Someone asked, “Is cross stitch still popular?” Yes indeed it is! In fact, it’s booming! For those of you who think cross stitch is going out of style or is dead, that is absolutely not the case. You may bemoan the fact that stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc. no longer carry a wide variety of patterns anymore. That’s because a lot of the market has moved to online sites and stores that cater just to cross stitchers. However, with the length of the current quarantine and the fact that more people are staying home during their downtime, these local stores are sold out of much of the few supplies they did carry. Cross-stitch is once again popular and is on the rise with a new generation!
Cross stitch, in itself, is being kept alive in many ways. As we live our daily lives and come in contact with more stress than ever before in many forms, cross stitch time and time again has been a staple to calm our nerves, give us the avenue to think about and sort out our problems, and come to a methodical, well thought-out answer to our problems. Stitching allows you to see your problems in a more relaxed setting. In times of trouble, people go back to what makes them feel good—the thing that comforts them. In times where you don’t want to talk to anyone about your stress except God through prayer, cross stitch has been the go-to medicine therapeutic in its value working hand in hand to help you sort things out. Giving your hands something constructive to do while creating a thing of beauty is far better than walking around with balled up fists and wringing your hands helplessly over a problem you’re wrestling with.
Many people carry on the tradition of cross stitching to the next generation by teaching their children the art so that you have many generations of stitchers who are proud to pass on the tradition. I taught my daughter how to perform counted cross stitch, and we use it as a bonding time when we all stitch together while watching a good movie.
Cross stitch lives on in the creation of the work in it's art form. We stitch the pattern (often making changes to make it our own), and that finished piece is then passed down through generations as a precious heirloom to be enjoyed and admired for years to come.
The earliest surviving dated sampler was stitched by an English girl, Jane Bostocke, in 1598 - just over 400 years ago. Jane's sampler contains floral and animal motifs, samples of patterns and stitches, and an alphabet (the alphabet lacks the letters J, U and Z as was common at that time). There is evidence from the motifs that Jane had access to an early pattern book.
As pattern books became more readily available in Europe and America during the seventeenth century, the function of samplers changed. They evolved into educational instruments, stitched by children to teach them the needlework skills essential to young girls who would be making and marking household linen and clothing. By stitching alphabets and numbers, children were also taught basic literacy and numeracy.
Samplers became a popular way to instill moral virtues, so we frequently find verses of a highly pious tone. One poor little soul was made to stitch: Lord, look upon a little child By nature sinful, rude and wild. O lay thy Gracious Hand on me And make me all I ought to be.
High infant mortality being a fact of life at the time, there is a preoccupation with death. Mourning samplers were stitched, and many verses of a lugubrious nature were incorporated into samplers. One wonders what satisfaction, let alone pleasure, could have been derived from stitching the following: When I am dead and in my grave And all my bones are rotten, By this may I remembered be When I should be forgotten.
Further evidence of the educational value of samplers can be seen in those worked in the Müller orphanages of Bristol, where samplers evolved a recognizable style. In monochrome red, they feature alphabets and numbers in many sizes and styles, to display the stitching skills that girls would need if employed in domestic service. The samplers served as useful references for potential employers.
As years passed, girls began to learn needlework skills in school rather than at their mother's knee. In addition to traditional samplers, they would stitch map samplers and even stuffed globes of the world (charmingly, place names tended to be squeezed in where they fitted rather than in geographically accurate positions). Darning samplers of great complexity were used to teach the skills needed by wives and mothers for making and maintaining clothes.
Sampler making flourished in Germany, Holland, Britain and America during the seventeenth century, but during the eighteenth century samplers began to change. They became more decorative and were displayed in the home to show off a young stitcher's prowess with a needle, to visitors or even prospective suitors. By this time, cross stitch had become the main stitch used, and stitchers were more creative, producing individual designs inspired by events and objects in their own lives. They included houses, local scenes, naïve and simple figures taken from the real world, and these designs now give us an invaluable insight into the social history of the period.
During the nineteenth century, sampler making and cross stitch went into decline, due mainly to the craze for Berlin woolwork which took over from the 1830's. Ornate designs from nature were painted or printed onto canvas in Berlin, then sold throughout Germany, Britain and America. Stitchers would cover the designs with woolwork, often in tent stitch or half cross stitch but sometimes in cross stitch, to produce many articles for the home - footstools, bellpulls, purses, cushions, firescreens, pincushions. By 1840, 14,000 patterns for Berlin woolwork were available in England, all simple to stitch from a colored chart, but offering subtle shading and increased realism. When improvements in dyeing techniques produced vivid new thread colors, such as purple, magenta and violet, the increased scope and excitement gave further impetus to the widespread craze for Berlin woolwork.
World Wars I and II consolidated the decline in Britain as women were needed to support the war effort, and embroidery featured less in schools. Those who still had some leisure time and a love of needlework would produce patriotic samplers commemorating events such as the coronation of King George V1 in 1937, though the preference was for free-style embroidery rather than cross stitch. In Britain, cross stitch hung on through the thirties, forties and fifties, with the help of pre-stamped cross stitch kits: crosses were printed onto the fabric, then stitched over.
Cross stitch, as we recognize it today, was rediscovered in the sixties, when increased leisure time was a factor in the revival of counted cross stitch for pleasure. Once again, stitchers were working from charts, and early kits from this period offered copies of traditional samplers, taking cross stitch back to its roots. Happily for us addicts, over the last thirty years the explosion of interest in the craft has seen a flourishing of every conceivable type of design - offering something of interest for all tastes and skills.