Of Cross-Stitching And Embroidery

I came across a cross-stitch kit the other day while cleaning out my drawers. I thought I do not have anymore of those, as I gave most of them away, but apparently, I still have that. It is the picture of a Mickey and Minnie Mouse sitting on a crescent moon and being in love.

Come to think of it, now I remember I was supposed to make that for a certain someone if we ever celebrate our first Christmas, but it looks like it has to remain unmade for now, until another person worthy of my affection comes along whom I am willing to stitch that for.

I started cross-stitching when I was in lower primary, when my aunt gave me my first cross-stitch kit. It was a small kit, and she gave it to all us girls and made it a competition among us cousins on who could complete it the fastest and nicest.

I could not remember how much she gave me though, and I threw that first cross-stitch I ever made away when we shifted house. What a pity. I should have kept it with me since that was the one that started me cross-stitching.

After that I went on to bigger kits. My mum bought me one with the design of a girl and a house, with the words “Welcome To Our Happy Home”, and asked me to stitch it so she could hang it on one of the walls of our house.

Then I bought a few more kits. One was a pair of love birds, which I initially wanted to give to my guy of the moment for our first Christmas, but once I completed it, my mum asked me to give it to my cousin who was getting married then. So she wrapped it up and I passed it to my cousin who loved it a lot. Which meant I had to make another one for my guy.

A week before that Christmas, I bought another one with the picture of two teddy bears – a male bear giving flowers to a female bear. I spent many sleepless nights completing it in time for Christmas, and stitched in a little love message as well. I gave it to him on the day itself, but all he said was cross-stitching was a waste of time; if I must sew, then sew something for him from scratch.

A few years after that, I bought the same kit with the picture of the love birds and made it for the guy of the moment one Valentine’s Day. At least he was so happy that he hung it outside his cupboard so that “everyone could see” in his words.

Some years later, I bought a few more kits. This time, I upgraded from the round basket-like thing to the cloth thing. Cross-stitching on the cloth is even harder than stitching on the basket, because the cloth is of much softer material. There was another round cross-stitch with the picture of two rabbits – a male rabbit hugging a female rabbit.

I finished that in record time and gave to my guy of the moment for our first Valentine’s Day. While I was doing the finishing touches, his mum came in and asked why must I do that, since he had no space to put it anyway? But he liked it a lot though and managed to find a space – behind his cupboard.

The cloth kits I bought consisted of a Tweety bird with Chinese costume, holding up a banner with the Chinese character “Fu” (meaning “luck”). The other two are Winnie the Poohs which can be made into clocks.

I completed all three one Christmas, had them framed up, gave the Tweety (with a copper frame) to my ex’s mum, gave one of the clocks (with a black frame) to him, and kept the other clock (with a pink frame) for myself.

My own personal favourite cross-stitch design is that of a boy and girl sitting under a tree, with a little bird in the tree, and the girl holding on to a dog. I had never started on that, which means it must still be somewhere in my room. I had that ever since I was in upper primary, but somehow never started on it.

I like that because I thought that would be what love would be like, and kept telling myself to make it and give it to a special someone on our first anniversary in the future. Hmmmm….. that plan never materialized. Perhaps that is a sign I have not met the absolute special one yet.

Cross-stitching has been a big part of my life, but through cross-stitching, I learnt to appreciate embroidery as well. This came about during Home Economics class in lower secondary, where our first assignment was to make a patchwork bag with embroidered designs.

Then during the school holidays of that year, the Home Economics teacher gave us an assignment to embroider a table cloth. I went home and worked on the table cloth throughout the holidays (with some help from my mum), and when I went back to school the following year, somehow I was the only one who actually did the assignment.

Nevertheless, I showed the table cloth to my teacher, who was so impressed that she took the cloth and showed it to the ‘O’ level Home Economics students, in order to “shame them”, in her words. Ever since then, my mum will use the table cloth every Chinese New Year.

The next Home Economics assignment was to embroider a baby’s sun dress. Once that was completed, my teacher selected mine and displayed it to the whole school as part of Home Craft Day. I took it back after the display, and since then, it had stayed in my cupboard until now.

It is very fun doing things like this. It gives one a sense of achievement too, as from a round basket or a white cloth that has absolutely nothing, suddenly a nice design materialized from your own hands. That feeling is just inexplicably warm, all the more so if you make it for a loved one. It is truly better to give than to receive.