Review + Giveaway: Mr X Stitch Guide to Cross Stitch

I've been a fan of Jamie Chalmer's site MrXStitch since I first discovered it, years ago, so I was really excited to receive The Mr. X Stitch Guide to Cross Stitch for review from the publisher - what a treat!

Just so you know, the book link above is an Amazon Affiliate link - clicking through the link and buying is one way to support our volunteer reviews - we use funds in our Amazon account for new giveaways and reviews.

In a nutshell - Jamie's book is perfect for those of you who would like to see cross-stitch through a unique lens - Jamie's book is all about modern, unexpected, and unusual cross stitching. If you're widening your sphere of interest from very feminine or cutesy stuff, this could be a good place to start - this book also has interviews of numerous stitchers to get you inspired to see embroidery and cross stitch in a new way. I think it could also make a great gift for a beginner to embroidery, and particularly a male beginner to embroidery who might enjoy a male perspective on stitching on trains, for example. :)

One of my favorite features of this book was seeing Jamie's decidedly not-female hands getting his embroidery materials together and stitching:

I'm not sure why I got such a kick out of that, but I think it might also help a reluctant male stitcher to see that embroidering isn't merely a girly act - it's about creativity and art form, neither of which need to be manly or feminine, but can take something from both of those tropes.

What's in the book?

This book is divided into 6 large sections (with nicely photographed section titles) which include patterns, tips, and interviews as follows:
Tools and Materials
Colour
Glow in the Dark
More Than a Hobby (embroidery as therapy, craftivism, and art form)
Pattern Design (create your own cross-stitch patterns)
Thinking Outside the Hoop (includes projects stitched on leather, plastic, and metal)

With 23 cross stitch projects and 4 cross stitch alphabet fonts, there is quite a bit of variety to be found here. There are also 5 interviews with embroidery "outliers" Zoe Gilbertson, Kate Blandford, Severija Inčirauskaitė Kriaunevičienė, Lord Libidan, and Les Deuz'Bro.

I really enjoyed the Pattern Design section and how it walks you through all the considerations you might make in terms of stitch count and the number of colors used:

Most impressive is that every example along the way was stitched, so you can compare and contrast. I found it fascinating to see that you don't need a ton of colors and stitches to get the basic idea down, and it's a great argument for approaching one's custom pattern as simply as possible. Plus, the project is a pineapple, and who doesn't like pineapples?

My favorite pattern of all was of course the squirrel pattern. Alas, poor squirrel, I know I'll never finish thee, but it won't stop me from loving thee from afar. :)

Giveaway time!

The publisher has generously offered a free copy of The Mr. X Stitch Guide to Cross Stitch to one of our lucky readers in the US and Canada! To our international readers, just stay tuned - we have some upcoming giveaways that include you, too!

To win a free copy of this book, please leave a comment on this post, and answer the following question - what is the weirdest place you've ever stitched in? As you read above, Jamie is fond of stitching on trains. I'll leave the comments open through next Thursday, Sept. 7, 9 PM US CST, then close the comments and choose 1 random winner.

Edit: 9/11/17 - We have our winner! Thanks all for entering!

Patterns: Mr. X Stitch 52 Week Challenge

Mr X Stitch is currently doing a challenge where he creates a new cross stitch pattern each week for 52 weeks. The patterns so far look fantastic and it's definitely worth checking out Mr X Stitch for both the past weeks patterns and to keep an eye on it for the new ones!

Patterns: Crafty Magazine

Something slightly different this week; there's a new craft magazine in town (in the UK at least, not sure if it's elsewhere yet), called Crafty and I particularly love issue 2 because it has a fantastic embroidery on the front cover by none other than Cherry and Cinnamon, aka Bridgeen Gillespie, who you may remember did the fantastic Kitsch Witch pattern for Feeling Stitchy last October.

The Roy Lichtenstein inspired embroidery is constructed out of felt and there are detailed instructions inside the magazine on how to create your own. I particularly like the two thought bubbles, in their own individual smaller hoops (not shown on the front cover) which go with it.

Crafty Magazine has a refreshingly different take on the craft resurgence, it has a more urban feel than other craft magazines, the projects look fairly cheap to do but at the same time are the sort of thing you'd want in your home or to wear and there's a nice emphasis on upcycling. Embroidery has featured in two out of two issues so far (also in this issue there's a piece on embroidering vintage postcards) and there's even a monthly column from Mr. X Stitch. Definitely worth a check out at your local newsagents or on your iPad (there's an app).

Blog love: Interview with Jamie and Bridget of MrXStitch

MrXStitch has been one of my blog faves for years, or more specifically, since 2008 when Jamie and Bridget (aka Beefranck) started blogging together. What I love about MrXStitch as a site and community is that you can find every kind of embroidery there: cute, sweet, edgy, weird, technical, traditional, snarky and racy. It's a taste of everything (and I do mean everything) in the contemporary needlework scene - but all carefully curated to make you think and show you something new.

Jamie and Bridget are both cross-stitchers who take a very traditional art and turn it around so that it perfectly reflects their humor, talent, and let's face it, oddness. :) Oh, and did I mention? Jamie and Bridget are hilarious. Their awesomely offbeat humor takes a front seat in their podcast, Stitching n Junk, where you can find interviews, shout-outs, stitching anecdotes, and Jamie pronouncing words in a British-y fashion while Bridget snickers. :)

Enough of me jabbering on about how much I love these these two, without further ado, here's a few questions for Jamie and Bridget of MrXStitch!




If someone told you 5 years ago that today you’d be writing for a modern cross stitch and embroidery blog and have thousands of worldwide fans, would you have believed them?

Jamie: Probably not – let’s face it, it’s a pretty bonkers story. I’m still convinced that this is an elaborate ruse in a Truman Show style, and that my Mum is pretending to be thousands of people from the inter webs. But seriously, it’s a huge honour to have had the success we have had, and to be able to showcase such fantastic stitcheries from around the world. There’s a real momentum with this stitchy malarkey at the moment and I think there’s plenty of mileage left. It’s exciting! I should point out that both Bridget and I take stitching seriously, but not too seriously.

Bridget: Nope. I had never even picked up a needle before 2008, even though I had admired embroidery and cross stitch for a long time. Thanks to Julie Jackson's Subversive Cross Stitch patterns, I gave it a try and was absolutely hooked. The Subversive Cross Stitch Flickr group was my first introduction to other stitchers like me. Then I ran across work by artists like Penny Nickels and Bascom Hogue and I became absolutely fascinated by embroidery. There was no going back after that. It's funny to think that 5 years ago I knew nothing about the thing that would be such a big part of my future.



Spam stitch by Jamie

How did you two meet? Did you hit it off from the start? 

Jamie: I blame Joss Whedon. I’d gotten to know Bridget through Craftster and we’d chatted on a few different social media. Bridget created the All the Birds pattern and I asked her for a copy. And the rest was history. One day we’ll do a Wikipedia page about it. It wasn’t long before our relationship evolved to the state it’s at now – sibling rivalry. She’s my sister from an American mister and I love her to bits.

Bridget: Jamie and I met via Flickr and Craftster - I can't remember which came first. We became friends when Jamie asked to do a swap for my Dr. Horrible blackwork. I had already sold it, but I emailed him the pattern. We started emailing back and forth and the rest is history! We did hit it off right away. I believe that there are certain people that we're supposed to be friends with - it's almost as though you are already friends and you are just waiting to meet them. It was like that with Jamie. I knew he was my brother from a European mother right away.



Parliament lyrics, stitched by Beefranck

Have you ever hung out in real life? Was it weird?

Jamie: I popped over to Chicago to meet Bridget in 2011 for a marvellous ten days of meat filled madness. We drank cocktails with friends on the 96th floor of the Hancock Tower. We visited some great stitchery shops in the Chicago suburbs. We watched crap telly and stitched together. It was just grand! It was a bit strange meeting at first as I’d never seen more than Bridget’s head and was pleasantly relieved to see she had a torso and legs. I was also unprepared for how fantastic she smelled.

Bridget: Jamie came to visit in August of 2010 and it was a really great time. Because of the time difference we often have to schedule times to talk so we keep in touch, so it was really nice to be able to hang out and talk about whatever. Friends came in from out of town so them could meet and hang out with him, too, and we had an awesome stitchy outing in downtown Chicago. It was kind of weird at first, but only for a couple minutes. We were friends for two years without ever seeing each other, so hearing his voice come out of a person rather than a computer was a little unsettling at first.

PUSH Stitchery by Jamie Chalmers - 30 Artists Explore the Boundaries of Stitched Art


What’s the dumbest interview question you’ve ever been asked?

Jamie: That’s a hard question to answer. I’m still waiting for someone to ask: “If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?” I’m sure that we’ve asked far more dumb questions on Stitching n Junk than we’re ever likely to receive.

Bridget: I've been lucky, the interviews I've been a part of have been pretty awesome. :) One thing that has come up quite a lot when I'm being interviewed by someone who doesn't understand embroidery is "What do you do with the finished project? Put it on a pillow?" I always frame my finished stitches, but people often think I make pillows out of them. :)





Jamie - what’s your favorite piece that Bridget's stitched? Bridget - same question for you. :)

Jamie: I’m always telling people about Bridget’s “Dog in Heat” piece, because it is a terrific example of the form. The combination of traditional sampler patterns and a snarky slogan is encapsulated perfectly in this piece and it’s one of the many many reasons why I refer to Bridget as the Queen of Ironic Stitching. Most people don’t realise how fine Bridget’s work is, but she has mastered the use of high count fabric and linens – her work is truly magnificent and I’m proud to have a few pieces in my collection.

Bridget: I CAN'T PICK JUST ONE. Jamie's first recycled cross stitch is my favorite piece he's made. It's so clever and unexpected. It has a sense of humor as well as a sense of style, just like the big lug himself. The other piece I absolutely love is one of his spam stitches. I call it word salad. It's a bunch of random words in different colors meant to represent spam emails he has received. One of the words is Franckobubble, one of his many nicknames for me.

*****

Thank you, Bridget and Jamie for keeping the embroidery community so awesome and highlighting amazing stuff on MrXStitch. If you'd like to stitch one of their patterns, do visit the MrXStitch store.

For more on Jamie, visit:
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrxstitch/sets/72157624246256265/
Stitching n Junk podcast: http://www.mrxstitch.com/stitching-n-junk/

For more on Bridget, visit:
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beefranck/
Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/beefranck
Tumblr: http://beefranck.tumblr.com/
Emergency Pants podcast: http://emergency-pants.net/

The Stitch and Craft Show

Last weekend me and fellow Feeling Stitchy blogger Carina went to investigate The Stitch and Craft Show at London's Olympia. The Stitch and Craft show covered three floors, with stitching (mainly cross stitch) on the ground floor, knitting in the basement and paper-crafting on the top floor. There was a wide selection of workshops and talks as well. Me and Carina arrived there early(ish) to catch a workshop from Emily Peacock, who is famous for her Hug and Kiss needlepoint kits, as well as a beautiful selection of other designs. It was fantastic hearing Emily talk about how she chooses colour and what it's like to run such a successful craft business. We got to have a go at stitching up a simple design of a key, thinking about how the colours we chose went together.

The lovely Emily Peacock - photo by Carina

We then later went to see another talk by Emily on how to do a selection of canvas stitches.

We then got to explore the rest of the show and we both came away with mixed feelings about it. It was fantastic seeing Emily Peacock and we also got to see Mr. X Stitch's brilliant display of contemporary embroidery, where we got to stay and stitch a while (and eat chocolate biscuits).

Mr. X Stitch and some of the wonderful work on display - photo by Carina

The opportunity to get to stitch with both Emily Peacock and Mr. X Stitch was fantastic, there's a really nice communal feel to being able to sit down, have a stitch and have a natter. There were also opportunities to stitch at tables run by The Cross Stitcher magazine. However the rest of the show was a little disappointing, the embroidery tended to be on the more traditional side, so we may not have really been the people the show was intended for. The show was certainly busy and there were lots of other people who seemed to love the stalls on offer. I can't really comment on the knitting and paper-crafting floors (although we did go and have a look) but it would have been nice to have had a bit more space in the stitching demo area like the knitters and the paper-crafters had in their demo areas.

In summary, if you are a hard core contemporary stitcher, The Stitch and Craft Show, which is an annual event may not be for you, however the organisers have provided some examples of contemporary stitching (for example Mr. X Stitch) and I am forever the optimist and only hope that as time progresses, contemporary stitching will feature more and more in the show, so you'll probably see me there visiting next year!

Patterns: some recent patterns from Feeling Stitchy bloggers

1. Spring Birds - new pattern by Carina at Polka & Bloom,

2. Tales from the Forest by Nicole at Follow the White Bunny,

3. mr. fantastic stitched by Claudia Marchan from Sublime Stitching's Ryan Berkley patterns

The Feeling Stitchy bloggers have been busy over the last few months releasing some lovely new patterns; Carina from Polka & Bloom has released two birdie patterns which I think would look great on a pair of cushions and Nicole from Follow the White Bunny has released Tales from the Forest which I think would look great in a child's bedroom.

Feeling Stitchy guest blogger Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching has released loads of new patterns over the last few months, it has been particularly great to see some .pdfs for sale of designs that were previously only available on Sublime Stitching's tote bags. Jenny has also released another pattern sheet from her artist collaboration series, transferring Ryan Berkley's gorgeous animal heads to stitch. I love Claudia Marchan's stitching of this pattern, which appeared in the Flickr embroidery pool recently.

And just squeezing in one more pattern from a Feeling Stitchy blogger, Beefranck (Bridget) in collaboration with Mr X Stitch and Julie Jackson from Subversive Cross Stitch released an alternative Royal Wedding sampler at the end of last year for the Independent, admire its gorgeousness here and download for free if you fancy stitching your own memento.

Stitching n Junk - The Official Mr X Stitch Podcast!

Hi there everyone! Just a quick note to let you know about the latest stitchy endeavor over at Mr X Stitch - we've got a podcast! Called Stitching n Junk! Hurrah!



In the first episode Mr X Stitch and I chat about stitching and have a lovely conversation with Julie Jackson of Subversive Cross Stitch fame. It was a pretty amazing moment for me, I promise you. :) If you'd like to listen in, check out the podcast here. You can also subscribe on iTunes by clicking here. We'd love for you to listen and join in on our conversation as well!