Once upon a time, drawing firmly entered my life and became my hobby. However, at some point I began to draw significantly less for myself and draw more for other people, and this imposes certain expectations on what comes out in the end. The need to meet the desires of the viewer creates a more serious mood, forces you to pay more attention to the quality of work, motivates you to learn, grow and be better. This is certainly a good thing, but it creates quite a lot of stress, so that drawing falls outside the category of a hobby. I was lucky and embroidery appeared in my life.

And I wouldn’t talk about it here, but this time the topic of my hobby intersected with the topic of my drawing, so I think I can tell you about this side of my life.

In 2019, I came across an Epic Pokemon Generations Cross Stitch Pattern and fell in love with it. It seemed impossible to pull off, this cross stitch is HUGE.

I kept looking at the patterns and already embroidered works and dreamed that one day I would have the courage to start it.

In 2021, I almost got around to it, but I was stopped by the need to print out 25 sheets of color chart. I abandoned this idea and did not remember it until this winter.

During this time I became a more experienced cross stitcher. I tried original designs, various fabrics, different embroidery techniques, and beads. I acquired comfortable frames for embroidery, holders for these frames, and learned to embroider with both hands at the same time. I learned how to transfer patterns from PDF files into the format of electronic patterns, for which I purchased convenient software for reading and now I felt that I am ready.

The community of cross stitchers, which I have been observing for six months, is going to start a joint cross stitch process in 2024, code-named “giants,” where each embroiders their own work containing at least 50 thousand crosses. And then I realized - the time has come.

It was a super spontaneous decision. I still don’t have all the materials, I still haven’t transferred the entire pattern into electronic format, but I still decided to start. This is a very exciting moment. I am sure that the support of the community and the need to report on the embroidery will not allow me to abandon my work. I am determined to have a long marathon with this embroidery. Most likely it will take more than one year, but I'm not afraid.