Morning Make

A few weeks ago, I randomly came across a video on YouTube: Let’s Talk Morning Make by Cheryl Arkison.

The basic idea is that you make something for fifteen minutes every morning, before you do anything else. That way, no matter what else happens during the day, you will have had some creative time (to yourself.)

I really liked the sound of this so I thought I would give it a go.

That stitchy thing in the photo above is my first morning make. A square of fabric, stabilized with a square of quilt wadding, and then I grabbed a handful of random scraps of fabric and embroidery threads that were on my desk.

I stitched it over two or three mornings and I really enjoyed it. I think it does make me feel calmer during the day. It also seems to make me less likely to waste time on social media during the rest of the day.

Maybe because I don’t grab my phone first thing and then don’t get that social media dopamine hit at the start of the day, I crave it less during the rest of the day. Ugh, I don’t want to crave scrolling on Instagram. So I’m happy to see if the morning make has a long lasting effect.

Since I decided that the morning make is something I want to keep doing, I grabbed some more scraps of fabric and threads and put them in a nice jar that I keep in the bedroom where I stitch in the morning. It looks prettier than a pile on the desk!

Another, completely unexpected, benefit of the morning make is that it has given me a new… fix point in the morning. Mornings have previously been quite Blake focused: let him in the garden, give him breakfast, and take him for a morning walk. So after we said goodbye to him, I have felt a bit lost in the mornings.

The morning make has sort of reset my morning routine and that has been a big help.

Here is my ‘production’ so far. I don’t have any plans for these. I just started with these slow stitching squares because I had the materials on my desk. And it’s a nice way to use up some random scraps! I don’t know if I will turn the squares into a finished project. I might just make a pile of them and then see what I feel like doing with them.

At some point it might be fun to do something a bit more planned but for now I am just enjoying the quiet stitching time in the morning. :-)