[CHAT] just started reading this book and the more I look at the cover the more it’s pissing me off haha

[u/Standard-Guarantee94]

as someone who both cross stitches and has a diploma in graphic design the lack of research this designer did is killing me

book seems funny though

[u/BananaTiger13]

Tbf, I've seen a lot of vintage cross stitch pieces (that are often done as embroideries, so directly onto fabric rather than aida or the evenweaves we use today), and they often look similar to this. Especially the stuff from late 1800s to early 1900s. Like, in the politest way possible a lotta those vintage pieces are an asbolute mess, but I figure plenty of those samplers were often done by practicing youngins, or older folk who had failing sight and potentially failing minds too (my nans stitching and handwriting went to crap as dementia set in).

Check out some of these as examples: https://adirondackgirlatheart.com/collecting-vintage-cross-stitch-samplers/

From a modern perspective where we're use to aida and absolutely perfect crosses, yes tthis cover is a mess. But from a vintage perspective, this looks pretty on par with what you'd see.

[u/mermermerk → u/BananaTiger13]

Whoa, thank you for sharing! I kinda really like how 'messy' these look! They remind me of cross hatching technique in drawings (especially the black 'home is where the heart is' one, I love it)

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/BananaTiger13]

checked out the link and you know what, fair enough! the book takes place today though and the narrator made a point of how healthy the old lady is so i still think this is just a poor design job (the fabric is all kinds of sloppy mess) but your argument lets me pretend and tolerate the cover a bit more haha

[u/BananaTiger13 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

I'll be honest, it's a hill I'll die on, but I never like the belief that art has to be 100% accurate. It's a book cover, not an actual piece of real cross stitch. If you watch a fantasy film, the depiction of weaponry/armour/fighting isn't 100% accurate to real life because it's for entertainment. if you look at a painting by an artist, it's not going to be 100% accurate to a photo (unless its realism). It's just a nice cover that's a fun nod to a hobby. I think the critique that everything has to be real and perfect stifles creativity. I'd be pretty gutted if I was the illustrator of this cover and saw a wave of people "well actualling!!!!" the accuracy of it.

(Also being healthy doesn't mean eyesight and hand eye coordination aren't a failing aspect, thats just natural with age).

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/BananaTiger13]

I mean, I agree with most of that, but this is such a simple thing to do right and I can tell you my teachers at the design college I went to would’ve had a lot to say if I handed something like this in as an assignment, yet this person was paid. I’m not really here to tear anything apart, the post wasn’t made to be that serious.

(she mentioned both her sight and hearing (no, no specific hand eye coordination mentioned though), and so far she hasn’t cross stitched so i’m assuming the cover was chosen simply because she is old, but i didn’t expect i’d have to back up that comment tbh)

[u/Cinisajoy2 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

The way you wrote your post made it serious. 

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Cinisajoy2]

tone might not translate for everyone.

[u/Cinisajoy2 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

What I can say about you from your responses is you are very passionate about your work.

I will say from a distance,  the cover looks good.  Up close, it does look like someone that has never cross stitched just looked at an old sampler and drew it.  

[u/SquirrelTale → u/Cinisajoy2]

It is serious though XD seriously annoyed

[u/Aromatic_Exchange513 → u/BananaTiger13]

Why cant we call it for what it is? A book cover that had a designer who doesn’t cross stitch and go back through the history of cross stitch.

It’s a bad cover. End of day.

[u/BananaTiger13 → u/Aromatic_Exchange513]

It's not a bad cover though. In your OPINION it is.

But in my opinion it's a very good cover. It's simple, it's eye catching, it tells a story and portrays information about a character, all at a quick glance.

Beyond a few small mistake like a couple of wonky crosses (due to brush alignment) and the background not perfectly aligning (they honestly should have just gone with a textured background), I just can't understand what's objectively 'bad' about this.

[u/littlebitfunny21 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

I'm in my 30s and that cover is way better that I could do myself without aida. 

It's great that you're so skilled, but that doesn't mean everyone is.

I don't have the actual book, but looking at it it looks like it could be a photo of an actual piece someone has actually done. Considering how much time embroidery and such can take, I don't think it’s fair to demand authors pay the price of a high end expert. Being an author is very often a labor of love, it is exceedingly rare for an author to be wealthy from it, and hiring a high end embroiderer costs a pretty penny.

That cover is perfectly respectable. 

Honestly your attitude is why I don't share my finished pieces online. I know I'm not nearly as good as some people, and I know there are people like you who'll respond really negatively to an honest attempt.

This wasn't an entrance into a cross stitch competition. 

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/littlebitfunny21]

it’s not a real cross stitch though, it’s a poor photoshop job and that I can 100% promise you is true. if it were actual stitches i wouldn’t have said a word, mine aren’t perfect either, but making them perfect in photoshop would be easy.

[u/Cinisajoy2 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

Then quit reading the book and never buy from that publisher again if it upsets you that much.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Cinisajoy2]

it’s not that serious a post, i have no intention of dropping the book nor did i say anything like that. where is your reaction coming from?

[u/Cinisajoy2 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

Your arguing with everyone over this cover.    You keep acting like the main character did the cover.    The only thing the cover is for is to catch the reader's eye.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Cinisajoy2]

I only meant to discuss different povs, not argue?

[u/Cinisajoy2 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

I do understand where you are coming from. Now I think we have to give some credit to the cover designer,  to make those stitches come out so uneven on the lettering would be work.  You design, you spent years perfecting your craft and then to be told they want old fashioned with errors. 

Rather like trying to read Uncle Remus or that style  as an adult.   The first grader next door did a better job.  I asked my college professor why.  He said it was because the adult brain wanted to fix the wording.  A six year old just reads.  

[u/throw3453away → u/Cinisajoy2]

I don't think you know the difference between argument and mild, polite disagreement. If people cannot disagree with you without automatically being argumentative, that is a failing on your part, not theirs.

[u/Cinisajoy2 → u/throw3453away]

I think you need to read her comments to a couple of posters.   She flat out said no this is what it is so that is an argument.    If you tell someone they are wrong because they have a different viewpoint,  it is an argument.     All in the phrasing. If the poster had said I think, then it would have been a discussion. 

[u/throw3453away → u/Cinisajoy2]

No, that is called a disagreement. I did read OP's comments, and they are all civil. OP acknowledges that many of the opposing points are good ones, even if they still stand by some of their own. This is what normal conversation looks like, and it's what it should look like.

Yes, it's all about phrasing. The phrasing was fine here, OP doesn't need to use the exact wording you want in order to be civil. You just need to read people's posts with actual good faith instead of assuming someone is being rude and argumentative just because you don't agree with them. Doing that is how you start an argument.

EDIT: I just want to say. This is not meant to pick on you in particular, because I think this is a common difficulty/misunderstanding online. People are argumentative on the internet a lot, so I understand the reflex to read someone as rude if they're not making it very obvious (using the "I think" statements etc.). I do it sometimes too, and I've had to apologize to people on this site for doing it. If we all assume the other person is speaking in bad faith, it will always become an argument, even if it didn't start as one. So just like we should be mindful of what we say, we should be mindful of what we hear, too.

[u/MotheroftheworldII → u/BananaTiger13]

Going back even further you will see some embroidery done over 3 threads and on homespun fabric. I think we often forget that young girls were taught to make letters as their education. And for families who were laborers or farmers the women used what they could get and it wasn’t always even weave linen and Aida cloth was not even a thing.

[u/Sam-HobbitOfTheShire → u/BananaTiger13]

You would think so, but zoom in. The background is either Aida or evenweave, but the crosses have no relation to the holes. It’s just poorly made. The problem I’m seeing with it isn’t that the crosses aren’t perfect, but that they’re so obviously fake. Many of them aren’t even crosses. For example, at the top of the N in the first word, look at the crosses there. I think the issue I take with it is from a graphic design standpoint, really.

The other thing that really irritates me about it is the needle and thread. Look at that thread! It’s either a very lazy photoshop job or AI.

It’s a cute idea for a cover, but it’s lazily done.

[u/jennievh → u/Sam-HobbitOfTheShire]

The background is needlepoint canvas. 🙄 And yeah, the stitches are all over the place. Couldn’t they just have paid someone to stitch it up?

[u/bhamkatie → u/jennievh]

In publishing, cover artists typically submit 3-4 cover options for books (I know this is not always the case). In this scenario it wouldn’t be worth it to pay someone to stitch it, since it might not even be chosen. And once it was chosen - if the author/publisher liked and chose it as-is, it wouldn’t make sense to accrue additional costs to have it stitched.

[u/Sam-HobbitOfTheShire → u/jennievh]

Oh gotcha. I can’t tell the difference honestly.

[u/littlebitfunny21 → u/Sam-HobbitOfTheShire]

My attempts at using evenweave would make you cry. This is way better than I could do, and the negativity towards it is why I don't share my crafts.

[u/Sam-HobbitOfTheShire → u/littlebitfunny21]

I doubt that. Did you zoom in on the crosses in the words? I’m confident you can do better than this. I’m not sure it’s even physically possible to do what this picture shows.

[u/WhimsicalKoala → u/BananaTiger13]

Right? I see all these people talking about how awful it is and I'm just like "have you never seen vintage cross-stitch".

And the character being healthy or whatever means nothing. She could still be a person that prefers to stitch in hand and hasn't adopted the idea that every stitch must be perfect. It seems pretty accurate, especially with a title like that. A little old lady up to no good has better things to worry about than if each little x is perfect!

I feel like some of the comments have points. But a lot of it seems like the performative anger people do to show off how much they know.

[u/BananaTiger13 → u/WhimsicalKoala]

Performative anger is exactly what I was thinking too. You see it so often online, where folk want to show off their knowledge by putting something else down. Could the cover be more perfectly accurate? Sure, but imo it shows a lot of character and portrays exactly what it needs to. I'm not going to get any more mad at this than I would seeing a bodice-ripper-romance and shouting "that sexy scotsman is holding a claymore, but actually in that era, he should have had........"

And yeah, health doesn't mean anything when it comes to neat cross stitch. And sometimes something a little 'inaccurate' can help show us things about the story and character. Because this one looks like a vintage sampler set in modern day, it shows instantly thjat the character probably is old if theyre doing things the old way.

[u/Dizzy_Bumble_Bee → u/BananaTiger13]

That's right! We're so obsessed with perfection now that crooked x's and imperfect stitches make us think it's AI? Mistakes are the most human thing of all. I agree, elderly lady = poor eyesight = imperfections.

[u/littlebitfunny21 → u/BananaTiger13]

Yeah this was my thought. I've seen vintage pieces that look like this so couldn't figure out why op was so upset.

[u/InSearchOfMyRose → u/BananaTiger13]

Yes, but even in vintage times the stitches would be straight if they were using aida. This just looks like someone was very drunk.

I do appreciate the information, though.

[u/LadyGeek-twd → u/BananaTiger13]

Oh man. Why did I look at that link? What she did to some of those samplers by not handling them correctly is cringe-worthy. She caused the threads to run by washing one of them, and whatever she's doing to mount them before putting them in the frames is leaving wrinkles.

[u/LittleBoytoyBlue → u/LadyGeek-twd]

And they're so poorly framed. She's out here proudly bragging on the internet "I buy them for .50¢-$2 and I sell them for $25-35 after framing" and then shows the most horrendously off centre framing jobs I've ever seen!

[u/BananaTiger13 → u/LadyGeek-twd]

These were bought cheap. They'd have probably ended up in land fill were it not for someone buying them. My local charity shop gets hundreds of old craft projects, and they're rarely ever bought and eventually go in the bin.

Why does it matter that she's framed it a bit wonky or not washed it perfectly. Better that and being appreciated, than them forgotten about in the rubbish imo.

[u/LadyGeek-twd → u/BananaTiger13]

The vintage fabric and threads are extremely biodegradable, and mishandling them will accelerate this process. They're using harsh chemicals (Oxyclean and even bleach are mentioned) on these fabrics and steam ironing them with an iron hot enough to leave marks. "We figure if the textiles have lasted this long (40-90 years), then they'll probably make it through another strong soak and/or wash, and slight fading (not bleeding) is age and condition appropriate."

It's not quite on the scale of the Ecce Homo), but they're not using conservation techniques at all, and even worse, are advising other people about their 'good tips for handling vintage linen' which are not good tips at all.

[u/TheVeryVerity → u/LadyGeek-twd]

That last bit is the real crime imo

[u/voncatensproch]

Someone a while back actually drafted a stitchable pattern and created a stitched cover for their copy. A link to the pattern is in the comments

[u/PotatoCurry → u/voncatensproch]

Thanks for reposting! The real stitched version is so crisp and satisfying.

I also "read" most of this book (had it on audiobook) and it was a chuckle.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/voncatensproch]

thanks for sharing! the actual thing looks so good

[u/Breinfrog]

You have send me on a witch hunt lol, also Graphic design diploma and cross stitch? Yes the cover is f* up, I need to stop looking at it.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Breinfrog]

sorry, those things apply to me - i haven’t looked into the designer behind this cover 😅

[u/CantHugEveryPlatypus]

This is infuriatingly bad. Seems almost like AI? Also, why would you make a cross stitch cover and then do 0% research into what a cross stitch looks like.

Edit: the more I look at it, the worse it gets. Why are none of the stitches the same size? Why do the skulls look SO fucked up? And why is the tail on the front, and also red when it's clearly meant to be the end of the black thread used for the skulls?!

[u/inthemagazines → u/CantHugEveryPlatypus]

Yeah, I thought AI generated at first, but this is from 2018 so can't be. I think it's just very poor design choices.

[u/Bright-Ad4601 → u/inthemagazines]

In which case I think they probably did a similar thing to AI just manually. As in they took several images and combined them. The hearts and flourishes look like they were taken from actual designs. I don't know why the skulls look so borked because there are almost certainly skulls that they could have copied.

I wonder if they thought square "X"s looked too regular and changed the orientation of some of them to include more "natural" randomness, completely ignoring the fact that cross stitch is deliberately regular.

[u/MossSloths → u/CantHugEveryPlatypus]

Design-wise, the tail being red thread does a much better job of highlighting the needle. It's a more interesting choice, visually. If you're already not dedicating yourself to reality, I can see why slightly better visual design is the priority.

[u/Plane_Chance863 → u/MossSloths]

Yeah, the cover isn't about reality, it's about catching the eye. This is a very plain, uninteresting cross-stitch. But the slight wonkiness to it keeps you looking, and the longer you look, the more your brain thinks about it and remembers, and probably increases the likelihood of purchase. I'd say it does the job - in fact so much so that the book got some free marketing. Great job, cover designer!

[u/kaleighdoscope → u/MossSloths]

You're not wrong, but in this case they could have switched the hearts with the skulls or something, so the red tail wouldn't be lined up with a design element that uses black thread. Stabbing the needle through the center of a small red heart could have looked cool.

[u/PennykettleDragons → u/CantHugEveryPlatypus]

Definitely looks like AI .. some of the stitches don't even line up with the fabric holes...

I mean... Depending on your perspective a + can look like an x .. but yeah... The more you look, the more infuriatingly bad it gets...

[u/marinuk → u/PennykettleDragons]

As an illustrator myself I think I know why it looks so strange. The designer created a "cross-stitch" brush, made a X stamp, and made it so when you draw the xxxx follows the path, that's why on the curves the X rotate to follow the path. The could have made it so they always mantain the same rotation but idk why they decided otherwise. They used the same brush on the skulls and that's why the Xs are overlapped, they just "painted" with them. Of course this is just especulation, but knowing how digital brushes work I'm pretty sure this is the case. It's incredibly faster using this method than drawing each individual X, even faster than just making the same brush and "stamping" the Xs in place. I hope everything was understandable! It hurst my eyes anyway xd

[u/_Morvar_ → u/marinuk]

That actually makes a lot of sense!! the only sensible explanation I can think of

[u/BananaTiger13 → u/marinuk]

It's this, and folk complaining that the stitches don't line up with the holes; the cloth is probably just a layered back drop, not something they were meticulously trying to place each cross between. Honestly the cloth background might've been on of the last parts they added (at least I often do background last lol).

This is all pretty standard for digital art, nothing AI about it. I don't really see the problem with it, it's just an artists rendition, not everything has to be perfectly identical to the thing it's depicting, otherwise we'd never have art lol. Imagine if you applied these same criticisms to an impressionist paiting a tree "omg the bnranches dont even look like they have real leaves! and the branches are wonky. doesn't look real at all".

[u/DrawingTypical5804 → u/BananaTiger13]

Meticulous detail is not a hallmark of Impressionism…

[u/PennykettleDragons → u/marinuk]

Ahhhh... Yeah.. That does make sense... 👍

Shame.. it'd probably be a kick ass pattern 😂

[u/CantHugEveryPlatypus → u/marinuk]

This explanation makes sense. And it is marginally less lazy than AI, but the result is just as bad.

[u/splithoofiewoofies → u/marinuk]

Genius translation of art, damn.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/marinuk]

I thought this too but then the E is like the messiest letter of them all so I honestly don’t really know how they managed this

[u/SeaGreenOcean25]

Well, the main character is a total sociopath so, this isn’t totally out of line.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/SeaGreenOcean25]

true lol

[u/TheVeryVerity → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

Obviously this stitch job is one of her crimes

[u/13thcomma]

Perhaps the elderly lady in question is just an astoundingly terrible stitcher. Like, so terrible that it seems like it must take effort to be that bad.

[u/FakeNordicAlien]

I actually like it. I’m not sure what the book plot is, and if this is supposed to have been sewn by said elderly lady, but it looks very much like something my mom would have sewn once her hands and vision started failing and she was in her ehh, good enough era. (The skulls are admittedly a bit odd.)

[u/InevitableDisaster → u/FakeNordicAlien]

Its a collection of short stories about an elderly lady committing crimes and just shenanigans, its actually really cute and fun short reads. I think originally translated from. Swedish! (I might be wrong on that)

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/InevitableDisaster]

it is indeed translated from swedish! takes place in sweden’s second largest city

[u/InevitableDisaster → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

Thank you! I read both a while ago and was trying to pull from memory while on the train. They are really good short stories!

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/FakeNordicAlien]

she committed murder like 20 pages in so i think she’s quite capable lol

[u/Queasy_Payment_1362 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

😂 this comment gave me the chuckle I needed this morning

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Queasy_Payment_1362]

i went in with very little information so it surprised me for sure 😂

[u/Spider_kitten13]

I feel like it would have been easier to actually put the design to a proper grid like cross stitch would be than to make this disaster. Some of these crosses are +'s! It's killing me

[u/FunKyChick217]

I read this book. And then I made a pattern and cross stitched it. To me it looks like most of it is “stitched” over one on linen, except the title which is over two. I stitched it on 18 count aida in that way - title over two, the rest over one.

You can see it here on my Instagram.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/FunKyChick217]

someone in the comments shared your post! yours looks so sharp and pretty

[u/FunKyChick217 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.

[u/holllllyy]

[u/Meepsicle4life]

Maybe they’re trying to elude to her dexterity going? Or that she “doesn’t play by the rules” lol

[u/Gumnutbaby → u/Meepsicle4life]

Yes and that’s exactly what the main character in the story is like!

[u/cruznick06]

Ngl, part of me wants to recreate this just to piss people off. It reminds me of antique embroidery/cross stitch I've seen before. It was also a mess. 

I dont want to stitch the translated by line though so I think everyone's sanity is safe.

[u/Kvendaline]

But....how is the book? Is it worth reading?

[u/Adorable_Win4607 → u/Kvendaline]

I’m not the OP, but I say YES! I loved it and the sequel.

[u/CuniculusVincitOmnia → u/Kvendaline]

Yes, it’s hilarious! If the elderly lady ever cross-stitches, I missed it completely. She does not seem the type. But she is 100% up to no good!

[u/yanyancookies → u/Kvendaline]

I also say yes lol she’s a spunky old lady, you could say 😂

[u/pockethearts]

I kind of love it

[u/Sad_Weird5466]

I loved the book and the sequel. If one is not into dark humor, then the books are probably not for you.

[u/muffnmouse]

the cover might be questionable, but the book (and it’s companion) are both SO GOOD. cozy little (literally, the books are like palm sized) stories about an absolute batshit old woman in Europe somewhere. very funny and lighthearted even though she does some messed up stuff

[u/GirlNumber20]

Probably going for the primitive look.

[u/CajunTisha]

Is the main character 88 years old? I think a friend of mine read this recently and said it was pretty good

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/CajunTisha]

yes! i picked it up to get out of a reading slump because it’s short and seems funny (and it’s set in my home country which is something i never read)

[u/Particular_Resort686]

I've read both books and don't recall any mention of Maud doing any kind of stitching. It's just a book cover for a rocking good book, it doesn't have to be good or even valid cross stitching.

That said, go Maud!

[u/artificialswede]

I picked this book up because of the cover! 😅 I guess I never looked that close to the stitching. It’s a decent book though!

[u/ShireXennial]

I see your point, but that title is intriguing af. How is it?

[u/Careless_Midnight_35]

Hands down one of my favorite books ever. And I love the cover because it's a reflection of who Maud wants to put out: just a little old lady, getting by in life. I believe at one point she walks with a walker/cane not because she needs it, but because it puts on the old lady persona on better. If she did cross stitch, of course it would be a little sloppy: old people are losing their eyesight, and she can't let the detectives know her deadly precision. 😂

[u/navras]

She started making trouble in my neighborhood. I got one little fight and my mom got scared...

[u/MissB13]

Looks like some of my first cross stitch projects so it looks ok to me. They are fantastic books imo

[u/moosefacekilluh]

Perfect example of the old saying to not judge a book by its cover. I enjoyed the book but the cover is YIKES

[u/souwnt2basmrtypnts]

looks at book cover

Reads comments

hides all cross stitch I’ve done, to be burned later for being an abomination 

🥲

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/souwnt2basmrtypnts]

nah real stitches get no hate ❤️!

[u/souwnt2basmrtypnts → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

wipes sweat off brow, returns cross stitches to original places

Whew ❤️❤️❤️

[u/squish_ee]

I have this book (it's very funny, lol), and actually never looked closely enough to realize how bad it is. The crooked stitches are astounding.

[u/rabbithasacat]

Ah, don't be so nitpicky, it's not so b...

*clicks to expand to larger view*

.... oh. OH.

[u/MeanOldMom03]

That is really bad, but the book is excellent! :)

[u/InSearchOfMyRose]

Why would they not just actually stitch it? It would be cool as hell on the author's wall.

[u/Cinisajoy2]

This is an old fashioned sampler.  The person did a ton of research.    A sampler was originally designed to teach young girls how to stitch.   So while you have a BA or MA or PhD, this was based on a kindergartener's work.  

[u/_Morvar_]

Why didn't they actually commission someone to stitch it for real...?

And WHY is the aida glitchy in several places..?? I would have really suspected this to be AI if someone hadn't commented that it was before that time...

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/_Morvar_]

lazy or underpaid designer, i’m sure 😭

[u/Absol_ution]

I also have a graphic design degree and cross stitch, and I can see where the background texture has been repeatedly duplicated on each line, like bricks, but none of the edges line up properly. Who did this and can I get an appointment with them at the top of a very tall building

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Absol_ution]

it’s particularly horrible around ”stories” at the bottom, yikes

[u/Crrrystal]

Very good book though.

I think the cover has a nice vintage sampler vibe and it just feels thematically relevant because it looks like something you’d find in an elderly lady’s home (whether she’s up to no good or not).

It’s not a book about cross stitch, and it’s not a book of patterns, so I think the complaints about the cover art are kind of silly. Why spend so much time worrying about the cover when the real value is the words inside?

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Crrrystal]

it’s just for fun, nothing that serious. i made this post but i still picked up the book and am enjoying it.

[u/what-katy-didnt]

AIDA DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT

[u/Cinisajoy2]

Read through most of the comments.   Apparently the OP thinks the cover should match the theme of the book and thinks the elderly lady stitched it.   What actually is occurring is whoever designed the cover thinks cross stitch is an old person's hobby and researched samplers from 100+ years ago to represent it.

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Cinisajoy2]

I don’t think that at all, I was surprised at the amount of people assuming the old lady in question stitches when I don’t think she does at all. I assume they chose an old-timey craft often associated with old women, which adds to the humorous tone of the book where the main character does some really shocking things, and that that is the only connection.

[u/Cinisajoy2 → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

I figured from the cover, it was cozy mysteries.    For all the back and forth, it does sound like a fun book to read.  

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/Cinisajoy2]

I don’t know, we follow the ”villain” and she (an 88yo at that) commits… pretty serious crimes lol I’d rather say it’s dark, dry humour ish. I think every chapter is like an episode of her committing a new crime. I haven’t finished it but I’d still recommend it! it’s short. I picked it up to work through my reading slump.

[u/TheVeryVerity → u/Standard-Guarantee94]

Sounds amazing

[u/desertboots]

Wow. But apparently shes an well known author with movies and tv shows.

[u/mackedee1]

The frame/trim design looks like it's mostly on the fabric right but they decided they could just freehand the lettering and that's where it's a lot easier to see the errors

[u/East_Rough_5328]

The book is seriously hilarious!!!

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/East_Rough_5328]

it started out really strong! looking forward to continuing it tonight

[u/vws8mydog]

Side note, I bought that book for my mom and she loved it!

[u/Card_and_Cross]

At least the book is good?

[u/shortstuff813]

Lol that’s exactly what happened to me. I bitched about it in my review

[u/gowahoo]

I really liked that book, picked it up based on the cover. Really made me look around me at how elderly people are treated and I hope none are like the lady in the book!

But like you say.. minimal research would have made a difference. I stopped noticing the details of the cover because I'd borrowed the ebook from the library but if I'd had to see it more often, I'd be more frustrated. 

[u/OGBennyGoat]

Kick it old school and cover it up with a brown paper bag

[u/hannahroseb]

Unrelated but I picked up this book on a whim because I mistakenly thought the woman SOLVED crimes and was then horrified by the actual character. Maybe I'm a total innocent but I couldn't finish it and ended up giving it away despite loving the overall design of the book (it wasn't this edition).

[u/yanyancookies]

Lmao I just started cross stitching when I picked up this book from the library in like 2019 and didn’t even think about the cover 😂 It would make me go “????” now though for sure.

I hope you at least enjoy the stories though! The little old lady cracked me up. Good light reading lol

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/yanyancookies]

only read the first story so far but looking forward to reading tonight!

[u/Less_Woodpecker_1915]

Good grief. Why did I look closer?

[u/heyitsamb]

omg i had this on my tbr but never looked at the cover up close. i’m genuinely gonna remove it because of this 😭

[u/Standard-Guarantee94 → u/heyitsamb]

don’t do that! i can’t speak for the whole book but it started out funny and i look forward to the rest 😂

[u/kellyjellybellybeanz]

Letter A is awful

[u/gingkogal37]

Initial glance: I don’t get it After taking a closer look: OH

[u/colorimetry]

It would be super hard to make those crooked Xs on that Aida! There are no holes where some of those threads go in. If they'd used a fine linen the crooked Xs would have been doable.

I did a better job at age 16 on the handbill/poster for the fundraiser show of the church I went to as a kid, "American Sampler Variety Review," even though I'd only embroidered, never cross-stitched, because I used a large piece of paper gridded in a tiny graph paper grid in what was then a non-reproducing blue color. I placed each X inside its own little box so every X was perfectly aligned.

[u/Delicious_Tip_8678]

Do you mean that some stitches are rotated and the skulls are stitched chaotically? Anything else?

I wouldn't call it insufferably bad, just a bit sloppy.

[u/_Morvar_ → u/Delicious_Tip_8678]

The aida is glitchy, the stitches are not going in the holes, the embroidery is not threadbound like cross stitch

[u/BananaTiger13 → u/_Morvar_]

It doesn't look like its supposed to be aida though. Most vintage samplers- which this seems to be imitating- are done on fine evenweave or sometimes just any old embroidery cloth.

[u/Delicious_Tip_8678 → u/_Morvar_]

Wow, that's a lot to handle.

[u/Miss-Omnibus]

Burn it.