My wife is the designer behind the popular counted cross stitch company Heart in Hand Needleart. If you are not familiar with cross stitch, I always tell people if you have seen pieces stitched with thread that says “Home, Sweet Home,” you have seen cross stitch.
I am a big fan of handmade items such as cross-stitched designs. A finished piece becomes an heirloom that your descendants will likely treasure. My wife has done various types of designs, but many of her pieces are “quick-to-stitch” that will not take the stitcher months to complete. She has developed her own style that is based on folk art but is truly distinctive.
Cecilia was taught to cross stitch as a child by her maternal grandmother though that was over stamped-fabric that required no counting. During the latter half of the 1980s, Cecilia was doing counted cross stitch as a hobby, including stitching still-treasured Christmas ornaments for a few years.
In 1991, Cecilia entered and won a design-a-heart contest sponsored by the national magazine Classic Cross Stitch. In those days of no internet (in our lives, at least), I remember thinking how cool it was that friends as far away as Oregon could go into a bookstore and see her design.
Inspired by her success, Cecilia began submitting original designs to various cross stitch magazines. While I was always supportive, I did not want her to get her hopes up only to be disappointed. Boy howdy, was I wrong! She soon had designs accepted by various publications.
In 1993, we made an exploratory trip to a national trade show held at the time in Charlotte, North Carolina. The following year Heart in Hand Needleart was born and we attended our first trade show as a company in Nashville.
People sometimes misunderstand just what Cecilia does. She creates the design and then stitches it. We then have the model photographed. A graphic artist then lays out the pattern is a folded chart or leaflet. The designs are then sent to cross stitch shops all across the world where they are sold to the stitching public. The interior of the chart contains a grid with symbols that each represent a specific color of thread. The stitcher follows the pattern to create their own stitched artwork.
Fast forward just a few years and I had the fascinating experience of coming home to lights and a photographer taking photos of my wife for a designer profile for a magazine published at the time by Better Homes and Gardens titled Better Homes and Gardens Cross Stitch & Needlework.
Congratulations on your success, Mrs. Turner! Very nice needle art!
Wow! That is terrific! She is obviously very talented. I used to do some cross stitch many years ago but haven’t done one in a long time. I usually followed patterns from books I bought at the craft store, but on at least one occasion I designed my own as a special gift for a friend. Congratulations to Cecilia on her success!