INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

Gay Ann Rogers’ patterns are extremely difficult to find, as those of us who are fans know all too well. A while back, Gay Ann made an exciting offer on her blog; if this goes well, she may repeat it two or three times a year.

The official start date of Gay Ann Rogers’ very first E-Merchandise Week is October 15, 2007, but Gay Ann is already informing those of us who are interested of which patterns or kits she will be selling through her blog.

So, of course, as a big Gay Ann Rogers fan myself, and also as your (usually) faithful Independent Needlework News reporter, I have been following her blog as diligently as I could manage so that I could let you know when this e-merchandise sale begins and what it includes.

So far, Gay Ann is following along with demand and making the instructions (at the cost of $32, not including shipping) for her most requested design, the much loved and coveted Redwork Cat Sampler, available in her e-merchandise sale.

Also available will be instructions for Gay Ann’s seasonal sisters who represent Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer, respectively:

angelic Acorn Girl (one of my personal favorites),

her stunning Snowflake Girl,

her fabulous Flower Girl, and

her sweet Strawberry Girl.

For those of you who had started stitching or collecting these seasonal designs, this is your chance to complete the entire set. Don’t miss it, as you don’t know when it may happen again!

You will also find available for sale — ***but in limited numbers, unfortunately for us stitchers*** — some gorgeous designs useful not just as holiday decorations, but also as gifts for a number of different occasions, including even wedding, bridal, and baby showers. These are the type of wonderful designs where your imagination is the limit when it comes to their usefulness.

***Unfortunately, Gay Ann has a limited number of each of the following heart kits, so she is considering a lottery system if she receives more orders for them than she has kits. In that case, she is considering putting names in a hat and selecting the winning buyers by a lottery-style method. However, she really wants to be as fair as possible to everyone, so Gay Ann has asked for people who have suggestions on how she might go about this more fairly to please contact her.***

The picture shown here on the left is called Gifts of Christmas Heart, while the picture on the right is named Christmas Mittens Heart.

Then she also has Halloween hearts, which have my heart going pitter patter … Beaded Halloween Heart is shown on the left. On the right, Grinning Kitty Heart is grinning — and maybe drooling just a bit if these kitties are anything like my most grinning kitties!

Other hearts Gay Ann is including in this e-merchandise sale include:

Tuxedo Heart and Wedding Dress Heart,

Frosted Heart and My Bruised Heart, and

Pink Quartz Hearts in Pale and Bright versions.

Again, all of these heart kits are limited in number, so Gay Ann is planning on a lottery system drawing unless you give her a better idea.

All of Gay Ann’s heart kits cost either $36 or $38 depending on the kit, except for the Wedding Dress Heart, which costs $48.

For further details, to (begin ) an order, or to request Gay Ann include your favorite(s) of her patterns in her E-Merchandise Week, please contact Gay Ann directly.

Also, be sure to visit Gay Ann’s design website, too, where you can see more of her fantastic works of art.

And keep following Independent Needlework News, as I will do my best to keep you up to date on what will be included in this very special sale from Gay Ann Rogers.

Technorati Tags: Gay Ann Rogers, Redwork Cat Sampler, Acorn Girl, Strawberry Girl, Flower Girl, Snowflake Girl, E-Merchandise Week, Gifts of Christmas Heart, Christmas Mittens Heart, Beaded Halloween Heart, Grinning Kitty Heart, Tuxedo Heart, Wedding Dress Heart, Frosted Heart, My Bruised, Heart, Pink Quartz Hearts

That’s right … It’s time again for the Cross Stitch Expo! This one — with 21 designers represented! — is open from September 3rd through September 16th, 2007.

Remember that every item you purchase directly through the Expo is at a discounted price, so although not every pattern from each designer is available, it is definitely a good time to check things out and think about stocking up on patterns you may not already have in your stash. And the discounted prices make this a great time to get to know a designer or two who are new to you, too!

The featured designers in the September 2007 Expo are:

Wal D’ Champs,

Veeandco CS Designs,

Tams Creations,

SzuLet Creations,

Stitch A Painting,

Stab and Stash,

Seba Creations,

Rick’s Charts,

Periphaeria Designs,

Pelin Tezer,

Oakhaven CS Designs,

Napa Needlepoint,

MistyDreamz,

Linen Flowers,

Keslyn’s,

India Grace Designs,

Country Cross Stitch Kits,

Art of Stitching,

A Little Stitching,

Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks, and

Adventures in Stitching.

You could also win a pattern if you manage to solve the fun Tombola puzzle, so be sure to play!

Technorati Tags: Cross Stitch Expo, Tombola, Wal D’ Champs, Veeandco CS Designs, Tams Creations, Szulet Creations, Stitch A Painting, Stab and Stash, Seba Designs, Rick’s Charts, Periphaeria Designs, Pelin Tezer, Oakhaven CS Designs, Napa Needlepoint, MistyDreamz, Linen Flowers, Keslyn’s, India Grace Designs, Country Cross Stitch Kits, Art of Stitching, A Little Stitching, Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks, Adventures in Stitching

The Thread Basket is a delightful online and mail order shop I’ve recently discovered which I’ll be finding all kinds of reasons to mention to you — the first of which is the fact that store owner Valerie speaks fluent English and French, lives in the US, carries many of those hard to obtain French designs we US stitchers are finding so attractive lately (such as Bleu de Soie, Calendula Creations, Les Creations de Chrystelle, and — my favorite so far — Tournicoton), travels to France, plans to stock more French designs, wants to know what her customers would like to see her carry, and accepts US checks and PayPal as payment.

However, today I want to let you know Valerie has recently gotten in stock a number of chillingly spooky fabrics available in fat quarters. They’re just perfect for finishing off those Halloween ornaments you’re working on for the Halloween tree competition sponsored by Wonderful XS World! Or how about a quick tree skirt for your Halloween tree?

Or if you’re not participating in that Halloween SAL, just think how charming these would be in a Halloween themed quilt or crazy quilt!

Shoot, you might need to put these fabrics on your wish list because I don’t know how much Valerie has of each in stock — and I want at least a yard of each for myself now that I’ve come up with all these ideas … Oh, but then I won’t have time for Independent Needlework News, so I guess you win after all.

Pictured here are Haunted Mansions and Dancing Skeletons, which are just two of the great Halloween-y fabrics Valerie has in her shop right now for your benefit!

Technorati Tags: Thread Basket, French, Bleu de Soie, Calendula, Les Creations de Chrystelle, Tournicoton, crazy quilt, quilt, needlework, cross stitch, fat quarter, Halloween, autumn, fall, wXSw, Wonderful XS World, ornament, fabric, finishing

It’s hard for me to believe anyone — stitcher or not — has yet to subscribe to the wonderful online magazine, The Gift of Stitching (fondly abbreviated as TGOSM, with the M standing for magazine … or maybe marvelous!). But apparently it is actually the case that there are still a few stragglers, so I’m taking them on as a personal challenge.

Therefore, here are the Top Ten Reasons to Subscribe to The Gift of Stitching magazine during August 2007:

10. You might have been using the wrong needle all this time!

9. You can never have enough Altoid tin covers.

8. You don’t want to leave a basket half finished.

7. You want to know how and why Gloria Moore chose the name of her design company.

6. You don’t want to be one of the last to hear about the special new pattern being released by Needleprint.

5. Who wouldn’t want to try to win one of the sets of thread Stitches and Spice is so graciously giving away?

4. You Followed the Leader and now you’re addicted to White Musings!

3. There’s still time to stitch Helga Mandl’s cute back to school designs before school is REALLY back in session.

2. Debbie Draper’s design My Little Book of Stitches is just GORGEOUS!

1. You need to be a current subscriber in order to win the designing competition sponsored by Dinky Dyes in honor of their 5th year of business.

Technorati Tags: Gift of Stitching, magazine, Dinky Dyes, design competition, designing competition, My Little Book of Stitches, Debbie Draper, Helga Mandl, back to school, Follow the Leader, White Musings, Stitches and Spice, Needleprint, Gloria Moore, finishing for baskets

Halloween? But that’s not for another three and a half months yet!

I’m not referring to buying your chocolate yet. It would either go stale or be eaten (the second, more likely ) well in advance of Halloween.

Do you recall my telling you about the new YahooGroup called Wonderful XS World which Helga Mandl of Helga Mandl Designs recently created? As a way of increasing the group’s membership, Helga came up with a brilliant idea. In order to encourage other designers and many more stitchers to join and participate in the group so that it can help forge successful relationships between stitchers and designers, wXSw is hosting a stitch-a-long (SAL) to create ornaments for a Halloween tree.

The Halloween tree SAL with Wonderful XS World will begin on August 1, 2007, and stitchers may participate for FREE in the SAL, which will take place over an eleven week period every weekend from August 1, 2007, through October 14, 2007. However, stitchers must be a member of wXSw, and need to contact Helga to enroll in the SAL. Also, stitchers must agree not to give the charts for the SAL designs to anyone else; these SAL charts are exclusively available to members of wXSw who have registered with Helga for the SAL. Further details about the SAL are available in this .pdf file.

To add another element of fun, at the close of the SAL on October 14th, there will be a competition (with prizes!) hosted right here on INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS! Stay tuned to wXSw for further details (a number of which have yet to be determined).

Helga and another of the first needlework designers who joined the group, Lady Periphaeria of Periphaeria Designs, have been hard at work this week creating ornament-sized Halloween-related freebie designs just for this very special SAL and competition. So far, Helga has put up twenty-five designs with more to come, while Lady Periphaeria has contributed fifteen and plans on more.

I am terrifically impressed by all of the Halloween designs each designer has created so far! I think they’ve set the bar very high for any other designers who may join this fun project, which will only make it even more fun!

Helga knows I am already one of her biggest fans, and her designs for this SAL project have once again proved just as charming as I expected. I particularly adore Spider Flops; I think the spiders would be great stitched with one of those fuzzy fibers, so the spiders turn out really big and hairy — but still cute, of course — and perhaps with big beads for their eyes! Meanwhile, my stitched witch collection will grow larger thanks to Guess Who Day, Witches Hat Day, and If the Broom Fits. Helga has also done several terrific frog designs for the SAL which could be of use to a stitcher at any time of year.

Lady Periphaeria viewed designing patterns for Halloween as a challenge because they are a clear deviation from her usual style. Well, in my opinion — and although I am just a stitcher, I am a stitcher who loves to stitch Halloween designs, who especially loves to stitch fun/cute Halloween designs (as opposed to ugly/scary ones), and who REALLY loves to stitch WITCHES (hint, hint! ) — she more than met the challenge she set for herself. Raving Radish is radiantly ravishing, and I cannot skulk away from Skull Pots. By the way, skulls and skeletons usually creep me out, but both designers created some really, really cute ones which I’ll truly enjoy stitching and hanging on my Halloween tree — which I’m leaving up year round! With Lady Periphaeria’s artistic talent, the slightly icky inside joke of Cook-Eyes is amazingly CUTE! Happy Hal-lowe-en captured my heart, too, with the romantic monsters lovingly using straws to sip the same drink … ew … oh … ha ha ha ha! Monster Kitchen is also darling, with more cute spiders, and Bones Crossing is simply awesome!

Really, really great job, Lady P! I just have one complaint request: Please work some of your designing magic on a witch or two! Pretty please!

I want to stitch them all at once! I also love that so many of these can be finished in different ways … I can see not just ornaments, but also biscornus, key chains, scissor fobs, pinkeeps, needlebooks, and so on … And the frogs are applicable all year for us stitchers, except that perhaps these frogs are so cute we might WANT them around!

Helga is still welcoming designers interested in contributing free designs to the Halloween tree SAL with Wonderful XS World. If you’re a designer who is interested in being part of this fun and unique project, please contact Helga.

Stitchers may become members of wXSw at any time and are encouraged to register for the SAL by contacting Helga. Also, consider contacting your favorite designer(s) to ask her to take part in the Halloween tree SAL with Wonderful XS World, too — the more, the merrier!

Click to join wXSw

Technorati Tags: Halloween, Helga Mandl, Spider Flops, Guess Who Day, If the Broom Fits, frog, Witches Hat Day, cross stitch, wXSw, wonderful XS world, tree, ornament, SAL, stitch-a-long, Halloween Tree SAL, HMDesigns, exclusive, free, freebie, Periphaeria, Lady P, Skull Pots, Monster Kitchen, Bones Crossing, Happy Hal-lowe-en, Cook-Eyes, Raving Radish