INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

One of my favorite events started today: the online Needlework Show. You can browse designs from many designers you may never have heard of, and then place an order for whatever you want through any retail needlework shop listed as participating on the “Retail Shops” portion of their website.

Most vendor pages have a link to their websites, which I recommend checking out to see their other designs and products. You never know what you might have missed previously that you just have to have! I’ve also found that designers are very receptive to being contacted by email during the online Needlework Show. Although they are busy then, most designers really enjoy hearing from us stitchers about what we like about their offerings, and I have yet to contact a designer I encountered through the online Needlework Show who didn’t send me a very nice reply.

Many of the designers are offering door prizes and freebie charts as well, so there are many reasons to check out the online Needlework Show.

This show is an excellent way for us stitchers to influence the needlework industry as a whole. If your local needlework store doesn’t know about the online Needlework Show, please tell them. This is a way they can obtain product without the expenses incurred by travelling to a trade show. Additionally, by giving your local needlework shop a list of the products you see and want from the online Needlework Show, you let them know what you really want. Now your favorite needlework store can identify the types of products which will sell well for them, including things they may not be aware of yet themselves — and obviously, their providing what you want to purchase is what keeps them in business.

The designers/vendors participating in this show, which continues through at least midnight on April 23rd, are:

A Kitty Kats Original, Abby Rose Designs, Always Time to Stitch, Angelic Crafts, Annie Cicatelli Designs, Art-Stitch, Aunt Susie’s House, Barrani Design Studios, Bask Designs, Beardie Designs, Brenda E. Kocher Designs, Brunnerhaus, Butterfly Stitches, Camus International, Carousel Charts, Carriage House Samplings, Cedar Hill Designs, Cherished Stitches, Cindy Valentine Designs, Country Garden Stitchery, Creative Cross Stitch, Cross Eyed Kat, Cross Stitch and More, Cross Stitch Wonders, Dames of the Needle, DebBee’s Designs, Debbie Draper Designs, Designing Dogs, Designs by Lisa, Designs From Pamela, Dessins DHC, Dette Designs, Dinky-Dyes, Dutch Treat Designs, Enchanting Lair, European Crosstitch, Fern Ridge Collection, Follow The Leader Designs, Forever in My Heart, French Needle, Full Circle Designs, Funk & Weber Designs, Gift of Stitching Magazine, Haberdashery Designs & Needlework, Handblessings, Harbour Light Designs, Heart’s Content, Heartfelt Designs, Historic Stitches, Images Stitchery Design, In Good Company, In the Company of Friends, Ink Circles, J. Designs, JAR Designs, JBW Designs, Jeanette Ardern Designs, Kelmscott Designs, Keslyns, KRIF, LGK Crafts and Supplies International, Lilipoints - Sarl LLP, Linen Flowers Designs, Living Stitches, Liz Turner Diehl, Magic Needle, Marilynn & Jackie’s Antiques & Collectibles, Marking Samplar, MarNic Designs, Moonflower Designs, My Big Toe Designs, My Mark, Naald en Draad, Needle & Frame, Needle Arts Mystery Retreat, Needle’s Notion, Needleboxes Etc./Charted Imagery, Needlework Designs By CJ, NeedleXpress, Needlizations, Night Owl Needlepoint, Northern Pine Designs, Olde Willow Stitchery Threads, Olive Hope Design, Original Designs By Christine, Periwinkle Promises, Pine Glen Designs, Princess and Me, Punchneedle Marketplace, R & S Designs, Reflets de Soie, Sampler Girl, Sandy Grossman-Morris Designs, Scarlet Quince, Scholehouse for the Needle, Sekas & Co, Silver Lining, Simple Stitches, Spring Valley Stitchery, Stitch A Gift, Stitch Niche, Stitching Pretty Presents, Stitching Studio, Stoney Creek Collection, Sue Hillis Designs, Summer House Stitche Workes, Sweet Pea Designs, Sweetheart Tree, SzuLet Creations, Tasselart, Threaded Needle Designs, Threads of Gold, Wild-Heart Designs, and X’s & Oh’s.

So please visit the online Needlework Show … Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to be a bigger part of the industry!

Technorati Tags: Needlework Show, cross stitch, A Kitty Kats Original, Abby Rose Designs, Always Time to Stitch, Angelic Crafts, Annie Cicatelli Designs, Art-Stitch, Aunt Susie’s House, Barrani Design Studios, Bask Designs, Beardie Designs, Brenda E. Kocher Designs, Brunnerhaus, Butterfly Stitches, Camus International, Carousel Charts, Carriage House Samplings, Cedar Hill Designs, Cherished Stitches, Cindy Valentine Designs, Country Garden Stitchery, Creative Cross Stitch, Cross Eyed Kat, Cross Stitch and More, Cross Stitch Wonders, Dames of the Needle, DebBee’s Designs, Debbie Draper Designs, Designing Dogs, Designs by Lisa, Designs From Pamela, Dessins DHC, Dette Designs, Dinky-Dyes, Dutch Treat Designs, Enchanting Lair, European Crosstitch, Fern Ridge Collection, Follow The Leader Designs, Forever in My Heart, French Needle, Full Circle Designs, Funk & Weber, Designs, Gift of Stitching Magazine, Haberdashery Designs & Needlework, Handblessings, Harbour Light Designs, Heart’s Content, Heartfelt Designs, Historic Stitches, Images Stitchery Design, In Good Company, In the Company of Friends, Ink Circles, J. Designs, JAR Designs, JBW Designs, Jeanette Ardern Designs, Kelmscott Designs, Keslyns, KRIF, LGK Crafts and Supplies International, Lilipoints - Sarl LLP, Linen Flowers Designs, Living Stitches, Liz Turner Diehl, Magic Needle, Marilynn & Jackie’s Antiques & Collectibles, Marking Samplar, MarNic Designs, Moonflower Designs, My Big Toe Designs, My Mark, Naald en Draad, Needle & Frame, Needle Arts Mystery Retreat, Needle’s Notion, Needleboxes Etc./Charted Imagery, Needlework Designs By CJ, NeedleXpress, Needlizations, Night Owl Needlepoint, Northern Pine Designs, Olde Willow Stitchery Threads, Olive Hope Design, Original Designs By Christine, Periwinkle Promises, Pine Glen Designs, Princess and Me, Punchneedle Marketplace, R&S Designs, Reflets de Soie, Sampler Girl, Sandy Grossman-Morris Designs, Scarlet Quince, Scholehouse for the Needle, Sekas & Co, Silver Lining, Simple Stitches, Spring Valley Stitchery, Stitch A Gift, Stitch Niche, Stitching Pretty Presents, Stitching Studio, Stoney Creek Collection, Sue Hillis Designs, Summer House Stitche Workes, Sweet Pea Designs, Sweetheart Tree, SzuLet Creations, Tasselart, Threaded Needle Designs, Threads of Gold, Wild-Heart Designs, X’s & Oh’s

San-Man Originals have some of the cutest designs around, but did you know they also have a SECRET Shop? Well, now you do.

I can’t tell you what’s available in the shop because that information is only for those of us who are already in the know. I will tell you that if you think San-Man Originals designs are cute, then you will absolutely LOVE what you’ll find in their Secret Shop.

But don’t worry; I won’t leave you flailing in the wind. I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to do to gain access to this wonderful underground organization and San-Man Originals’ Secret Shop. It’s actually quite easy, but oh so worthwhile. All you have to do is sign up for the San-Man Originals’ Newsletter. That’s it.

Now, not only will you be given the all-important magic word to allow you access to the Secret Shop, but you’ll also be kept informed by San-Man Originals of all their new releases!

Oh, one more thing … Pass it on!

Technorati Tags: San-Man, SanMan, Secret Shop, secret, cross stitch

Have you seen the Cross Stitch Magazine Database? Although it isn’t being regularly updated anymore, it contains information about many, many cross stitch magazines (408, to be exact … and 4068 individual patterns!) — especially if they were published prior to November of 2006. The database creator, Taneya, really put a lot of energy into it, creating a very useful resource for stitchers in the process. The database is searchable by subject or title (the title search is based on a key word), or you can browse by magazine or designer. Take a look … I think you’ll find yourself going back often.

Technorati Tags: cross stitch, magazine, database, Taneya

Anything you can order from Elegant Stitch’s Merchant Mall with Hoffman Distributing will be 20% off through the close of business in California on Friday, April 13th. I can’t think of a better way to ensure good luck on Friday the 13th than to know an order of goodies is on its way from Elegant Stitch!

Sale pricing won’t show up through the Hoffman link, but will be done at Elegant Stitch when your order is shipped. For more information, see the hot pink text under the April 2nd entry on Elegant Stitch’s What’s New page …

Technorati Tags: sale, cross stitch, Elegant Stitch, Hoffman Distributing, Friday the 13th

I enjoy reading Janet Perry’s blog. She has a vast array of experience and shares it in a way that makes me feel as if I’m sitting in the same room with her, one on one.

Recently, she offered some wonderful suggestions for filling a section with French knots. Although she calls her technique The Lazy Stitcher’s Guide to French Knots, it’s definitely more work than I’m used to doing in French knots — but that’s because I’ve never filled a section with them. I’ve only done the scattered kind, or the kind that represent eyes and such. I’ve looked at French knots from my point of view, which is that of a cross stitcher; using French knots to fill a section as Janet does is more of a needlepoint technique than a cross stitch technique. I’ve also seen French knots used to fill large areas in crazy quilting. I admit I’m still a bit intimidated by French knots, so I’ve always tended to avoid patterns which call for a lot of them — or to replace them with beads. However, Janet’s method sounds so intriguing because of the way it creates texture that I’m actually excited to try it out. Look how great the foam on this beer turned out when Janet used her technique:

Janet mentions using this technique for fields of flowers and for sheep. I’m imagining billowing clouds … or smoke. What other ideas come to you?

Technorati Tags: Janet Perry, Nuts About Needlepoint, needlepoint, cross stitch, French knot, texture, crazy quilt

I am so impressed with KarenV’s creative finishing technique for a project she had grown unhappy stitching. She disliked it so much, in fact, that she didn’t even finish stitching the project. Instead, she came up with this novel way to finish the piece so it would look as if it had been designed this way.

I can’t decide which inspires me more — the finishing technique itself, or the fact that KarenV did such an expert job of turning her mistake into a complete success!

Technorati Tags: KarenV, finishing technique, cross stitch, My Favourite Things

Did you know Pamela Kellogg of Kitty and Me Designs has lots of really nice freebie patterns available? She designed these primarily as motifs for crazy quilters, so these freebies are the perfect size for ornaments, cards, scissor fobs, and various small gifts.

To make sure you don’t miss any of these cute freebie patterns, use Bloglines or another feed reader to subscribe to Pamela Kellogg’s blog where she always notifies her readers of the new freebies — and plenty of other good stuff!

Technorati Tags: Pam Kellogg, Pamela Kellogg, Kitty and Me, cross stitch, crazy quilt, freebie, free chart, Bloglines, feed reader, blog

I ran across some very helpful instructions (with great pictures so you won’t get confused) for the detached buttonhole (also known as hedebo) stitch on Annies Crazy World, a blog written by Annie Whitsed. These instructions are for those occasions when you don’t want your detached buttonhole stitch to “flop around” at all. In other words, you’ll only want to use this method when you intend the buttonhole stitch to be only a decorative stitch, rather than to be used to actually wrap around a button.

Annie uses a herringbone stitch to “anchor” the buttonhole stitch down at its center. To see how she does it, check out this post and this one, too.

No more “floppy” buttonhole stitches!

Technorati Tags: hedebo, detached buttonhole, herringbone, Annies Crazy World, Annie Whitsed

A helpful stitcher with the username SusanMcRN has put four very short videos on YouTube which might prove useful for you. They show how to make a French knot!

Technorati Tags: French knot, cross stitch, SusanMcRN

This week’s Stitching Blogger’s Question is:

Do you like to buy “chartpacks” that include charms, buttons, and/or beads or do you prefer to gather all materials yourself?

This is a really good question, and I think designers and shops would benefit from studying the stitching community’s answers to it. So far, the large majority of answers I’ve seen (i.e., a very unscientific tally) favor chartpacks. However, those who dislike chartpacks say they tend not to buy them even if they like a pattern — at least not unless they plan to stitch it right away. I suspect designers who offer chartpacks are missing out on a fairly large market — the pattern collectors — unless they offer stitchers the option to buy charts and chartpacks separately from each other.

I definitely like the option of a chartpack, but most of the time, everything is automatically bundled with the chart — which means I don’t have a real choice regarding the chartpack. If everything is bundled together, then I have to buy the chartpack if I want the chart.

Since I am just as much a pattern collector as I am a stitcher, I would prefer to spend my money on materials and supplies when I am actually ready to start a project, rather than to have my funds tied up on the supplies during the pattern-collecting phase. For this same reason, the more expensive the items in a chartpack are, the more I want to be able to purchase them separately from the chart.

At the same time, I really appreciate the convenience of chartpacks when I am actually ready to stitch. But what I think provides the best of both worlds is what I call a supply pack. It’s wonderful to have all the materials you need — especially hard to find items — made easily available to you. I like being able to buy a supply pack that includes enough specialty floss to stitch a design (and enough extra that I’m not going to run short if I make a mistake; this is very important for a chartpack’s or a supply pack’s materials to be truly useful), rather than having to pay for an entire skein of specialty floss in order to kit a design myself.

For instance, Just Nan and Victoria Sampler are two designers who offer supply packs separately from their charts, and whose supply packs are also of excellent value because they contain numerous specialty fibers, beads, charms, and so on. I collect patterns from both of these designers — but I buy the supply packs when I need them (and keep my eyes open for news of certain patterns going out of print so that I can decide whether or not to pick up the supply pack before that happens). Because I know I can get them separately, I choose not to buy Just Nan or Victoria Sampler patterns from shops who automatically bundle these designers’ charts with their supply packs — creating what amount to chartpacks when I actually DO have the choice of buying the supplies separate from the chart. (In this case, it’s the shop who loses some business from me because they are neglecting to recognize that it’s my prerogative to dictate how and when I spend my money.)

All that said, when a chartpack is in the under $10 range, I will generally go ahead and buy it. It’s been my experience with chartpacks of this dollar value that I’m getting the non-chart or supply items in the chartpack for $4 or less, that this $4 amount is cheaper than what I would pay if I bought the items separately myself, and that the chart and supply pack are probably not available separately. So because I see these chartpacks as a good value even if I don’t get around to stitching those designs for a while (or, ahem, ever), I go ahead and buy them … but I’d still appreciate the choice to buy only the chart in many cases.

Technorati Tags: cross stitch, stitching bloggers, SBQ, chartpack