Here I am out of the stitching closet and bitching for the world. Despite much research, I haven't found any blogs by crafters-who-use-needles-with-eyes that does what the knitting curmudgeon does for no-eye-needleworkers. So I figured if I come out, you'll find me and I'll find you back.
I've been stitching since 1989 when my friend MB got married. I did a wedding sampler out of BH&G's America's Best Needlework. It said to stitch with one strand of floss over one on 22-count fabric. So I did. The original sampler has been relegated due to a much-needed divorce, but I've continued to stitch. Even wedding samplers because of the thirteen that I have done, only two are no longer in circulation. Most people have the decency to stay married for the sake of my cross-stitch.
I taught myself most of what I know, and the stuff I wanted to try out I did in needlework classes at the old Spirit of Cross-Stitch Festivals: cutwork, hardanger, lacis and silk gauze most notably. Despite the fact that Maureen Appleton assured me and dozens of others that we would love working on gauze, I didn't like it which saved an investment in a dazor lamp. By the demise of Spirit, they considered me an advanced stitcher. In 1998, I went to Poland to teach ESL and the "extracurricular" activity that I taught was stitching. Taught a bunch of novices a design that Sue Stokes of the Nutmeg Needle had donated. That was fun.
I'm not so interested in CATS or other classes anymore. I'm interested in stitching patterns I like, and the stuff that CATS and EGA do isn't attractive. I mean the EGA stuff, gack, who's designing this crap and when will they leave the 70s and join the rest of us? What do people do with this shit? Hang it on their walls? Impose it on their friends? Is it art?
But then, how much can you expect when the "industry-leading" magazine doesn't even fact check their stories.
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