Promoting Needlework

Loretta over at Stitching the Night Away had an interesting topic on her blog. One of her guest bloggers, Karen from Camp Cross Stitch was commenting that a Hobby Lobby had opened up in her area. She was disappointed to find out that it was dominated by home decor and had just a small section of needlework, although the sewing fabric area looked promising. This began a conversation on why big box stores focus on home decor and other crafts with only a passing nod at needlework. 

My feelings on the matter are that if you look at what is going on in blogs across the internet, you will see a lot of DIY and home decor related blogs which also seem to be fairly heavily promoted. I say kudos to these bloggers. But this begs the question, why are needlework related blogs not as heavily promoted? I realize that it only makes sense that the blogs are visited primarily by people who are interested in the art. But really if you look at how many needlework blogs are out there, there is a bunch of us enjoying this art form and rightfully so, because it is awesome. 

I think what part of the problem in the US is, is that people still think of needlework as "the stuff my old granny did" or "well, yes it is pretty but that seems to be an awful lot of work" type stuff. Yes, we do still have "stuff" that is granny inspiring and we do have "stuff" that we all know takes forever to finish, but we also have some really fun "stuff" out there. 

As people who love this art form, I think it is important that we promote it. Yes, we should always stitch what we love, but I think every once in a while we need to just promote stuff that is funky and inspiring. Maybe if more people see that needlework is not just about putting a picture in a frame, we can get more people interested in the art and then maybe, just maybe, the big box stores will have to sit up and take notice. 

With that said, here are a few pictures from across the web of needlework in many wonderful and creative forms:

From CrossStitcher magazine

May 2013 issue

June 2013 issue

July 2013 issue

From Jacinta Lodge's site Stitchalicious

"Stitch" stitched on a painted tapestry canvas that was left unstitched

From Emily Peacock's site

From Mr. X Stitch's website:

Artist - AlisterNix

Artist - f. bearclaw

and it glows in the dark - yes it creepily does have 3 eyes

Artist - James Fox

Artist - Hagar Vardimon-van Heummen - this is stitched on paper

Artist - Tara Badcock