Cross Stitch Belt

So I have been working on this belt idea for a long time. Cross stitch is something that I really enjoy, but my hands have to also be cooperating for me to be able to work on this. That means that most of my cross stitch work used to occur in the summer months in Illinois, and I had hoped that would change when we moved to California. I had hoped for fewer cold and wet days.... boy was I off! The bay area has many cold and damp days. I guess the place is more like Seattle than I had first thought. So I began this belt project in the summer last year, intending to finish is soon over the last part of the fall, however my hands have been rather uncooperative. So I put this belt plan aside on the sewing cart. It eventually got moved around several times, and each time I looked at it I really wanted to finish it but knew I couldn't. Finally I began to bury it under other projects. I just could not bear to look at the unfinished sewing. Well I found it again recently and decided to try to get through the final tediously difficult hand sewing of the shisha on this piece. I decided to go with faux shisha in order to make the piece a little less bulky. Here is one of the finished animal forms, a peacock. It will be the central panel of the belt that is inspired by a traditional wall hanging called a toran. I hope that you enjoy looking at this little piece of the work in progress. I am really enjoying working on this little gem again. I am so sad that I let it languish for so long.