Wayne Hemingway | Mr X Stitch

Well autumn has well and truly arrived, hasn’t it? I thought this instalment could be about my biggest stitch, which just so happens to take place in autumn last year. While I was on holiday (remember those?!) last summer I had an Instagram message which I thought was a fake. Hemingway Design - as in famous British designer and Big Breakfast presenter - Wayne Hemingway wanted me to stitch for them. Not just a “normal” cross stitch pattern, but a GIANT one to form the entrance of their Sample Autumn event. Once I’d told my imposter syndrome to shout up and I’d don’t some serious Google investigation to find out if this was legit, I replied with “Of course!” A couple of months of googling, emails, ideas, designs, video calls later I found myself just outside the O2 Arena at 8am on a Saturday morning. In the boot of my car were two giant mesh panels that I’d pre-stitched with an autumnal design. As the event was called “SAMPLE” I’d decided on a play on words and had stitched around the word “SAMPLEr”... cross stitch, sampler, see what I did there? Luckily on the day I had Mumsie with me to help finish off the design. I’d used recycled t-shirt yarn to fill in about 80% of the design, with the last 20% to be stitched on the day with the help of the public if they wanted to join in. The weather was great - thankfully - and Mumsie and I worked all day (bar an hour for a very well deserved lunch) on the giant stitch. It was amazing to stand back at the end of the day and look at what we’d created. A close up view of the project My A Level art teachers told me I wasn’t any good at art. In fact, they told me I was so bad at art that I should be removed from the course (and therefore their exam statistics). I’d quite like to know the last time Wayne Hemingway commissioned them to produce art work at O2 Arena? So kids, today’s lesson is to believe in yourself, do what you love (no matter what anyone else thinks of it) and put yourself out there a bit - it’s not always a comfortable thing to do, but who knows what brilliant opportunities will come you way? The project in the setting