Heart in Hand Needleart, the counted cross stitch company founded and run by my wife, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Cecilia is one of the more popular designers working in the field.
I previously described how we attended our first trade show and then launched Heart in Hand. Cecilia designs each piece and most always stitches it herself. The stitched piece is then either stretched onto a piece of foam core using pins and then framed or is finished in other, less traditional and more creative way. We then have the finished piece professionally photographed. Stitching directions—in essence, a grid with symbols, each symbol representing a specific color of thread—is prepared. Occasionally specific directions also have to be included for specialty stitches that are more than the traditional Xs used with cross stitch. A graphic artist and Cecilia work together to turn the photo and stitching directions into a chart.
The finished chart is how many of the designs are then sold to the public. Others are included in kits including not only the design but fabric, threads, embellishments such as buttons, finishing materials, or any combination of the preceding depending on the kit. We do not sell directly to the public. Cross stitch shops buy the designs directly from us or from one of several international distributors we use.
By the way, people often have humorous misconceptions about Cecilia’s company. For example, at one point we had a vanity plate on a vehicle that read HRTNHND. I had several people tell me how much they liked the plate, and then ask, “So you’re a heart surgeon, right?” A more current example is that when I give the full name of the company (Heart in Hand Needleart), I will occasionally have people pause, and then ask, “You run a tattoo parlor?”
Like all craft industries, cross stitch can be cyclical in its popularity. It certainly never goes away but right now it is in an incredible upswing in popularity. A big part of why this is occurring is the subject of my last post on Heart in Hand that I will upload next Saturday, but suffice it to say for now that I learned about this reason as a result of Cecilia asking me to do a caricature.