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.

November 16, 2025, Sunday

The Sun is bright this morning, and no more rain, or so says the weather report on my iPhone. We'll see.

I am guessing I have two more weeks. I need to order a few more patterns which I will do tomorrow morning; I am guessing I will wait till the end of the week for them, so I will be packing up through Thanksgiving week. I should finish shortly after Thanksgiving.

This morning I posted the deadline for checking your packages and reporting any mistakes to me.  I impose these deadlines so that I can move on. Before I had these deadlines, people were asking for supplies up to 20 YEARS after. One time I even had a request from a former student's grave, I kid you not.

So you have a month to check your packages. If you do not report errors to me within that month, you are on your own. Moral of this story: check everything carefully and report it within the month of your shipping date.

November 15, 2025, Saturday

No packages shipped today or tomorrow, but (depending on the rain) I will mail packages on Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

I am about two weeks off from finishing (just about time for Thanksgiving); I am far enough along now that I had a look at my wait lists. I promised a Sale in December -- and once I've mailed my October Sale, I will see how a sale in mid December would do.  

November 14, 2025, Friday

I didn't realize I was low on tubes (into which I roll the canvases). Happily more tubes arrived late yesterday.

We are supposed to have rain in the next days. If the rain is heavy, I won't take packages to the post office until Monday.

I am getting there. To give you an idea of the size of my sale, to date I have mailed over 150 packages..

November 13, 2025, Thursday

It is a big job, packing and shipping my sale, but I see that my stacks are going down in size and gradually I am getting there.

As I have written earlier, PayPal blitzed my sale for the first days: they not only undersold one or two patterns, but they oversold a couple of my important designs -- and I am trying to make sure I have enough.

I will pack and ship today and tomorrow, then over the weekend, I will take inventory yet again and see where I stand. With some luck, it will all work out well.

The great advantage of all this is that I should have some kits for those of you on my Wait Lists.

November 12, 2025, Wednesday

I packed some Echoes I and II yesterday and will send them off today. Mind you, not all of them -- I will work on them today and tomorrow also.

I will get to Elizabeth Portraits also, probably tomorrow and Friday.

I also have several very large orders and I hope to reach them soon too. I forgot that yesterday was Veterans Day and the post office was closed.  I will send off double the number of packages today.

I am getting there. I do appreciate your patience.

November 11, 2025, Tuesday

I am a day behind due to an emergency visit to the dentist. I will catch up today. I have to print shipping labels and then I am off to the post office. I have a significant number of packages leaving today and I will try to catch up in the next couple of days.

Today: so far no Echoes, no Elizabeth Portraits yet.  I will do them next.

November 9, 2025, Sunday

Obviously I can't ship on a Sunday but I will spend today packing and I will ship tomorrow what I pack today. So far I have not yet started on Echoes and Echoes II. My plan today is to pack the first of both, along with Elizabeth Portraits and Hearts.

I have some very large orders and I plan to start compiling them this week also.

I am well underway now, cross fingers all my machines continue to work, and with luck I hope I might finish in two more weeks.

November 6, 2025, Thursday

Yesterday my computer guy came -- what, I ask myself, would I do without him! My label printer is fixed now and from here on in I will pack until I finish.  I suspect, as I wrote earlier, that it will take me about 2 1/2-3 weeks more.

Thank you for your continuing patience. You have been so good about not writing to me. Let me get another 7-10 days under my belt and then I will ask you to write.

To my knowledge, I have never permanently skipped over anybody, so I won't skip over any of you either.

November 3, 2025, Monday

With my computer guy coming on Wednesday, I figured I had nothing to lose if I experimented a bit with my label printer. Happily I coaxed labels, and when I finally coaxed all I could, I had printed labels for 21 packages.

They are loaded in my car and will head to the post office in a short time.

So how much longer will it take me? I am guessing it will take me 3 more weeks. My guess is, I will finish in time for Thanksgiving, just about the amount of time I predicted.

That's if all goes smoothly.  If I can get PayPal to let me use my password and log into my printer, I should be on time. With anything computer it is always a bit of a guessing game.

I will know more on Wednesday.

November 2, 2025, Sunday

Updates for the coming week: I am packing and  packing and I have increasing stacks of packages ready to send.

Right now PayPal is having a problem accepting my label printer so I can't print shipping labels.  Help is coming on Wednesday morning. It means an unexpected delay but I should be back to shipping packages on Wednesday and Thursday.

November 1, 2025, Saturday

Welcome to November on Queendom Website. November is all about shipping and yesterday I sent off some Dowagers is the Evening.

Bottom line: I am slightly behind right now but with any luck, I should make up a bit of time in the coming days. I picked up a huge order of patterns last evening from the print shop; they still have some patterns to print but I should have everything by midweek.

I know some of you are very anxious about your orders. As I wrote earlier, there will come a time when I will post here on my website asking you please to write if you have not heard from me. Then is the time to write to me.

Until then, if you keep emails asking when your packages will arrive to a minimim, I will work that much faster.

As I posted, I am slightly behind schedule right now but hoping to make up a bit of time in the coming week. I am guessing it will take me until the third week in November to send everything.  I will indeed keep you posted here.

Patriotica coming in 2026 as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S.

DEADLINE FOR REPORTING MISTAKES: December 15, 2025 at midnight, or a month from the date of my shipment (so packages I mail on November 17 have till December 17, 2025.

Deadline for reporting mistakes (shortages, etc.) December 15, 2025 or one month from shipping date.

Deadline for reporting mistakes (shortages, etc.) December 15, 2025 or one month from shipping date.