When your vacation is looming, when you have company coming for an extended stay, when you know life is getting ready to go ballistic on you, what happens to your needlework? Do you abandon stitchery until the cyclone of activity blows itself out, do you plod ahead with your regular needlework pursuits, or do you plan needlework into those busy times by preparing a project that fits into your life when it’s in hyper-drive?

I tend to do the latter: I prepare a project that I know I can grab and take with me, or that I can concentrate 15 minutes of time on now and then, just so that I have some kind of project going – something that keeps the fingers busy when there’s some down time. Grab-n-Go needlework projects like these are never something that I feel pressured to finish in any particular time frame. They’re just a casual project that requires minimum supplies and tools, that can be easily transported, and that don’t require a lot (if any) real thought. No decisions to make, no techniques to work out – just simple stitching.

And you’d be surprised how soon you can actually finish this type of project (even if it is rather large!), if you keep it available for those little snatches of time when you can get in a few stitches.