Set of Firsts

First project. First design. First sampler.

Karen P wrote: Do you remember the first thing you ever cross stitched? Can you tell us what it was? Also, was it stamped or counted?

I come from a family of somewhat ‘crafty’ people. Both my father and grandfather were woodworkers. My grandmother crocheted, knitted, and did ceramics. My mother crocheted and sewed. Hence, I have done all of those things and more over the course of my life.

My first cross stitched piece was a birth sampler I designed and stitched for myself. So obviously, it was counted and not stamped. I was in my early teens. I had seen some motifs in an old magazine my mother had – Woman’s Day or Family Circle, something like that. I had found an old piece of knit basketweave-type fabric and a tangled up mess of embroidery floss in my mother’s sewing box. I untangled the floss and set forth on my journey to create a masterpiece.

This is what I came up with:



It's about 5½x7" in size. Not bad for being my first try and self-taught. Sadly, I didn’t know anything about washing it and keeping it clean all those years ago. It’s rather stained and dirty now.