I've always noticed there have been embroidery kits for sale through the
years and that embroidery was quite popular at one time in the past and
since then has always been around.
But I don't really know if embroidery has ever been as popular or as
commercially successful as the cross stitch craze in the last 20 years.


My mother taught me crewel work embroidery when I was about 9 or 10. At the
time (early 1970's) it was pretty much the only embroidery you saw in stores.
If there was cross stitch it was the stamped sort, not the counted cross stitch
which is so popular today.

Personally, I don't enjoy crewel all that much, it's as much a textile thing as
anything else. I don't like the way the threads feel in my fingers. I didn't
mind the speciality stitches, I was actually pretty good at most of them.

However, I enjoy doing counted cross stitch a lot more, which is why I design
for counted cross stitch. It's not because I don't think people who do crewel
work don't deserve nice patterns to stitch, but because it's not the format I
prefer myself.

Anne, I wish you luck finding patterns that suit you, your adaptation of
Matilda was wonderful!

Caryn
Blue Wizard Designs
http://hometown.aol.com/crzy4xst/index.html
Updated: 7/7/03 -- now available Dragon of the Stars
View WIPs at: http://community.webshots.com/user/carynlws (Caryn's UFO's)