Lillies and Roses

The weather continues to be kind.  Early mornings are still cold.  There is cold breeze through the day.  Best of all, with the cutting down in noise pollution, the birds are having a wonderful time.  I was woken up this morning by the peacocks.  Later I could hear the barbets and while coming back after purchasing groceries, I could hear the koel heralding the advent of summer.  It is simply wonderful!
Some years back, one of my upstairs neighbours planted lilies.  They bloom every year around this time.

I have four rose bushes-each one of different colour. Here are the white roses.

Cross-stitch in the time of lockdown

To me it seems as though the lockdown has been going on forever.  Since October, the school has been shutdown for one reason or other.
Last year, my friend's daughter got married. I could not attend it as amma was not well.  But a gift was certainly due.  It took lots of trawling, looking at cross-stitch patterns before I found the pattern I wanted to make.
The Art of Stitch is based in Malaysia and they shipped to India.  Best of all, they tracked the package.  This was important because in the past I have missed packages-they were not delivered and the online store was not willing to do anything about it.
I chose an artwork by Tanigami Konan.   He was a Japanese painter and the Art of Stitch studio had converted one of his artwork into a cross-stitch pattern.
I ordered the kit thinking that I would not have order the threads separately and worry about shipping.  Alas, if there is one thing that I did not like about Art of Stitch, it was that the threads provided with the kit was not sufficient to complete the project.  So, I had to ultimately order threads- fortunately, they were DMC threads and I ordered them from Lovecrafts.  Fortunately, the threads came without any mishap.
Of course, when I ordered the kit (Japan Dahlia), I did not realize how big the project was! I had asked for 18-count Aida as smaller the holes, the smoother the pattern.  But the smaller holes also meant that it was lot of work and eye strain.  I started in mid-December. The lockdowns helped as I could work on the design for a longer time each day instead of squeezing it between work.  I finally finished the project yesterday at 4 pm.  I enjoyed every minute of it because it was such a joy to watch the flowers emerge with each stitch.  Plus, there were no half stitch and back stitch involved- I hate both of them.
I missed amma because she is the one who takes care of all my cross-stitch, crochet, and knitting projects, washing them carefully and storing them properly.  I hopeless with both these aspects.  So I washed the cross-stitch wishing she was with me to help me out.
Here is the finished project, which will be sent to my friends's daughter once the lockdown is lifted.

An enlarged version to see the stitches:

Finally, the print by Tanigami Konan can be seen on pinterest.  I think the Art of Stitch artists did a wonderful job in recreating the colors.