Bookmark Kits
Aida fabric, embroidery silk, cord; 2014
Every Christmas my mother-in-law gives me a sew-it-yourself bookmark kit. I hate them, but I have to make them otherwise I risk offending her. She is trying to make me a good housewife. She thinks cross stitch symbolises maternal competence - or at least the appearance of it - together with softness and domesticity. [...] I dutifully complete every one I am given, but first I cut up the patterns and rearrange the stitches.
Patterns from DIY embroidery kits are carefully cut up and reconfigured, and the results are then stitched and finished as bookmarks. They contain all of the right stitches, arranged in completely the wrong order.
Original cross stitch pattern
Cut-up pattern front
Cut-up pattern back