John

A Little About Me

My stitching background goes back 44 years and began with my sister, who was involved in petit point, giving me the pattern and supplies to do a very small Samurai Swordsman. At first I was making all kinds of mistakes while counting and trying to keep track of what symbol I was working on. At 13 years old my attention span was not all that great, but she kept encouraging me to keep stitching.

I think that the most frustrating part was her making me take out all of my stitches if I made a mistake, however, it taught me the valuable lesson of "count twice and stitch once."

Finally after what seemed to me to be an eternity, I had finished my first piece. I can't honestly recall a prouder day in my life. I had created my first work of art with a needle and thread.

I did petit point for about 12 years and then, because of the rising price of the mesh, I switched to doing cross-stitch and have been doing it ever since.

Over the years I have probably finished between 100 to 150 pieces, of which I think I have kept about 12 pieces, the others I have given away to family and friends as gifts.

Needle Art is such a fascinating hobby because of the variety of techniques that are available. It is also a craft that you will never know all that there is to know, and it is a constant learning process.

I have done some canvas work and some hardanger, which are close relatives to embroidery. Both of these techniques are interesting because of the variety of stitches and threads that are used.

I have done a number of pieces that have incorporated seed beads in the pattern and these produce beautiful, rich pieces because of the difference in texture and the way that the beads glisten in the light.

I have been very fortunate in that there is an excellent stitch shop in the area where I live and they are always eager and willing to assist their customers with any difficulties that they might encounter. It is advisable to both beginner and advanced stitchers to find a shop in their area that has a very knowledgeable staff, because at some point everyone is going to need some advice.

Needlework has always been perceived as a women's craft and not many men were involved in it, but there are more and more men becoming interested in the hobby. From what I have read men tend to take on the larger and more intricate pieces whereas women usually like to work on samplers and smaller pieces because the demands on their free time are much greater than those of a man.

I have the distinct honour of being accepted as the first male member of the North Shore Needle Arts Guild which is a chapter of the Embroider's Guild of America, and I would like to see more men getting involved in the craft.

When I started stitching I began collecting patterns and presently have about 2,500 in my collection. I have found a few designers whose work I really enjoy and collect any new patterns that are released. I also have about 2,000 patterns that I have designed with over 1600 of them appearing on my site.

I have always loved the artwork of the Great Masters and combined with my passion for working on really intricate and detailed pieces, I decided to create some of these Masterpieces in cross-stitch and I wanted to share them with others.

On July 2, 2004 I was blessed when My Beautiful Butterfly Felice became my wife. We have so much in common and she  has been working with me on the web site. I taught her how to design patterns and she has produced some fantastic cross stitch patterns. 

I hope you will enjoy our  patterns and to all of you I wish "Happy Stitching".