With school cancelled for the following two months due to COVID-19, Sarah Qi ‘22 decided to pick up an old hobby during quarantine. For the past few weeks, she continued to explore cross-stitch, a type of embroidery where X’es are threaded onto a cloth to form a design or picture. 

“I actually started the cross-stich in elementary school,” Qi said. “I picked it up again because I thought now would be a perfect time to complete it, and I wanted to do something art-related other than study all day.”

For cross-stitch, there are different types of canvases available, from completely blank ones to some that have colors printed onto the fabric. The canvases that Qi used are similar to the coloring game sandbox, where there are boxes labelled with numbers, strings that correspond to the numbers. 

“With all the time I have on my hands, I wanted to finish up the one that I had already started on,” Qi said. “I listen to music while doing cross-stitching, and a few hours just go by so fast. It’s really relaxing.” 

Even though there are frustrating times where Qi has to learn to be more patient and adaptable, the finished product at the end is rewarding to see.

“Sometimes you run out of string or you realize you made a mistake way in the back,” Qi said. “I split the string to make it thinner when I realized I was going to run out.  It’s really satisfying to see the boxes slowly filling up.”