Why I Started Canafete

I've been crafting since childhood. Cross-stitch, as a textile artform, lends itself beautifully to country home and cottage décor, and there is no shortage of gorgeous patterns in that tradition. But for my own home, I wanted something elegant and vintage and nostalgic, yet timeless. As all cross-stitchers know, a project is a real time commitment, and it's worth searching until you find something that genuinely excites you. For me, that turned out to be vintage Canadiana. I wasn't finding quite what I had in mind, so I started creating patterns for myself.

The source material came almost by accident. I have always enjoyed learning what is interesting and worth celebrating about Canada. History, landscape, art, cultures, traditions, foods – we have a lot to be proud of. I started digging into vintage Canadian art and commercial design, and what I found was gorgeous and refined. Each piece offered a distinctive view into a time when Canada was actively telling its own story with confidence and style. Some pieces, sadly, have almost entirely been forgotten.

That bothered me more than I expected it to.

There has been a tendency in recent years to treat Canadian identity as an aside, lesser than – as if the people who live here have put down shallow roots, and our culture is something that we can discard. I could never agree with that. A country that doesn't know what it is becomes a country that is told what it is. We've seen this more recently, as foreign voices have been all too willing to define us for us, attempt to claim us as theirs.

The vintage art I work from is proof that Canada has always had a distinct identity. It predates the sovereignty debates entirely, and yet it is unmistakably, beautifully Canadian. Looking at it produces something that feels like nostalgia, even for pieces created long before I was born. That is not nothing. That means something is being communicated across generations, and that it is still alive.

So, I make patterns from the art I love. I'm sharing something that is proudly Canadian, and I'd love for you to be part of that.