Cross Stitch

a hobby since childhood

My grandmother, Dorothy Marshall, first taught me how to embroider during my many visits to her and grandpa’s farm when I was quite young. She had stamped linens and lots of colors of threads for me to use. I once knew all the names of the types of stitches for standard embroidery and how to do them, but over time I gravitated toward the cross stitch. That started out as simply following the stamped Xs on the linens, but I eventually graduated to counted cross stitch, which is the needlework I most enjoy and which uses a blank fabric and a pattern to follow from which you literally must count your stitches. I have many cross stitch creations hanging on the walls of my house, including these over my bed.

They depict cross stitch in vibrant colors as well as another hobby from my younger years that didn’t survive into adulthood — philately. I still have all my old stamps, but I haven’t added to the collection in a long time. I do enjoy looking at the new stamps that are released each year, though.

I cross stitched a lot of things for my kids’ rooms when they were little and their Christmas stockings that I still hang up each year, and I took on a major undertaking of cross stitching every square of a large baby blanket for my son before he was born. That son will be getting married one month from today, and shortly after he announced his engagement a year ago, I went to work on a project for him and his soon-to-be bride. I gave it to them a few days ago because I wanted them to have it before their wedding, for a variety of reasons I won’t get into here, and they were noticeably pleased with it. Here is a photo of it still wrapped in the plastic from the framer:

I found this pattern online and knew it was perfect for them because blue is his favorite color, orange is her favorite, she loves sunflowers, they are getting married in the fall, and the birds to me represented the two of them plus any child/ren they may have. I had it framed in their favorite colors, which are also their wedding colors. I told them that every stitch is a hug from me.

Other things I like to cross stitch are scenes of places I’ve been that made a huge impression on me. So far, these all have been places in Spain because I acquired some wonderful patterns from a store over there during one of my visits. I started a huge rendition of the front facade of the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona many years ago — many, many years ago — and then set it aside for other projects. I’ve been working on it again lately, though, and hope to complete it in 2026, hopefully around the same time as the church itself is finally completed.

This piece, though, was much simpler to complete than the cathedral piece, and it depicts the Roman aqueduct in Segovia, Spain — one of the best preserved Roman aqueducts in the world:

I’ve been to this aqueduct three times — twice with students and once with my daughter. It was only on that third trip that I learned that you can walk up an old staircase and stand at the top of the aqueduct and look out over the land where Segovia lies. You can’t walk across the aqueduct, but you can stand level with the top of it, and I wish I’d known that on my two earlier trips with students — of course, our travel guides then should have told us. Ugh.

I recently went through all my old cross stitch patterns, magazines of patterns, books of patterns, loose thread, etc. and reorganized everything, keeping only the patterns that I would like to do someday. There are still far more patterns than I’ll ever be able to complete, but I culled lots of others and got rid of them. Before I begin anything new, though, I must complete the Sagrada Familia piece. Let’s hope I can do it before a first grandchild comes into the picture because then I’ll have to abandon everything else and work on something for him or her — ha ha.

Additionally, I must work on my writing and get the 8th novel done. That, too, is the plan for 2026. Today I will share another portion of the rough draft with my paying subscribers beyond the paywall below. Please consider becoming one, so you can read the novel as I write it. It’s shaping up to be another suspense, and I think the scene below will show that it is.

Until next time.

Tammy Marshall