INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

Bernadette Huysing, who owns The Needlework Boutique in Melbourne, Australia asked me to post the following, and I am happy to do so:

Each May, The Cancer Council of Australia runs its “Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea” as a fundraiser for it’s various programs, including Cancer Research. Businesses and the public alike are encouraged to hold events to raise money. As The Needlework Boutique is an online store, I have often wondered how I can support such worthy causes. The other night, a solution came to me. On Sunday, 18th May 2008, The Needlework Boutique is hosting a sale with a difference. Instead of having a % off all products, 10% from all sales completed between 12:01am and 11:59pm (Australian Eastern Time) will be donated to The Cancer Council via the Biggest Morning Tea.

In Memory of Felix.
2005 – 2008

Learn more information about The Biggest Morning Tea.

Read more about Bernadette’s decision to do this — and find out who Felix is — on her blog.

This is Bernadette Huysing’s Biggest Morning Tea registration page where you can keep an eye on her goal to raise $1,000 for the Cancer Council of Australia — or you can donate directly from here if you don’t need any stash right now (but that won’t be any of us stitchers, right? ).

Now, check the World Clock to verify it’s still Sunday, May 18th, in Melbourne … and then please go pick out some stash … You just might be the person whose dollar cures cancer!

Okay … you’ll have to excuse me, but I have some shopping to do!

For all you procrastinators out there — like me — the good news is that right after you finish your taxes and get a good night’s sleep, you can go shopping in your PJs if you want to at the online Needlework Show, which opens on April 16th and runs through the 21st.

This is a wholesale show, which means you’ll need to put together a list and give it to a participating shop to purchase for you … But I believe the online Needlework Show is the best opportunity we stitchers have not only to find out what is actually available in the needlework market, but also to let store owners know exactly which of those available products we want to see in their shops and will buy if they are there, in stock, in their shops. Other needlework markets are a guessing game for store owners, but the online Needlework Show doesn’t have to be since it allows for stitcher input; however, we stitchers must do our job and provide that input for the idea to work. So let’s get out there and do that once again this April!

If your local shop isn’t one of the participating retailers in the show (then you should have a chat with them regarding future online shows, but … ), there are plenty to choose from to place your order(s). You can even spread the wealth!  Which shop do you like to order from when it’s time for the online Needlework Show — and why?

Kathy Hackford of Designs by Lisa has released a sneak peek of her designs to be released during the show … Do you know of any other sneak peaks to share with your fellow INN readers?

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!

If you’re wondering what happened to The Gift of Stitching’s website, here is the official answer from editor Kirsten Edwards (initially posted on The Gift of Stitching Magazine Yahoo Group on February 24, 2008):

Hello everyone,

Well… this is very embarrassing and I’ve been up since 4am trying to fix the problem. Basically our domain thegiftofstitching.com has expired, we didn’t know it was going to and now we have to negotiate and buy it back from a parking domain business that likes to profit out of people wanting their expired domains back. OK, lesson learnt the hard way. Buy this domain back is going to take sometime - up to 2 weeks.

In the meantime we have bought www.thegiftofstitching.com.au and are currently working with the hosting company to get it attached to our account so we can get the website up and running again. This will take up to 72 hours to travel around the world and update all the servers. Hopefully most will see it in the next 48 hours. Keep coming back and press refresh to see if it has started to work.

Once the domain is working for me, I will be sending out extensive emails so all subscribers/retailers/designers so they know what is going on.

Thanks for your patience, I am really sorry this has happened. We are working as quick as possible to get this fixed.

Kind regards,
Kirsten

–
Kirsten Edwards
Editor
The Gift of Stitching
www.thegiftofstitching.com

In my opinion, this kind of thing should be illegal. It’s stealing, pure and simple — and stealing someone else’s name is about as low as one can go.

Let’s all hope The Gift of Stitching is soon back up and running — on both the old and the new websites. (The new website is already working for me, though I’ll have to re-figure out how to get my sidebar buttons, which seem to have disappeared with the WordPress upgrade, working again. However, the TGOSM button disappeared altogether from my personal blog, too … so that one needs redoing completely, I guess.)

Also, I would like to ask a personal favor of everyone who can spare a moment to say a prayer, send good thoughts or positive energy my way, or whatever you may call your form of hoping someone or some animal does well …

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve had a terrible cold, and it turns out I passed it on to five of our eight cats. Three are recovering nicely with the help of antibiotics, but two really need some extra assistance beyond that. Magic is probably going to be just fine, but we are extremely worried about Dumbledore. It is extra devastating for us that he is so sick because since he is deaf, he is very hard to comfort. We can only communicate with him through touch and vision, but he’s not really interested in looking at much right now, or in being cuddled. To make it even worse, it seems every time we do touch him, it makes him sneeze (which may actually be helpful in getting the crap out of his nose, but it makes us feel terrible … ).

We’re doing all we can, but we’re also supposed to head to Michigan first thing tomorrow (Monday) where I have a doctor’s appointment, and right now, we dread leaving him. I may try driving alone (even though my husband took two days off specifically to drive me because I’ve been having so much difficulty staying awake while driving — something which started after the kidney failure in November), or we may board Dumbledore (and maybe Magic) with the vet while we’re gone.

I can’t cancel the appointment because I have to maintain a good relationship with this Michigan doctor (and who knows how she’d feel about my not showing because of a sick cat), especially after having been terminated by my primary care doctor here (the one I thought was so good but it turns out he nearly killed me — yes, that’s right, he caused the kidney failure … and then he terminated me because he’s scared of making another major mistake) and being as yet unable to find a new primary care doctor (because every one I’ve seen so far looks at a 38-year-old woman who has had kidney failure — and has significant signs of permanent kidney damage as a result — as a malpractice case waiting to happen), but I must admit I’m very torn.

Leaving Dumbledore with the vet may be the worst thing for him, as he might feel we’ve given up on him. Right now, he is at least in comfortable, familiar surroundings with the other cats he knows and loves.

I really am not sure what to do. All positive thoughts are very much appreciated right now …

Here are pictures of Dumbledore and Magic at their best:

I’m sure you all remember this?

It’s the first of Just Nan’s limited edition WhimZi designs, entitled Christmas is Coming, which was released in late 2005.

What I remember is finding out about it fairly quickly — I mean everything else she released at the same time was still considered new and hadn’t been available more than a week — but Christmas is Coming was already sold out everywhere I checked. I was very disappointed, to say the least.

However, this past week, I decided to really try to locate one. Obviously, I’ve wanted one ever since I missed its initial release. But perhaps because of all the icky, wintery weather we’ve had here in central Illinois, which has caused the one-bad-cold-after-another phenomena I usually experience in the fall, and also very likely because I am still reeling and trying to recover from all the frightful events that happened to my family and me between the end of August and the middle of November of last year, I rather feel as if I missed something and that time is heading toward the yuletide instead of toward spring. So, I emailed every single shop who is listed at Just Nan’s site as carrying the limited edition WhimZi releases to ask if they might still have one.

As I mentioned, I’m suffering from one of those seemingly unending colds, so it’s about all I could manage to put together this email (thank goodness for BCC, but I still had a LOT of work to do to copy/paste all the email addresses, LOL … ) — and then to wade through all the responses as they arrived.

One of the first things I learned is that Just Nan and quite a number of the shops on the list — assuming those shops are still in existence — really need to work together to update her list because a lot of those emails bounced back as no longer valid.

Of course, I did also hear back from many shops saying they did not have a Christmas is Coming chartpack to offer me.

However, my perseverance was worth it. Not only did I find one for me (I jumped on the first offer that came in, which was from Lynda — who charmed me by stating she was “tickled” to be able to help — at The Stitcher’s Garden in Arkansas, a shop which does not have a website, or you know I would point you to it!), but I’ve also located a very small surplus of Christmas is Coming chartpacks at several other shops around the country.

Because I know I’m certainly not alone in my experience of having found out about Christmas is Coming after it seemed to have been snapped up by the Ghost of Christmas Past, and as the job I’ve taken upon myself here at Independent Needlework News is to help out other stitchers — as well as to, at the same time, help out the many wonderful shops who work so hard to keep us all in stitches (or should I say INN stitches? ), I am going to list the shops who have one or more of these available so that those of you who are still seeking a Christmas is Coming chartpack might get one. You definitely will want to HURRY, because after these are gone, they really are gone (well, other than if any of the shops whose emails bounced are still around using other email addresses … and still happen to have one or a few tucked away in their stock, that is).

The Iron Kettle in Wyoming has one left and is happy to help. Call 800-801-5660 to order.

Judy’s Stitchery Nook in Texas has several and would love to help you get yours — call 956-421-2654 to order. Judy also offers a small cut of fabric if you need it to go with your chartpack, so ask for this if you’re interested.

Laurel’s Stitchery, an online shop out of New Mexico which will soon be relocating to Virginia, still has eight Christmas is Coming chartpacks in stock! Please use that link to order online; availability can be seen right on the site. By the way, Laurel’s Stitchery is proof that an online store can not just survive but thrive through several physical moves and seemingly insurmountable life changes. Laurel’s story is a true inspiration — and has a very happy ending, too! In fact, it’s also a happy ending for us stitchers, because a move means a clearance sale (10% off on all in stock items, and this sale starts today) so there’s less to pack (and unpack, LOL)!

Needles and Niceties, another shop without a website but one which sounds well worth a visit if you are ever in the Upland, California area based on this February 2001 “Shop Focus” from the Caron Collection, has two Christmas is Coming chartpacks available. Call 800-955-5358 to order. By the way, Just Nan’s teddy bear design Ebenezer was dedicated to Bob Vasaturo, who owns Needles and Niceties, which is the largest Just Nan retailer in California!

The Stitcher’s Garden in Arkansas (where I got mine from) still has three more available. Call 501-513-1851 to order. I know Lynda would be tickled to help you, too!

Thistle Needleworks in Glastonbury, Connecticut had two available. However, Judie (who took her time responding to my inquiry in the first place!) was quite ticked I’d had the gall to contact more than one shop seeking this rare chartpack and insinuated she needed no help from INN because she would probably already have sold both chartpacks prior to this article going to press. If you want to check, though, call 800-635-9757. (Please make sure to mention you’re calling because of this article. Or if you really want this, maybe you shouldn’t mention it — she appreciates so little advertising for her business that she might not sell it to you if she realizes you’re calling because of this article!)

Good luck … and consider being the odd one and starting from the bottom or middle of the list when you make your calls. Once again, HURRY: I don’t expect this surplus inventory to last out the rest of the week, and perhaps not even the rest of the day.

I hear it will be difficult to outdo the phenomenal retreat Shepherd’s Bush hosted in 2006, when their theme was a Haunted Weekend. However, sisters Tina Richards Herman and Teri Richards intend to make the 2008 retreat their best ever … So if you’re a Shepherd’s Bush fan, you won’t want to miss it!

Preliminary information for the 2008 Shepherd’s Retreat has been posted, so now you can finally start planning your fall calendar!

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008, will be an open house at the Shepherd’s Bush shop in Ogden, Utah. If this will be your first time travelling to Ogden, then don’t forget to print out a copy of the directions from Salt Lake International Airport to the shop!

The actual retreat will follow from Thursday through Saturday, September 25th-27th, 2008, at The Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah.

Accordingly, interested stitchers will probably want to reserve the dates from Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008, through Sunday, September 28th, 2008 in order to allow for plenty of SHOPPING (and travel) time on both sides of the retreat.

The 2008 retreat theme, teachers, classes, and all further details will be posted in the retreat brochure toward the end of March on the Shepherd’s Bush website. I’ll do my best to remind you when the time comes, but you’ll want to be watching for the brochure yourself, too. That’s because you’ll want to register for the retreat as soon as you can after it’s posted — Tina and Teri recommend “… within a few days … ” of their posting the retreat brochure — because retreat enrollment is somewhat limited.

And don’t let your spouse make any argument about spending your tax refund for this very special reason. After all, he agrees you’re worth it, doesn’t he? If need be, tell him you’ll be giving him a five day vacation from you (this would be a good time to remind him of your one or two annoying habits), and then bat your eyelashes and offer him something special from next year’s tax refund. After all, he’s not likely to hold you to that agreement, right? (Will he even be likely to remember that agreement just a month later? One year, I think I spent “our tax refund” several times over! I just waited a few weeks between each expenditure … ) Besides, even if he does remember, you’re still safe … since the Shepherd’s Retreat only happens every other year!

Technorati Tags: Shepherd’s Bush, retreat, Ogden, Utah, Park City, The Canyon, needlework, cross stitch, Shepherd’s Retreat, Tina Richards Herman, Teri Richards, tax refund

Almost every stitcher enjoys admiring the work of other stitchers. Today, I want to share the work of one stitcher for whom I think I can only rightly be defined as a “groupie,” LOL …

Several months ago, I mentioned a darling new (at the time) piece from Twisted Oaks Designs called Coq Au Pins. Well, now that I have seen the entire set stitched, finished, and photographed terrifically well by regular eBay seller Tammy Henshaw (many of you will recognize her as themistymoon), I simply HAD TO share it with you again.

Proving it IS possible to age gracefully, this chick seems perfectly (and rightfully) pleased with her wattle made out of sparkling beads!

This set is simply one of the most charming pieces of needlework I have ever seen — with both a silly character and yet a simple grace at the same time. I am absolutely head over heels for it.

Please make sure you check out Tammy’s auction of the Coq au Pins set for more detailed pictures of these adorable needlework smalls. You won’t be sorry — I promise!

Also, you won’t want to miss the AMAZING faux scrimshaw pieces Tammy has created to go with her version of Merry Cox’s Swan Lake Mending Bag and its lovely set of smalls!

I encourage anyone who might be interested in such a set of faux scrimshaw to post a comment here — or contact Tammy through her auction (although contacting her through her auction could really overwhelm her if there are as many positive responses as I suspect there might be, which is the main reason I suggest people comment here) — just so Tammy can garner some idea what kind of demand there might be for these faux scrimshaw products.

Personally, I think they look fantastic — and since I know what she used to make them, I also know she could conceivably make such items available at a decent profit for herself, but also at a very reasonable price for such artistically challenged beggars as myself.

I will let Tammy decide whether or not to comment here, though, to share her secret for making these. That way, if she decides to make a go of this business idea, I haven’t given away anything on her behalf.

I think it is especially fitting that Tammy has found a way to make a product which looks so much like the scrimshaw we stitchers all know and love — but which so many of us cannot afford. Her eBay nickname, thmistymoon, came from the name of her grandfather’s commercial fishing ship. She writes that The Mistymoon always held a bit of magic for her as a young girl, and she hoped this magic would carry into her business when she chose the name herself as an adult. Although she does not mention her grandfather ever creating any scrimshaw himself, surely he must have known fishermen and sailors who did — it’s good to remember the ties that bind us each to the past are always there, and sometimes revealed.

Meanwhile, Tammy has kept a journal throughout the years to record the journeys of all the needlework pieces she’s finished. They have traveled to their final destinations in locations all over the world including the UK, France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, and Australia. While Tammy doesn’t expect to be able to travel the world in her lifetime, she does feel as if little pieces of her are still traversing the seas — and if that isn’t magical, I don’t know what is!

Now that you’ve seen a few of Tammy Henshaw’s eBay auctions, I hope you’ll mark her as a favorite and keep an eye out for her auctions. Tammy has wonderful finishing ideas, most of which are also very inexpensive and able to be made with basic supplies from your local craft store. Of course, most require a time investment and some do also require a little bit more artistic talent than many of us really believe we have to begin with — but they’re worth trying at least once, especially when they can save a great deal of money on framing costs. After all, when you least expect it but put in your best effort anyway, you’re bound to achieve success, even if your success looks a lot different than someone else’s success — a situation which only makes your neighbor’s results and your own results both interesting to study! .

Oh, and if you simply must have the Swan Lake Mending Bag and Smalls chart to stitch for your own collection, this extremely hard to find class-only chart is currently available on eBay through another of my favorite, highly recommended eBay sellers (who is also someone I consider both a friend and another admirable stitcher).

Technorati Tags: Tammy Henshaw, Coq au Pins, Twisted Oaks Designs, eBay, cross stitch, needlework, finishing, Merry Cox, scrimshaw, Swan Lake Mending Bag, smalls

Janet M. Perry of Napa Needlepoint is seeking stories, primarily about needlepoint, from needleworkers like yourself.

There is little sense in my re-writing what she has already written very well, so I’ll just quote her request directly, and hyperlink to her email and other informational pages:

Stitched with Stories
Sharing our Love of Needlework

Stitched with Stories will be a collection of stories about stitching, most specifically about needlepoint. The book will be similar to the KnitLit series, and will be available for Summer 2008.

You have a great chance to share your love of stitching with others. You can write about how you learned to stitch, a wonderful class, a great canvas, a terrible canvas, teaching others to stitch, what needlepoint means to you - whatever you like!

Don’t worry if you aren’t a professional writer, a great story is better than great writing!

If you have a great needlepoint story, I’d like to consider it for the book. The stories should be engaging (so you want to read more). They can be thoughtful, heartwarming, funny, poetic, witty, or even mischievous.

The stories should be to me by May 15, 2008 for consideration and should be 1,000-1,500 words in length. If you have an idea but don’t know how to write it, email me with your idea.

Email submissions to Janet M. Perry at stitchedwithstories @ gmail.com (remove spaces).

If you’re a writer and want to submit the story elsewhere, the book is only using first time rights.

Pass this notice along to any stitchers you know, to the folks in your guild, shops you visit, teachers you know, or wherever.

Let’s let the world know about our love for stitching!

Come on, everyone, put down your needles momentarily and instead wear your thinking caps for just a bit. Let’s make Stitched with Stories something to talk about at stitch-y get-togethers the world over!