My cross stitch hobby is something I talk about often now, but the truth is my love of stitching started long before cross stitch ever entered the picture. I’ve been stitching for most of my life. Not cross stitch at first — just stitching in general. I learned how to sew by machine when I was seven years old. By eight, I had moved on to embroidery. At that age, a needle and thread felt like magic to me. You could start with a plain piece of fabric and somehow turn it into something beautiful. When I was growing up, I had two career goals. I was either going to…