Have Your Say

Accounts of Accountability

Accountability was the topic we opened All Stitched Up! issue #349 with. We unpacked the way in which Hannah Brencher found a ‘sweet form of accountability’ to help ensure she achieved her goals, hopes and dreams. We closed the Welcome by asking the Inspirations Community if they’d found a way to be accountable in their own journey with needle and thread.

Having related to the words we’d shared, Mendie wrote in, letting us know that apart from her ‘real’ To Do List, she finds herself busy teaching, designing and trying to finish what she’s started.

‘I get to the point where I have so many projects on the go that I have to back up and not start any new ones until I finish those I’ve started!’

Although her ‘haphazard’ approach has worked to date, Mendie recognises that as she gets busier, she’ll have to look at her time management and make herself accountable to herself to ensure everything gets done. Mendie was hoping the PowerSheets Hannah mentioned might just help her get centred and on with business!

Amy started a ‘Stitching Schedule’ a few years ago, and although she doesn’t share it with anyone, has found it helps her accomplish more in her time with needle and thread.

‘I have a project listed for each day of the week. If I have many projects going at any one time, I assign one to each day whereas if I have only a couple, I alternate them day by day. I also usually leave a day open either as a non-stitching day or to work on whatever my heart desires.’

Amy has found this helpful, as not only has it become her own form of accountability, but it means she doesn’t get burned out on a single project. She does, however, admit that if a deadline is approaching for a particular project, the schedule might be abandoned, but she assures us it’s only temporarily!

Maggie is in favour of accountability as long as it doesn’t impose pressure or a feeling of guilt. She recognised that life happens, and things don’t always go according to plan.

‘We need to be kind to ourselves and go with the flow. Stitching is a wonderful journey, and we all have our own unique adventure along the way to our destination.’

Maggie has, however, found a very personal way to keep herself accountable. In 2015 she started a blog to journal her experiences with needle and thread. Not only has it helped to keep her on track, but she now has a way to look back when she’s forgotten about some of the things she’s made or wants to remember a process she’s used in projects past.

Maggie closed her email with words that echo just how the team at Inspirations HQ feel about the conversations we’re privileged to be a part of each week as we write, read and share about your time with needle and thread.

‘Reading the newsletter each week allows me to realise just how much we are all alike with how we feel, the challenges we face and how we all keep on going one day at a time. Thank you for sharing with each and every one of us the world over.’

Whilst Mendie, Amy and Maggie found a certain reassurance in the process of accountability, there were a couple in the Inspirations Community who weren’t as sure that accountability and stitching should be used in the same sentence!

Lizbeth found herself reading with a certain degree of alarm that some stitchers plan their stitching journey.

‘It’s my happy and pleasurable journey, not a must do.’

So, Lizbeth ensures she picks up needle and thread only when she wants to rather than when she ‘has’ to.

Floss was a dissenting voice on our subject of accountability.

Now that she’s retired from having worked as a professional stitcher, Floss finds any kind of stitching ‘a retreat, an oasis, an unadulterated joy, with no obligations, no deadlines, and no pressure. It is entirely my gift to myself to pick up or put down at will.’

Having once been described as someone who ‘worked at her play’, Floss was determined to change that description, ensuring she experiences only contentment and meditative qualities each time she picks up needle and thread, so no accountability for her!

As Floss said, hers is simply ‘a different take on life’s accountabilities, which are already myriad’.

We love that, Floss! Starting or continuing a conversation in All Stitched Up! should always be about sharing your own take on life with needle and thread. The richness of what we’re able to include, and learn from, within the pages of this newsletter comes from the variety of experiences and points of view that exist within the Inspirations Community.

We’ll always encourage you to converse with us, whether in support or disagreement of what’s been shared, so simply email us and let us know what’s on your mind!