Bit by Bit

Much as you’d like, it doesn’t always work out the way you planned. Those carved-out stretches of time to plunge into the deep end of a project that’s been tapping, tapping, waiting, are suddenly filled in with More Important Things, and the pushed-aside project has to tap and wait some more (again). And your sighs become deeper and (maybe) your brow more furrowed.

Then, you remember. This is when you switch to bit by bit.

Those napkins I’ve been intending to sew from the linen table cloth I’d forgotten I had? If the past few weeks are any indication, they’re not going to be made in a single afternoon.

Wash and dry the linen, here. Rip the stitches on the hem, there. Iron it when you have a minute three days later. Cut it into napkin sizes on a different day entirely. Hem one or two the next afternoon, then one or two more two mornings later. Finish sewing the last two in the evening, just before bed, a good two weeks after you threw the linen in for its washing in the first place.

Like I said, bit by bit.

There are those glorious times, of course, when an entire project can be sewn in one sitting. Like the evening in June when I made a linen half apron in one fell swoop to wear the next day while helping to create the floral beauty for this wedding. (I couldn’t do a big on-site floral day without an apron!)

Then, there’s bit by bit.

And thank goodness. Thank goodness for both, really. For seeing the same opportunity in a few minutes as there is in a few hours.