I havent cross stitched in maybe 15 years but suddenly got a hankering for it after finding my embroidery thread from middle school yesterday. After searching through so many "grandma- themed" patterns, I settled on this awesome peacock pattern from 1742. I love that someone hundreds of years ago was working on the same image and with the colors I have, it should turn out awesome.
I couldnt find a quilting hoop though so my hand started cramping from holding the fabric taut for even just half an hour. I'm using a square of wool as opposed to cross stitch fabric so i dont get to see where the corners of the squares should be, but estimation works just fine. I see this one as a practice run anyway to get my groove back:
