X-Stitch: Big Cats

Friday 27, December

In the summer of 2004, Mui and I went on a photo safari in Botswana, Africa.

After spending time with this lioness and her cubs, Mui’s love affair with big cats was sealed.
(Our african safari predates the blog; click here for a post with links to my write up and photos.)

Hoping that we would see the big cats while on safari, I started stitching a gift for Mui before we even left on our trip.  I managed to finish it in time for his January birthday the following year.

As is the case with all of my other cross-stitch work, Big Cats is in storage at the moment … awaiting the time when we will get off the road, and buy a stix & brix home where it can once again decorate our walls.

P.S. Yes, we did see the big cats of Africa while in Botswana … lions, leopards, and cheetahs … and it was a thrill indeed to encounter them in close proximity in the wild.

X-Stitch: To Everything There is a Season

Thursday, 27 September

I’d love to live where there are two seasons year round — spring and fall.  These are my favorite seasons.  I don’t much care for summer; I don’t handle heat well — especially if it is humid.  I don’t like to be cold either, but if I had to pick between winter and summer, the cold season would win hands down.

With this cross-stitch project, I didn’t have to pick one season over another — the entire year was represented.  What I really liked about it was that the scene in the foreground changed, while the background remained fairly static with some seasonal variety to show the passage of time.

X-Stitch: Scenes from an English Garden

Tuesday, 4 September

Sharing another cross-stitch project … this is one of my all-time favorites.  It’s always hung in a prominent spot where I could enjoy it every day.

It has the tiniest stitches — I think I used either an 18-count or a 22-count aida cloth.  Ahh, yes; that was long before I started wearing eye glasses for close-up work :-(

X-Stitch: The Old Coffee Shop

Sunday, 12 August

I’ve been wanting to finish up the posts featuring my cross-stitch projects, so now I have an incentive.  Mui has started packing up things that are not essential to daily life.  That includes the few pieces of my embroidery that I opted to bring to the condo after we sold the townhome in May 2011.  It’s time for these pieces to join the ones that were packed at that time.

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There’s something about this café scene that screams Paris to me.  But the sign on the shop says The Old Coffee Shop.  Perhaps when this piece is unpacked again someday I will see the setting in another country.

And a few close ups for detail …