how did you start?

[sw2129]

Hi, i think i was about 11 when i first started. My nan has always done lots of crafts but i was very interested in the cross stitch that she did. That xmas i had a massive present with lots of little kits, thread, aida etc to get me started and i always have something on the go lol. My very first one was a cartoon girl with a handbag (i still have it in my 'cross stitch i have done but no where to put it box' lol) and after that i made little gifts for the whole family. Some still have them now. I always try to make different thing for them every 2 years and im always making things for the home lol.

Its a great relaxing thing to do and im not sure where i would be if i didnt discover it haha.

[Kathy_A]

I was raised in a family where all the women sewed all the time, so I knew how to use a needle to hand-stitch from a young age (my mom just gave me my very first 4-H project, a skirt that I had hand-stitched when I was about 10 years old--I had no idea she still had it 35 years later!!). I tried knitting at 10 years old (another 4-H project), but didn't really get into it. By junior high (a few years later), I had picked up working on needlepoint kits, which I enjoyed throughout high school and college.

About the time I graduated from college at 22, my sister had been into counted cross stitch and got me hooked on it. Not long after, she got away from it, but other than the occasional breaks (most of the 1990s), I stuck with it. In fact, she ended up giving me the last piece she had begun and only finished about a quarter of it before she got bored. I finished it off and am planning on giving it to our aunt, who is in assisted living--it'd be nice for her to have something both of her nieces did.

(BTW, I was the only one in my family who never got into sewing. I can do a decent hem with hand-stitching, but never learned how to comfortably use a sewing machine!)

[lillybit]

My mother was a bad asthmatic and confined to the house as much as she had been all her life she did all manner of hand crafts and made all the clothes for her 4 children. Her embroidery was exquisite and very varied in style. I too am an Asthmatic but with the progress in medications I'm no longer as restricted in life style asshe was and as I once was. My first memory of doing embroidery is probably preschool age. 1st stitching on the lines of drawings on card drawn by Mum progressing to drawings on flour bags some of which became prized hankies. I still recall a teacher taking one of those hankies after a dispute with another girl. She said her Nana made it - I said I made it - and she was believed and got my hankie. Mum sure raised a storm over that but I never got it back. I made most of my daughters clothes until they decide that was naff but still get called on to copy something radical or expensive they have seen somewhere. I've made hundreds of Ballet Tutus and dozens of family wedding dresses and now I'm on to great grandchildens Wrapping Shawls beanies and booties but my first love was and remains embroidery especially a wide range of counted thread styles - Cross stitch, Hardangar, Assissi and florentine as well as freestyle forms.

[Clarinda]

I have a very clear memory of the first time I saw cross stitch. In the 70's I had done some crewel embroidery in stamped kits. Then I got a job at a very large company and one day in the lunch room saw a co-worker working on this embroidery with no design stamped on the fabric! I couldn't imagine how one could possibly stitch with no pattern printed on the fabric but this lady showed me how the holes formed a grid and how the chart had the corresponding grid. So I ventured out to Lee Wards (remember them?) and got a small XS kit and was instantly addicted.

[Nimble stitch]

Mine is quite a funny story, I always hated sewing lessons in school, for our first year at senior school we had to sew a blouse, I was the one who cut her material wrong and could never get the sewing machine to do what it should and at the end of the year came last in a class of about 30 pupils as my blouse was still not finished.

Imagine my dread for the next year, but from that first lesson when the teacher explained we would be learning cross stitch this year I was hooked, I even became the star pupil going from bottom to top of the class.

That was almost 40 years ago and have been an avid stitcher for about 20 years now. I love it and have made great friends through clubs. I have only just taken the step to join a forum so are looking forward to making more friends and getting to know you all

[cristaltipps]

My nan was the stitcher in our family but almost all machine sewing clothes and furnishings etc my aunt knitted and i grew up with a love and interest in both.

I dabbled in cross stitch in school because i used to sew my name inside all my things and for my PE kit i decided to put my name on the outside of my top as my teacher could not for the life of her recall my name and as a Samantha i got a bit sick of being called Rosalind! (apparently i looked like a girl from a few years above me) so as the material lent itself to cross stich i stiched my name in a different colour for each letter, in the end i did almost all the girls in the class's names too charging 10p a letter lol.

After that it was my mid 20s when i actively started doing cross stitch as a proper hobby although it fell off a bit when i had my 2 youngest children, i had always felt it was because i had lost interest but i now realise it was lack of time and energy. I am so glad i found my way back to this wonderful craft

[Mabel Figworthy]

in the end i did almost all the girls in the class's names too charging 10p a letter lol.

How very enterprising of you !

[Sissyprince]

Just picked it up again after giving up and taking up knitting obsessively, hopefully this site will encourage me and all of that :3

[VickieDesigns]

Although I didn't live with my Mom, I visited often and she always had cross stitch projects around the house. Unfortunately due to her MS she was no longer able to stitch but I was still inspired by the pretty projects I saw. She mainly stitched Disney scenes so how could I resist?

I started with a magazine kit when I was about 13 (I'm 21 now) which was an epic failure - Popcorn the Bear! A million shades of brown does not a good beginner kit make. Despite this failure I tried other things and slowly got better and better at it. I'd say I'm almost a pro now!

[KarinvdB]

I don't remember exactly how it went but this is what I'm pretty sure of.

In 1996 we went on holiday to the Isle of Man. At the time I was working on friendship bracelets using DMC. We went to a local craft store called "Hanneke's Handicrafts" which, as it turned out was run by a Dutch lady. I remember very well that she gave me her old DMC color card, the type with real swatches! I thought that was the greatest thing ever and was amazed she just gave it to me, this 15 year old girl. I still have that DMC card to this day, and will keep it even though I also have an updated card now. In that store I bought two small Forever Friends kits (see my intro topic/SAL topic) in that store. It seems now that my mom also bought a kit featuring a Royal Mail postbox in a wall, she found that this weekend in a bag of other projects. I started back then on one of those FF kits. I was about 2/3 of the way done before other activities distracted me. The box of floss (that I also bought at Hanneke's) with that kit inside, still in the hoop, traveled with me to various homes I've lived in over the past 15 years, and I always remembered it, and intended to finish it one day.

So that's part one. Part two is now, and this started last November when I went to a craft fair where there was a booth with fun and funky samplers (still haven't figured out which designer it was!) and it got me itching again. At the time I decided it wasn't a good idea to start on it again, having so many activities already. But it stayed in the back of my mind and got pushed to the front when I visited a friend whose mother was visiting and working on a cross stitch project with garden birds (Marjolein Bastin's Pecking Order, as I figured out later). After that I kept searching the internet for patterns and after a couple of weeks stopped looking and started doing. Dug up the old kits again and bought some new material.

Now I'm all HAED crazy! Let's just hope that I'll keep it up longer this time than last!

[christel]

Just picked it up again after giving up and taking up knitting obsessively, hopefully this site will encourage me and all of that :3

I am in similar situation-within a day of finding this site I have finished a small ufo-will still knit too though:-) it is better for days when light not so good

[Mabel Figworthy]

the Isle of Man. .... We went to a local craft store called "Hanneke's Handicrafts" which, as it turned out was run by a Dutch lady.

I've been to the Isle of Man twice, and I never knew !
Do you think she'd still there (and where was she exactly)? DH and I are thinking of going to the IoM for our holiday

[KarinvdB]

the Isle of Man. .... We went to a local craft store called "Hanneke's Handicrafts" which, as it turned out was run by a Dutch lady.

I've been to the Isle of Man twice, and I never knew !
Do you think she'd still there (and where was she exactly)? DH and I are thinking of going to the IoM for our holiday

It's not there anymore I'm afraid. She closed the store in 2000 and moved back to the Netherlands after her husband passed. I emailed her last week to tell her about how I still have the DMC card she gave me.

[lady_jodie]

I was about 7 when I started. My aunt had a "counted cross stitch" party (rather like a tupperware party except you ordered stitching kits). She passed around something she was about half done with so everyone should see how it was done and sew a bit.

I sewed a bit and passed it on. When everyone had a try I picked it up again and sat in the corner the rest of the evening stitching away.

My mom bought me a very simply pre-printed pattern with a proverb of some sort on it and a boy and girl. It was very simple and rather like the old time samplers. Funny enough my mom got herself a very large (probably 16" x 8" or so) kit of a group of sunflowers in a rustic window. Very shortly after starting it she decided cross stitching wasn't for her and put it away. As soon as my pattern was finished I picked hers up and finished it to. It was beautiful. I had both finished patterns for years until after I was married and our house burnt down. I don't think I sewed a thing for 10 years after that.

My daughter has tried her hand at stitching but didn't like following patterns LOL. The one kit I bought her she ended up throwing out the pattern and freehanding a simple strawberry and the phrase "I Love You MaMaw" and giving it to my mom. After that one project she was done. LOL

[bookknurd]

I remember being around 12 years old and doing one of those really simple kits for kids. I think it was a smiley face. I tried one or two more after that but really had no idea what I was doing.

Fast forward several years to this past January when I was tooling around on the Internet and ended up over at Kitchy Digitals. I was looking through their patterns because they had some unusual patterns (not the more conservative ones I usually see at Hobby Lobby, etc).

The Superhero Alphabet caught my eye right away because I have a sister- and brother-in-law who love super hero movies, and I thought it would be perfect for their nursery when they have kids. I bought the pattern then, but didn't get a chance to start on it until earlier this month.

And then all of sudden I became obsessed! I have since started another project (bookmarks for my small group at church) and ordered another baby project for a baby that's actually on the way, instead of a hypothetical baby.

My mom and I are also interested in doing our own patterns, so I've been messing around with MacStitch. I hope this is stays a fun way for me to be creative for many years to come!

[Naritaxxx]

I was pretty young when I started. But I started with a big needlepoint kit of a horse. I think I was 12.

After that I did one of those unicorn tapestries. Always the big things.

But when I was living on my own, needlepoint cost too much, so I decided to try cross stitch (which I previously decided I just could NOT do all that counting, looked like too much trouble) but since I wanted to stitch and didn't want to spend $$$$$ on needlepoint, I tried cross stitch. And now I love it and have stitched for years and years and YEARS!

~Narita

[meldmac]

I started when I was 14 when my step-mom taught me. My first project was a black lab. After that I was hooked, and have been xstitching off and on for 24 years. I do take breaks sometimes as I seem to go in spurts when I get a little burntout, when that happens I try other crafts.

[Mel Burnett]

When I was a freshman in high school my best friend's next door neighbor taught both of us how to cross stitch. I made a little present for my mother for Mother's Day and kept going from there. I have picked up other hobbies over the years, but last year I saw a couple of designs by Lizzie Kate and fell in love with cross stitch all over again. It is the perfect project to work on while the hubby watches TV.

[Kuschelschaf]

Well well well Everyone has had interesting journeys into stitchery so far! I don't think my story is that interesting to be honest, but oh well.. haha

My mom used to do a lot of stitching when I was younger, and I saw all of these patterns and things, and I thought they would be too difficult, so I always admired from a distance. It didn't help much that my mom worked on this one project for a long time and gave up after losing her place on the pattern (our collie used to annoy her and she would always mess up!)

I was a very avid crocheter, so it wasn't until college that I actually learned cross-stitch. I was in my senior year and my best friend was in one of my linguistics classes and she was working on a pattern that she designed herself. I asked her if she was cross-stitching and asked if she could teach me. She said no. So, being that I don't give up easily, I annoyed her every class that we had together and outside of class too. Finally she said she'd show me. But, when that day came along, she tried to come up with excuses for how I shouldn't learn (I think she was afraid I might surpass her abilities?). I kept whining saying "but you promised!!! " and she finally went "ok fine. Just leave me alone after I show you!" so I learned how to make x's and how to follow patterns. And, it was just a little blob-looking thing that she drew on graph paper. Then she (reluctantly) gave me a pattern she made of Garfield. The whole time on my way back to school I kept thinking "I want to cross-stitch a picture of Slipknot". So I said "hey, can I cross-stitch pictures?" "sure. Why not?" "cool." "why do you ask" "I don't know... maybe I could do a picture of Slipknot?" "... ok... sure... but why would you want to?" "..." so I went home and made a pattern for Slipknot's album cover-- well, one of them anyway.

And the rest is history.
Sorry for all the rambling
... I'm still not done that pattern but I'm close

[secondhandrose]

I was a craft crazy kid and was making some of my own clothes from the age of 10. Around that time I was given a small tapestry which used DMC threads. I worked on that and it was very messy. I don't think I finished that. Next my aunt taught me to crochet and I did a big blanket that I gave to my sister for her 21st birthday. She still has it and she's 60 now. Next I discovered patchwork and worked on a hexagon quilt for a number of years. During this time I was buying a lot of craft magazines and in one I saw an ad for cross stitch kits. One with patchwork patterns and a verse really appealed to me so I bought it and taught myself to cross stitch. I was hooked and went on a stitching frenzy. I did pictures or samplers for all my family (except my brother) -St George and the Dragon that I am working on now is for him because his FIL is called George and he calls his MIL - the dragon. I have made Christmas ornaments, cards, fridge magnets etc. I have been through periods where I haven't stitched but I always come back to it. I love it, love hoarding stash and reading cross stitch blogs.