Working with our hooks and needles should be a relaxing and enjoyable time. It’s a therapeutic feeling to begin needling, feeling the fabrics maneuver through our fingers and go where the stitches takes us. Having a time where we’re not following a pattern or focused on writing up a tutorial is a needed time for all needleworkers.
We would like to help set this atmosphere for you by presenting our next NeedleWorkMonday Challenge:
I’m sure you’re familiar with the term freewriting where you write for a given amount of time on a specific topic, allowing your mind to freely soar as you write down your thoughts.
Freeneedling is the same concept only instead of freely writing you’ll be freely needling. The goal is NOT to use a pattern and NOT to share any tutorials!
We have reached new heights in our tutorial making. Almost every post we curate involves a tutorial.
You ask is there a problem with that?
No, it’s not a problem but it has created a lacking with sharing other things. It seems everyone is in such a hurry to get right to their tutorials that they don’t add any type of story or share about their day or even any settings of their creating time. It’s great to share how you came to the conclusions of your projects but what about the in between time?
It’s almost as if our needlework posts have lost meaning and feeling and have become robotic.
If I can be completely honest with you, as the founder of this community and curating for over 4 years it has grown quite lackluster and uneventful reading the same type of tutorial posts over and over again throughout the week. Sadly, many have lost the spice and flavor in their needlework posts and those just joining are following in the same pattern of robotic repetition.
I know you may be thinking “well I put great effort into my tutorials, listing the steps and adding the photos.” This I know, but we are looking for a bit more effort with the feeling and mood of your posts.
Everyone’s post starts looking the same when it becomes so predictable: a beginning statement about what you’ll be teaching us how to make, the body of the post that shows the steps and the ending where you invite us to like what you have presented.
Let’s go back to standing out again!
We want to know more about YOU and the creator behind the project not just how to complete the project. Sharing about our day and our thoughts is what made this community unique. There was an automatic connection with one another as we got to know the needler behind the fabric. ❤️
We do notice and appreciate those who do put in the extra effort.
For this challenge we will not be looking at how complex or creative your needlework is. We will mainly look for those posts that connect us mentally and emotionally to their freeneedling time.
We’re aware that many of us use patterns to create our masterpieces. Since we are asking you not to use one this time we assume there may be just work patches of stitches presented to us and that’s okay. We want to be connected to this special time you set aside to relax with your hooks, needles and fabrics.
Including process photos is optional. We’d rather you just needle and take a photo or two of your work at the end of your session.
Perhaps during your freeneedling time you can think about the first time you fell in love with your favorite needle craft, about your desires on what to make this coming season or about your favorite yarns and fabrics. You could even ponder on how needling makes you feel and the benefits it brings to your life.
Or you can just think about the chores you are skipping to have your needle time! 🤣
After your session is over create a post sharing about your freeneedling and what you pondered on while relaxing. Connect us to that time so we can feel as if we were there with you. 🤗
We don’t mind what you choose to talk about we just want to enjoy YOU, the artist and be included in that time of when you enjoyed your hooks and needles.
• Set a time aside (at least 20 minutes) for your Freeneedling session.
• You can do any needlework related activity including any form of fiber arts that deal with knotting, braiding, felting, lacing and any form of manipulation of fabrics and yarns.
• Do NOT use a pattern!
• Post about your freeneedling experience connecting your readers to that time of relaxation.
• Must follow posting guidelines as outlined in the FAQs page.
• Do NOT include any tutorials in your post (doing so will result in automatic disqualification)!
• Must include at least one photo of your finished freeneedling piece in your post.
• Must use #freeneedling as one of your post tags.
• Must submit your entry directly to the NeedleWorkMonday Community!
• Must leave a link to your challenge entry below in the comments of this post so we won’t miss it!
All entries for this challenge are due and must be submitted on Monday September 27th!
Winners will be announced on October 4th!
• 1st Place - 30% of the rewards of this post
• 2nd Place - 25% of the rewards of this post
• 3rd Place - 20% of the rewards of this post
• 4th Place - 15% of the rewards of this post
• 5th Place - 10% of the rewards of this post
This challenge was inspired by
