I love cross stitching, have for decades. It's relaxing and it combines my love of making pixel art with making something tangible in my hands. Especially my own designs, something I started doing during my PhD, I think about 7 years ago now?
But sometimes I wish my chosen art form wasn't so long and intensive. It takes weeks, months, even years to make cross stitch art. I have projects that I was initially very excited to make that are unfinished because keeping momentum and drive over the length of time to make something bigger than a few thousand stitches (my Siegmeyer stitch was just over 5000 btw) is a hard task. I've got one that I've been working on on and off for over 3 years that's nearly 20k stitches. At my absolute fastest, it's 100 stitches an hour. For custom designs that I'm constantly tweaking as I go, its much, much less than that. Sometimes I burn myself out and stop cross stitching for months at a time before coming back with new ideas I want to do that may or may not get finished.
I'm very grateful for every commission I've ever gotten, not just cause it's really nice that people want to own something that I made (although that too <3). I've done stuff I would never have made for myself and it's pushed me to get better at this than I would have otherwise. And to actually finish things. It's been good for me creatively for sure.
Well, I'll stop rambling now. It's a great craft but it's a harsh one at times. That's all art for you though, I guess lol.