Changing Cross Stitch Concepts

What do you think of when I say cross stitch? My bet is most would say it is something done for holidays, special occasions (weddings, births) or samplers that have infinite versions of the types of pieces young girls did long ago to show their stitching skills. Let me say first of all that all these things are great and I've done my share of them. However it is just this kind of mindset about cross stitch that led me to begin making my own designs.

I wanted to stitch patterns that weren't designed to meet some 'industry market focus group' findings. Truly, I've seen in various design forums that there is much discussion about such studies in order to find out what is selling. Take a look at any large retailer of cross stitch patterns and I'm sure you can figure out what the outcome has been. To me there is a rather mind numbing sameness that is being offered in the market today.

I want to give stitchers an alternative and hopefully a new way of seeing what cross stitch can be. It can be art that comes from inspiration and I don't mean famous or not so famous works of art that have been photo imaged into software. It can be something unique that hangs on your home or office wall that people don't even recognize as needlework until they get close enough to see the threads.

But changing that concept of what cross stitch can be is not simple or easy, some are just resistant to it because it challenges their view of what it is and to many minds should remain, usually something small, sentimental and familiar.

I've been blessed to have found Creative Poppy and its editor, Pascale Dejardin, who took a chance on my designs even though they didn't fit the mold. Pascale has been a great source of encouragement and I want to extend my thanks for her willingness to feature my designs and hopefully help some to see that new concepts of something so familiar is possible.

Work on Iris on Celadon is progressing and I decided that in order to give it a look of being a piece of pottery that it needed some dimensional feel especially to its background. I'm using a few shades of one color and alternating them through the background pattern to give it a feeling of depth and I'm happy with the result.