Comments on: Band Sampler: Counted Cross Stitch

By: Cross stitch

Cross stitch — Sun, 08 May 2011 14:36:15 +0000

I love the Obama cross stitch sampler, well done.

By: Mal

Mal — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:42:27 +0000

@debraann: There are so many crafts for Obama out there, aren’t there? So awesome!

By: debraann

debraann — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:51:41 +0000

I love this embroidery piece. Just love it. I also love that so many of my artistic friends like Obama too. Such a breath of fresh air(even after all these weeks). Great job on the sampler. Great job of crossstitching Obama!

By: Mal

Mal — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:00:35 +0000

@Anna: Thanks for the compliment, Anna! The final sampler will be a long strip, 6″ wide and probably bound on the edges with ribbon or binding tape. It’ll be rolled up and stored somehow, rather than displayed. If I continue with this project for a long time, I might divide the scrolls up by year or something (since they also serve as a type of visual journal).

Cross stitch doesn’t interest me all that much. It’s essentially just working with pixels, and to my mind that’s what technology is for. Still, I was glad to get that handsome Obama on my sampler!

By: Mal

Mal — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:58:09 +0000

@Emma: Yes! It’s a 6″-wide strip of linen and will be affixed to other 6″-wide strips as I go along. I wrote more about band samplers in my next entry, but basically it’s a way to practice and learn embroidery stitches. Old-timers used to make them and then roll them up to be kept in their sewing box for reference.

I HEAR YOU on the cross-stitch thing. I feel the same way about knitting and crochet. I find crochet to be very conducive to free-form and improvisational work, whereas I never feel I can knit without a rigid pattern. This is probably due to my own lack of knitting expertise, but still. In essence, I realize that counted cross stitching is really just working with pixels, and they don’t interest me all that much.

By: Thimbleanna

Thimbleanna — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:17:01 +0000

Your band sampler is very cool and intriguing! I feel like Emma took up all of my comments — what will the final band sampler look like? Will it be used in something else or maybe hung as-is? I haven’t done cross stitch in years but would like to get back to it. So many projects though — and don’t know if my poor old eyes would handle it well. And thanks so much for the brie and apple answers!

By: Emma

Emma — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:12:18 +0000

Well done. Looks pretty good from here! I have a question though: Is that a long scroll of fabric you are working on? I hadn’t heard of a band sampler until I found this blog (so this may be a naive question…)

I also burnt out on cross stitch early on in my crafty life. I credit it for reminding me how much I enjoyed creating stuff, but I’ve never been able to pick it up again and actually finish a project. As I think about it, it’s probably because I was using kits and they are a little too paint-by-numbers and not enough let’s-just-see-what-happens for my liking. The irony being that I sometimes feel frozen by let’s-just-see-what-happens too. Sigh At least that doesn’t bore me though!

Looking forward to the band sampler next installment