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Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Counted cross stitch

 Is it just my imagination or is counted cross stich making a big revival lately?

Over 40 years ago I did a LOT of counted cross stitch.  It all started when I was the project "engineer" on a job site in Iowa and we got rained out one day.  I wandered around the Main Street area of the small town we were working in, and ended up walking into a yarn shop.  They also had lots of kits for small counted cross stitch and I bought one to take back to my motel room for something to do.  The next week I went back and bought more.  It was such fun, and it gave me something to do in the evenings in my motel rooms because I traveled a lot for work at the time. That first project was this farm scene plus the 4 seasons pieces that went with it.  I had them framed.  


For years this was one of my favorite stitching hobbies. I even did counted cross stitch on the front of a cute little outfit I made for my first baby.  But then in my 30s I discovered quilting.  And my eye sight required bifocals.  So you can imagine that counted cross stitch mostly fell by the wayside.  I did a few Christmas ornaments and small things, but that was pretty much all. But now I'm really wanting to do a couple of projects.  I'm not giving up quilting however!!


While in the little stitchery shop on Monday afternoon I purchased 1 chart, ordered another, and bought a few supplies for the chart I ordered.  This Christmas tree made of thread spools may be the project I work on first.  I think I have just the right piece of Aida cloth waiting, and most of the floss colors.  


Note to self - don't forget about the half-done cross stitch project aging on top of the dresser in the guest bedroom.  This was a travel project for a few years, but I haven't been traveling since Covid, so there hasn’t been much progress lately.  That is my story and I'm sticking to it.  



6 comments:

Tired Teacher 2 said...

I did a lot of counted cross-stitch in the 80s and 90s. Then my eyes made it difficult to stitch on the 22count that I loved, so I packed everything away. I still have floss and Aida cloth and a few patterns, but no motivation to stitch.

cityquilter grace said...

i've done some recently as well to use up some aida scraps but...put more aida on my christmas list and downloaded a few patterns...LOL...only have one cross stitch UFO left!

Vicki in MN said...

Oh gosh I am so laughing right now...you could have been writing about me! Yep I did gobs of stitching years and years ago and then quilting hit hard and the stitching got put in a tub in the basement. Last year I noticed a resurgent of it and I got the buy again too! But I can only do little bits at a time because of tennis elbow. But it is fun again!! Glad you jumped onboard the wagon:)

Moneik said...

I love that you're picking up cross-stitching too. I've been working on 4 projects right now. I'm SLOW, but I do enjoy it, so I'll keep plugging along. I started the Beginners X-Stitch University through FQS, but I haven't been able to keep up.

Far Side of Fifty said...

I loved to cross stitch, my daughters did too...we did lots of sweatshirt designs back in the 80's and early 90's. I have lots of floss in boxes just like yours...maybe someday I will pick it back up again. My sister in law is doing bibs with a cross stitch banner for a childs name:)

Linda said...

I have started cross stitching also in the last couple of months. The difference is that I got rid of all of my supplies back in the 90's when it was too hard to see the grids. I think that my cataract surgery helped with that problem in the last couple of years.