March 29, 2011

Cross Stitch Mania! New Obsession with a Time-Honored Craft

A few weeks ago I ran across a couple of ancient cross stitch patterns buried deep in the mysterious recesses of my craft closet. One is almost completed and features a hummingbird checking out some bright flowers; the other was never even started and is a large, detailed piece centered around a geisha.

subversive cross stitch, which I first saw on dooce.com one thousand years ago
So when I originally sat down to start this post with the sentence, "I've never been a cross-stitcher," I realized I had to qualify that. I've done three-quarters of a pattern at some completely forgotten point in my life. I'm not sure why I've never been into embroidery in general.... I would guess that perhaps I had some terrible bias about it being country-crafty, but who can think that in a world where Subversive Cross Stitch has gotten spin for years now? The truth is probably that there just wasn't room with my other various art and craft interests. The cross stitch patterns were buried under forgotten sewing and quilting tools as well -- neither has ever been a big interest or skill of mine!

Eline Pellinkhof
Well lately, I've been nothing but inspired by the amazing embroidery work I keep running across on-line, with an emphasis on lovely and unique cross stitch items. Every theme you could think of on cloth, and even cross stitch wall paintings and tattoos! So I finally made a mad dash to the library for books and to the craft shop for the bare essential supplies, and now I have just a couple of pieces finished and more in the works. (In progress: one piece based on Kanye West lyrics, one on the golden rule of auditing. So random!) And here, my first completed piece:

2 comments:

  1. After this post today, and then running across this shop today:

    http://www.etsy.com/listing/67053728/pixel-people-hellboy-the-bprd-pdf-cross

    I'm once again convinced I need to take up cross stitch. Pixels 4evs!

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  2. That is definitely one of the shops I plan to feature! ...and you do need to take it up. Everyone lusts after a man who does needle art. <3

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