Really Cross Stitch: The Book

Really Cross Stitch: The Book
By: Rayna Fahey
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK preorder here available October 19th 2017.

About Really Cross Stitch

Inspired by the banners and signs at recent marches around the world, Rayna Fahey’s new book Really Cross Stitch takes all that anger, outrage and protest and puts it inside a pretty, decorative border. Along with some snarky commentary and general rage.

Featuring more than 40 truly original cross stitch designs, the book also contains instructions on techniques for new stitchers.

Stitching for public protest is not new. First-wave feminists in the US and in Britain used needlework in their demonstrations during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Needlework and other handcrafts declined in everyday use throughout the twentieth century as second-wave feminists argued against “the oppression of the needle”. However there has been an unbroken tradition of using needlework to subversively communicate political ideas for well over two centuries.

In the 21st century there has been a steep resurgence and many are turning to craft as an activist strategy. In Knitting for Good, feminist craftivist Betsy Greer makes this point strongly when she proclaims, “I think every act of making is an act of revolution.”