Stories with

Jess says let your stitching take flight with aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart providing inspiration…

Stitch People

Hullo! Of all the women we’ ve covered, none hold such wonder and mystery tome as the life and disappearance of Amelia Ear hart. She’ s best known for her solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, but Ear hart held many early aviation records, wrote best-selling bookson her flying achievements and was instrumental in setting up programs promoting women in aviation. Her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean was a unique end to a unique life; an end that is still speculated upon to this day.

The women in this series have stood out from the crowd. In the world of cross stitch, the ability of our projects to stand out from the crowd is often found in the minute details of our artworks.

At it score, Stitch People focuses on personalised portraits created in cross stitch. My role includes creating specific portraits for people as well as developing patterns for others to personalise their own portraits. This constant customising means whenever I stitch pieces for gifts, I’m looking for personal touches to add. I love doing this as it feels so much more personal. My little brother just got married, and I enjoyed creating a customised cross stitch for him and my news ister-in-law!

Depending on the piece you’ re doing, personalisation can be as complicated or as simple as you like. For a simple customisation, try swap ping out the colour sin the pattern for colours you know the recipient love sort hat will match their home décor. A slightly more complicated method is to add their name, adate, or the name of an occasion( for example‘ Happy 50 th

Birthday!’) to the pattern. Thereare plenty of font patterns available online or in magazines such as this one or you can make your own using graph paper!

If you’ re putting together a very specific pattern then the sky’ s the limit on how personal you can make it. Add a name! Incorporate their profession! Use beads to represent the shiny opals your friend is so fond of! What ever you make, make it with thoughtful intention and it’ ll always stand out from the crowd. Happy stitching! Jess