The Blade is the Focus

A 96 stitch by 96 stitch square with every stitch filled in with whole cross stitches seems easy, but turns out it’s not.

Composition and colour are everything, much like a painting. If you don’t feel right, if it doesn’t feel right, then it probably isn’t right. That’s easy for me to type, it was indeed a lot harder for me to accept in practise.

The Xenoblade Charity Square piece did not feel right. I tried to push forward but I could sense it, constantly nagging at me. I stopped, stepped back and took a breath. I did other things, pottered about the house, did some chores. When I came back, I unpicked the whole thing.

The feeling I had was of defeat, I don’t deny it, I was ready to pack in the whole thing, a part of me suggested this was Fate’s plan, that I was not meant to do a Charity Square. But as I began looking through the pictures I had gathered some weeks before this project began. A rather colourful picture caught my eye and I knew I had to give it another go. This was the picture, the main character’s mysterious and powerful sword, The Monado, captured here as a tiny section from the start up screen for the game. This blade is a great and important piece of the game.

I booted up KG Chart and crossed my fingers hoping the program was out of the bad mood it has been in and lo and behold, it worked. In no time at all, The Monado had been charted and I was ready to go again.

I am glad I restarted and I’m glad I stopped when I did. Continuing with something when your heart is just not in it… well, it almost hurts. It’s like a bad stain on white sheets, a bit of dirt on your glasses. You can choose to ignore it, or darn well do something about it.