Shannon Phillips

I think I was still in junior high school when I saw this cross-stitch pattern in the hobby shop, and my father agreed to buy me all the threads and the fabric required to complete it. The ladies at the hobby store warned me that the project would be a long one. When I was finished, they said, I should enter it in the state fair.

Several state fairs came and went. My initial enthusiasm waned, and by the time I left for college I had little more than the four outer figures finished. I put the needlework away for longer and longer stretches of time, sometimes rediscovering it only when it was time to move to a new dorm, or eventually to a new apartment. The pattern itself grew so tattered with many foldings and refoldings that some of it had become illegible. My piece grew from the outside in, filling in the outer frame and the borders around the beasts in the corners. I told myself I’d finish it when I had a baby, so I could hang it in the nursery.

The other night I pulled it out again, fastened the hoop tight, and filled in some of the blue expanse. I probably won’t have it finished by the time Rosaura comes. Maybe, when her little fingers are big enough to hold the needle, she can work on it herself.