Guest post today from my artist friend: Man In The Woods
Over the last five years, on Fridays, we have been enjoying walking vicariously across the South of England with artist, Man in the Woods who creates beautiful short FRIDAY WALK films, illustrations and prints, and – the subject of today’s guest post here, sewing cross stitch samplers and textile artefacts.

As an art school graduate myself (me, Ali), on reflection, I probably should have persevered with my plans to study textile design, rather than graphic design – I mean, I love both but… you know… I do rather bang on about textile art these days*.
Read on – over to Man In The Woods
A few thoughts on imperfection
I’ve recently been working on some cross stitch samplers that document things that have happened on my Friday Walk over the past five years.

I’ve been looking at the 18th and 19th century sewing samplers that were often (but not exclusively) made by school girls as a way of practicing their skills and showcasing them to future employers.
I’ve been especially charmed by the ones that are unfinished, or rushed, or just not very good, perhaps because the maker was distracted or tired or just hated stitching.


To me, these little imperfections are really special artefacts that document the people who made them. In my own work I would normally correct these anomalies and variations almost before they happen. Or definitely after.



But lately I’ve been trying to make room for them to unfold, as a way of documenting the way I am making. I’ve sewn on rickety trains and bumpy car journeys where I can’t keep the needle still; and in dim firelight where counting threads takes concentration.
I’ve left reels of cotton at home by mistake and had to pick up a rough approximation from the haberdashery. And I’ve followed the time-old tradition of borrowing motifs from other samplers, realising just-too-late that I’m also borrowing their mistakes. Like a hand-made pot, or an expressive painting, the deviations from accuracy and uniformity are what make an object human.
They connect us to another person and their hands and mind, and I think that’s quite important.
Further reading and links
If you have enjoyed reading this Sewing Cross Stitch Samplers – a note on perfection post, I urge you to give @man.in.the.woods a follow, and of course, comment to let him know you’ve read about him here on incredibusy.com (tag me @incredibusy, so that I can share too).
You’ll love Man in the Woods’ Friday Walk on Instagram and Tiktok.
Find out more about his artwork, over on maninthewoods.co.uk.
Personally – I am currently reading Clare Hunter’s book Threads of Life – I’ve not finished it yet, it’s very good though – I highly recommend. Ali x
Clare writes: “Sewing is a way to mark our existence on cloth: patterning our place in the world, voicing our identity, sharing something of ourselves with others and leaving the indelible evidence of our presence in stitches held fast by our touch.”
Thanks for taking the time to read, I do enjoy sharing things I think other people will love and appreciate too. Oh, and I’ve added a link here to further Textile Art reading if you fancy a bookshop browse and note that this is an affiliate link so if you purchase any books through my link, I will receive a little £ which goes towards the running of this blog x

Loved this read and totally agree about being intrigued by slight imperfections and the stories behind each one ????????
it’s the perfect analogy for every day life Ali 🙂
thank you for taking the time to read Man In The Woods’ wise words x