Cross Stitching Makes a Comeback
Categories: Decorating, Wish We Could..., Crafts & Projects
Etsy seller youheartus will cross stitch a custom pillow of your favorite Twitter post. Or get one that's ready-made, like this Alyssa Milano tweet pillow. Photo: youheartus, Etsy
that included a pattern to spell out "Today, cross stitching is the medium of choice for lots of creative-types, not just grandmas. Check out some of the recent cross-stitching that makes me want to pick up a, umm, whatever the tool is called that people use to cross-stitch.
Photo: BARM/Fame Pictures
Photo: BARM/Fame Pictures
Photo: Noelle Mason
Photo: Noelle Mason
Artist Noelle Mason cross-stitched this painfully recognizable image from a security camera at Columbine High School. Mason said the work, titled "Nothing Much Happened Today (for Eric and Dylan)," took her 5,000 hours to complete--though the surveillance camera image captured just 1/30 of a second in time.
"Up until that time, I associated the medium of cross stitch with the domestic craft my mother used to pass the time. Cross stitch for me was a way of digesting the digital image pixel (stitch) by pixel (stitch)," Mason says.
Photo: howaboutorange.blogspot.com
Looking for a shortcut? How About Orange? rounds up some great free stitch fonts.
Recommended Reading:
MrXStitch, run by two stitchers who compliment work by saying it gave them a "stitchgasm"
Feeling Stitchy, for lovely, daily inspiration
Radical Cross Stitch, Australian-based snark
Sublime Stitching, if only for the tagline "This ain't your gramma's embroidery!"
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Florence Wang 7-09-2009 @ 11:03AM
There really are so many creative, talented people showing their twist in this medium. Sometimes "crafts" are ignored in the "art" category. It's great to see these people getting the credit they deserve.
Reply
Janis 7-14-2009 @ 7:20AM
I haven't gotten out my cross stitch things in years. I used to work on them for hours and hours when my children were small. Now my oldest is 27 and on his own. I guess I could start again. : )
Reply
Celia Javadi 7-14-2009 @ 2:22PM
A number of years ago, I went to the time and trouble to make a counted cross stitch wedding sample w/ beautiful pink and red roses in a heart around the couples name and wedding date. It took months to complete. It was homemade, and they didn't like it.
Reply
Monika 7-17-2009 @ 12:24PM
Unfortunately they won't appreciate it until they've been married 25 or so years, and then realize the love and time you put into the sampler. Hang in there, and don't let it get you down.
Barb 7-14-2009 @ 5:28PM
Well? It could be worse. The couple couldve been actually married for far less time than it took you to create the piece? Yes that is what happened to me many years ago!
Lauri 7-14-2009 @ 7:15PM
Five years ago at 44, I became paralyzed from the armpits down. I'm considered a quadriplegic although I have full use of my left arm and hand and right arm and limited use of my right hand. Of course I was right handed before this happened.
Always creative, I loved cross stitching, embroidery, painting, drawing, crafting, etc. I can no longer pinch with my thumb and index finger so I'm unable to hold a needle in my right hand. It took some time but I was able to become a "lefty" with my right handed proficiency. The biggest problem I encountered was still thinking like a "righty", my needle placement.
I've made some absolutely beautiful cross stitched and embroidered items over the past few years.
I never thought to create the projects pictured here but now that I have all the time in the world...
Reply
Marissa 7-15-2009 @ 11:18AM
I like all your comments. I usually make a seasonal project in the Spring then get hooked into another one for Christmas. Stay creative guys. ; )
Reply
Tony 7-20-2009 @ 12:16PM
My ex-mother-in-law got me started cross stitching about 15 years ago ... she gave me a wizard kit that she thought fit my personality (I teach English Lit and Medieval Humanities) ... she was going to stitch it herself, but never had the time, so she gave it to me.
I stitch almost daily now; I find it very relaxing. In fact, I have the PC Stitch software and Royal School of Embroidery software packages and have used them to generate my own patterns (incidentally, I was told by the Royal School of Embroidery, located at Hampton Court in England) that they do take men, but that I was too old) ... my two "master works" are a lion's head (which I had a local seamstress applique to the back of a black denim jacket) and the Mona Lisa.
My students (high school and college) find it amusing that I spend time with needle and thread ... then I pull out my copy of Rosey Grier's book on needlework and tell them who he is ...
A general question ... I'm thinking of starting a website dedicated to patterns for men ... like patterns of pro sports logos (respecting all copyright laws, of course) or the Stealth bomber against a setting sun with "From the USA with love" beneath it ... since there is a market for subversive cross stitch, do you think there's a market for overtly masculine patterns?
Reply
Kathy 8-21-2009 @ 12:21PM
I can't guarantee that you would find a market, but I belong to a couple of cross stitch groups (online, mostly) and it is not at all unusual to find posts on there from people looking for patterns that would be appropriate as gifts for their husbands or fathers. Typically it seems that they're looking for cars or sports. The only thing that pattern makers seem to recognize is that men like golf! LOL