how did you start?

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sian311
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Re: how did you start?

Post by sian311 »

when I was a child my grandfather stitched, his house was full of the finishes he had done, all the Welsh castles, his service emblem for the Welsh guards, I adored them from... Well as long as I can remember.

I moved in with him for a year when I was 6 when we were having building work done on our house, and it was then he taught me how to stitch, my first project - a book mark of an owl. I caught the bug and carried on. Unfortunately now he's got Alzheimer's so I don't think my grandad will ever remember it but it's one of my favorite memories.
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Librarian71
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Re: how did you start?

Post by Librarian71 »

This one's super-easy! I started the day after Christmas, 2013, with a kit my dad got me as part of my Christmas gift. I started around 3 that afternoon, and finished it around 9:30-10-ish PM. I sat at my mom's kitchen table (better light and flat surface) and simply followed the pattern. I am currently working on a bookmark.
Hugglebunny
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Re: how did you start?

Post by Hugglebunny »

I'm not quite sure how young I was, but I would be inclined to say about 4 years old. I remember my first project was a coin purse that was designed for kids and had a plastic needle and large aida that mum gave to me :)

Since then I have been on and off with cross stitch but really got back into it last year :) since then I have finished five kits, my favourite so far being a baby record for my niece who was born this year :)
huggle bunny xxx

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JCA Elsa Williams The Beaded Marriage Sampler
LydiaZ
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Re: how did you start?

Post by LydiaZ »

My mom taught me when I was about 9 I think. She was working on a cross stitch project on black aida (which she still hasn't finished heehee) and I loved watching her. She bought me a small kit of a black cat and I finished it and even figured out how to make up an alphabet font and stitched my name. I loved creating that picture! She also taught me how to knit and crochet around that same time. All my hobbies fell away as I entered high school. I started them again as I had my own children and wanted to create things for them.
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kmummy77
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Re: how did you start?

Post by kmummy77 »

My sister is a 'crafty' person and offered to buy me my own kit for Christmas years ago. She got me started with a chart and purchased the linen and all the threads. Knowing now how much that cost I very much appreciated it. And it has just gone on from there. While she jumps between many different projects - sewing, making costumes, hardanger etc, I have fairly much stuck with cross stitch. I have always sworn I would get into quilting one day but at the moment I like my work too much.

Kirsty.

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Emma's garden
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jerseygirl
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Re: how did you start?

Post by jerseygirl »

Hi there! Another newbie here. I was a smoker many many years ago. I wanted to quit and figured I needed needed something to keep me busy. This became my new habit. I figured the money was better spent this way.
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fccs
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Re: how did you start?

Post by fccs »

jerseygirl wrote:Hi there! Another newbie here. I was a smoker many many years ago. I wanted to quit and figured I needed needed something to keep me busy. This became my new habit. I figured the money was better spent this way.

It's a much better habit, and I'm pretty sure second-hand-cross-stitching never hurt anyone. :-)
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karen4bells
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Re: how did you start?

Post by karen4bells »

jerseygirl wrote:Hi there! Another newbie here. I was a smoker many many years ago. I wanted to quit and figured I needed needed something to keep me busy. This became my new habit. I figured the money was better spent this way.
That's pretty much how I started stitching too!!! and LOL Debby---only thing it may hurt is my budget, but that being said, it's still much cheaper than smoking is these days!
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Cook
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Re: how did you start?

Post by Cook »

My first stitching came when my Girl Scout Leader taught the whole troop to cross stitch. Off and on after that time I done a few small pieces. Then a few years ago I visited my aunt and seen her work hanging on her walls and I fell in love with many items she had done. So 2 years ago at age 75 I started a piece with an English cottage and many flowers of different colors. I got so lost it took me days to figure out where I should be!! Then my aunt took pity and taught me a few tips and I finished it late last year. After that I'm off and running. It sure fills many long lonely hours.
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stitchhoney
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Re: how did you start?

Post by stitchhoney »

My mum used to cross stitch when I was much younger, but she only used to stitch small designs. I remember a kit she stitched that was of a fireplace and a little cat sat at it, and I used to admire it as a child.

So, when I got older and left home in my late teens, I remembered the cross stitch she stitched and wondered whether it would be something that I would like to do. So, I stitched some All Our Yesterdays kits in memory of my mum who died when I was 14.

As I reached my twenties I was stitching Lavender and Lace and Mirabilia designs and the occasional Lanarte kit. But some years later I lost my stitching bug and didn't stitch for nearly 10 years, but my bug came back as I was searching the internet for different designs and found Heaven and Earth Designs, and admired them from afar at first, but dived in shortly after. I still love the more smaller designs as they remind me of my mum, and every time I stitch I think of her :-)
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fccs
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Re: how did you start?

Post by fccs »

stitchhoney wrote: I still love the more smaller designs as they remind me of my mum, and every time I stitch I think of her :-)
What a wonderful way of keeping her close.
Debby

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Angel of Love
Book of Mythical Creatures
Cache la Poudre
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cross stitch addict
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Re: how did you start?

Post by cross stitch addict »

I am new to the site and saw this thread so figured I would share a little. My mom taught me to cross stitch when I was about 14. I can't remember what the first piece was that I did though...I know it was a saying of some sort I think about Grandma's house being the best place to be..something like that. I didn't really get serious about cross stitch until I was about 26. I was pregnant with my oldest son and I worked in a hotel doing 14 hours shifts 3 days a week and I needed something to keep me awake. So I started stitching and did a bunch that year for Xmas gifts (my initial thought was "hey...cheap xmas gifts because I was making them...but that thought disappeared quick once I started getting them framed!) lol. But that started my addiction. But then after my son was born, I of course didn't have much time and then son #2 came along so didn't really have the time for a few more years. But then I started getting into it again heavily about 6 years ago. But then came son #3 and he is about to turn 4 so I just started being able to spend a lot of time doing it again. I am a serious addict and take it everywhere with me to work on if I know I have any kind of a long wait:)
Fae - Lancaster, Pennsylvania

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marigold
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Re: how did you start?

Post by marigold »

My mum taught me many years ago also taught me embroidery & knitting. Did lot of embroidery when young & then, in those days mostly transfers ironed on to cloth plus a few with design already on them. I did other crafts when older, had a break for several years when I only did knitting. Got back to XS etc. a few years ago, became ill so stopped again for 3 years & restarted a couple of years ago. Had not done any counted XS until recently. Always loved stamped XS, tapestry & long stitch but not done embroidery in later years. Did a blackwork kit 2 years ago & loved that, have more kits to do :D Also, 2 embroidery kits stashed away so will be good to get back to that although I am bit rusty with stitches. Expect I will soon pick it up again. My mum was good at embroidery as well as knitting.
Marigold :-)

Would rather be stitchin than in the kitchen!
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Leroy_B
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Re: how did you start?

Post by Leroy_B »

Never had I thought I'd stitch yet I did so I gave it a try after my intelligence was insulted. Started when I bought a kit for my mother and my aunt as a gift since their birthdays are days apart. A store in New Hampshire, now torn down, carried everything related to a thread touching fabric. The cross stitch section was huge and my attention was drawn to a wizard on black aida. I purchased a kitten stitch for my mother and butterflies for my aunt. I had no idea how much was involved in doing the stitch work so I asked my wife at the time, now my ex-wife now, how it's done. She told me being a guy I'd never understand, don't have the patience, and not smart enough to figure it out and follow how it's done. I'm a craftsman always working with my hands. God gave me the gift and a mind to apply it towards anything my hands touch. I went back to the store, bought the wizard asked the clerk how it's done and said I can do that. I stitched the wizard on black 14 count aida, 16"x20". I proved her wrong not to test my ability to create. Been stitching on black ever since. Tho this is not my only hobby it occupies my time primarily during the winter.

Since registering on this forum I've learned about gridding, parking and so much more I bought 4 HAED very complicated projects on 18 count that I'm looking forward to working on after I finish a Sorcerers. There's a lot of inspiration on here from a lot of good people I'll work my other projects into the summer nights.
Leroy
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adeliane
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Re: how did you start?

Post by adeliane »

If a man has neither the talent nor the patience to hold a needle, how is it that so many haute couture designers are men? :doh: It's a quite strange way of thinking.


My history: I was born left-handed but I was forced to use my right hand because some people are persuaded the left hand is related with the devil (do not ask me why, it is a tradition from the Middle Ages). Years passed by and I'm still not ambidextrous. I'm just not very comfortable with my both hands: sometimes I behave like a left-handed, others as a right-handed.
One day my grandmother tried to teach me to knit. I had an non-academic style: a right handed version stitch, then a left-handed stitch... What a mess! She told me "we'll try something more simple: cross stitching. Even if you make a point in one direction and the next point in the other direction, you will succeed to create a pattern." It was in 1998 and I continue to obey my grandmother. :lol:
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marigold
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Re: how did you start?

Post by marigold »

I am left handed too & stitch with both hands. Used to knit left handed way but when I wanted to do cable patterns & lacy patterns on jumpers & cardigans had to learn the right handed way. Left handed people are supposed to have the devil in them & I think it is from the fact that in the Bible it says Jesus sat on God's right hand. I have a feeling Lucifer (the disgraced angel who become the Devil) sat on God's left hand but unsure about that.
Marigold :-)

Would rather be stitchin than in the kitchen!
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Mrs_Stitcher
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Re: how did you start?

Post by Mrs_Stitcher »

Newbie here.

I started by crafting cards, just love the pretty papers, still do.

My sister was xstitching a design she created herself. I decided to steal some of her stuff and have a go, well it did look easy. It wasn't.
It was then my husband bought me a kit Bothy Threads 'Dotty Owls' (I think its called).

So I've been at it a week and I'm in love plus I've not messed up. Yay!
24/08/10 - We Met
18/08/11 - He popped the question
20/07/12 - We wed
01/03/14 - I fell in love with xstitching
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LadyGisburne
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Re: how did you start?

Post by LadyGisburne »

When I was about 10 years old my school teacher taught us how to cross stitch and we did a first little project ourselves. It was a pencil case and I remember that my grandma put the zip in for me because sewing wasn't my forte (still isn't, but I bought a small sewing machine and want to learn how to use it to make cross stitch cushions, etc.)

After that I didn't cross stitch for ages and then did a cross stitch picture for my grandparents when I was in my twenties.

Then again, nothing for a long time (A really long time, I am in my fourties now... lol...) Then, about 1,5 years ago, I got a cross stitch magazine and have never stopped cross stitching since then. I am a stashaholic and get loads of cross stitch magazines... My favourite ones are Cross Stitch Collection and Cross Stitch Gold. I remember starting with a Robin from Cross Stitcher... Then I saw a Joan Elliott Fairy in Cross Stitch collection and was in awe. I thought I could never do that. And now I am currently working on Joan Elliott's Spring Fairy and she is coming on nicely. Cross stitching is the best past time in the world. It is soothing and comforting and I love how the picture slowly emerges bit by bit whilst I am stitching... :wub: :wub: :wub:
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Design Works - Joan Elliott's Spring Fairy
DMC - The Heliotrope Fairy
Dimensions Gold Collection - Fall Fairy
DMC - Floral ABC


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Jann Designs - George Harrison
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kelleyjogirl
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Re: how did you start?

Post by kelleyjogirl »

I remember learning to cross stitch from my mom when I was around 8 or 9. She had this little booklet of minis. I can't remember working on a specific project, but I can remember the booklet. It's funny, because she NEVER cross stitches. She must've just picked it up for something to teach me to do, because I wanted to do crafty stuff all the time. She used to sew clothes for me and my siblings a lot, but otherwise, she's not crafty at all. I got all my craftiness from my grandma -- knitting, crocheting, tatting, sewing. The lady does/did it all! :-)
~Kelley

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mariak
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Re: how did you start?

Post by mariak »

Hey there, I started about 17 years ago. I was on holiday with my family in a small costal town in Southern Victoria in Australia, and wondered into a gift shop one day and bought a kit on a whim and worked on that during my holiday!
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