Cross Stitch Magazine - World of Cross Stitching

November 2002           

I was so excited back in 1997 when a brand new magazine was launched that was dedicated to cross stitch, the aptly named World of Cross Stitching!

I brought the very first issue and have been buying it ever since because as well as being packed with beautiful projects to stitch as you would expect, it also has a wealth of helpful hits and tips and the most inspiring stories written by readers and designers alike.

Now jump to the start of 2002 when there was an article in the magazine about using computers to scan photographs and make them into cross stitch charts.  This is done all the time now but back then it was something completely new in stitching.

Because it was going to be ‘the next big thing’, another craft magazine was giving away a free CD Rom of Jean Greenoff’s program Cross Stitch Creator  so I decided to give it a go and stitch a picture of my cat Emily that I had a the time.

Emily was the first cat I’d ever had because when I was a child I got a severe allergic reaction if I even walked into a room where a cat had been previously.

Despite  this  I had always loved cats and as soon as I got my own place I decided it was time to see if I could possibly live with a puddy cat of my own.
I went to a nearby rescue centre to see what I could find and came home with Emily, a three year old Tabby who I had for seven very short years before she became ill.

She was cutest and most affectionate cat I had ever known and when I would sit stitching in the evenings she would sit on my lap, not making it easy if I’m honest but I couldn’t throw her off, bless!
Anyway as I said, I decided that she would be my first subject using this new technique  and I got my brother to take a digital photo of her for me because  didn’t have a digital camera at the time.

I scanned the photo and imported it into the Jane Greenoff program and hey presto, I had a fantastic chart with amazing detail and even a shopping list of threads by my chosen maker which translated to 27 shades of Brown’s and Beige’s and more than fifty thousand stitches……..daunting or what?

As always, Emily sat on my lap as I stitched…..it was almost as if she wanted to make sure I was doing her justice, Lol, and by the end of September I was ready to get it framed.

Now up until this point I had never really been one to show of my work and say…hey, look what I’ve made, but I decided that I had a little story of my own to tell and thought I would write to The World of Cross Stitch and share the story of Emily and how she would sit and watch me stitch. 

I'd have been over the moon if they had added the picture to their stitcher's gallery but when I didn’t hear anything for them I gave up hope that that would happen...........then out of the blue, I received a letter from them.

Apparently I had been chosen as their ‘Stitcher of the Month and my story and picture would be in the March 2003 issue of the magazine.

My fifteen minutes of fame!

As ‘Stitcher of the Month’  I won a fab prize too………this beautiful Siberian Tiger kit, which I’m ashamed to say is not even only half done and joins the part finished sampler in my footstall.