Knowing When to Stop

I am hoping that this blog...its process of pausing to document, to notice...helps me connect all the loose threads of my life. Especially everything I am learning from Jude Hill and the wonderous stitchers over at Spirit Cloth.  Here goes.

She of No Body Fat violated our No Birthday Presents Treaty last fall.  I decided to retaliate with a bookmark that would echo my fascination with the icy blue of this winter's sky.  I saw the exact colors in some pieced scraps and a hunk of indigo and moon from Glennis Dolce. I began to stitch. 

It started with the three vertical colors on the right...but these kept expanding leftward as I couldn't find the feeling inside that said Done. Which forced more stitching...and then the white background...which forced more stitching...

7" x 4"

I finally stopped when I realized the bookmark was about to be bigger than the book. So mad at myself because I felt the precise moment when I should have put the piece down and just ran over it like a truck on a bag of potato chips. Lucky for me, Himself was in the room. He has the gift of seeing. He simply folded it in half. And it looked like winter AND a bookmark.

He saved the day. But I still wish I knew how to stop just slightly BEFORE it is time. In so many, many things...