INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

Having seen this issue mentioned in many places — such as blogs, bulletin boards, and mailing lists — and as someone who is promoting both shows, I am reposting the following, with permission (because to do otherwise would be a copyright violation, and you already know how I feel about those — and why ), so more people have access to the official thinking on the matter. Besides, it is far better written than I could do! It was originally posted to the Stitching Jubilee Yahoo Group, which is THE place to stay up to the second on news about the Stitching Jubilee.

Fellow Stitchers,

In 2006, the Hershey Festival was held very close the Louisville show. In 2007, the same thing happened. In 2008, we plan to hold the Jubilee one week before the Louisville show. I have been asked why this is.

Many times, in planning these events and shows, organizers are quite limited to dates because of venues. We want to place the events and shows at large enough locations, with good access to extras like shopping and food options. Sometimes these venues are very limited to when they can host particular events.

Marilyn knows that many of you are concerned about the proximity of the Jubilee and the Louisville show. She understands that it can be a time crunch.

All this to say why we scheduled the Jubilee when we did. I thank everyone for their concern on this matter. It’s questions like this that the Moderators are here. We want you to understand the Jubilee. We want you to attend if you can. It’s about the stitching and the fun.

Regards,
Megan Andres
Webmaster
http://www.stitchingjubilee.com

By the way, check out who’s already scheduled to teach at the Stitching Jubilee! I guess Lorri Birmingham isn’t completely retired — yey!

Technorati Tags: Stitching Jubilee, Marilyn Vredevelt, Stoney Creek, Valley Forge, King of Prussia, Catherine Jordan, Lorri Birmingham, Patricia Hartman, Pat Hartman

Cotton Spice Blog had guest bloggers for a couple of weeks in November, all writing on the topic of last minute gifts.

Embroidery on paper was featured in a Stitched Christmas Cards Tutorial offered by Karyn Weir of Trail Mix Designs … and there is still time for you to whip up a few of these for your favorite people (or the one or two you really want to impress ).

Tracy Souza of Plumcute Designs shares a surface embroidery project which would work well as a card, a framed gift, or as a darling decorative pillow top.

Quilters will want to check out these offerings from Quiltalicious, LLC by TK Harrison, too:

Thanksgiving Quilted PLacard

Quilted Tic-Tac-Toe-To-Go

Also, from Susan Brubaker Knapp of Blue Moon River comes a stunning, yet simple, Cell Phone Pouch, which will appeal to many — and would make a good basic pattern for piecing together fabric for a pouch before using crazy quilting techniques to really jazz it up!

Technorati Tags: Christmas, gifts, embroidery on paper, surface embroidery, quilting, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Blue Moon River, Cell Phone Pouch, Thanksgiving Quilted Placard, Quilted Tic-Tac-Toe-To-Go, TK Harrison, Quiltalicious, Tracy Souza, Plumcute Designs, Stitched Christmas Cards Tutorial, Karyn Weir, Trail Mix Designs, Cotton Spice

Sage Stitchworks (Blogroll) is a discovery I have been wanting to share with you for months. In fact, I’ve had this post all prepared … but the WordPress software didn’t seem to like it. It just would NOT let me use the Publish button. I have no idea why. Until today, when I was looking at it again, about to give up and try copying and pasting it to a new post, and I heard my DH griping out loud to himself about consumerism and the over-commercialization of everything because of some ad he ran across that mentioned, “There are only so many shopping days until … !” My heart skipped a beat because usually my shopping is all done by the end of October, and I haven’t even thought about it this year. My finger twitched, meaning I hit that lefthand mouse button while the cursor was poised over “Publish” again, and suddenly, there it is. Add a dash of panic, and the Publish button suddenly worked! Then I had to go back in to add this paragraph … So I guess this Publish button was also a Panic button!

Sage Stitchworks creates needlework motto kits today using the same types of materials — perforated paper, variegated floss, and gold foil — which were used to make them in the Victorian era.

Enjoy exploring their website and you’ll find a wealth of information both on stitched mottoes from the past and on recreating them today, and I think you’ll also find your fingers itching to get started stitching one by the time you are done!

I was so excited about Sage Stitchworks that I called them the next day (it was the wee hours of the morning when I found their site the first time!) and spoke with Jennifer, who pretty much does everything as far as the business is concerned. I didn’t think to ask if she ever solicited any help from her family or anyone else as far as preparing kits or otherwise running the business, but it was wonderful to talk with someone who knew so much about how these kits were and are made, who was so willing to share information with me, and who seemed almost as excited to talk with me as I was to talk with her.

Below is a picture of what Jennifer would include in a typical kit for you: the pattern pre-printed on perforated paper, a Stitching Guide, plenty of variegated floss, gold foil backing, and a needle.

Stitchers who are already very familiar with stitching and have their own stash of variegated floss they would like to use may easily do so. Sage Stitchworks offers every standard kit they make in a “Pattern Only” option for $20 less than the full kit would cost. With the Pattern Only Option, you receive only the pattern pre-printed on perforated paper. However, you’ll always have access to the directions, which Sage Stitchworks calls their Stitching Guide, online from the comfort of your own home.

The Pattern Only option may also be preferred by stitchers who enjoy changing a design’s colors, which is a much easier undertaking when stitching a motto than when stitching a cross stitch pattern. Sage Stitchworks’ mottoes do not come with detailed directions for each particular design; rather, you rely on the Stitching Guide, the picture of the finished design if you want it to look like it does with those colors, and your own wishes with regard to how you want it to look. As Jennifer remarked, she could very easily stitch the same motto twice in a row with the same colors and have tiny variations in her stitching — the stitching of mottoes isn’t as … persnickety … as much cross stitching, although the outcome is just as lovely.

The only item you may have some difficulty finding if you choose the Pattern Only option is the gold foil. However, Jennifer said this hasn’t seemed to be a problem for any of her customers. She recommended checking the gift-wrapping sections of various craft stores, especially around holiday time. I am positive I’ve seen gold foil gift wrap pretty much year round in certain stores which are known for carrying “high quality” (maybe it’s just expensive?) gift-wrap — such as Hallmark stores. That would be a bit on the pricey side, but it would give you your gold foil if that’s what you were looking for and still be well under the $20 you saved by choosing the Pattern Only option. Aluminum foil is another option — and it’s an inexpensive and readily available one, too — if you prefer the silver look over gold, which several of Sage Stitchworks’ customers do. Silver foil is also an authentically Victorian choice, so there is nothing historically inaccurate about it. And then Jennifer says since she doesn’t get asked about the foil very often that she thinks a lot of her customers just don’t bother with it, perhaps for the same reason she skips it herself: she often feels it steals attention from the stitching.

This Stitching Guide from Sage Stitchworks is one of the best guides I have ever seen, by the way, for explaining how to use long and short stitches in the technique specifically used to stitch mottoes on perforated paper — with a fantastic close-up picture that just brings it all together, especially if you are a visual learner as I am. This technique also works on evenweave or linen, and mottoes can be stitched on those materials, although I think the technique is most easily mastered on perforated paper first — and certainly it is much more difficult to keep those long stitches nice and straight on evenweave or linen … and then a good framing job becomes imperative to keep them in place. But for those who wish to do it, it can be done.

Of course, once an experienced stitcher sees the above picture, something becomes really clear. Stitching a motto from Sage Stitchworks is an opportunity to have a happy dance in just a few days! It’s just a hop, a skip, and a jump from there to realizing these make FANTASTIC gifts, too, because they look like so much more work than they actually are … Of course, we stitchers have all mastered the art of saying, “Oh really, it didn’t take that long,” while everyone else who doesn’t stitch is thinking we are staying up until 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. every morning trying to get all our stitched gifts done for everyone. (Nevermind that in some cases we are; that’s because, in those cases, we’re having a darned good time! )

Sage Stitchworks also has taken the time to write up some of the history of mottoes I think you will enjoy reading.

You can also have special mottoes created for you. This option is shown specifically for a family last name, although the page mentions also having done first names in the past. Please keep in mind that the high price on this one is due to the individual typesetting required. I did ask Jennifer if it would be possible to order these in the Pattern Only option, and she said that is possible; however, the price would be reduced by $20 (just like with any of the other Pattern Only options) to $48.99, and again, this is to cover the typesetting required.

In fact, all you stitching grandparents out there might want to consider giving each of your grandchildren a kit with his or her name on it. These kits are actually advertised by Sage Stitchworks as being easy, satisfying, and addictive because they require absolutely no counting! What better way to get a child started loving needlework?

One of the things I talked with Jennifer about was the possibility of adding a new line of mottoes to the current product line she already has — something with a more modern feel. I don’t know for certain how well it would go over, but perhaps you all can make comments on this post to let Jennifer and me know what you think of the idea. It will be a bit of market research, although done rather haphazardly. Anyway, my thought was to have mottoes that say more modern things, but that are still designed with the textual look and feel of these recreated mottoes from yesteryear. I would just love to have something like, “Martha Who?” in a motto format, for instance. Or how about, “So it’s not Home Sweet Home; deal with it”? Jennifer and I had a few giggles coming up with other ideas of a similar nature, too, so if you have any suggestions along these lines, please feel free to add them as well. If you would prefer to contact Jennifer directly with your thoughts, she can be contacted through her website or emailed directly.

If you place an order or contact Jennifer with your thoughts, please be sure to mention that you heard about Sage Stitchworks through Independent Needlework News!

Oh … just in case you also look through the Gallery on Sage Stitchworks’ website like I did, and just in case you notice some of the gorgeous mottoes stitched on black perforated paper like I did, and just in case you think you’d like to order any of those like I did, they have all unfortunately been retired. It seems that most stitchers found them difficult to stitch on such that Jennifer was receiving more complaints than praise about them … So she decided to discontinue those lines. I specifically asked about the pineapple Welcome design, and it is definitely out of print.

Technorati Tags: Sage Stitchworks, motto, mottos, mottoes, Victorian, fancywork, sampler, door texts, embroidery on paper, perforated paper, punched paper

It’s sad CraftGossip is having such a difficult time keeping a needlework editor, but before she left, Joanne Leuci wrote a terrific post about The Silver Needle’s exclusive Just Nan project called Christmas Workshop. Take a look for yourself, and then don’t forget to pre-order!

I bet this project will be a handy one for guiding stitchers through finishing CA Wells‘ Pyramid Etui, too, which might be another good reason to purchase this lovely Just Nan project.

Technorati Tags: Joanne Leuci, CraftGossip, Silver Needle, Just Nan, exclusive, needlework, Christmas Workshop, Pyramid Etui, CA Wells

I’m not quite sure how long it will be until I’ll be able to announce the grand opening of Tricia’s shop, but when I stumbled across this post with pictures of it as it’s all coming together, I knew I had to share them with you.

Doesn’t it look like the shop of your dreams?

Make sure you check out the rest of Tricia’s shop pictures, too! There are oodles of darling little delights in store for you …

Technorati Tags: Tricia’s shop, doll house, miniature, needlework

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

For some time now, I’ve admired crazy quilting from a distance. I even took a class back in October, 2001, in Romulus, Michigan with the legendary Carole Samples (why does this woman not have a website?), during which my grandmother passed away and I also learned I did not get a job I really wanted and had been fully led to expect to get. 

Unfortunately, the class organizers had done a very poor job of organizing anything (for instance, there was not enough food for all of the attendees to eat, even when it was served to us instead of buffet style).  On top of it all, when I had the “nerve to complain”  I was hungry and expected something to eat, especially since we were being hosted at a Hilton, the retreat organizers demanded I leave!  Somehow my stomach growling loudly and rather angrily sounding after missing two meals had upset a couple of people in the class sitting nowhere near me who had no idea what was going on, or what was making the noise.  I was deemed to be setting a bad example and ruining the retreat for others, and so I was ordered to leave without being allowed to explain “my side,” without being able to make any appeal, without being able to inform them of my grandmother’s death, and without even receiving any portion of my money back!  Oh, and I did not get my class kits either.    My one big regret is that I did not make my complaints known to Carole Samples, who, as far as I know, would have been appalled at the treatment I received from the organizers.  As a result of this experience, I  have had a bad taste in my mouth for crazy quilting that has lasted to this day.

However, I’m still very attracted to the idea of crazy quilting. Probably not to a lot of the crazy quilting that has come into fashion quite recently — I don’t see myself using pictures on crazy quilts, for example. I’m also not crazy about things that are Victorian style, so I would be doing things which reflect an entirely different decorating style and color palette. I also think that most of the time I would tend to go for the simpler look — although the style known as “encrusted crazy quilting” (which is a type of crazy quilting just smothered with beads and all sorts of sparkly doodads and whatnots until it seems there isn’t any more space to add another bit of sparkle to a piece) is extremely popular right now, it also is really not my particular style or interest.

It’s all yummy eye candy and terrific inspiration for sure, but what interests ME, as a needleworker, about crazy quilting is having a purpose to use all sorts of lovely fancy embroidery stitches in something other than a band sampler.

However, one of several things which has held me back from giving crazy quilting much of a try on my own — besides not having my class kit and supplies from the class I mentioned above — has been wondering how I’ll ever be able to make such nice, neat stitches as all the crazy quilters seem to do. Well, it turns out that at least some of the best crazy quilters out there, including Carole Samples herself, use a little help to make everything come out looking so nice and neat. Some of us might call it cheating; others of us would call it smart or a trick of the trade.

Personally, I’m just surprised because, still being outside the crazy quilting world myself, the thought that this wasn’t all done completely by hand — and that it’s actually OKAY to use a tool to help you get things just right — hadn’t even occurred to me. Suddenly, if I could get my hands on this tool (the shops I’ve found who carry it are currently out of stock, sigh … well, perhaps they know I’m broke!), I feel like maybe I could grasp crazy quilting by myself now.

Sharon Boggon reviewed Carole Samples’ Dream-a-Seam Templates in excellent detail, and from the point of view of how they can be useful to an experienced crazy quilter. The fact that one of the most well known crazy quilters in the stitching universe thinks so highly of the Dream-a-Seam Templates tells me they are a super tool.

But read all the comments on Sharon’s post, too. Carole Samples actually posted a comment on Sharon’s review (in response to a question from another commenter) that one of her intentions in creating the Dream-A-Seam Templates was to help crazy quilters get over a hurdle preventing them from even getting started creating a piece of crazy quilted artwork. That’s pretty much where I fall, so the Dream-A-Seam Templates should be helpful and a lot of fun for me — if I can just get my hands on them in the first place! :D  Then the hardest decision left to make will be which seam to use — and from Sharon’s review, that sounds like a decision which could confound me for months, LOL …

By the way, the commenter to whom Carole was responding, Sarah E., felt using Carole’s Dream-A-Seam tool might not be all that historically accurate with what crazy quilters in days long past used to do — and went on from there to make some very insightful remarks regarding crazy quilters today having a bit of a hangup about making things perfect.  I think Sarah’s thoughts apply to needleworkers of any kind and are relevant in several types of discussions, so I will likely be referring back to Sarah E.’s comments at some point in the future — as well as trying to locate her.  (If anyone can help me locate her, I would really appreciate it!)

Technorati Tags: Carole Samples, Dream-a-Seam, templates, encrusted, crazy quilt, Dream a seam, Sharon Boggon, Hilton 

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

Quick — someone record this on a calendar! I’m making the Friday post on Hoffman Distributing’s new releases for the week ON FRIDAY. That has not happened in quite some time!

It’s a light week for new releases this week, though … only ten new releases on Hoffman’s list. Yet somehow, I STILL managed to add two to my own wish list! Of course, as two are witch designs, which I mentioned I collect, I guess that’s not so surprising.

First up is Stacy Nash Primitives’ A Haunting We Will Go, whose witch is even holding a broom!

Then A Stitcher’s Hands offers us Bringing Spooky Treats — look at the adorable owl button on this one!

Waxing Moon Designs charmed me with their newest punchneedle design called Here Kitty Kitty. I really do want to start doing more punchneedle myself — I’ve just barely done more than try it and really enjoyed what I did so far — and this design looks like a really good one for me (in particular) to start with, don’t you think?

I also noticed a finishing technique I’ve seen before, though I don’t believe I’ve seen it used for punchneedle. It’s fairly frequently used for cross stitch, though. Anyway, I wanted to point out Waxing Moon’s Joy to Ewe to those of you who like quilting — or are just looking for other ways to finish things. I thought this was a really charming way to finish this design, and I have to admit that one of the reasons I haven’t gotten more into punchneedle sooner is because framing them just doesn’t look quite right to me somehow … But this quilted banner is a perfect style of frame for a lot of punchneedle designs.

We also have another winner with this week’s Friday Feature on Linda Stolz of Erica Michaels Needleart Designs. I always thought the designer’s name was Erica Michaels, too, so don’t worry if you feel like you missed something because I missed it right along with you — but now with this Friday Feature, we can both be in the know!

Technorati Tags: Hoffman Distributing, Friday Feature, new releases, cross stitch, Stacy Nash Primitives, Haunting We Will Go, witch, broom, Bringing Spooky Treats, Stitcher’s Hands, Waxing Moon, owl, punchneedle, quilt, Joy to Ewe, Linda Stolz, Erica Michaels

Here is another reader submission for the crazy quilters and/or dyers among us. Fabrics & Frills is celebrating their Grand Opening sale with a 20% off sale on pretty much everything they stock.

Products seem especially tailored toward crazy quilters and include dyes, dyed Venise lace motifs, Venise lace motifs to dye, and a variety of other products you will want to take a look at just because they are gorgeous. Many will make great gift items, and others will be the perfect treat for yourself!

I actually had to laugh because while reading their Policies page, not only did I notice this shop has a minimum order (which won’t be difficult to meet, as it’s $15 … although under the Checkout link, it says the minimum is $10), but they also have a maximum order. That one is $500! Is this actually necessary? I mean, why would they want to stop someone from buying more? I just don’t get it. “Oh, sorry, you’ll have to put the last $275 of merchandise back. Our maximum order is $500. Well, we like to make sure we have things in stock at all times, just in case someone else wants to spend $15. ” I must be missing something.

“We want all our customers to be satisfied, not just you.” OH … well, I do have a tendency to be a bit greedy when it comes to craft supplies. It’s not so much that I don’t leave anything behind for anyone else as that I tend to want way more than I should buy in the first place. You know how that is, too, I’m sure — “because it’s on sale!”

At this particular moment, there is a tutorial on the site called, Donna’s Method for Dyeing Venise Appliques with Ozecraft Dye. It looks handy not just for anyone who has never hand-dyed anything before, but also for the much more experienced dyer who is just trying to dye the textured nooks and crannies of a product like Venise lace for the first time.

All in all, this site looks as if it will be one to keep an eye on for the future. Payment types accepted include PayPal, MasterCard and VISA (by PayPal), and checks.

Be sure to enter the coupon code OPEN during checkout; this will discount your order by 20%! This offer is good through August 31, 2007.

Technorati Tags: Grand Opening, celebration, sale, Fabrics & Frills, fabrics, frills, venise lace, dye, dyed, crazy quilt