My Favorite Hobby

I love embroidery in general. Perhaps this is the influence of being educated for 13 years by Belgian nuns who taught us everything from cross stitch to pulled thread to crochet to knitting. And although I am quite adept at any number of these, I have to admit that my all-time favorite is cross stitching. I first learned cross stitching at age 6. I remember that we were asked by the nuns to stitch a border pattern on a small table napkin. And that napkin is still in our linen closet to this day. As I grew older, we would be asked to cross stitch different items, each one bigger than the last. When I entered college, cross stitching had to take a back seat because I was studying to be a writer and the paper work just did not leave any time for it. But I soon took it up again after graduating. Well into my first year of marriage, it began to take up most of my spare time. By that time, cross stitch was becoming a craze in Manila. I brought my project of the moment everywhere. Pretty soon friends and neighbors and even people I didn't know were asking me to buy them a kit when I travel to Manila (I was living in the province at the time). That is how I came up with the idea of opening a craft store. That was 14 years ago and the two craft stores I opened back then are still operating till now. I, however, have gone a step further. Although I still do some stitching from time to time, I have graduated from being a stitcher to creating patterns for cross stitching. That is what takes up most of my time nowadays. It is entirely different from cross stitching but one cannot do without the other. A project starts with a pattern. And a pattern is useless if you don't stitch it. What was initially a hobby, nay, a passion eventually became a business. And what is even more important is that my source of income is not work for me. It's a source of pure enjoyment.