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.

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Instructions for CRANFIELD HOUSE are no longer available but you can see the details.by clicking on the blue button above Cranfield House photo.  Use the desriptions to check and make sure you have everything as your packages begin to arrive.

Cathe Ray from Needle in a Haystack still has supplies available for the sampler. Check out her listings by clicking on the Orange Button below CRANFIELD HOUSE.

For those of you new to my instructions, as you receive them, please scroll down and click on INSTRUCTIONS on the lower navigation bar to read why I present my instructions as loose papers. It was the forEVER request of my students when I was travel-teaching for EGA and ANG.

I sent my order to the print shop this morning. I will begin shipping packages as soon as I pick up the patterns from them. I predict it will take me two days, likely Wednesday and Thursday, will some time perhaps on Friday.

I will post here as soon as they are all in the mail. My small 'Request Sale' was larger than I expected so it may well take me a little longer.

Monday, August 8, 2022

My Cranfield House Request Sale is now officially closed. Thank you for all of you who came to the sale. Many more than I ever would have guessed!

I have just ordered the patterns I need and I will start to mail them as soon as the print shop finishes. I'm guessing it will be Wednesday or Thursday.

I will post here as soon as I start. I'm guessing it will take me two full days to finish.

What's next?  I need to move the sale details to a separate post so that those of you whose patterns will start arriving can visit to check details if you wish.

And I need to start making serious decisions about my big sale in the October called EWeek. I'm hoping that you will help me make some of those decisions.

Sunday, August 7, 2022

The third day of my Cranfield House Sampler Catchup Request Sale.  Today and tomorrow.

Once the sale finishes tomorrow afternoon I will move the details to their own page so that people can check their patterns as they receive them.

I ran out of patterns (I predicted a much smaller sale of Cranfield House), the print shop I use is closed on the weekends, so I can't order more patterns until tomorrow morning.  

In short, I expect I won't have more patterns to mail until Wednesday or Thursday. I will send them as soon as I have them. I expect it will take me two days to pack and ship everything. More details tomorrow morning.

What next? I will return to work on my October EWeek Sale, specifically decisions about my Cameo Projects, ie which ones would you like me to offer again.  I will post them on my Home page and on facebook and let you decide.

Saturday, August 6, 2022

I am surprised at the enthusiasm for CRANFIELD HOUSE. I had ordered as many patterns as I thought I would need for the sale and by noon yesterday they were gone.

I will order more first thing on Monday morning and start mailing them as soon as I pick them up. I am guessing it will be on Wednesday.  I don't know that I can pack all in a single day, it may take me till Thursday.

I am delighted to see that people still like Cranfield House as I have a soft spot for it and the great memories I've told.

I have one more story indirectly related to it.  I revisited the small publisher time and time again over the years and I was most fortunate to know the 8th generation John Murray (name of family who owned the publishing company back then).

He was a slight man who always wore a bow tie and he was such a welcoming person!  Each summer he saved for me a list of exhibitions on needlework that he knew of. He had such a lovely friendly manner.

Years later I found out more about him. When he died, my editor sent DH and me his obituaries which were long long tributes to his illustrious life for he had been without question Europe's reigning man of letters.

Looking back, I should have guessed, but I didn't.  DH knew and said he just assumed I knew but I didn't.  Truth to tell, I'm glad I didn't.

Friday, August 5, 2022

My CRANFIELD HOUSE sale is now open! You will find details on Queendom Website's Home Page.

I am selling just the pattern, but Cathe Ray has put together the threads and a choice of ground fabrics, thanks Cathe!

And this idea belongs to Jory Lockwood. Thank you, Jory.

As Jory requested, I will leave the sale in place until Monday afternoon.

As I wrote yesterday, this is a good experiment to see how a quickie sale goes. Just think, maybe it will help keep PayPal from haunting me. We shall see.

Thursday, August 4, 2022

Saturday my quickie mini sale of Cranfield House will start at 8:00 a.m. California time and last till Monday afternoon.  The sale will be on Queendom Website's Home Page.

Why did I decide to do this?  I met Jory Lockwood through an email. She is a sampler lover, she had discovered a photo of Cranfield House and she had gathered together the names of people interested in the sampler.

Originally I had told her that I would add the pattern to my October Sale but I changed my mind. Why? Pressure from PayPal.

In the last few months  PayPal has been exerting pressure on me to sell more frequently, rather than no sales for months and then a huge sale.  It is quite a lot of pressure coupled with draconian threats.

I weighed my options and decided to put up with the pressure because PayPal's system makes shipping so easy for me.  

Jory's request gives me an opportunity to see what a one-time one-pattern sale is like. Hence Cranfield House will be on sale this Saturday.

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Here is my Surprise. I am having a quickie sale of Cranfield House, the pattern only. Saturday August 6 on my home page. Sale lasts until Monday afternoon.

Cranfield House is an old design of mine and part of an incredible story. I look at it and smile.

Tomorrow: what is Cranfield House and how did I come to find and stitch it? And along with all this, a small bit of design propaganda and some of the more memorable experiences I by chance ran into.

Monday, August 1, 2022

The Dog Days of Summer are upon us: time to kick back and wallow in do-nothingness, except who has time to do that!

As an inspiration, look what Maxine has accomplished, no small feat: She finished all the stitching on her Pride and Prejudice Needle Book! She sent me photos and I have posted them on Queendom Website's home page.

I hadn't seen all the individual pieces in many a moon (the design was from 2013) and it blew me away to see all of them. I know, it seems like hours and hours and hours, but oh those hours are so pleasant when all is chugging right along.

Long ago, as I was making my own needle book, I was talking to a couple of stitcher friends who had never read Pride and Prejudice. They had only seen Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, and they thought the story a sweet, kind, uplifing little romance.

Haha. Reminds me a bit of when I was young and reading  Animal Farm for the first time.  I thought, oh what a nice little story about very smart piggies.

On that note, congratulations again, Maxine, and thanks for all these months of letting us watch your progress. I hope you will send photos of your assembled needle book for next month.

Coming tomorrow: my small surprise.