INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

Through the end of March, INN readers are being offered a very special discount from Karen Timothy of Wasatch Needlecraft:

Mention Independent Needlework News to receive free shipping, plus 20% off your entire order …

What a fantastic deal!

A while ago, I told you Nancy Sturgeon, of Threads through Time fame, was selling her needlework book collection … Well, she has reduced the prices on the books she still has left — which still include some of the rarities I initially mentioned! Now is definitely the time to get them!

Here is the list of what is left. The actual price is 50% off the price listed (shipping is additional). Yes, that’s 50% off the price listed even on those really rare books like Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting and Samplers of the Pennsylvania Germans.

Hey, if you don’t need or want them, think about reselling them on eBay! (And now you know I’m totally broke, or I’d have done that myself. )

Contact Nancy directly to inquire about anything which interests you!

It doesn’t have to be a bad word, you know — “newbie,” that is. I know most of us don’t like to be considered “newbies” anymore, but a fabulously enabling friend of mine (thanks, as always, Susan of Desertsky Quilting! ) has pointed me to something very special which is only available to people who are “newbies” to crazy quilting (defined in this instance as those who have been crazy quilting less than a year). It’s so special, in fact, I think Susan is more than a tad jealous she isn’t a newbie herself!

Carolyn Cibik, who owns the wonderful shop Evening Star Designs, has recently decided to start an ongoing program for crazy quilting newbies. All the information you need to find out if you qualify and to sign up as a CQ newbie is right here, along with a list of the first three items Carolyn has picked out to discount for you — and they are terrific items indeed! I already have two of them, so although I’m a newbie, too, I can speak with some knowledge, ha ha! Just looking through The Magic of Crazy Quilting by J. Marsha Michler or The Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches by Carole Samples will have any needleworker itching to try out this exceptionally attractive form of needlework for yourself. They are both stunningly gorgeous books — and written by perhaps the two best known authors in the crazy quilting universe, so these are both books you really NEED in your stash if crazy quilting is something you want to do. I’m buying Carolyn Cibik’s CD Book Blocks with Variations in my first newbie order!

Carolyn’s first Newbie sale is in effect through midnight eastern time, tomorrow, Sunday, March 9, 2008 — and don’t forget you have an hour less to shop (or stitch ) this weekend because we must unfortunately set the clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time.

At least as far as crazy quilting goes, I am definitely a newbie. While I’ve been admiring this type of needle artwork for ages for all the lovely ways it allows a stitcher to use those gorgeous sampler stitches we all love to look at (even if, perhaps, we may hate to stitch one or two or them ), and thinking for almost as long that I really must delve into it myself so I can actually use those same gorgeous sampler stitches — many of which I really do enjoy actually stitching myself — I have not yet taken the plunge.

Like so many of my fellow stitchers, though, I have plenty of stash. I’ve been collecting in preparation for crazy quilting for a long time. I’ve got fabric, trims, a pretty good stack of resource books, and all kinds of Internet resources bookmarked. Plus, for years, I’ve been saving all my scraps of fabrics and trims from finishing off my “regular” stitching projects. I have even been caught snatching up the scraps other people leave behind, knowing they’d be of use to me in crazy quilting (not to mention card-making and scrapbooking ).

But only in the last couple of months have I really gotten “serious” about crazy quilting.

For that, I went with my fabric choices for my first two “small” projects (they turned out much larger than I expected) to my mother-in-law, who is a hand quilter (but who usually does her piecing by machine, I believe), and asked her to show me how to piece them together. She did the piecing on her sewing machine for both of them in less than thirty minutes total. She’s also an amazing seamstress — so good she makes wedding dresses for hire. In other words, unlike me, she is certainly not afraid of her sewing machine, although, as I plan to tell you more about soon, I’ve been working on remedying that problem lately, too.

However, I have yet to lay my needle to fabric on either of the crazy quilt “blocks” (they didn’t come out to be squares, so I’m not entirely sure what shape they’ll end up being!) my mother-in-law pieced together for me. I’m still a bit scared to start actually stitching, to be honest. I want my crazy quilt projects to be as pretty as the ones I’ve imagined in my head, but for that, I need to be able to stitch fairly accurately without the guidance of the holes in evenweave, aida, or even linen, or, in other words, without the guidance of any holes at all. Gulp. (I did, at least, make it easy on myself to some degree by leaving curved seams out of my first two crazy quilted projects. Or, I should say, my mother-in-law left curved seams out of my first two crazy quilted projects-to-be. )

Suddenly, the task has become more than a bit daunting for me. So, when I haven’t been sick, or busy with medical appointments, I’ve been scouring the Internet and/or badgering Susan for hints on how to get the stitches to look nice along the seams.

My questions have included some of the following:

• Do I draw my “stitch guides” on first, and if so, with what? Not all of the fabrics I used in these crazy quilts are washable, so I will have to use something that does not need to be washed out if I draw on the fabric — or my stitches and other embellishments will have to completely cover anything I use to write on the fabric.
• If I were using all washable fabrics, and if I were then also planning to use all washable embellishments and threads, and to then wash my finished crazy quilted piece, what else could I use to draw on my “stitch guides”?
• Do I use something, on which I draw the guides for the stitches, on top of (and probably pinned to) the fabric as I work — and then remove that after I’m done stitching? If so, what do I use?
• Do I do all the stitching on all the seams first, and then remove whatever I’ve used to help me get the stitches the way I want them?
• Or do I do this a section at a time, removing whatever I’m using to guide me as I go?
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

I’m very fortunate Susan does not appear to think I’m a complete nuisance already! She has given me some great advice, all of which I plan to try to see which technique(s) I prefer — and I can share her answers later here on INN if she doesn’t comment and do so herself — but what I would really love to see are comments, or better yet, blog posts from experienced crazy quilters on your own blogs telling us how you go about this process. Please explain — and use pictures if you can — to us newbies exactly what you do to get your stitches to come out how you want them to look. Help give us that final instruction to make crazy quilting seem less intimidating. Then, so we newbies can find you, please comment on this article and include a link to your post. (If you aren’t sure how to include the link in your comment, email me the link to your blog post, and I’ll be happy to edit your comment to add it for you. A trackback link in your post to this article on INN would be much appreciated, too. )

By the way, I will write another article very soon reviewing a fantastic resource I found in my search for answers to the above questions, so anyone who is new to crazy quilting or at all interested in it will want to come back to Independent Needlework News very shortly. Even seasoned crazy quilters may well find this resource of use, though you will most likely already know about it.

Okay, now, hurry on over to Evening Star Designs’ Newbie Page and get yourself registered as a crazy quilting newbie! Then you and I can learn this lovely needle art form together!

Remember when I introduced you to Lucie Heaton’s charming designs?

Well, all Lucie’s designs are on sale for 20% off through Saturday, January 19th, if you enter JAN08 during checkout — and you thought your holiday shopping for yourself was done! (Ha! Don’t worry — your faithful editor here at INN will make certain your shopping is never finished — at least, not unless you want it to be! )

Here is one of her latest releases (from October), called Winter Robins, to encourage you to put your coat back on and go back out in the cold for some shopping to get your fingers tapping on that keyboard again :

So have a wonderful time wandering around LucieHeaton.com Cross Stitch Designs, where you can fill your cart and it never gets any heavier — and hardly costs you much more either … especially during this sale!

Technorati Tags: Lucie Heaton, LucieHeaton.com Cross Stitch Designs, Winter Robins, sale, cross stitch

I just learned that Bernadette Huysing, who runs The Needlework Boutique, an online needlework shop located in Melbourne, Australia, is having a sale, too!

Everything which is in stock is 20% off to celebrate the New Year (so hurry … before it’s out of stock ). The sale runs through January 3rd. Just enter “SALE” in the coupon field to get your discount.

Again, many stitching customers will be happy to learn that The Needlework Boutique, where “… you will find a large selection of European and American materials which are often difficult to source in Australia,” accepts PayPal.

Happy Stashing!

Technorati Tags: Needlework Boutique, Bernadette Huysing, Australia, sale, cross stitch, New Year

Wasatch Needlecraft is scheduled to open at 12:01 a.m., Mountain Standard Time, January 1st, 2008. As Karen put it, “We figure that is a pretty good way to start the new year!” I think all of us needleworkers can certainly agree with that sentiment! When I kiss my husband at midnight, I’ll also be cheering Karen … and since I’m on central time, I will do that at least twice!

Wasatch Needlecraft will be an Internet only store run by Karen, herself a stitcher and model stitcher, out of Utah (so stitchers in Utah will see Utah taxes added to your bill ). Many stitchers will be thrilled to learn PayPal payments will be accepted!

To celebrate the Grand Opening, Karen is offering 20% off EVERYTHING — including special orders!!! — from January 1st through January 15th, 2008. For a special order, just send Karen an email (the contact information is also on the Wasatch Needlecraft site) to tell her what you want; she will email you back if she can get it, and with the price, of course.

In addition for all readers of Independent Needlework News, Karen will offer free shipping within the US and in Canada, and half the normal cost of shipping to all other locations until January 15th, 2008. You’ll need to let Karen know you read about Wasatch Needlecraft’s Grand Opening on INN to get this very special discount.

(According to my calculations, this should post at the same time Karen’s store opens. In any case, it is officially my first post this year! Happy New Year everyone, and may 2008 bring you joy, good health, and only good things!)

Technorati Tags: Wasatch Needlecraft, Karen Timothy, cross stitch, needlework, store, sale, opening, New Year, Happy New Year

… to make your selections in Linabear Creation’s 30% off sale that’s just for INN readers!

For the remainder of the sale, the sale code to use in order to receive the 30% off discount in the LinaBear Store is INN7771.

Technorati Tags: LinaBear, Selina Merriman, INN, Independent Needlework News, sale, cross stitch

Through Sunday, December 16th, Snowy River Quilts is having a sale … All regularly priced books, fabrics, and patterns will be discounted 20% (you won’t see the discount on the website, but it will be processed manually).

And for all the stitchers, this is a great time to stock up on these fabrics from the Nell’s Flower Shop line:

~ Multi-color Sampler on Cream ~

~ Ginger Sampler ~

~ Rhubarb Sampler ~

~ Green Sampler ~

~ Multi-color Sampler on Cream (another view) ~

Or perhaps you’ll like the Madeira line better?

~ Aqua ~

~ Willow ~

~ Rose ~

~ Aqua on Cream ~

~ Willow on Cream ~

~ Rose on Cream ~

~ Brown on Cream ~

~ Sampler on Cream ~

Or maybe the Chelsea Boutique line instead?

~ Coffee on Willow ~

~ Coffee on Sage ~

~ Rose on Parchment ~

~ Willow on Parchment ~

~ Tonal Parchment ~

~ Sage on Parchment ~

It’s a really tough decision, isn’t it? I couldn’t decide myself, so I did what any good stitcher would do: I collected them all! I’m going to make a great big crazy quilt out of them! And yes, I am actually going to crazy quilt over the seams. I’d love for this to be the quilt for my bed, but I’m not sure that crazy quilting the seams would be such a good idea when I have anywhere from one to eight cats sleeping with me at a time. So perhaps I’ll end up hanging it on a wall, or maybe making curtains — but I AM going to crazy quilt all of these wonderful different fabrics together!

Technorati Tags: Snowy River Quilts, sale, quilt, fabric, crazy quilt, Nell’s Flower Shop, ginger sampler, multi, multi-color, sampler, rhubarb sampler, green sampler, Madeira, Chelsea Boutique, cross stitch,

The response to the LinaBear sale has been surprising, to say the least. Thank you so much to those who have sent in links!

Unfortunately, I’m a bit swamped, so while I do hope you’ll keep sending in the links you think should be on INN, responding to everyone individually with a sale code is taking more time than I expected.

Therefore, I’ve decided to post the sale code here (and perhaps change it weekly). So, for now, the code to get your 30% discount in the LinaBear store is INN7771.

Technorati Tags: LinaBear, Selina Merriman, INN, Independent Needlework News, gift, sale, Christmas, knit

One of my favorite designers, Selina Merriman of LinaBear Creations, (Blogroll) is extending a very special treat to all INN readers:

~ 30% off on ALL your LinaBear Store purchases through 8:00 a.m. Paris/Berlin time on
December 27, 2007 ~

(For anyone who needs a bit of assistance determining the time in Paris compared with yours to make sure you place your order soon enough, the World Clock is a handy tool.)

Now, you can not only finish your holiday shopping for the stitchers — and even the knitters, stuffed animal lovers, and dog lovers on your list, who are all sure to love Spartacus as much as I do (although I’m still holding out to adopt a knitted LinaBear Creations kitten from Selina ) at a great price, but you

can also spend any holiday money you receive in your stocking to pick up something(s) you’ve really been lusting after from Selina’s line of designs!

To get the code you’ll need to use in the LinaBear Store to obtain your 30% discount, please email me with the URL of a website you think should be added to the Blogroll. I will reply within 24 hours with your discount code! To get your 30% discount, you’ll need to enter code INN7771.

I know you’re going to enjoy this sale because Selina has added so many fabulous designs to her line. For instance, how can any stitcher resist Blue Elegance - A Stitcher’s Toy Set, which includes a box, a biscornu-shaped scissor fob, a pin cushion, and a measuring tape cover?

In fact, I think the easiest thing to do with all these wonderful hoices is to NOT choose … Instead, collect them all!

Technorati Tags: LinaBear, Selina Merriman, INN, Independent Needlework News, gift, Christmas, Spartacus, knit, dog, Blue Elegance, Stitcher’s Toy Set, biscornu