Nobody tells you how addicting Cross Stitch is

I have always loved the look of traditional sampler style cross stitch, it’s been on my ‘I’ll get around to it” list for a long time, and now – it’s time! I’m drawing up cross stitch designs like a demon and this is a recent one. I’m also stitching it, but obviously that’ll take a moment or three.

Meantime on my shop I’m having a bit of a time trying to work out how best to present them for sale. I notice on Etsy that some Cross Stitch store folks have gone all in with beautiful frames and settings – and that looks great when the product is displayed as a fully stitched up sample. I get that. I’d like to do that. Other times though, I’m seeing chart art – and I know it’s chart art, not real stitchings – and the chart art is displayed mocked up inside picture frames – just like I have done here in this blog post. While I’m absolutely happy to look at that and I’m considering it for the store – is there a downside? – do folks often think these are actual stitched samples – might it be off-putting? If you have an opinion on that, I’d love to hear it. By contrast this is a progress shot of actual stitching:

The reality is that I can design charts way faster than I can stitch. My preference would be to have every chart fully stitched before offering it for sale, but I also need the wheels to turn and for some sales to happen so that I can commit time to doing it. Things to ponder.

I’m happy with how the charts are working out though and I hope I can provide patterns that are interesting and fun. This sampler – Haunted Mansion Sampler, is a joy to stitch so far and I can already see me wanting to complete it on plum coloured cloth. I’ve done a scout of the local stores though and cross stitch fabric seems pretty thin on the ground where I live so I’m happy to hear any recommendations for online shopping.