July 9, 2019 Tuesday

The First Day of My Remodeled Website

Permanent Resolutions for Stitchers

1.  Take all the pent-up anxiety about perfection and redirect that energy toward creativity. Open up your minds and think of creative  possibilities you can bring to your needlework, ways that will personalize it and make it distinctly yours.  Here are two ways to start:

Oops you made a mistake and you face a lot of ripping.

Ask yourself, is it really a mistake or a variation?

You do have to rip if you crossed most of your crosses in one direction and suddenly you started crossing them in the other direction, yep no way around that. Why? The real reason for good technique is that it allows all your attention to focus on your design (where it should be).

You don't have to rip if you made a leaf one row bigger than the design called for. This is obsessive behavior that needs redirecting.

You do need to rip if you make something so large it is out of scale with the rest of the design; you do not have to rip if it is barely noticeable.

You do not have to rip if you mixed up colors and the design is not exactly as the designer's model. For heaven's sake, if it looks OK, stop obsessing.

You do have to rip if a color or texture is not in harmony with the rest of the design.

You do not have to throw away a design if you run out of a dye lot.

If it looks like you are headed toward thread shortage, don't use the thread to the last strand, save at least 1/4 of it. Buy some more and decide where and how to introduce the new dyelot. I actually prefer to work with multiple dyelots. If you pay attention to lights and darks etc., they can bring an added depth to your design.

2. In memory of Audrey Francini, my generation's greatest needlewoman, slow down. Needlework is not a speed contest. Audrey was the slowest stitcher I have known. She was also the best. I have a couple of great stories about Audrey and her speed, I'll tell them in the next couple of mornings.

3. Forget about the Needlepoint Police. They don't exist except in their minds. You may meet people who think they know it all. Good for them, I applaude their confidence, but I don't buy into it.

I have probably told this story a dozen times but it is worth telling again and again. Years ago a friend wrote to me and asked, will this Kreinik braid look good with this silk?

I replied, beats me, try it and see.

Friend: whadaya mean you don't know, you're the teacher.

My reply: if the Immortal Artists Of The Western World don't know without trying, how would I, one mere mortal needlework teacher? (There's a bit more to thsi story too, I'll tell the rest another time).

All this goes to say once again, there is no real right and wrong, there are problems of course. The best way to find solutions is to think creatively.

Those are my New Year's Stitching Resolutions for 2021, still good for 2022, 2023 and for 2024.

Reminders for me as well as for all of you.

October 20, 2024 Sunday

Three days to go, yes in three days my sale opens, and I am happy to say, I am right on schedule.

In the two extremes: Dressing Henry, my intricate and complex sampler of Tudor patterns vs a small and simple geometric, Small Santa Fe Square, good for experimentation with texture and color.

I have a similar contrast once more in this sale also: my two Maggie Smith designs: Dowager in the Evening with its intricate beading  patterns and Dowager Countess, a smaller and simpler design.

Interesting contrasts with different goals in mind.  I suspect this is a direction I will take in the future: the contrasts of complex and simple.

Tomorrow, with two days to go: look for Newsletters about the Sale. I have been working on my sale for so long and now I see, it is almost here.

October 20, 2024 Sunday

It is obvious now that my sale's visitors from the past are Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn and I have done a clever thing: after 488 years I united the two side by side inside a sewing box, no heads in sight.

Today here are the smalls I made for Henry and Anne: a sewing case for Henry, a Needle Book for Anne, and inside each, needles, scissors and a needlethreader, with fobs attached to scissors and needlethreader.

This is your preview of my sale: it will all be on Queendom Website's Home Page at 8:00 a.m. California time on October 24, just four days from now.

Meanwhile I have another feature to tell you about.

Carolyn Meacham broke her shoulder and I'm happy to say she is on her way to mending, but no beautiful antique tools for this year's EWeek.

On Saturday Morning just a single Surprise Window will appear, click on it and you will travel to a world of Onesies, Twosies and Threesies, a special treat for just this year.

Hopefully Carolyn will be better by Christmastime and I have my fingers crossed for a small December Sale.

October 19, 2024 Saturday

I made good progress yesterday and with luck I will catch up today and be right on schedule to finish. Yay!

As soon as I finish the General Sale, I will turn my attention to a Special feature for Saturday.

This year no Carolyn, no beautiful tools, so no Surprise Windows. Carolyn broke her shoulder and is busy healing. She will be fine, it just takes time and I'm hoping she will want to do a small Christmas Sale in December.

In place of Surprise Windows I invented a new Feature for Saturday, October 26. I will write more about it in the next couple of days.

Onesie, Twosies, Threesies is its name and I will have an illustration.

Meanwhile, on with today. It promises to be a busy one.

October 18, 2024 Friday

This morning a pair of Hearts, one for Henry VIII and one for his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Of his six wives, why did I choose Anne Boleyn? Because she is the mother of Elizabeth 1.

I'm not at all certain Henry deserves a Heart, I do think an axe might be more appropriate, but here is the new Heart I stitched.

My friends have asked me why I made Anne's Heart simpler; the answer, I used as my guide the famous portrait of Anne Boleyn in the National Gallery.

October 17, 2024 Thursday

Just 7 days to go till EWeek opens and so far I have shown a few of the designs I will be offering this year. Still more to come, still more on the theme of dressing Henry VIII and a couple of surprises to come too.

When will the surprises arrive? I will decide in the next day or so.

Meanwhile all seems to be going more smoothly now.  Cross your fingers that it will stay without any more computer hissy fits. I never know. I have three of them now; one causes me no problems; let's say the other two have temperamental times.

October 16, 2024 Wednesday

Yesterday was a good day: I caught up. It doesn't mean I'm entirely out of a time crunch, but my website is working again and I am on schedule. A bit tight maybe but basically on schedule.

I have three personal days ahead but as I am an early riser I will have 2 hours each morning and I should just squeak by. Cross your fingers for me.

As you might have surmised this year's sale is built on Henry VIII as my main feature, but I have another surprise and of course I have Maggie Smith designs and a couple of returning geometrics (instructions only).

And I have a special feature coming too, a replacement this year for Surprise Windows. I will write about it in a couple of days.

Off to work for a short while longer, then a busy personal day ahead.

October 15, 2024 Tuesday

Here is my grand piece for EWeek 2024, my sampler of patterns from Henry VIII  portraits by Holbein et al, through the  ages.

I stitched the design during the pandemic; because I knew the task would be arduous, I put off writing the instructions till last year. The instructions were as arduous as I had expected: the design has 58 pages plus 16 Oversize Graphs.

The project took me a lot of concentration but it is not a difficult stitch.

Please notice about my sampler than Henry is headless.

And here they are, Henry and Anne, after 488 years, snuggled side by side inside my sewing box.