Well, you ladies laugh about your love of fabric, but I have an
actual condition, soon to be acknowledged by the medical community:
EMS, Embroidery Maniacs Syndrome. I am completely debilitized by
it. As soon as it is formally acknowledged I will apply for
disability.. .so I can get more money to spend on fabric, and
needles, and thread. (Thread-lust is one of the most painful
symptoms of this disease. You know you have EMS when you cannot
pass a spool of shiny embroidery thread without grabbing for it on
reflex. There is no controlling it, really.)
I am also the silent sufferer (yes, I am stoic about all this ---
few know my pain) of DMS, Digitizing Madness Syndrome. The symptoms
are less public, but just as tragic. The "afflicted" compulsively
down-load "freebies" without regard for usefulness, believing that
the only good design, is a saved design. Babies go without milk;
children go without shoes; spouses are forced to do their own
laundry, while the DMS afflicted stare at computer screens,
furtively clicking away on their mouses, searching for the perfect
design, firmly believing that EVERY DESIGN is THE PERFECT DESIGN. I
recently witnessed this as hordes of people went into a virtual
frenzy about a "construction sign and cones" design; and at another
web-site a panic was created while seemingly thousands sought a
free "bath scrubby" design...designs, which on the surface, may not
seem like necessities, but clearly are.
Both EMS and DMS have two symptoms in common: the endless quest for
the perfect stabilizer; and the relentless pursuit of the optimum
software. People who would no more go into an office supply store
and spend $12 on state-of-the- art income tax software, will melt
their credit cards buying the elusive "perfect" conversion and/or
digitizing software programs, becoming 'software junkies' in the
process. Cyber-Space "range wars" have broken out during
discussions of these programs, with only International Time Zones,
and slow DSLs as protection.
A little known, but sad fact is that PMS is nothing compared to EMS
and DMS; and those who suffer from these diseases, suffer alone, in
the usually cramped, small quarters of their sewing rooms, with only
their stabilizers and hoops to comfort them, lighted by the glow of
computer screens, with the hum of an embroidery machine
reverberating in their ears while it finishes stitching-out a FSL
design...
You must excuse me while I go re-arrange my spools of
thread...should I put them in color-order today?...or by
manufacturer? ...or numerically? So many, many decisions.,