July 9, 2019 Tuesday

The First Day of My Remodeled Website

My New Year's Resolutions for 2021

I can't do better this year so I am keeping these for another year.

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 in 2021.

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.

Reminders for me as well as for all of you.

Sunday June 26, 2022

I am stil waiting to hear from two people about their addresses, otherwise I am caught up with shipping for Mystery in St. Tropez.

Nice day ahead: I have the day to myself and I plan to stitch for most of it. More Gardening with My Needle as I tackle  little green leaves to go with all my yellow flowers.

As we deal with SCOTUS and women's rights, my two 19th century ladies seem so relevant as they were so instrumental in giving us a say in our lives. No matter what your political views, treasure the fact that you have a say in voting for those views.

If I put in some hours with my needle today and tomorrow, I should come close to finishing my sampler. What then? Something quick and easy! I have in mind a heart with a bouquet of the yellow roses I just invented.

Saturday June 25, 2022

Our needlework world has lost one of my very favorite people, Zeena MacLean. Zeena was a very funny, light-hearted wordsmith who brightened my day with her super emails. The worst thing, by far the worst thing about growing older is losing favorite people. Zeena, I will miss you so much.

Zeena wrote for me "Counting every counted thread puts a crown upon my head."  Soon it will become a sampler.

I am caught up with shipping and in about an hour the last of my packages will go to the post office.  I have two packages remaining, both with questions and I'm waiting for replies.

Important: if you are new to my instructions, please read why I package them the way I do. Scroll down to the lower yellow navigation bar (at the bottom of the page) and click on INSTRUCTIONS.

Once packages are in the mail today, I will spend the daylight hours working on ECS and Susan B. I am happy to report that I have solved all my design issues with the sampler, now I will just fill in all the flowers and I will finish.

To everybody out there in Stitcherland: think of the debt we owe these two radical women who had the idea that women should be full citizens and have a voice in our lives by voting. Wow, did it ever matter more than right now?

For that reason I have enjoyed every stitch on my sampler!!

Friday June 24, 2022

I will leave up Mystery in St. Tropez Sale on my home page through the weekend. I am hoping for new colors from Cathe, as she illustrated on Gary Parr's podcast.  I'm looking forward to seeing her final choices. During the podcast she was still in the playoing mode.

Hopefully today I will have more patterns from the print shop. If so, I will mail my outstanding orders this afternoon or tomorrow.  If I don''t have patterns today, it will be Monday or Tuesday morning before I have them.

Because of PayPal's selling practices, I need to rethink my business model. It would make my PayPal life much calmer if I sold something each month.  

As a result I am thinking of a new type of sale which I would call 'Onesies, Twosies, Threesies.' I would dig through my old boxes and see if I can put together one or two or three of a design and offer it for sale once each caledar month.

It looks like I have to make some other changes also, so that I conform more to PayPal's merchant expectations.. Am I happy about these policies? No.  I treasure my time for designing and stitching more than selling.

I have the summer ahead to figure out what to do. Sigh....

Thursday June 23, 2022

What fun last night was! Big long shopping experience as we all looked through and discussed Cathe's colors. She sat at what looked like a desk in front of a wall of threads and held up all sorts of colors. What is more fun in life than shopping for wonderful colors!  Not a lot  :-)

I am back in Mail Jail. I will send off some packages this morning and then I need to wait for the print shop to print more. Hopefully today or tomorrow and I will send off the rest soon as I have them.

At Gary's request, I will leave the sale up on my home page for a bit longer. Cathe has some new colors to add and I will add them soon as she decides and sends me photos.

Meanwhile I am happy to say, once my work is finished, I will return to yellow flowers. It is such a perfect time of year to be stitching yellow flowers and I am enjoying it in the extreme.

Enjoy the long long summer daylight hours!

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Tonight: Cathe Ray and I will be on Gary Parr's live Fiber Talk. We start at 4:45 pm California time. Although I have been on Gary Parr's podcasts several times, I have not been on a live show before. Better be on my best behavior.

Did any of you stitch on the Summer Solstice? I stitched till my fingers ached and my eyes crossed, and EC Stanton is happy to report that she now has 31 flowers and 9 leaves. Two leaves to go and two French Knot flower centers.

I will start Susan B's flowers today, a mirror image of EC's then back to the drawing board. Do I know where the next flowers will go on the sampler?  I have a couple of ideas, but want to see the flowers so far in place on the sampler and then I will decide.

This was a question I answered on Gary's podcast yesterday: I don't necessarily know where I am headed and what a project will look like when it is finished.  I begin with some ideas and a not-too-well-defined drawing and then I see where a design takes me.

I am a firm believer in this: needlepoint is its own medium unlike either drawing or painting and it is important to me that I think and work in terms of needlepoint's geometric grid and in blocks of color created by thread. This method often means a lot of ripping and rethinking, but over the long tenure of my time in needlepoint, it yields my best results.

On with today's allotmnent of beautiful yellows and whites.

Tuesday June 21, 2022

First of all, I have opened my Mystery in St. Tropez Sale at Gary's request for his two podcasts, the one today and the one on Wednesday.

Why? I had it all twisted, the schedule, so it's my fault I didn't get it right. But never mind: the sale is now open and hopefully will work well and remain open for a few days.

I will give warning before I close it.

Now on to one of my favorite topics: The Summer Solstice, my favorite day of the year and I fully intend to stitch all the daylgith hours!  I hope you will join me if you have a chance: pick up your needle, if only for a few minutes and appreciate the daylight!

I am going to work on ECS's yellow flowers and I'm guessing I will have a change to start Susan B's also. Very exciting to watch my long long commitment to this samler come to life.

Happy Summer Solstic and enjoy the day! And come and hear our podcasts too!

Monday June 20, 2022

TOMORROW before first light I will reopen Mystery in St. Tropez Sale, honoring Gary Parr's request that I keep the sale open for Fiber Talk Podcast.

I will open the sale again very early tomorrow morning because I will pick up my needle tomorrow morning at first light and stitch away the day! Yippee! A whole day of guilt-free time with my needle!

Yes, the Summer Solstice is a day each year I stitch till my fingers are sore and my eyes bleary, and I hope you will join me for however long you can. Pick up your needle and find a bit of time to enjoy the longest daylight hours of the year.

So what will I work on?  Yellow flowers. Actually yellow and white flowers for Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

I had planned to experiment all day long but it's not necessary, as I had a jump start a couple of days ago and already NINE flowers and two leaves are in place above ECS. She is delighted, I might say.

So tomorrow more of the same. The yellows are beautiful Soie d'Alger with accents of white. I have some tough decisions ahead so I hope the Goddesses of Stitching are smiling at me.  I wish the same for you.

Sunday June 19, 2022

Happy Father's Day to those fathers who are also needlepointers. Enjoy your special day!

I'm assuming that many of you who ordered supplies from Needle in a Haystack have heard there is a supplies delay. It is, I fear, the reality of life today.

I'm sorry about the delay and I have a creative idea to help you through the wait. What about looking through your stash and trying one of the Ornaments in Total Leftovers and seeing if you find a great combination of threads and colors?

It is such a fun exercise and both ornaments are so small and simple.  If you decide to try this, you can make one of the little ornaments in half a day. Send me a photo and I'll make a little gallery on facebook and on my website.

I have household chores on this, my first day of freedom from Mail Jail and then I'm taking the day off. Yellow flowers? You bet!

Saturday June 18, 2022

I am finished with Mail Jail for Mystery in St. Tropez. DH and I will go to the post office with the packages I just finished in about an hour, soon as DH is up and had his coffee.

Everyone should have tracking numbers from the post office.  As your packages arrive, please check the contents against the information on Queendom Website's Home Page and report any irregularities to me straight away.

I hope you have a chance to read through them and start fantacizing about your Mystery colors and patterns. I hope too you will listen to Gary Parr's Fiber Talk podcast on June 22, for it is all about Mystery in St. Tropez.

And I hope you will join me next Tuesday for a celebration of my favorite day of the year, the Summer Solstice. Long long daylight hours and I will be stitching from first light till my hands and eyes wear out.

Yes, hopefully ECStanton and Susan B. are looking forward to a profusion of yellow flowers about to hit their canvas. More about Summer Solstice Celebrations in the next few mornings.

Friday June 17, 2022

Confession time: my two 'revive my energy' activities were these:

(1) I added three flowers to Elizabeth Cady Stanton's portrait.

I have no business stitching right now. It is Mail Jail time and no stitching allowed. But after two very long days, I broke my rule and stitched anyway. When I'm really worn out, stitching revives me, and I had great results: a sunflower and two stylized white buttonhole daisies emerged from my needle.

(2)  I bought a Honiton Hankie

My Honiton Fever has never stopped and when I saw a Honiton hankie with roses, shamrocks and the best thistles I've seen, I succumbed.

Now I'll update Queendom Website and return to typing shipping labels. I have a stack of patterns packed and mid-morning, soon as I finish taping on the labels, DH and I will take them to the post office.  

I am waiting for more patterns from the print shop. Hopefully they will be ready by this afternnon and I will be able to finish Mail Jail either by tomorrow or first thing on Monday morning.

And then?  Next Tuesday a WHOLE DAY of stitching, for the Summer Solstice is almost here!

Thursday June 16, 2022 Late Afternoon

Mystery in St. Tropez Sale is finished now and I am humming right along with packing a shipping.  I hope I will meet my personal deadline of Saturday for shipping everything.  If I don't make it quite by Saturday, I will head for a final run to the post office on Monday morning.

So what next?  I have a neat idea, I just have to think about it a bit longer. It has to do with the ornaments for Mystery in St. Tropez. We'll see.

I had a couple of long days, 15 hours each day, and I was worn out. I had to recover. So I did two activities. Can you guess what they were?

I don't know whether I want to confess or not.... Maybe.

More tomorrow....

Wednesday June 15, 2022

Last Day of my Mystery in St. Tropez Sale.

After the sale finishes, let's talk about ideas to stretch your Creative Juices beyond the options I've given you in the pattern. For example, notice there is only one center.

What about changing the center?

What about adding beads?

What about adding a border around the edge?

A thin border? A thicker one? A broken one? A solid one?

Change stitches in the corners of the border?

These are just some of the options you could think about.

We will talk more about these options.

And I have some ideas for the ornaments too -- just in case you don't want to make ornaments.

We will discuss this after the sale finishes, and we will also discuss Cathe's colors and some options for them.

Several people asked me earlier: did I design the Mystery to go with a certain intention. The answer is 'no,' I just doodled some ideas and put them togeter, all the while trying to think of different possibilities the design might encourage people to try.

If the print shop finishes more copies for me (I underestimated the interest in the design), I will have everything in the Mail to you by Saturday. A lot of long hours ahead, but I look forward to the d iscussions and the podcast.

Listen to Gary Parr's Fibertalk from Wednesday, June 22, 2022.