7:14AM?
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What on earth am I doing up this early (early for me). I woke up to the cat laying on top of me, nudging my hand with his head as in *pet me*. So, here I am.
I have some interesting ideas for this new idea of ours to outline parts of the designs in color, to show what colors could be used as opposed to filling in with the colors and thus making it hard for anyone to stitch anything else but that color. There are a number of our designs that would benefit from this. Below is a new design of mine, a variation on the Love Kanji.
And this is how it is colored, outlining the rather complex design with these colors would help.
This Katherine Hepburn quote (and a great quote it is) Stitch and Frame design would also benefit
Colored outlines would really highlight these lovely colors
This new Marilyn Monroe quote ” it’s all make believe, isn’t it?” design kit would *pop* if the colors had been used to outline this design. It is hard to photograph the pale pink canvas, much harder then the other colors, I am not sure why.
Imagine these colors if they had been used to outline the design on the canvas.
The Square Star design does not look like much as drawn on the canvas
If we had drawn these lines in color, the design and the canvas would show much better
This next one is the example to end all examples. This is a beautiful design with wonderful colors
But the canvas looks like nothing at all
This design would have been really something if it had been outlined in color. This was the second canvas Keith tried to do this with, but he got carried away and after outlining it to great effect, he began to color it in. That was not good.
Outlining with fine tip pens in color is one thing, filling in with them looks just awful.
We will eventually re-do the re-do of this canvas and list it for sale again (it went to the back of the line, Keith does not want to see it again soon).
He tells me his new, mathematical formula for stitch drawing script and lettering on my quote canvases will take longer for each canvas
I think that will be fine. if you add up all the canvases I have had to reject for a problem with the text, the time it took him to do all of them I think it will come out more or less even in the end. I almost never reject a canvas for any other reason than something wrong with the text.
As I learned when stitching the original Stitch & Frame sample canvas, Mae West’s Snow White quote (which remains one of my favorites).
This is what it looked like before I fixed it
And after
Even one letter out of line looks ruins the design, several of them is just a mess. If you remember, I had to pull out a big section of stitching on this one when I realized some of the text was drawn higher than the rest. Pulling stitching done in #5 floss on 18 mesh is no fun, no fun at all.
Keith assures me the text written on my new designs will be much improved. Of course, I only use the canvases that look right to me now but life for both of us would be much easier if I did not have to toss out close to half of the canvases he traces for uneven letters.
So, it is Monday morning and I get to shovel the house out from the weekend, do laundry (laundry is eternal), make all those *Monday* phone calls and think about what to cook for supper. I tell you, my life is just a glittering whirl of excitement (and the cat sleeps on top of me).
WOW!
Remember a month or so ago I told you one of my blog readers (and regular commenters) offered to stitch one of my canvases as a sample.
This it the first look at it, from her web site. Margaret, from Oklahoma, did this. She has convinced me, that despite my husbands whole toxic family living there, Oklahoma is a good state full of good people.
I can’t wait to get it. She is going to send it to me for finishing. I am going to frame it, take a zillion pictures of it and then it, framed, back to Margaret to keep.
As she says, a win-win situation.
More interesting news. I find I have been having to reject about a half of the canvases Keith traces. This is hard on both of us. He does these in his spare time, from his full-time job (when we began NewNeedlepoint.com we were both retired).
The problem is always in the text. Letters are very difficult to stitch draw and he says getting them straight is beyond difficult.
Of course, natural editor like me sees it all and rejects them. He agrees, we both want what is sold by nn.com to be the best it can be.
So, today he spent the day learning (teaching himself) to stitch draw letters. He used a mathematical formula, I think. It does limit the fonts somewhat but on a light hearted or joking canvas, a *comic* font can be slightly uneven. It is best if it is uneven all over, then it looks deliberate.
Keith thinks (as do some of my very smart *advisors* and people who tell me their true opinion) that many of my potential customers have trouble visualizing the colors or placing the colors I show them in threads or wools, on the canvas in their mind’s eye.
He says we should add color to the canvases. I am dead set against it. That would negate the entire idea I have about NewNeedlepoint.com and color choice.
We have been going around and around on this. I agree with them all, to a point, but still…..
So Keith & I spent today (Saturday) going over the entire *for sale* stock of nn.com.
Some canvases, we agree, could really use some color. We have come up this this compromise. Some of the canvases, the ones that use a lot of color or depend on color to make their point, will have the design drawn in outline, in color.
In other words, the outline lines, which up to now have been black or gray thin lines will now be colored thin lines, to give you an idea of color use.
Not filled in so you are tied to a color or color family, just a thin outline.
I took a nap this afternoon, when I woke up Keith had about a third of the 2nd canvas, a re-do of Sunset, with the colors filled in. I yelled at him to stop (like it needed a yell, I mean no one was caught under a train or anything).
I said that was wrong, he was glad to hear this, the filling in was tedious beyond belief for him.
Anyway, the canvas above is the first of these.
It is also the first of his new way to stitch draw text or script. It is pretty good for a first, in fact I think it is saleable and will list it.
We removed a few canvases (again) for being total failures and wash-ups (yes, even we can see it, eventually) and took a few off-line to be re-done (again) as color trace designs and a few for faulty text. Not that many, just a few.
So, in the next weeks this new idea and the fruits of Keith’s reducing the stitch drawing of text to a math equation (with great results in terms of straight across or up and down text, judging from his practice samples).
I know it is silly but it is exciting to me.
I am undecided about how to frame Margaret’s gorgeous Love Kanji canvas. A dark frame will be lost. A white or light color will be too odd looking. I am leaning towards muted gold (or maybe silver). Any ideas anyone?
I don’t know if I have blathered on about this yet. I write these blogs mostly very late at night. Being an obsessive person (what? me?) I like to have the house all *buttoned up*. Straightened up, every thing done or set neatly until tomorrow.
I read once that electricity costs less late at night so, since I do so much laundry with Keith’s multiple clothing changes every work day from the horrible Florida heat, I do it all late at night. I don’t know if it’s true or not, about the savings but it makes sense to me not to be sucking up electricity at peak use hours for laundry that can be done anytime.
I sit at my desk, with my household machines whirring around me (dishwasher too), my day is put to bed for now and Keith’s snoring clear to hear through the wall, and write these.
(ok, or really early, for me, morning, before I do anything else for the day).
Writing this blog feels like a reward for what I have done that day. As I said and keep saying. I can’t believe *they* let me do this.
I wish I had realized how much I loved to write way back (well, I sort of did but I was also boy crazy and full of *juice* back then).
I could have been this generations Edith Wharton (interesting choice, isn’t it?) Notice I did not say anything involving my beloved Jane Austen. I can live with the Jane Austen in modern times solving crimes novels, I can even live with Jane Austen soft porn about the rest of her life novels. I can’t deal with Jane Austen & the Zombies.
I think I have veered off course enough to satisfy myself tonight (p.s. it is only 11PM EST, I am early tonight, I could not wait to show you this stuff)
How a Kit Happens
I know I have talked about the design process here. How an idea or something I see in my mind’s eye becomes a needlepoint canvas.
That is my favorite part of this whole business, the designs
As you know I am not an artist. When I get a design idea, I look around my picture services, around the net and mostly manage to find something that works, fits my idea. (important paranoia note: All design & patterns I use are copy-right free or bought from a picture service)
That used to be it, just pictures, but now I seem to be obsessed with these Quote or Kanji Designs. I have always been a reader, my parents are both readers (as I have said before, one can forgive a lot of parents who encouraged me to read and did not censor me.). I suppose, in some sense, if it doesn’t sound too odd, that I think in words, phrases and quotes, so this may be a natural and inescapable direction i design in
(this last idea might have been total bunk, I am not sure. Sorry if it is)
I am sure that I have not yet talked (blathered on) about the process to make a canvas into a kit. Sometimes it is quite easy. If I like or sometimes love the colors used in the design I have found I use those colors with minor changes and adaptations.
There may be limitations to how much or how far off I can change colors done on painted or printed canvas, I can completely change the colors used in a picture (obvious comment alert).
If I don’t like them I begin to pick the colors I want for this canvas or design. They have to be right to the design and the feeling I want, they have to be pleasing to look at and work with all the other colors used. Too big a clash anywhere and that will be all you see in the stitched canvas.
With the quotes, I want the colors used, down to the canvas color, to work with the quote. For instance, my muted sage green Zweigart 18 mesh canvas does not do for a joy or happiness design, too somber, same with the brown. Then again, the pale green is not right for a somber message, too much seriousness.
Or like the mauve or red canvases could be serious, no way. They are lighthearted. Blue is serene. It works much the same for threads and yarns too.
Odd, isn’t it how much color can affect mood and how you see something?
So, eventually I assemble the kit. Many of Patt’s kits from the Patt & Lee design Studio are incredibly complex and use a lot of colors. A number of the Patt & Lee Designs use 20, 24 as many as 26 different colors. Usually in a medium size or smaller canvas.
The big test is when I photograph the colors for the kits.
Sometimes I change the colors during the layout
Often I change the colors when I am editing the photo. Then I have to take a new picture and the process starts again.
As you might have guessed by now, I am sort of obsessive.
It is an interesting process, taking a black line drawing on white or light color canvas and making it a full color *picture* to be stitched. I could not think of any way to use pictures for this blog. it is so much in my head, that this happens, so I used words (as usual).
I do love writing these blogs. I am forever amazed they let me do this and anyone reads it.
Somber Note: I lived most of my life in Massachusetts, I mourn Teddy Kennedy, he was good to us in his state and good for our country. I think he is the last of the great Kennedys.
I also mourn, more personally, Dominick Dunne. If you read someone’s words, month after month, year after year, you get a kind of closeness to them. I felt that for him. I loved his writing and was a loyal reader of his books and of his “Diary” in Vanity Fair.
Needlepoint Karma
I have terrible needlepoint karma, I have avoided this idea for a long time but I now know it is so.
I am sure somehow, sometime in one of my maybe former lives, I insulted the living daylights out of someone who mattered.
At any rate, I seem to encounter so many and unique needlepoint disasters, I think as I write this I will scan some of the old blogs. I began this blog not long after I opened NewNeedlepoint.com March 15, 2009.
I have another needlepoint disaster on my hands today, disaster for me, anyway. You may remember I recently added Anchor #8 Perle Cotton Floss to my stock for nn.com.
To lay in a working stock I needed about 80 -/+ colors. Each color comes in a box of 10 double size balls. this gave me a range of 3-5 graduations in each color group. This was a big buy, over $500.
A sizeable portion of my order did not ship. however. It was backordered. It was most of the greens, all of the purples, some pink, beige etc etc. I spoke to my distributer several times about the backorder. Today their fill in order from Coat & Clark arrived and with it was a small park of my backorder. My Distributer called Coats & Clark but could not get a clear answer, he thinks they are cutting the line back and I might not be able to get these colors.
He suggested I fill in from the DMC #8 Perle Cotton line. That is obviously the solution but….(there is always a but)
The finish on the Anchor # 8 and the DMC #8 are slightly, subtly different. Yes, they are both #8 Perle Cotton but from different manufacturers, they are not the same. Not really.
So, I am stuck and I will have to fill in the stock with the DMC and as I run out of thread colors, replace them with DMC.
This is sad, I really like Anchor Perle Cotton, but it does not have the market share DMC does so it seems Coats & Clark Corp do not really support it.
This is my typical needlepoint karma, or maybe web store karma. Let’s cruise some of my past blogs for more disasters.
Ok, early on, in the first weeks I was bombarded by blog spam. I did a blog called “worm holes”. The spammers send these email, they seem innocent at first, “hello, I am a student from (some ridiculous place) and I need to practice my english. I am saying this right?” or some such, followed by several hundred lines of spam text, selling everything you could possibly imagine.
In the beginning I got 1 or 2 a day, at the end there was 10-15 a day. I finally found the spam thingie buried in this blog utility, set it up and poof!
The second was my a sample of 4-way bargello, back when I was concentrating on stitching all the samples for NewNeedlepoint.com. This was made even harder because it was on very thin black 14 mesh mono canvas.
The next one was a few weeks later, called “The Proof is in the Pudding”. it was about how I messed up on which Bargello patterns were *bargello* and which were Florentine Embroidery. Ok, next.
Next was “marianne makes more mistakes” about some poorly drawn Kanji design canvases. There is a limit to how much very small detail you can clearly show on a needlepoint canvas and I was way past it.
Then there was my “ORNOMANIA” rant about all the holiday cheer and wall to wall ornament designs everywhere. Not a mistake, just a rant.
Then there was my much talked about and big fuss made over it by me first “If I’d killed him when I met him, I’d be out of jail by now” quote canvas. I did not like it and said so here in a blog called “I Don’t Like It”.
June 21st I did the blog “MMYMM” or marianne makes yet more mistakes but this mistake was Keith’s, sadly the unpicking & restitching were my job. He did not draw the script straight, it dipped in places.
A few days later I wrote this one “M M to M a M M” or marianne manages to make a massive mistake. I did the keywords wrong in every single listing on my web site. Every one had to be re-done, keyword by keyword, letter by letter. I put capitalized letters where they can’t be. sigh. That one took a long time to fix.
Then I moved, that was a whole huge blog complain-a-thon by me. After that I described my first (in many years) trip to Michael’s Crafts and Everything Else store in a blog titled “MY Needlepoint Nightmare”.
I have since made my peace with Michael’s, it has it’s uses here in the artistic wasteland I live in.
Then 7/30 was the blog “Dilemma De Jour” but that was mainly me grousing and complaining (what? me complain?) about how long it takes to establish a new web store and get it moving.
There is now now famous “Needlepoint Dandruff” blog where I discover that designing for white canvas means all my pieces have Needlepoint Dandruff (ugh)
And finally my rant-of-the-week about the 4 X 6 inch or 5 X 7 inch *standard* picture frames that are not really 4 X 6 or 5 X 7. Not at all. That was a big rant.
And now is today and not enough colors in Anchor #8 Perle Cotton Floss. See, I have terrible Needlepoint Karma.
I am somewhat surprised, I have enjoyed writing this blog entry. It has been fun re-visiting my mess-ups, boo-boos and just general disasters. All this since March 15, 2009 too!
Groucho & Mrs Dumont
A few weeks ago I talked about a project I was going to do with Jane, the mistress of the Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog. I am going to stitch one of my designs, *Beware of Monster* under her direction.
This is the final version of the canvas.
The design area is more or less 9 X 11 inches. It is Zweigart 18 mesh light brown mono canvas. We are still going back and forth about colors. These were my preliminary picks.
Most of these threads are Anchor #8 Perle Cotton Floss from my NewNeedlepoint.com stock This floss is wonderful to stitch 18 mesh, I have not yet decided if I will stitch it doubled or single.
But even since I took this picture today, there are changes. To begin with this is intended to be nightime, going around clockwise, 1:00 is the castle in deep purple, muted medium purple and coral. i thought of a brick or mosaic stitch like stones or bricks, each in a different color.
This will be tricky to do with mistakes unless I work with 3 needles at one, one for each color. I think I can do that.
at 3:00 you have gold Kreinik #16 Metallic for the monster. Jane, who seems to me to be an expert at threads & stitches says the Kreinik #16 is a bit too heavy for 18 mesh. She suggests I use a lighter thread and mix it with another color. Needless to say it will be green, the shade yet to be picked.
Still at 3:00, to the right of the gold are the colors for the hills & trees in the dark. No stitch or color use plan yet
5:00 is the black for the text.
moving left to 8:00 is the water colors. The Grandeur silk has been eliminated, I am going to (if I can manage it in a test area) stitch the water using all 3 colors. We have not chosen a stitch yet.
At 11:00 are the small amount colors, I had picked green for the monster’s eye but since he (I assume it is a male, of course) will be green & gold, I will pick another eye color.
The yellow is for the lighted windows in the castle.
to the left of those is a single ball of Anchor #8 in the bittersweet color. We are going to do a border around the perimeter of the design and I want to add that color to the border. I plan to use all of the major colors in the piece (except the gold, eye color or window color & the black) on the border, I wanted the bittersweet to balance the colors (yes, I think this way, be glad you are not me).
Oh, I forgot to add the moon. I thought, at first, a full moon but I do not think there is room for that, without crowding the other stuff, so a crescent moon. More mysterious that way (and smaller). I thought maybe a silver metallic outline for it but drop kicked that idea out, too much metallic takes away from Monster-Boy.
Anyway, this is where it starts. I am excited about this although I suspect Jane is a tough Stitch Mistress.
I have assigned us roles for this, since it seem to be the needlepoint version of a Marx Brother’s Movie, Jane is Groucho and I am Margaret Dumont (complete with tiara).
Jane wanted to be Mrs Dumont but I got there first. I could manage Groucho, if I had to but I did not want to be Harpo, no one wants to be Chico and no one remembers Zeppo or Gummo.
Progress, Clear To See
As you know, if you read my blatherings here, I design the needlepoint canvases and make the templates, etc, but it is my nice husband Keith (”will trace for food”) who traces the designs on to the canvas.
I “taught” him Stitch Drawing, or the concept of it early this summer, slowly we are converting the stock of NewNeedlepoint.com to be all Stitch Drawn Canvases and kits.
We had to re-draw several of the Stitch & Frame Needlepoint canvases recently, for size. They were already all Stitch-Drawn but it seems a 4 X 6 inch frame is not really 4 X 6 Inches and a 5 X 7 Inch frame is also not exactly 5 X 7 inches (yes, I did a blog/rant about this: 2 & 2 Do Not Equal 4).
I noticed there is a clear difference in the design Keith drew for the new, re-sized canvas. Now the older one was done maybe a month ago, at most 6 weeks. Below is the older (from the too big canvas) drawing. It is pretty good.
This is the new one Keith did last weekend.
Hmmm, I see much improvement in the new one. Below is the original design both canvases were based on.
If he keeps improving this much, I will have to do more than pack his lunch and make him dinner every day as pay (although he says throw in laundry and we are even, I am good at laundry and I even press down, from inside, the pockets of his much loved cargo shorts so they don’t bunch all up inside and make him look….you know)
There are few canvases & kits left that are not Stitch Painted now. I have marked them way down, as opposed to my instinct which is to just remove them from sale. I am nervous about *sales & markdowns* as a way of doing business and do not want to go there on NewNeedlepoint.com.
It has always been my plan to remove any canvases & kits that do not ever sell from sale, rather then *mark them down* .
The designs on this One-Time-Only-Sale (I hope) are in the Hearts & Flowers Category
Roses, Roses, Roses Kit
Roses, Roses, Roses Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
Victorian Hearts & Doves Kit
In the Graphic Designs Category
Sunset Needlepoint Kit
Umbrellas Needlepoint Kit
Square Star Needlepoint Kit
Square Star Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
In the Animals & Pets Category
Dancing Penguins Kit (one of my favortites and one we will re-do as Stitch Drawn)
Young Cat Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
From my Quotes & Kanji Category
Mae Wests’ “The Best Way To Hold A Man’ Needlepoint Kit.
all the others are now Stitch Drawn.
Whew!
I’m Still Here
I know I haven’t been blathering away here the last few days, I somehow ran out of things to say (and I was flummoxed by that, no joke).
I woke up this morning filled to the brim with stuff to write so I guess disaster is averted, for now. I have a bunch of new canvases and kits listed on NewNeedlepoint.com. Some of it is the replacements for the surprisingly wrong sized Stitch & Frame canvases (remember my pitiful little whine-fest of a blog 2 & 2 DO NOT EQUAL 4?).
Some of it is just new, new stuff. I finally seem to have almost cleared the Keith new design pipeline blockage. It is now a manageable size and no longer wakes me up at 3 AM. All the new stuff is Stitch-Drawn, Keith is getting really good at it. He wants to start stitch painting but I am reluctant. I am still attached to the *Color Choice* concept.
I am sure before I am through with today’s blog I will find something to rant about, so let’s wade in.
Favorites first. I love this happy dancing bear. I sort of feel this way myself, this morning (no idea why).
The quote for this is from Katherine Hepburn, while I always admired her as an actress I had no idea we felt alike about so many things.
“IF YOU OBEY ALL THE RULES, YOU MISS ALL THE FUN”
and this is the picture the bear is based on
I have two different adaptations of my 64 Hearts design, the first is 25 Hearts
I am selling it as canvas alone, color choice or kit. The kit is assembled using my friend Jane’s, the esteemed authoress of the Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog suggested purple and silver for 64 Hearts and the idea stuck so…
The next one is the first of my Beginner Series of easy needlepoint canvases for the new stitcher with complete (really complete) directions. It is an 8 X 8 inch 16 Hearts and sold just as a kit
With DMC #5 Perle Cotton
The 4 X 6 Inch Love Kanji with border and the *flourish* is back, sized correctly now.
Canvas alone, color choice or kit using my new stock of Anchor #8 Perle Cotton Floss, it is dream to stitch on the 18 mesh canvas I use for the Stitch & Frame Needlepoint designs
Another kit for Beginners, the simple and elegant 4 X 6 Inch Kindness Kanji
.
A wonderful variation on the 4 X 6 Inch Love Kanji Variation #4
A close up of the design used for the corners
This is a 5 X 7 Stitch & Frame of a cat sitting on a fence in the moonlight with a wonderful quote by the Famous French writer Colette. I call it Colette’s Cat.
“DOGS BELIEVE THEY ARE HUMAN, CATS BELIEVE THEY ARE GOD”
As a cat owner I know this to be true.
And last but hardly least, another of my beloved Mae West quotes in a 5 X 7 inch Stitch & Frame with a finely realized rose to stitch.
“YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO BECOME YOUNGER”
I have at least 4 and maybe as many as 10 new canvases and kits to add this week, depending on how industrious I get.
Oh, and a resolution to my problem of the too big for the frames Stitch & Frame sample canvases. I bought a beautiful 8 X 10 inch frame and I am having them both matted to fit this frame.
Keith said he could mat them, so we bought professional mat and a nice new Angled Mat Cutter. Well, by the end of this past weekend, Keith has been fired from his position as Mat Cutter and I will take them to a framing shop.
This is the solution suggested by several of you sympathetic commenters. You were, of course, perfectly correct. (to mat them, and put them in a bigger frame, not to fire Keith)
OK, now I have my rant de jour topic. No one, absolutely no one I talked to or who read my blog (including my mother and she is in the habit of knowing everything) thought that a frame sold as 5 X 7 inches would be anything other then 5 X 7 inches.
I am pleased my error has, I hope, saved anyone who read my blog entry about this or that I bored to tears talking about it, from making this same mistake.
But is it a mistake? If everyone thinks the frame marked 5 X 7 (or 4 X 6 or any size) was and should have been the size stated, who is wrong here?
Us or the manufacturers? Who set the standard that these frames should have openings to reveal whatever is placed in them for show, to be 1/4 to 1/2 inch smaller than they are stated to be?
Who decided this and why do all the manufacturers, whose frames I have so far encountered, subscribe to this standard?
When did this start and why does no one know this?
This is the same general contempt for us, the consumer, that makes one clothing designer’s size 12 fit nothing like another designer’s size 12.
Or the label on a can of Pam cooking spray that gives you a nice low calorie count per serving but who on earth would havge guessed that 1 serving of Pam spray is 1/3 of a second (yes, that is one third of a second)
Or that those tiny boxes of raisins which have such a reasonable calorie count per serving says (in very small print) there are 2 servings in every tiny box.
Consumers are played for fools. We are rarely given information *straight*. It is all sleight of hand, clouding of the issue and making fools of us. Why? I want to know why this is?
Once Again
I am continuing my blogger career as that odd lady who says what other people think but no one will say.
Here I go again.
Yes, I am a member of the American needlepoint Guild. I pay my dues and I read the magazine Needlepointers.
I appreciate some or maybe even much of what the the ANG is doing. I am not much involved however, there does not seem to be any chapter activity anywhere near where I live in Florida. I have looked with no good result.
I am not unreasonable, I do not expect Needlepointers Magazine to be cutting edge but really, does it have to be this dull?
This month’s issue takes the cake. I will not comment on all the selling of the classes and courses and seminars they do, we all have to make money and I will not say anything bad about the ANG 2008-2009 Annual Report pages (but I will get into some of what they report in a bit).
The cover is lovely, if you like that kind of work. It is heavy on the gold and black, not a cheerful cover at all. Looking at these canvases my first thought is “did I go backwards in time while I napped and it is 1890?” To my surprise the cover is page 1.
Page 2 is an ad, again, we all have to eat, then the contents, more contents on the official page 3.
Page 4 we have more ANG biz and the President’s message which is a history of the magazine Needlepointers (I wish I was kidding). There is a colorful ad for a needlepoint store in Hawaii so my eyes do not drift closed.
Page 5: Stitching Solutions * I Found a Chart I Want to Needlepoint, What Ground Can I Use*. I wish I could make this stuff up. OK, we move on
Page 6 whole page ad for Pocket Full of Stitches. Cheery ad chock full of cheery holiday stuff and cupcakes. I know the brown and pink was so very new when they began using it but it is old as dirt now (dirt, that is funny).
Page 7, Books: a book on EMBEADERY, using embroidery stitches for beadwork. Then, surprise, a nice Moroccan Tile Carpet pattern stitch, way beyond my abilities but still lovely.
Pages 8 & 9 “Legends of the Past” (again, what year is it?) and some nifty scissors from Access Commodities. I still have not figured out what the heck the SILK WRAPPED PEARL PURL is but to protect my last remaining shreds of sanity, I stopped trying. A blurb for The Little Lighthouse Company (sigh)
Page 10 begins an article on Beads On Canvas, I do not dispute the interestingness of this for stitchers who want to know more. Sadly, I am one who does not and since this is my blog, I get to say “let’s move on”.
The article ends on page 15 and there are some ads for needlepoint ornaments (see my old, old, old blog rant *ORNAMANIA*) the those darling twee little owls from The Needleworks (hoot).
Page 16 is the article on the stitched piece Wisteria. I have grown Wisteria and seen some marvelous older Wisteria growing on the Bay Bay Brownstone houses in Boston. All the gardening books tell you to use super strong supports when growing Wisteria, that it will surprise you how much it can and will pull down.
This Wisteria is both puny and pale, it is as uninteresting a needlepoint as I have ever seen. Couldn’t the editor have found something more compelling than this?
We move to page 19, more holidays. it is only August and I am already sick of Christmas designs and decorations.
Page 20 & 21 all ads, thankfully not all holiday influenced.
Page 22 is the graphic thread needlepoint from the cover. It really is a sad and somber looking thing in depressing colors and then it morphs into the raised floral needlepoint, also from the cover. That really is lovely. I can’t find anything to complain about here (amazing isn’t it?).
more ads, I see their ad revenues are healthy, good for ANG.
Page 28 & 29 is all ads. Suddenly I see something that infuriates me. Smoke begins to spurt from my ears.
There is an 1/4 page ad for Art Needlepoint Co. here AWK!
Ok, I have some history with them. Way back when I was beginning my little web store I bought over $500 of needlepoint canvases from them.
Oh, they looked perfect and beautiful on-line but when I received them, they were muddy, awful, terribly printed canvases. They were so badly printed that the colors did not end smoothly at the edges, they “drooled” off. The machines printing them had obviously not been aligned and no one cared.
(to explain, if yellow was overlaid with blue, the colors would not be lined up, very sloppy printing. It really is hard to explain. Imagine taking semi-transparent pieces of colored plastic with the same design drawn on each one and misaligning them so the colors and lines do not match up when they are stacked one on top of the other)
They would not take most of them back, they pulled attitude on me.
Anyway, Art Needlepoint Co. is the poster child for what many needlepoint people most hate and fear about printed needlepoint canvases. Their sloppy shoddy stuff gives the designers who are doing good printed needlepoint designs a horror of coming anywhere near the word *printed*
BTW, go to Art Needlepoint’s web site and see if you can find anywhere where they tell you these are all machine printed.
So, I wondered as I cooled down from my mini explosion of anger, why is the American Needlepoint Guild accepting advertising from this company? Does anyone there know or care what they are and what they produce?
For the sake of my sanity, i will skip over the Let It Snowman design article to the end of this issue of Needlepointers.
I was riveted by the 2009 finance pie charts in the annual report. Check it out on page 41.
There are two pie charts. the top one is FY Revenue 2009, the bottom is FY Expenses 2009
Look at this:
DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS MADE $100,577.
DISTANCE LEARNING COST $ 89,918
FUND RAISING MADE $41,998.
FUND RAISING COST $19,428
MEMBERSHIP EARNED $273,726
MEMBERSHIP COST $41,597 that seems like a lot to me
SEMINARS MADE $389,314
SEMINARS COST $300,431
and my personal favorite
MERCHANDISE EARNED $7,921
MERCHANDISE COST $5,392
Now, I am not party to the inside workings of the ANG, far from it but these are not good earning and spending numbers, to me.
So, to get back to my original point.
Needlepointers Magazine is out-of-touch, stodgy, sleepy and uninspiring.
I think they should somewhat careful who they accept advertising from. Some vetting of advertisers is called for, however limited.
This is sad, this is the magazine of the American Needlepoint Guild that we all belong to.
I wonder how many of us are truly represented and engaged by the Needlepointers magazine as it is right now?
I wonder if the editorial staff is concerned or even aware of how dull and boring the magazine has become?
I wonder who will flame me in comments over saying this?
Over It Now
I have been so busy wallowing in my *I can’t believe it* that I completely forgot to talk about something amazing.
Figures, I get so clogged up with my mistakes, I go round and round them and the good stuff gets put on hold while I grouse.
One of my excellent and highly intelligent blog readers (you are, of course, in the stratosphere of smarts if you read my blog…ooops veering off again) Margaret is stitching one of my kits for me to use as a sample for NewNeedlepoint.com
(you can tell I am cheerful again, I am obeying Zac’s orders and placing my links like a good Doo-Bee).
This came about when I replied to Margaret’s comment that it would be good if there were more stitched samples for people to see what the kits could look like.
I replied in my best “world weary” typing, that I was a one-man band and could only do so much. Her response was to kindly offer to stitch a canvas for me. She tells me she often does this for other needlepoint designers on the web.
I said Yes!. I told Margaret to pick one, if she didn’t mind one of the Stitch & Frame Needlepoints.
She picked my original (and by now classic, my dear) Love Kanji with the border and the *flourish*.
I am very happy with her choice. At that time I think it was listed with deep teal and rich purple for the border and the flourish (I am not positive, my memory is about as reliable as that guy I had one date with in 1983 who promised he would call).
I told her to use either color for either, her choice. The Kanji was black and the background cream.
Of course, I emailed her frantically when I discovered the size problem but she was already quite a way through the stitching (YES!) and decided to push on with this one.
I will frame it, using her terrific idea ( a comment she made today) in a slightly larger frame and cut a mat to fit it, to compensate.
Anyway, this is real nice of Margaret. She is from OKlahoma where Keith is from but I do not hold it against her, how could I when she has been so great? She is nothing at all like Keith’s sisters or nieces (who should all, pretty please, stay in Oklahoma and I will avoid the area they all live in for a radius of 100 miles).
so, moving along. I am editing the photos of the first of the replacement Stitch & Frame Needlepoint canvases. The listings and the colors more or less stay the same but I have added some new Kanji designs.
These next ones are all Stitch & Frame, sized for a 4 X 6 inch frame. They can be stitched from 3.5 to 3.75 inches by 5.5 to 5.75 inches which is the inside measurement of most 4 X 6 inch frames. All the Stitch & Frame Needlepoint canvases are 18 mesh Zweigart mono canvas.
This is the re-sized Love Kanji with a border and the flourish.
I have made the kit with some of my new stock of Anchor #8 Perle Cotton Floss. It is thinner floss then the #5 in either DMC or Anchor. I find it much nicer to stitch on 18 mesh. I stitch it doubled for better coverage on white canvas. Even doubled it is a joy to stitch with on the smaller mesh canvases.
These are the colors I chose, the border should be the deep purple and the flourish gold but I am leaning towards putting the Kreniek Gold Metallic in the kit for the flourish instead of the gold perle cotton. The kanji is black and the background is the ultra pale yellow.
The next canvas is a variation on the Love Kanji, also sized for a 4 X 6 frame. I find the simpler Kanji designs are perfect for these smaller frames. It can be difficult to fit a quote & picture or just a picture in a 3.5 X 5.5 inch space. This is also 18 mesh.
And again I have used the Anchor #8 Perle Cotton. The #8 size Perle cotton floss only comes in double size balls, in either Anchor or DMC, so what you are seeing is enough thread for these canvases. IN fact, in many cases it is way too much thread, since it all comes in double size balls. These could be very nice additions to your thread stash.
I think these are great colors, You can use the deep purple, the turquoise or the bittersweet for the Kanji symbol/ The pale coral is the background.
This group of Kanji symbols reads Karma.
I think they look great with this swirling corner border design done in 3 bright colors. The Kanji symbol is Charcoal and the background is the ultra pale yellow. I really like that pale yellow color, I have already ordered more of it.
I have a new Mae West Quote for a 5 X 7 inch frame. it is sized to be stitched from 4.5 to 4.75 inches by 6.5 to 6.75 inches. It too os 18 mesh.
I have assembled this kit in traditional red rose colors using the Anchor #8 Perle Cotton. Some of the pinks & reds I ordered were backordered and I don’t have them yet (I hate backorders) but I think these work well.
Then again, I might change them before I list this tomorrow.
One more Stitch & Frame kit. This is the sample I stitched. I did not do the background to save time. I figured the design was what was important.
I put this design on Zweigart brown mono canvas so the background does not have to be stitched edge to edge. It can be just highlighted with clouds or something for this nighttime scene.
It is 18 mesh but the colors I wanted were in the DMC #5 Perle Cotton.
There are 3 or 4 others but I am starting to wind down, it is getting late so I will show you just my favorite. I love this guy, I love this quote. I think this is a great design combination (if I don’t say so myself, and I do)
This is a larger Quotes canvas, the design area is approx. 10 X 10 inches. It is 16 mesh.
These are his great colors, I have used a darker raspberry pink for his hair bow. he deserves it.
Let’s see, I have a variation of 64 hearts, 25 hearts done is muted purple and silver (with a nod to Jane of the Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog, she thought this combo would be great and I agree)
I did a 16 Hearts version for beginners, larger hearts and not so much intimidating detail plus step by step directions along with the color placement stitch guide.
These will list this week.
Next week I hope to replace all the other Stitch & Frame Needlepoint canvases plus add a few new ones.
Designing these canvases is absolutely my favorite thing to do, if I had only that to do I would be a blissfully happy woman instead of the grumbling grouch I am.
BTW, has anyone else seen and been disappointed by the September/October issue of the ANG’s Needlepointer’s magazine?
I think I will step gingerly into that topic tomorrow.
Night.
2 & 2 Do Not Equal 4
I have always believed that the universe had it’s own kind of order. It is, as far as I can tell, a unimaginably huge and chaotic place full of random bumps and pops (so to speak).
I have always believed in doing my best (and occasionally getting away with what I can, I am not pattern card of good behavior). I believe in Karma, in “doing onto others…” etc. I believe E=mc2 and 2 & 2 = 4.
But I have just discovered in the commercial world, the printed word is meaningless and
5 inches X 7 inches is not 5 inches X 7 inches.
I know this is not earth shaking, Chicken Little’s sky is not falling (yet) but still. This shakes what (little, very little ) faith I had in the great & mighty gods and goddesses of retailing.
Ok, as you probably know I have a category over at NewNeedlepoint.com called Stitch & Frame Needlepoint (no link tonight, it is best you do not go there just now).
The needlepoint canvases and kits I have (had) for sale there were small, quotes, pithy sayings, Kanjis and designs all sized to fit into a standard size 4 X 6 inch, 5 X 7 inch or 8 X 10 inch picture frame.
Well, I laboriously stitched my first sample. I posted it here yesterday.
Very pretty. Then I put it in a beautiful hammered pewter 5 X 7 inch picture frame.
It did not fit, it did not even nearly fit. I figured the fault was mine. The decorative stitched frame around the quote was too narrow and slightly too long for the frame.
Well, I was half right. I got the height wrong but the width should have fit.
Then today I finished my 2nd sample. This one went much faster since I did not stitch the background.
Even without the background done, I thought it looked good. I like both the design and the quote from the famous French writer, Colette. I am a fan of her writing. I think I read that they recently made a movie out of her short novels “Cheri” and “The Last of Cheri”. I have not seen them but I have read those books many times. It is important to read them together.
Anyway, I placed the stitched canvas in another *standard size* 5 X 7 inch frame.
AWK! Double AWK! Maybe even a Triple AWK!
So, I ran around late last night snatching all the pictures out of my own 4 X 6 and 5 X 7 pictures frames and measuring the inside area of them (where the glass is, where the pictures go) and I discovered no 4 X 6 inch frame is 4 X 6 inches.
They range from 3.4 inches to 3.75 inches by 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A few were even slightly smaller.
5 X 7 inch picture frames are indeed “more” standard. They range from 4.5 to 4.75 inches to 6.5 X 6.75 inches.
Unfortunately, while 1/2 an inch on both sides is not such a big deal to a picture of someone’s face, it is a huge difference to a needlepoint canvas.
I went through all my Stitch & Frame canvases, found that all but 3, maybe 4 were too big. I pulled them all off the web site and Keith & I got to work at 8am this morning.
I redesigned and resized all the templates, designs and text or Kanji sizes. I put the finished designs together in new smaller sizes.
I made templates of the different frame size’s inside measurements and each new design got checked and rechecked against the templates.
Keith began tracing the new designs on the canvas. Fortunately I had quite a bit of canvas all hemmed and ready, I did a bunch last weekend.
Most of the new ones came out very well, there hs been 1 reject, which he re-drew but that was a design fault, not a size error.
I have to re-photograph them and do new listings. I hope they will begin to show up on line as early as tomorrow.
It will take us several weeks to re-draw the stock we had, before we begin again on new stuff.
The only possible advantage here is the Keith’s Stitch-Drawing skills are much improved even from when he drew the first of these.
I have kept some of my favorites, changed some a bit and edited some.
I don’t think we will redo the John Lennon quote
“there’s nothing you can know that isn’t known”
It did not seem to be anyone’s favorite.
and the Mae West Stitch and Frame will be re-done with a different flower design. That one always looked muddy to me.
I am doing Tiara again, the Gertrude Stein and the Katherine Hepburn. I am doing all the Kanjis and adding a few more.
So, I know I usually joke abut this stuff but this time I don’t feel quite so amused or amusing.
I mean, I know this is hardly an crisis or anything really important to anyone but me but it does feel like 2 & 2 do not equal 4, as they should.
It is an odd feeling.
