( CNN ) -- `` You are my duchess '' was one of the first catcalls Elana Adler wrote down in 2008 , after she got into the habit of jotting down the unwanted attention she received from strangers in the streets of New York . Something about it seemed so `` dated , '' she said , and it stuck with her . So would many more of the icky comments from strangers , prompting her to keep a running log of them . Most of the time , she does not respond , and the callers usually seem annoyed by her silence . When she has responded , the outcome is usually , `` 'Who , me ? What did I do ? How dare you respond to me like that ? ' `` she recalls . `` I never understood what the callers really wanted to get out of it . '' Finally , she decided to do something with them . She began cross-stitching them into samplers in what she calls an effort to reduce `` the complex emotional experience '' of being taunted with harassing , vulgar sentiments into `` a simple piece of women 's work . '' A sampler is a decorative piece of embroidery , traditionally included in a hope chest , that demonstrates proficiency in needlework . It also requires a lot of time and concentration . `` I wanted to laboriously and painstakingly give attention to all these phrases that were verbally thrown at me in a moment , '' she said . `` Needlepoint made sense to me because of its connotations and how it historically references women 's work . I also liked the idea of how laborious it was . That these statements would stick to me or be in my mind for a very long time . '' She has created 32 samplers for the series , `` You are my duchess . '' She started out with simple words . Now she creates designs around the words , in what she calls the `` beautification '' of an assault . `` The first time I made one , well , I just sat down and started . Then I wondered why I was doing it because it was going to take so long . At that point , looking at one little embroidered phrase that had taken me 8-plus hours to make , well , I wondered how far I would get doing it . I just wanted to have a large collection of them . Power in numbers . `` The more I did them , the bigger and more detailed I wanted them . Now , if I want to start one , I can not help but think big . Big is good , but it takes a long time . '' What 10 hours of street harassment in NYC looks like .
Elana Adler cross-stitched harassing comments into 32 samplers . The series is called `` You are my duchess '' and it features a woman who has been sexually harassed by her boss at work, as well as the man she works with.