Gay Ann Rogers  Needlework

News & Views

Sales of Kits and Patterns

Updated December, 2024


Sales for 2024-2025

I haven't set dates for any sales

in the future.  I am busy stitching away on a very industrious design and it is taking all my time right now.


Eventually I will set some dates.



Keeping Track of My Sales:

My Newsletter

If you sign up for my Newsletter will your inbox be flooded? No, I send out a Newsletter a few days before a sale and that's all.


My Newsletters are one page long, with date and time, of a sale and usually a listing of what is in the sale.


Requesting Old Patterns

If you wish to request an old design of mine, please email me with your request. I will do my best to bring back your requests in future sale.


GayAnnRogers@icloud.com




To Sign up for my Newsletter,

Click here and email me

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.

GARR

2019

2020

UPDATED December, 2024


Updates on Sales

EWEEk 2024 iz now closed.


Next Sale:

None set yet for 2025. Very busy stitching


Group Activities

I will continue to refurbish my For Groups page on Queendom Website..



Time to Stitch

My time to stitch is now and into 2025.



Future Sales

Dates not set yet, tooo busy stitching away (and loving it!)





JAR

Mail Truck

Look for this in

connection

with Mail Jail

2024

2022

2023

2021

To Contact Me:

Click Here

TO REVISIT MY SALE,

CLICK ON DRESSING HENRY


DEADLINE for reporting mistakes in my October EWEEK ended at midnight

December 31, 2024

February 8, 2025 Saturday     


Lovely day of socialization today: our best pssible company for 3 more days, yay!



February 7, 2025 Friday     


Yes, with a wee shout and a pat on my back, I took my last stitch on my Queen at 9:35 a.m. precisely.


It took me another 5 minutes to end off my waste knot threads and for 15 minutes I brushed some Burmilana with my trusty little Bunka brush.  If the past is any indication, I will keep brushing for a while, off and on as the spirit moves me.


I still have a long way to go: Pearls (trillions of them, big as our national debt), jewels and beads. I have some to play with and I have some ideas but it is all ahead of me.


In addition to the good news that my longest ever stitch is history, I learned I will have my Kreinik braid. The #4 is here; the #8 should be ready within the next two weeks.  Hooray for that!


So all around good news.

We are having company for 3 days; in prep for some stitching time, I started a new heart very eary this morning. A little treat after all the large, long and intricate hours of the past 8 months. During that time I worked only on my Queen.



February 6, 2025 Thursday     


Last night my eyes were bleary indeed as I stitched  too many hours without taking a sufficient number of breaks.


I was greatly motivated as -- HuooRAY! I could see the end in sight. Yes, I am nearing the end of the stitching on my new Queen. With luck, I should finish today.


On with my BACKGROUND LESSON as I wait for the daylight to arrive.


My most difficult background ever was the blue behind Queen Victoria. Why? A brunette bride in a white dress. Blue too light, all one would see is the hair. The blue too dark, there would be too much contrast with the dress.


I had to guess because I wouldn't really know until the area was filled.


I had one little saving bit: I could add lighter or darker motifs and that helped.


February 4, 2025 Tuesday     


I meant to write about my most difficult background ever, but I got started stitching in the early a.m. and -- in a bit of excitement-- I realized I was close to finishing an important bit of my Queen.


So I kept going. And going. And I am writing a hasty note too say, grant me a couple more days of stitching and I will indeed write about my difficult background.


This is Queen Tally Day 165 -- and a most satisfying day. If today goes well, I will have made all design decisions and there's only busywork stitching left.


Whew!


February 3, 2025 Monday     


A bit more about backgrounds.

Besides color, other important considerations for background include the scale and density of the pattern choices. Remember, the background does what its name tells us: the ground in the back of the design.


Tomorrow a description of my most difficult ever background choice and how I heaved a sigh of relief when it worked.



February 2, 2025 Sunday     


More about backgrounds.

In my designs, background come toward the end of a project but it still plays an important role in the design, for it enhances the  position of whatever is in the foreground.


Two important considerations: of course, color but also the scale of the stitch(es) you choose. If too bold and too contrasty, the background can overpower the foreground.


My mind is currently on backgrounds because I just finished stitching the background behind my Queen's face and hair.


Before I started work on it I chose a dark brown color that I have used many times. My first task was to Tent Stitch the whole background. Since the color is very dark and the canvas white, there are many flickerings of white underneath a single ply Tent Stitch that doesn't cover adequately. Then I added patterns of stripes stitched over the Tent Stitch. These are solid (no white flickerings) and they added a quiet dimension.


I am pleased with the reult as the background adds the amount of texture I wanted but it doesn't challenge the Queen's face and hair for the dominant position.


To check if my choices worked I propped up the Queen and walked by her a number of times to see indeed if the background was doing its job.


Tomorrow another foreground background area I am hoping works.



February 1, 2025 Saturday     


Welcome to February on Queendom Website. I plan to continue my comments on designing needlepoint for a while longer. This morning let's talk about the role of a background.


If you look at a figure and identify the single most important feature, I believe that feature is the face, and small as it might be, I always start with a face: eyes, mouth, nose, brows, cheeks. I finish those before any other feature.


So what about the background? In a design of mine I might start thinking about the background, choice of stitch(es), color(s) etc., but it is the last design element I stitch.


The name 'background' says it all: not front ground but background. It sits in back of everything else.


So less important? Nooo, it is very important, in fact exceedingly important because it draws alll the design elements together. Gently together. You want the background to harmonize with the elements but not sit on top of them.


For me, choosing a background comes last because I have the design elements all in place. Here's a trick to helping you decide: xerox the design in black and white and try deciding whether your background should be dark or light. The xerox will also help you see the intensity of the colors in the design.


Surprisingly early in my new Queen's life, I suspected I would choose a background color that I use often, and sure enough it worked well. But there was a point where I struggled. I will tell you about it tomorrow, in Background lesson #2.



January 31, 2025 Friday     


Whenever I stitch a figure, I begin with her face, then hair, collar (or ruff or whatever surrounds her face). It is kind of like the face is the sun and all the surroundings are like the sunnrays.


Put another way, the closer to a figure's face, the more important a job to get it right. So in my current  project, I have two ships in 'paintings' to the left and right  of the Queen's face.


I forgot how close they were to  the Queen's face, so how necessary I get them right -- and becuase of my lapse I had a big struggle. Happily the frog has disappeared and I have my two ships in harmony with the Queen's face. Whew!

I have one more important element to go, but it is at the bottom of the canvas, away from the face, so I have a little more latitude.


I see that I have written more about the importance of the face than I had expected. I will save background for tomorrow.


January 30, 2025 Thursday     


From yesterday: if you guessed that the face is the most important element of a figure and therefore it should be your starting point, you guessed my thinking on the issue.


As a general guideline to remember: the closer a design element is to the face, the more important the element, the farther away from the face, the less noticeable.


If you look at a figure, it is likely you will see eyes first, then the whole face (the mask), then the elements closest to the face: hair, collar, earrings and necklace).


When you are stitching, work HARD on getting a face just as you want it to look. If you have to make a mistake, make it at the bottom of a skirt.


And the background, touted as the place to start? Noo, but a background is so important. I'll write about it tomorrow.


January 29, 2025 Wednesday     


Top o the list of important lessons: where do I begin?


A long time ago a friend was taking a 'bring your canvas to life' class and she planned to stitch a painted figure. She asked the instructor where she should start.


The instructor replied, 'with the background, because it is the largest space and therefore has the most options.'


How many of you agree with this? Anybody have a different answer?  My comments tomorrow morning.


January 28, 2025 Tuesday     


Monday is my favorite day of the week: a whole new week is ahead and I had a terrific Monday yesterday! I made some real progress and am rounding the corner and heading down the home stretch.


It occurred to me yesterday that I have been revisiting guidelines for designing and stitching this complex piece and I wondered if I should do a series on these ideas/guidelines that help me.


For example, I am stitching the figure of a Queen. Do you know what the most important consideration is when doing a figure?


Where do I start a figure and how do I watch the evolution?


I will answer these tomorrow.