Most of us are old enough to remember life before smartphones and computers. Somehow, we managed to keep ourselves entertained!
I used to stitch in the evenings while my husband watched football or basketball. Sometimes I’d take my stitching to work and spend part of my lunch hour putting in a few stitches. I never imagined I’d someday be thinking about getting back into cross stitching, because I never expected to stop!
I always had something going. Cross-stitch, quilting, or some other project that kept my hands busy.
These days, sometimes it feels like everything is digital. We read on our phones, play games on our phones, look things up on our phones, and before we know it, another hour has disappeared.
I’m certainly guilty of that.
Somewhere along the way, I traded my needle and thread for games on my phone.
Whatever Happened to Hello Spring?
I have a little cross-stitch project called Hello Spring by Lizzie Kate. I’m pretty sure I started working on it in March 2025, around the time I wrote a post called Special Edition: Hello Spring, where I shared some free cross-stitch patterns.
March 2025!
And here we are in October 2026, and it still isn’t finished.
for me to remember how much I enjoy stitching.
The really ridiculous part? This is the kind of project I would normally pick up and finish in an evening or two.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I worked on it.
Now, to be fair, the past year and a half hasn’t exactly been uneventful. There was a cancer diagnosis and treatment, pneumonia a couple of times, some pretty awful dizziness, and a small bowel nodule that needed investigating.
So yes, life certainly got in the way.
But if I’m being honest with myself, there were plenty of evenings when I could have picked up my stitching.
Instead, I picked up my phone.
Just One More Game
That’s the thing about phone games. They’re easy. You don’t have to gather supplies, find your place on a pattern, or even think very hard about what you’re doing.
You just pick up your phone and play.
One game turns into another. Then another.
And suddenly an hour has disappeared.
I didn’t stop stitching because I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I didn’t make some conscious decision to put away my needles and thread.
It just happened, a little at a time.
And I miss it.
I miss watching a design take shape, seeing the colors come together, and having something finished that I actually made with my own two hands.
Picking Up the Threads Again
I’m not making any grand promises about giving up phone games. I’m not setting a goal to stitch for an hour every evening or finish a certain number of projects before Christmas.
I think I’ll just find Hello Spring, figure out where I left off, and put in a few stitches.
That seems like a good place to start.
And maybe next week I’ll have a little progress to show you.
How about you? Is there a hobby or project you’ve set aside without really meaning to? What’s keeping you from picking it up again?