.

All in all, embroidery was definitely a challenging task. I would not recommend it to someone with the attention span of an 8-month-old child.

I also finally got my test results back— I had my patience tested. Turns out it’s negative.

However, if you enjoy meticulous crafts, in which you will probably poke your finger with a needle at least four times, then I would recommend this for you. I’m just saying that this craft requires immense patience, in which I do not possess. I will say that completing the final knot gave me a feeling of euphoria that I have never experienced. I feel as though this project taught me a lot about myself. It taught me that I should probably stick to crafts that aren’t so time consuming. I also learned that embroidery puts me in a bad mood, and I will take it out on others.

Difficulty: 7/10

Overall enjoyment: 4/10

Would I do this if I weren't under quarantine? **** no