It's Fall, Y'all

Cross-stitched door bows were quite the thing some few years ago -- early-to-mid-1990s, I'd guess.

This is counted cross-stitch, from a Dimensions kit purchased when I worked at the local craft/garden store*. Every autumn, it comes out to adorn my front door for a month or so.

The edges and ends of the fabric band were prefinished, so once the stitching was done, you only had to fold the band into the bow shape (it's not actually tied), secure the center "knot" with a few stitches, and attach some sort of hanging loop.

Dimensions -- and other companies -- made a lot of these kits, with varying designs, some seasonal and some not (kitties, bunnies, "Welcome", etc.). You'd also see patterns for them in stitchery magazines. Most of them were way too cute or foofy for my taste.

I remember seeing patterns for these in German handwork magazines, too, so they were not exclusively a US phenomenon. It must have just been in the air.

*A lot of supplies came home with me when I worked there, as you might expect. The discount wasn't even that great, but when you straighten, dust, price, and put out new stock, you see an awful lot of things that give you an awful lot of ideas. I still have lots of supplies, charts, etc. with yellow clearance tags; they were the hardest to resist. I'm pretty sure I made more money working there than I spent, at least most of the time. Working there also started me spinning my own yarn, but that's another story, for another time.