Something bright and cheerful...

...to contrast the dull grey weather. Two (or is it three?) days of rain and today it's snowing.

To keep my stitching mojo flowing I pulled out CDT to work on. It's about as bright and colourful as you can get. Almost finished the green, then just blue and purple to fill in. :) It's stitched 1x1 on 28ct black Jobelan using a variety of Gloriana silks (and one HDF for the pink). I'm quite happy with how it's turning out. This will be a nice contrast to my CDX which was a rainbow of pastels on black. Might have to restitch CDC now in multiple colours just to make it match up...

Once I complete CDT in a couple days, I'll finish up Daisy for the Spring Online Needlework show. AND I saved up enough pennies, so I ordered the materials for Antique Lace today - apart from the beads, which will go on last anyway. So depending on how quickly they arrive, I'll likely be starting on that one next.

I've been busy on the biz front, I think I've found a good web host, and will be getting a site online in the coming weeks with a paypal cart for PDF sales. I haven't done web development in a loooooong time, so I'm sure it will be a frustrating experience, but I've been in business over 2 years now, and I should have done it ages ago. Stay tuned, I'll post the link once I've got it up and running!

HELP!!!

Calling all bead experts out there!!

I've been doing my bead testing for Antique Lace. I originally thought I'd have to go with petite beads, but after doing some testing with sizes I found that 11/0 or 12/0 will fit easily given the beads aren't solid but scattered around. So that opened up a whole big range of options.

I found the perfect beads - by picture on the internet anyway. They're from SJ Designs, and they really do look perfect. See here: Creme Pearl Glass Beads.

However, they're not very widely available. I may still use them, but I was looking at the Mill Hill beads and thinking that even if I don't use them I should still at least offer a conversion to them. I was looking at 3021 as the alternative, but of course the pictures I can find are tiny and I can't tell what kind of finish they have. I'm looking for a light cream colour with a pearlized finish. I've emailed Mill Hill but I don't expect to hear back until Monday. So if you have this colour, can you let me know if it fits that description?

On to other things, I did a few conversions today for My Mother's Garden II which is running in The Gift of Stitching Magazine and added them to the Conversions Page. I have a few more to post whenever I find the notepad I wrote them down on!!

I'm stitching again, it was literally just that I needed a change and not that I lost my mojo. lol I decided to work on Cirque des Triangles and will post a picture of my progress when I switch back to Daisy!

And lastly, I've decided that I will (when I figure out how to do it) add a paypal cart to my blog for PDF purchases. I won't, however, offer new designs until shops have had them for at least a couple months. That way everyone's happy - shops get first crack at them, and then if people can't find them in their usual shopping sources, they can get them from me. :)

Off to search the house for my notebook now!

Today, there's pictures

Just a quickie today, but I got batteries for the camera, plus Daisy was off the snaps for some traveling today so I figured I'd take the opportunity to share. :) For some strange reason blogger is doing that weird rotating thing again, I have no clue why. The fully stitched part is the top!! Not that it really matters, the design is symmetrical apart from my initials!

Getting closer to finishing as you can see, if only I could concentrate on stitching. Put in one flower last night and then just didn't feel like it. I'm thinking maybe I should work on something else for a few days to get my mojo back. Now the question is... what to work on?

And just because, I snapped a picture of my fabric rainbow. This is all Belfast Linen, fat quarters of each colour, and there should be enough here to stitch all of the Nora Corbett Flower Pixies (the ones I plan on stitching anyway). :) Not sure which colour will be for which design yet, but I wanted soft pastels that wouldn't overpower the designs. And it rotated this one too. ARGH!! Doesn't it look yummy though? Reminds me of ice cream.

Okay. Off to figure out what to stitch.

A bit of rambling...

My brain is here, there and everywhere today so excuse me if this post is the same.

I'm very saddened today. The loss of Lisa Roswell of The Primitive Needle is such a huge one for the needlework industry. She was very talented and will be missed. Such a terrible tragedy and her family is in my thoughts.

I intended to post some pictures today... a rainbow of fabrics that came in (my Christmas pressie from hubby finally got here) and my near complete Daisy, but the camera batteries are dead and simply will not recharge anymore. ARGH!

I'm a bit disheartened about stitching right now as well. My distributor reported back that Nashville wasn't a good show for them. There were 103 vendors this year and only 107 shops there making purchases - a huge decrease from previous years. The recession has hit our industry and hit hard. Because of that, the usual post show order for more charts was very small. It used to be that when I released a new design, the proceeds would cover materials for at least one or two more new models, new colours for my thread collections, and usually a treat for myself like a new chart or two. Not so this year.

And so of course this has me questioning why I bother. I put in hundreds of hours designing, model stitching and putting together a chart pack and now I can't even afford to buy materials for new models. I never got into this because I wanted to make millions, I never even expected to make enough to pay bills and call this my job. But I at least hoped that it would support itself.

The anwer to my burning question... because I love doing it. There's a huge feeling of satisfaction when I finish a new design, be it in the software or on fabric. A feeling of pride knowing I did that. Yet for the past couple days, since hearing this news, I haven't felt like stitching, and I've been staring at a blank screen in the charting software with no inspiration whatsoever. I know it's just a rough patch I have to get over and I know I will persevere, but it's upsetting nonetheless. I just need to kick myself in the ass and stop feeling sorry for myself. :)

With that in mind, I am considering the option of selling my charts to individuals in PDF format. It's something I have considered in the past, but I wanted people to support their LNS/ONS by purchasing through them. But now that shops aren't buying, it's becoming more and more obvious that I have to do something if I want to get ahead in this game. I'm still on the fence about it, because I know a lot of shops automatically shun designers who sell direct to the public, and I want to keep a good working relationship with the shops that do currently stock my designs. At the same time, I want to make my designs easily accessible to the public and keep the business running in the black so I can keep releasing new designs. Really not sure what else to do and I'm totally open to suggestions.

On a brighter note, Daisy is coming along even though I only managed a couple hundred stitches yesterday. I'm finished almost all the pink, and just have the green and yellow to fill in now. So if I can get my stitching mojo back, it should be finished in a few days and I'll have another new one to release. :)

And on another brighter note, my LNS owner is back from her vacation today, so I'll be popping in tomorrow for some stitching time and all the latest gossip.

And a final brighter note... my back is getting much better. On Sunday, something went pop, and now my movement is much, much better. It was the strangest thing!! I can even touch my toes again! The ache and pain is still there but it's gradually improving. So, tomorrow, while I'm out and about, I need to pick up printer cartridges so I can start mass printing resumes - of course, just when I felt up to hitting the streets job hunting, I run out of ink. My life in a nutshell, really. lol

I think I'm finished fiddling...

I've spent the last two days messing around with adding silk ribbon and beads to Antique Lace. I'll have to figure out how exactly to do the ribbon as I've never actually stitched with it before, but it'll be a fun challenge!! I'm ordering lots of ribbon in case I screw it up. lol

You can't really tell from the mock up where the beads will end up, but I promise I didn't go too crazy. It's only about 1000. Given that in all there's over 40000 cross stitches alone, that's not that many!! :D Of course the beads are optional and could always be replaced with a cross stitch if beads aren't your thing.

And now I need to stop fiddling. I'm happy with it.

I need to grow more arms...

... as I've just finished another design in the charting software. This one will take me forever and a day to stitch, but it's going to be fun! It's a huge design, over 40,000 cross stitches and lots of specialty stitches. I decided to go with the Picture This Plus Huntress for it, and I think for this one I'll go with Hand Dyed Fibers for the threads. The possibilities are limitless though, you could do any colours you wanted it and it would look pretty darn cool. This makes the decision about which will be next pretty easy - Celtic Snow is nowhere near ready to stitch yet. The knotwork border is done, and I've got a few snowflakes designed, but that's about it for the moment. I'm taking a couple days off charting now - my wrist is killing me from drawing in all the details on this one!!

I've also added a new page to my blog, listing conversions for my designs, see the link at the top. I figured rather than blog them, I'd just put them somewhere all together and easily accessible. I'll be adding to this page frequently as I get a request or as I feel inspired to do so!

No update on Daisy just yet - I'm almost half done and I'll grab some pictures when I move the q-snaps tonight. My goodness I can get a lot more done when I don't have to rush out to work everyday. I feel more like a real needlework designer now - half the day on the computer, half the day stitching, broken up by going for short walks and playing games on the computer. ;)

And with that, Zuma Blitz is calling.

Well I've done it...

I've started Daisy! I'm having fun with this one. I was a little iffy at first about the heavy contrast between the soft pink, deep green and bright yellow, but all together I think it works. :) I'm using Belle Soie for this one, in Carnation, Mango and Creme de Menthe on 40 ct Lakeside Magnolia. You'd think I'd be tired of this fabric colour by now, but I still love it. Which reminds me, I need to order another yard of it soon.

After Rhapsody in Red got it's turn on the q-snaps, I was itching for some specialty stitches and worked on The Strawberry Sampler for a few days. It's such a fun piece to do. Lots of different stitches to experiment with and bright bold colours. I didn't get a whole lot done, but I finished a few more bands. :) Using NPI and Gloriana for this one and my oh my those reds are so vivid! This one is on Magnolia again, however this time it's Vintage and it's 36 ct instead of 40. Yes, I have a lot of Magnolia. :D

I've been using my time off wisely, getting lots of charting done as well. I've completed another design in the flower series, Marigold, and almost completed Iris as well (one more band to go). I got a start on charting Violet and Bluebell which will round out the series, and I got the outer border finished on Celtic Snow. Busy, busy, busy. Today I think I'll put in some time on Antique Lace, given I've been dreaming about lace patterns lately. Still on the hunt for the perfect fabric for it. I got a piece of 40ct PTP Huntress, and while it's really pretty it's much more mottled and more pink than I was looking for. I was looking at Stitches and Spice Hunter Shiraz, might pick up a piece of that too. What I really want just doesn't exist, at least not in the count I want. I want Ruby Wine, which is a standard Zwiegart colour, but it doesn't come in 40 ct. I might just have to concede defeat and go with 36 ct. I just worry that the coverage won't be heavy enough with the stark contrast of cream on red. Though I could always go with a Soie D'Alger based thread for it, it's a bit thicker than the rest. Hmmm... that's got my brain spinning now. Plus, with the specialty stitches this one will have, 36ct might be a better fit. Note to self... order some 36 ct Ruby Wine along with the Magnolia. Will have to do some test stitching for this one for sure.

With time off work in mind... I gave my notice at work, though I'll be spending my last two weeks at home. My back still isn't ready for any sort of major movement. I tried going medication free (well heavy meds anyway) over the weekend, and moving around a bit more and it seemed a bit better so I attempted work on Monday - though I didn't make it out the door. When I bent down to tie my shoes, I couldn't get back up. Yes, I'm rolling my eyes. It is getting better, but I think I'm just too stubborn to admit defeat. I didn't tell my boss the underlying reason for my leaving, I told her that my old body just couldn't handle the lifting and bending and stretching needed to do the job, which IS true given I have heel spurs, bad back, bad knees and bad shoulders, but it's only a small part of it. She was very understanding, and has asked that I give it some more thought and let her know my decision next week because she doesn't want to lose me. I feel a bit guilty, but I know I can't keep going the way I am. So now the job hunt begins in earnest. I'm staying positive, this is a GOOD thing.

And finally, speaking of old... I really feel it today. My son is officially an adult today. :') Very mixed emotions. Happy birthday Nate!