INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

I apologize for disappearing, or seeming to, for a while here recently. I had actually gone up to Michigan for what should be routine medical care (pain management) but isn’t because no Illinois doctors have been willing to provide it — which I know because I’ve been trying to obtain it for over five years while becoming exceedingly worse in the meantime. In fact, only six physicians in the entire state of Illinois are apparently ever willing to provide it, and that includes not just for patients with missing limbs, chronic pain, and so on, but also for those dying from cancer or AIDS. Unfortunately, my friend Creel’s mother never encountered one of those six before dying of two different types of cancer.

I swear, Illinois is the state where all the doctors who just barely manage NOT to flunk out of medical school come to practice. Well, they have to go somewhere, you know! You don’t think they paid all that money to just barely get medical degrees and then aren’t using them, do you? Yes, of course, the students who only graduated to MDs and ODs because of a curve — and barely made it through medical school that way — are out there practicing on people like you and me! How else can they pay off their massive school loans?

One of the reasons this situation is so awfully horrible is because there are only two reasons a doctor can lose his or her license. One is to kill a patient. The other is to over-prescribe narcotics. The really pathetic thing is that most doctors are so far under-prescribing narcotics that they are killing patients by way of suicide instead … but society hasn’t figured out a good way to prove that type of case yet. I believe we WILL figure it out; we just aren’t there yet.

Anyway, infuriated with extremely good reason, depressed by the situation but NOT chemically depressed (as insisted upon by so many doctors, and even by quite a few of my friends — quite incorrectly … and I DO know what the difference is, having been severely chemically AND situationally depressed back in 2000), in pretty close to absolute desperation, frustrated into giving up on Illinois but unwilling to give up on myself, and still FAR from suicidal because I have way too much left to stitch, I chose to go to Michigan to a real state-of-the-art hospital and medical organization to see the doctor of a friend with some of the same health issues I have whose doctor readily prescribes REAL pain relievers for her as needed.

By “REAL pain relievers,” yes, I do mean narcotics — those wonderful pills which are so much less damaging to your liver than Tylenol, and so much less damaging to your digestive system than Ibuprofen. My liver is half again as big as it should be from Tylenol abuse because doctors here won’t prescribe — and Tylenol was barely working anyway. I was going through the 250 pill bottle every week at one point just to take the edge off! The Ibuprofen was just as bad for me — and just as ineffective.

Did you know the addictive potential of narcotics is almost exclusive to healthy individuals who have no pain to start with, while people who take narcotics for pain never experience a “high” from them because the medication simply relieves their pain (which is all the “high” a person who lives in chronic pain seeks)?

Anyway, I was gone just over ten days and my time while away in Michigan wasn’t too spotty as far as keeping up with Independent Needlework News was concerned. It was extremely frustrating, however, and not quite up to my own wishes or standards because I was fighting with a 24K dial-up (even though she has a 56K modem, she doesn’t think there’s any reason to call her ISP and have them check the situation out, and no amount of trying to explain to her why she should be getting better service would change her bullheaded mind) at the house of the friend I was staying with while in Michigan.

You’d think it would have been really great to get home, but while I was away, my dear father-in-law unfortunately had to be admitted to the hospital, where he later became a victim of medical malpractice, dying senselessly, needlessly, and quite unexpectedly while at one of the most well-known hospitals in this area of the country.

So perhaps you can imagine my frustration at receiving the following comment at this particular time from reader Amy Frost:

To whom it my [sic] concern,

I heard about 6 months ago that my favorite thread company Needle Necessities [sic] is going out of business. I have been trying to get some answers on this for months. The place I normally buy my thread told me that she has been waiting for her back-orders for about 10 months now. I have been online looking for the Floss and Pearls that I normally use for my class that I have been teaching for 10 years. I cannot understand why no one has what I’m looking for! I have tried other brands but nothing looks as nice as the Needle Necessities brand.

Today I finaly [sic] called Needle Necessities myself for the 1st time and spoke with the manager, Debbie. She told me that they are no longer in business. I cannot believe this! What makes me upset is that on your website it reads the following information “Needle Necessities NOT, Repeat NOT, Going Out of Business”. [sic] Who do you think you are? your [sic] readers are relying on you for accurate information. This is so disappointing!!!!

Sincerely,
Amy Frost

When I wrote my first article titled Needle Necessities NOT, Repeat NOT, Going Out of Business at the behest of a reader who wished to remain anonymous, I also spoke with the front Office Manager, Debbie BuSteed, just as Amy did. At that time, on Tuesday, August 21, 2007, Debbie vehemently insisted Needle Necessities was NOT going out of business, and that if it were, she would know. Accordingly, that is what I reported.

Unfortunately, Needle Necessities has had some difficulties in the past year or so, including employee transitions which resulting in falling behind on numerous orders. Apparently, these difficulties eventually resulted in the owner of Needle Necessities making the decision to actually close the business. Debbie BuSteed, whom I spoke with again after receiving your comment, Amy, confirmed that the owner had informed her on Monday, September 10, 2007, that the business would be closing. She did not intentionally mislead or lie to me, nor did I intentionally mislead or lie to you. I trusted my source, who was the best source of information I could get at the time — and who still remained the best source of information even when you contacted her and then when I contacted her again. The only “problem” is that Debbie is perhaps a more optimistic person than she should have been in this particular situation — but with a company which had been in business as long as Needle Necessities has, I think I would have tended to err in the same direction myself.

Debbie’s priority since then has been on finding a new job, combined with finishing up the work which remains for her to complete at Needle Necessities (which sounds like quite a bit, actually, especially as there are only two remaining employees) which is one reason she did not inform me so that I could inform you instead of your informing me.

My priority has been on first my father-in-law, and then after his death on supporting my husband and the rest of his family, along with taking care of my own health instead of rushing to inform the rest of the public.

As for your wholly inappropriate and offensive question, “Who do you think you are?” I am the sole owner, investigative reporter, and writer of Independent Needlework News. So far, all the work I’ve done here at Independent Needlework News has been for FREE because I haven’t figured out how to place the ads onto the site, and the person who said she’d help out with that kind of technical support stuff has apparently not had time to work on any of those things. Just because my tag line says, “It’s like CNN, but all needlework news, all the time!” doesn’t mean I’m working 24-7-365 or that various individuals are working for me to cover things 24-7-365. Needlework is important, but not that important. What the tag line actually means is that you can come to Independent Needlework News 24-7-365 for needlework news … and I think pretty much everyone except you understood that prior to this; if not, they will now.

As for me, I still do not feel particularly up to regular blogging for Independent Needlework News or anywhere else. It seemed the doctor in Michigan had been a big help, but then Dad died and now nothing is working. I’m not really sleeping well or eating. I’m grieving and barely holding it together for my husband. This threw a financial wrench into things also that is making life extremely difficult, and I have another trip to Michigan in a couple of weeks that I don’t know how I’m going to manage … except I know it will cost more than the last one did for a shorter stay because I’ll need a hotel, rental car, and so on.

But getting back to work on Independent Needlework News is probably a good idea. That will help restore a sense of normalcy. Maybe I’ll feel like stitching, which always makes me feel good.

Perhaps some of you will let me know of big sales of Needle Necessities floss.

Technorati Tags: Needle Necessities, rumor, out of business, needlework, pain management, health care, medical malpractice, routine medical care, Illinois, narcotic, opioid

Distributor Norden Crafts has a very informative article called Copyrights and Copywrongs on their website.  It gives you the basics on copyright law as it pertains to the needlework industry.

This article is about as close as you can get to finding copyright information pertaining to the needlework industry “in a nutshell.” Even though I have been studying copyright law with regard to needlework for many years now, even I still find it confusing at times. 

In fact, that is one of the biggest problems with copyright law, in my opinion – that it is so confusing.  I focus on it often here on Independent Needlework News as a service  to you and to the industry I love because, most of the time, understanding is the key to compliance.  It is difficult to follow a law you don’t understand because you don’t know if what you are doing is correct or not.  However, ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law, and the penalties for copyright infringement are too high — this is DEFINITELY one law you do NOT want to break for a MULTITUDE of reasons.   

Norden Craft’s article helps answer some of the more confusing questions in a fairly clear way. I recommend it to you as something to read today, and then as something to review perhaps once every six months or so — just to keep these thoughts fresh in your own mind so that your actions are always clearly in line with copyright laws.

Bookmark this site, too, for those times when you have questions!

By the way, if you are wondering why a needlework distributor is interested in copyright law, it is because needlework distributors are affected by the illegal copying of needlework patterns, too.  Copyright infringement hurts the needlework industry AT EVERY SINGLE LEVEL.

Let’s say this distributor normally sells ten copies each of ten different patterns to each shop (100 patterns total). If one customer from each shop buys one copy of each of those ten different patterns and makes ten illegal copies of each of those patterns, which they then illegally give to ten different friends, then those friends do not need to buy the original patterns (which means the shop loses their business).  Now the other nine of each of those patterns waiting to be bought by customers are still sitting on the shop’s shelves …

And let’s not forget to do the math, either.  Suppose each of those ten different patterns retails for $10, which is getting to be a fairly average price nowadays.  Just one set of those ten patterns at retail value would be $100! With just one customer from each shop giving away ten copies of ten patterns to ten friends, the shop would lose $1000!  Nine more shops around the country would also lose $1000 each!

When the shops don’t sell the patterns they expect to sell, they don’t reorder as soon as they expected to and/or they don’t have the funds to place new orders for other products. This means the distributors are now not receiving orders like they used to — either they are receiving smaller orders, or their orders are coming in farther and farther apart.

It took a little while, but in the end, both the shop AND the distributor lost business, and that is why Norden Crafts has made this article available to you. They want you to understand that if you make a copy of a pattern for a friend or accept a copy of a pattern from a friend, it is hurting their business, too.

What’s more important, perhaps, at least to you, is that Norden Crafts wants you to understand that when you cause your shop to lose business in this way, then you give your shop two choices, neither of which is particularly appealing: raise their prices or go out of business. Which one do you prefer?

I prefer my shop stay in business AND be able to keep their prices lower, so I refuse to make or accept illegal copies of patterns. Please do the same.

JUST SAY NO TO COPYWRONGS !!!

Technorati Tags: Norden Crafts, copyrights, copywrongs, needlework, copyright, infringement

Well, I certainly am … I even want an owl named Hedwig, although I’m certain my cats would disapprove. But there’s a solution to that problem — needlework always offers a solution to problems like that!

This one comes to us from Meg Thompson Shinall, the daughter of Ginnie and Ken Thompson — who-who together brought to America so many of the counted thread techniques we have grown to love today. Meg also continues to stitch all of her models with the popular though — in my opinion — not nearly often enough used, Ginnie Thompson Flower Thread.

Now, with Meg’s latest design, you, too, can have your very own Hedwig. Maybe that isn’t what Meg intended for you to call this darling owl, because she named it the Life’s a Hoot Owl Case; however, somehow I have a feeling she won’t mind too much that I’ll be calling mine Hedwig, for who-whom I can hardly wait to arrive on my doorstep!

If looking at the front of this darling kit doesn’t convince you, then just take a quick peek at the darling little baby owls on Flower Thread’s homepage!

Your $30 kit includes the Putford scissors and may be stitched in just one weekend. Kits are limited, so please make your orders soon — and then please allow six weeks for your kit to be specially put together just for you!

Before you hit your final order button, though, be sure to take a look around the rest of the Flower Thread Stash Enhancement Experience area … Who-who knows what else might have to go into your cart, too?

Technorati Tags: Meg Thompson Shinall, Meg Shinall, Flower Thread, Putford scissors, cross stitch, Harry Potter, Hedwig, owl, Life’s a Hoot, needlework

I received a question from a reader (who prefers to remain anonymous, but thank you all the same for giving me the opportunity to weigh in on this very important NEWS ISSUE within the needlework community) late yesterday asking me to confirm or deny a rumor going around that popular thread company (certainly one of MY personal favorites!) Needle Necessities either has gone or is going out of business.

This rumor is COMPLETELY FALSE.

I spoke directly with Debbie BuSteed, Needle Necessities’ front Office Manager, on the telephone just minutes ago using the main Needle Necessities number posted on their website (714-892-9211). Debbie was very forthcoming and confirmed that while she has heard the rumor and received numerous calls about its veracity, it is NOT TRUE. If ANYONE would know whether or not this rumor were true, it would be Debbie.

Perhaps partly fueling the FALSE rumor is the fact that a few Needle Necessities’ employees have chosen to leave the company for personal reasons. Therefore, Needle Necessities has been running shorthanded, which has in some cases left them somewhat behind in filling orders.

However, they are catching up with all their employees pitching in wherever they can. Debbie herself is doing pretty much everything from answering the phones and taking orders right through to shipping — except the actual dyeing, she says, which she does not know how to do.

***************************************************************************

Now, on a somewhat different note, I would just like to refer you to another of my absolute favorite Internet resources. It’s called the Internet Tourbus, is written with intelligence and a generous dose of good humor by Bob Rankin and Patrick Crispen, and I have been subscribing to it for literally YEARS, even though I know the Internet pretty well by now. In particular, I would like to mention an archived Internet Tourbus issue concerning people who have spread false rumors which resulted in harming a company’s business … And THAT resulted in those people being SUED by a big company — Proctor & Gamble, to be specific … And the little people LOST the lawsuits — BIG TIME — because they had lied without bothering to check their facts, and thus were deemed to have willfully harmed Proctor & Gamble’s business.

So my personal advice to anyone who has been spreading this rumor about Needle Necessities which I have now FLATLY DEBUNKED is that you post immediate retractions everywhere you posted the rumor ASAP to CYA. Better to be as safe as possible at this point than sorrier than horse poop. Feel free to refer people to this article here on Independent Needlework News for the facts; the direct link to this article is:

http://independentneedleworknews.com/2007/08/21/nn-not-out-of-business/

or you can also use the TinyURL code: http://tinyurl.com/2gru83

And sign up (or as Bob and Patrick call it, get a free ticket) for the Internet Tourbus, too. You’ll enjoy it; I promise!

Technorati Tags: Needle Necessities, rumor, out of business, Internet Tourbus, Proctor & Gamble, lawsuit, sue, Bob Rankin, Patrick Crispen

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

Hi! I’m Heather, previously CraftGossip’s very first Needlework Editor. In fact, the posts which pre-date this one were first published on CraftGossip. You may notice I have posted some of my archives, and I am still working on getting the rest of those posted. It’s a big job, so I’m keeping only the relevant archives to help facilitate the process and also allow me time to start posting regularly again.

I’m sorry I can’t automatically put up all of the wonderful comments I had received from all of you while I was at CraftGossip — you each had brought some very unique and interesting ideas and information to the discussion — but since you each own the copyright to what you individually wrote, I actually need your permission in order to repost your comments here. In many cases, I do have copies of your comments, as well as your email addresses, so it’s likely you’ll be hearing from me over the next few weeks seeking permission to repost your comments — or asking you to repost your comments yourself.

Anyway, after learning a great deal from a successful six month stint with CraftGossip, I decided it was time to venture out on my own for a number of reasons. So, welcome to my very own dedicated needlework news service:

INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS !!!

Before I forget, the name Independent Needlework News was the brain child of one of my favorite needlework designers, Lady Periphaeria of Periphaeria Designs. I must very publicly express my heartfelt thanks to her for so graciously granting me full use and ownership of it after she suggested it. I am also honored that when she said the needlework world needed Independent Needlework News, she felt I fit the necessary requirements to provide that type of service and had been providing close to that type of service while at CraftGossip.

I also want to thank everyone who contacted me in the last couple of weeks with messages of support. You all know who you are, and some of you are even working on special things which will be unveiled here at a later date — for which I thank you in advance!

It is an absolutely amazing and completely overwhelming experience to set out to do something, and then at the end of that journey to discover that so many people felt you not only accomplished what you set out to do, but that you did so with intelligence, humor, and flair. If everyone received this kind of credit for the things they DO regularly accomplish — as in on a daily basis, or at least on a monthly basis — this world would be a far better place than it is. I certainly hope each of you receives this kind of recognition someday. You deserve to know how much you are appreciated for what you do really well, most especially when you think it is something you do only because you have to and that no one else really notices or cares.

Now … let’s get back to stitching news as usual. I’m here to help you in any way I can, so please let me know what you’d like to find in your Independent Needlework News. If I don’t know the answer to a question you have, I will do my best to find out or direct you to someone who can better help you.

Please feel free to contact me any time with suggestions, questions, or comments — either by email or by posting a comment.

Technorati Tags: Heather Orn, Heather L Orn, cross stitch, needlework, Independent Needlework News, CraftGossip, editor, copyright

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

In response to an earlier post on copyright law, a reader commented:

Just because you wrote some thing doesn’t mean it’s copyrighted. You have to file for a copyright through the Library of Congress and have a copyright number for there to be any copyright infringement.

I hope your legal team tells you that.

My commenter is wrong, of course. If she were a lawyer or had asked her own legal team, they would have told her so in order that she not come across as misinformed.

According to the US Copyright Office, copyright exists from the moment the work is created. Registration is recommended, but not required. Additionally, expect to see the recommendation for registration to change due to the Internet. The world is a different place now, and the laws must change right along with it. But the definition of what is theft will NOT change.

Copyright law has been the way it is now for some time.

Back when I finally finished writing my master’s thesis in 1998, I did not have to file for a Certificate of Registration in order for my thesis to be copyrighted. In fact, all the time I had been writing my thesis (I started writing in … 1992), even before it was finished, even before it was published, even before it was read by any of my professors, even before it was read by any other individual at all, it was copyrighted. That’s because copyright covers unpublished works as well as published ones.

If I keep a diary intended for no one’s eyes but mine, it is copyrighted, and I own the copyright.

I DID file for that Certificate of Registration on my master’s thesis, though (you’ll have to look me up under my maiden name, Espie), just because I wanted the nice piece of paper from the Library of Congress. I’ll admit I was more easily convinced to part with the registration fee because, should I ever need to go to court if someone steals my original work and claims it as their own, I wanted that piece of paper as proof. That will make the court case EASIER, but it wasn’t REQUIRED. The copyright always existed, it always belonged to ME, and anyone who might try to pass off my work as their own is STEALING.

By the way, it sure is a good thing copyright exists from the time the work is created. Here is a story about red tape. I mailed my application and the required fees in April of 1998. I finally received my Certificate of Registration from the Library of Congress in March of 2000 — and the Effective Date of Registration is stamped January 14, 1999. So the Library of Congress wasn’t all that behind in processing the Certificate of Registration, but they were well over a year behind in mailing their outgoing mail.

Can you imagine the implications to the needlework industry if copyright weren’t actually in effect the whole time? My, my, that could present quite a conundrum, couldn’t it? Imagine all the unhappy needlework designers unable to release their new designs until they finally received their Certificates of Registration … Think of all the shops who would have no new designs coming in to offer their customers … All of us stitchers would have nothing new to tickle our fancies. Good grief, we might all have to stop with the retail therapy! We might actually be stuck with just stitching!! Or, gulp, even stuck doing something else, like reading, or sleeping, or WORKING!!! It gives me nightmares just thinking about it. Thank goodness for copyright. Whew!

So, yes, everything I write is copyrighted from the second I write it. Period. It’s the law. Buckle up, be grateful, and keep your hands inside the car at all times. Thank you, and enjoy the ride!

Technorati Tags: copyright, infringement, theft, Certificate of Registration, copyrighted, stealing, needlework, Library of Congress, cross stitch, Heather Orn, Heather Espie

It’s the beginning of a lovely three-day weekend here in the US. Monday is Memorial Day, of course, and my flag will be flying proudly, just as it does everyday.

For me, Memorial Day is not just a time to remember the dead, or to honor the sacrifices of our military. It is also a day which holds more personal meaning. I’ll take some time out of the day specifically to reflect on my small place in life and in the world, and I’ll most likely do so while stitching. I find focusing on one small x in a sea of stitches helps me stay mindful of my contemplative purpose on Memorial Day. I may be just one person, tiny in the scheme of things, but the whole would not be the same without me. I do have a purpose, even if I am not quite sure what it is or how well I am doing with it.

Memorial Day falls at a time which reminds me of endings … and their corresponding beginnings — the transition of spring or the end of a school year leading into a relaxing but rejuvenating summer, or perhaps a graduation and a commencement. There is a cycle, and I am part of it and somewhere within it. Eventually, I will cease taking up physical space here — just like everyone else. What will I leave behind? What do I have yet to do? These are the kinds of thoughts that run through my mind on Memorial Day.

Some of these thoughts are rather morose by nature. However, as stitchers, we have a heritage showing that people — or at least women — have been occupied by such thoughts for more years than we can count. We have been left messages in thread, written with care by women who may well have had to struggle along with only one or two needles over a period of several years, about what life was like for them, about what they dreamed of and hoped for, about what made them cry — about who and what mattered to them.

In general, what stitchers of yesteryear cared about are the same things I think most of us would say really matter to us today — the people and animals we love, the comfort of home, and so on. We still use our stitching to deal with mortality, including our own, though I think our tendency to do so with more humor than in the past is a freedom granted by the improved technology, better health, and more comfortable living conditions of our modern age.

Yet, I wonder … Are the messages we are writing in thread saying what we would wish to say to future stitchers who will someday look back at the stitches we have made with such care and enjoyment? Are we really leaving messages in the same way anymore? Has needlework evolved from a skill of necessity in which a stitcher would sometimes express her thoughts most precious into something much different?

It is so easy — and relatively inexpensive — to write down certain thoughts, print those to paper, and even have them bound into a book, that the types of messages recorded in thread by today’s stitcher can look very different from what would have been created by a stitcher in the past … Certainly it is much easier for a woman today to express herself publicly than it was for most of the “Patty Polk-alikes” who came before us (women have come a long way, baby, and I’m glad — but not yet content!).

But is the message really all that different?

I think it is. The difference I see in most needlework done today is about joy. We stitch today not because we have to, but because we want to … Needlework is our luxury. Perhaps because of that, we are able to create a picture that looks brighter overall.

Do you think that message will fade and fray along with thread and fabric during the passage of time?

Technorati Tags: Memorial Day, stitch, needlework, joy, message, heritage, feminist, feminism, women, Patty Polk

While browsing through my library a few days ago, I was lucky enough to run across Abbie in Stitches written by Cynthia Cotten and lovingly illustrated by Beth Peck laying on a table in the children’s section of the library. This book is intended for readers aged 4 through 8, so it was a very quick read for me — but what a delightful one!

It is the story of young Abbie, who would much prefer to read than to learn needlework, but her mother explains she needs to know how to, ” … sew household linens and clothes … ” for the family she’ll have someday. Abbie also needs to learn how to make what Abbie calls “fancy stitches” in order to show she is, ” … an accomplished young woman.” These answers don’t satisfy Abbie, who complains to her older sister — an already quite excellent stitcher — that when she is grown she’ll, ” … have books instead of needles and thread, and read as much as [she likes].” Her sister reminds her, “Books are for boys … Needlework is for girls.”

I’ll let you find out for yourself how Abbie manages to deal with her dislike of needlework, and how the people around her handle her approach.

Cynthia Cotten states in her Afterword that Abbie in Stitches was inspired by the story of Patty Polk, whom I wrote about recently in a similar vein, and whom she first read about in a 1921 book by Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eva Johnston Coe called American Samplers which, ” … mentioned a sampler stitched around 1800 that said, ‘Patty Polk did this and she hated every stitch she did in it. She loves to read much more.’” Cynthia, too, was, ” … intrigued by this girl’s outspokenness at a time when most samplers dealt seriously, and often depressingly, with duty and death.”

Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, Cynthia also says, “Nobody I contacted knew the whereabouts of this sampler. Today, many people doubt its existence, saying it might just be a needlework legend.” I choose to believe in certain fairy tales, and if this is one of them, then so be it.

But I have a challenge for you … Help me locate Patty Polk’s sampler. If it ever existed, then it is out there somewhere in some lucky collector’s hands. Let’s find it! Post anything you know about her sampler here!

Technorati Tags: Patty Polk, Abbie in Stitches, Cynthia Cotten, Beth Peck, Ethel Stanwood Bolton, Ethel Bolton, Eva Johnston Coe, Eva Coe, American Samplers, hated every stitch, loves to read, needlework legend, feminist, feminism