Some recent finishes and a WIP

I've had loads of stitching time lately, and have been stitching just for fun instead of model stitching. It helps immensely with keeping my spirits up. :)

A couple of weeks back, I finished this lovely lady, Lavender and Lace Angel of Winter. It was stitched as a housewarming gift for a dear friend of mine and as soon as I can afford to frame her I'll be giving it to her. She's stitched on Silkweaver's 40ct Poltergeist Linen, using Sullivan's floss, Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid and Wisper threads and SJ Designs Petite Beads. Very happy with how she turned out. May have to stitch her (and the other three in the set) for myself someday!

Before I post my next finish, just a note on the Sullivan's floss. It's not as soft as DMC or Anchor, nor does it have the sheen they do, however, it is quite nice to stitch with. The coverage is much better than DMC and it doesn't tangle, shred or knot up any more than Anchor or DMC do. Thumbs up.

And second, a note about beading on 40ct. Well, using size 15/0 (petite) seed beads if they're spaced out they fit very easily. If there is a densely stitched area of beading, you may have to do a little bit of fudging - skip a bead here and there - to make them fit.  I've had the same issue with size 11/0 beads on 32ct so it's not more difficult than that. If you can find matching colours in Delica size 15/0 (labeled as DBS instead of DB) they fit better than standard round size 15/0 beads, but the colour selection is very limited in comparison.

Okay, on to my second recent finish, Mirabilia's Sleeping Beauty. This one is stitched with DMC on 40ct Silkweaver Karma Linen, the beads are Toho size 15/0. I did change the colour of one of the beads, Iris - they seemed too red-violet. So I changed them to one that was more blue-violet. They look very blue in the picture, but they're much more purple IRL!

And a WIP - I'm much further than this now, working on the last two colours in her skirt. This is Mirabilia's Fairy Moon in my own colour scheme. The fabric is Sassy's 40ct Nightfall linen (approx DMC is 158 and darker, the picture shows it much lighter than it is) and I wanted the colours to really stand out, and I just felt the colour scheme was a little drab on this fabric. Plus, I wanted to avoid ANOTHER white dress. After all my changes, her dress is still white, but with purple shading instead of brown. Very happy with how she's coming along, and if my beads ever get here, I'll proably be done her in the next week or two. I'm a little concerned with the beading on this one, often after dying fabric shrinks a bit - well this one definitely did. It's no longer 40ct, but 46ct (yes I'm getting 23 stitches per inch). Shouldn't be a problem in most places as they're fairly scattered, but the moon may give me some hassles - if it does, I think I'll just sub it for Petite Treasure Braid or blending filament. ;)

If anyone wants my conversion, it's here.

As for my next project, I'm torn. I've worked up a conversion for Mirabilia's Stargazer, though I need to order beads for her. Lauren from Sassy's Fabrics is dying me up a custom colour for it that matches up perfectly and will be on it's way to me soon, though probably not before I finish this one. She's also doing up a lovely sky blue for Mirabilia's Cinderella, which I do have all the beads for - unless I change more colours on the fly which is a possibility. Several other Mirabilias, Lavender and Laces, Passione Ricamos and Joan Elliotts are calling me so who knows. Plus several of my WIPs have been calling too. And I just got another (to add to my 40 or so) HAED design which is just yummy and I might have to start - I think I have fabric for it. And as soon as I get my Christmas stash money, I have fabric on order for 3 other HAED pieces which I'd actually like to start AND finish in the next couple years. AND a couple of Ink Circles are calling me too if I can ever settle on colours for them. ARGH! So much to stitch, so little time. ;)

To pin or not to pin...

Pinterest... all the rage on the internet and the bane of my existence lately. So much infringing going on and many aren't aware that what they're pinning isn't legal.

Pinterest in itself is copyright violation if you think about it. If you didn't take the picture and didn't ask permission to pin it from the person who did create it, then realistically speaking, in black and white terms of copyright law, it is an infringement of copyright. People don't mind some things being pinned, especially when credit and links are given, but some things are just blatantly illlegal.

Sure there is an upside to sites like Pinterest - they are free advertising to a designer such as myself. So then why is it "the bane of my existence"? One person unknowingly pins an illegal posting of a chart. 10 more people repin it from there. And then ten more people repin from each of those, and so on, and so on. Many of those people probably don't know that it was an illegal copy, it was listed in so and so's Pinterest board as a freebie. Well, yesterday I spent 7 hours wading through Pinterest infringements, most of which had been pinned as "freebies", and most of which were never free. And I didn't even scratch the surface. Just because someone uploaded it for free to a photo hosting site or a blog doesn't make it a freebie!!!

So how do you know what you should and shouldn't pin? I see a lot of people commenting that it's hard to know what's legitimate and what isn't. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Is it a photograph of a model or a chart cover? Is credit given to the designer? Go right ahead. Best if it links back to our website or blog, but most will tell you it's also okay if it links to a legitimate shop that sells the design too. Also best if it's not followed by the caption, "does anyone have this they can email to me?".

Is it a photograph of another stitcher's work or finishing ideas? Probably good etiquette to ask their permission before pinning their pictures, or at least make sure they get the credit for their ideas by linking back to their site.

In terms of free designs, it gets a little foggier.

Each designer has their own terms of how a free design is released to the world.

If a designer posted it on their website for download, then it is always best to give the link to people who want the design rather than simply forwarding the design itself around to people - this includes pinning it on pinterest. If the pin links to the original posting on the designer's website, most will agree that it is okay - the idea behind most free designs is to increase traffic to a designer's website after all. If it links to anywhere else, you should err on the side of caution before pinning it and ASK the designer first. If that's too much hassle, best not to pin it.

If a designer created a free design expressly for distribution through shops, as a gift to newsletter subscribers, or to discussion group members, then it is ILLEGAL to distribute the design and upload it to the internet even though you got it free. The point being that it was meant to get people to subscribe to that newsletter, join that discussion group or buy from a shop. Copyright on a free design is the same as on a paid design - the only person who has the right to determine how that chart is distributed is the designer. If you don't see it available for free on the designer's site there is a reason for it - don't pin it or ask the designer before you do.

And of course the obvious - designs that were never intended to be "free" - these should NEVER be pinned. If you see them pinned, best to notify the designer so they can have them removed. 

So how do you know what's what? Some good ways to tell what's legal and what's not.

Does it look as though it's been scanned or photocopied? Then it's probably not legal. Scanning a chart - even a free one - is never legal except to make a working copy for your own use. The ONLY exception to this is if the design states on it that YOU may distribute the chart - not many do.

Where did you find it? If you found it anywhere other than the designer's site, here are some things to look out for:

Is the site in a foreign language, but the designer is not foreign, for example, the design itself is in English but the site you found it on is in Russian? This is a good indication that it's not legal. If a designer sees you pinning one of their designs from a site like this, even a free design, they're likely to ask Pinterest remove it.

Did it come from someone's photo album on a site like picasa, photobucket, or facebook? Another good indication that it's not legal - unless you know for a fact that it is the designer's page. Pinning a design - even a free one - from a site like this without permission from the designer is not okay.

If in doubt, ASK. We're not monsters. We don't mind answering questions about this stuff. Sometimes you may be met with exasperation, but it's not you we're exasperated with - it's the hours and hours of wading through pinterest that we have to look forward to from that link you sent us. But PLEASE do send them because we may not have found it on our own. 

While pinning stuff may seem innocuous, it really isn't. Think of it this way - you may not have meant any harm, and most of the people who visit your pinterest page and repin your stuff probably don't mean any harm either, but there are always those who will follow that link you posted to that illegal page and with a few clicks, find all those hundreds and thousands of other illegal charts posted there - and then of course spread those illegal charts and links around to all their friends. Those people simply don't care if it's legal or not. And now because of that one seemingly innocuous link you posted and dozens of people repinned, dozens more people are now downloading masses of illegal charts and you're responsible for that. Sucks, but it's true. And in a most cases, it only takes a few seconds to check first, especially knowing what I've posted above.

Pinterest - it is YOUR responsibility to know that what you are pinning isn't breaking the law - so please use it responsibly!

Bead Conversions

I've been working on these for a while now, and while they are by no means complete yet, I figured I'd post what I have so far. I will be adding conversions for the other Mill Hill shapes and sizes, conversions FROM Delica to other brands, etc, as I purchase more sample cards in future. Currently, these only include Mill Hill Seed Beads - or size 11/0.

First, I'd just like to mention - Mill Hill does NOT manufacture beads themselves. They use (from what I can tell) Toho and Miyuki for their suppliers. For example, Mill Hill Magnifica beads are Toho Treasure Beads (NOT Delica beads as some suggest). In some cases, they even use the same colour number. 

There are separate conversions for Miyuki and Delica, even though they both come from Miyuki, because Miyuki uses a different numbering system for each type. Silly, but true. Toho, on the other hand, uses the same numbering system for ALL their beads - Treasure, Aiko and round.

To do these conversions, I tried my best to convert bead to bead from samples on hand. In some cases my colour cards are incomplete, however, so I did have to rely on other conversion charts or pictures on the internet, so where in some cases they are very accurate (exact), in other cases they may be close but I'm not positive.

I only listed what I felt were exact or really close matches, really close meaning either the same colour with a similar finish, or the same finish with a similar colour. For example, an opaque lustered bead is similar to a ceylon bead so if I couldn't find a comparable ceylon but could find a comparable lustered, I used that. However a ceylon isn't remotely close to a silver lined bead, so I didn't bother listing those. I hope that makes sense?

Rather than just list the numbers, I added the colour descriptions for each one. Of course Miyuki and Toho don't actually name their colours, only by number, so I got the colour descriptions from suppliers I order from frequently - for Miyuki, I used Caravan Beads or Charisma Beads. For Delica I used Caravan Beads, Fusion Beads or Artbeads. For Toho I used Bobby Bead or Artbeads. Why? Because some people may not be as picky as me when it comes to using a converted colour, and close is good enough. You may be happy with choosing the same colour in a different finish - so this makes it easier to find that.

Why would you need a bead conversion anyway? Let's say you want to stitch something on a different count of fabric than what's called for but you still want to use the same colour bead. You need Mill Hill colour 02001, but you want them in size 15 (petite) to fit 36ct or 40ct fabric. Well Mill Hill doesn't have that colour in size 15. But Miyuki and Toho do. Which is exactly why I started this project - I don't stitch on 28 or 32ct if I can help it. But I like stitching Mirabilias and Chatelaines and the like that have loads of beads, I just want to stitch them on 40ct. So I started comparing and converting for myself for designs I planned to stitch and figured I might as well go all the way and convert the whole lot, right? Or perhaps, like many people, you just don't like the irregular nature of Mill Hill beads and you prefer the more consistent cylindrical Delica, Treasure or Aiko beads, so you'd prefer to use those.

So without further ado, here's what I have converted so far:

Mill Hill to Delica

Mill Hill to Miyuki

Mill Hill to Toho

Hope they're helpful!

Down, but still around

Things of late haven't been so great, but I'm hanging in.

First, an update on dad. He's not doing well. The cancer has progressed very rapidly, from his pancreas to his liver, lungs, stomach, lymph nodes and surrounding blood vessels. While he's started chemo treatments, his considering stopping already since the treatments are making him feel ten times worse and at best will only give him another couple of months - and it's only going to get worse with each treatment. He wasn't doing well BEFORE the treatments, he had to spend 10 days in hospital to get his digestive system working so they could build him up for treatments, and they were still very skeptical as to whether they would even attempt it. We're all behind him no matter what he decides. He's lost a lot of weight - if he still weighs more than me I'd be surprised. He's constantly battling with dehydration and is on IV off and on. He has a nurse that comes in for a little while each day to keep an eye on things, and home visits from a doctor each week to monitor his condition. He's also got an IV pump for his dilaudid, it's a steady drip, but he can self dose if needed. It's gotten to the point now where he can't be left alone, in case he has trouble getting up for the bathroom or anything like that. Where he used to have good days and bad, now he has good and bad hours and the bad far outweigh the good. It's now been 2 months since he was diagnosed. His list of meds is incredible, we had to make up a spreadsheet to keep track of them all and when he has to take each one. His diabetes is awful at this point, however the doctors don't really care what he eats at this point, anything that stays down is good and we just dose him with insulin rather than worry about what's making his blood sugar skyrocket. Most of the time he's in pretty good spirits and trying to joke around, but I can see how much of a toll it's taking.

How am I taking it all? Well I'm okay when I'm actually WITH dad. I can control my emotions and not lose it in front of him. It's when I'm not with him that I struggle the most. I cry a lot, though I suppose that's to be expected. I feel like I have a cold, ALL the time, likely from the crying. I'm also pretty dehydrated, no matter how much water I drink, again likely from the crying and blowing my nose all the time. When I sleep, it's fitful, full of nightmares. Most of the time, I don't really sleep, I just lay there for hours and drift in and out, or eventually just give up and read. About the only time I seem to be able to actually fall asleep easily is on the couch with the TV on. The doctor mentioned anti depressants, but those have never worked for me. Since this depression is simply from the situation, I doubt they'd be of much use now either, plus I don't like taking meds unless absolutely necessary. Venting helps sometimes. Punching things helps. Screaming helps. I can't help it. I'm daddy's little girl and while I know I'm being childish and selfish, I don't know how I'll make it without him. I can see him growing weaker, day by day, and I know we don't have much time left.

I haven't been to work in nearly a month. I just can't face it. Being at home or around family is one thing, they expect me to lose it so I don't feel silly about doing it. At work, I can't concentrate, I spend half my day in tears, and I can't be distracted like that serving customers and especially working with knives and slicers and band saws. Add to that there are a couple of people I work with who are constantly asking me if I'm okay - which of course sets me off. Between that and running back and forth to spend time with dad and help mom, it's just too hard. So far they've been understanding, but I don't know how long that will last. First opportunity I get I will go in and sit down and talk to the boss and explain in detail. They're pretty good that way. If they don't have a problem with it, I'll just take a leave of absence until this is all over. If they do, well I can find a part time job somewhere else. There are lots of jobs out there, I've only got one dad.

Oh, and with all of this going on, everyone has started remodeling my parents' house. It started out as a small project - the upstairs bathroom. My grandmother (dad's mom) had a bit of a hissy because she couldn't come down and stay at mom and dad's because the bathroom upstairs wasn't finished (dad started it a few months ago, but when he started getting more and more ill, it got pushed aside) and she couldn't be expected at her age to trudge up and down the stairs to use the bathroom at night. Plus, all the materials for the bathroom were stored in the spare bedroom, so that wasn't exactly up to her standards either. So we made plans to attack the bathroom and get it done this week, mostly so she'd stop bitching about it. We didn't tell her about it, since dad is supposed to limit his visits right now because the chemo makes him susceptible to illness - and everyone who was helping out knew to keep their distance. She found out that my aunt and uncle were coming down and freaked out because my aunt wouldn't bring her. When my aunt explained all this to her - that the upstairs would be all torn apart so there wasn't anywhere for her to sleep, and the bathroom would take a few days to finish off so she'd STILL have to use the one downstairs, and dad wasn't supposed to have everyone around - did she understand? Of course not. She immediately called dad - who knew nothing about our plans mind you - and screamed at HIM about everything - including telling him he was out of her will because he didn't love her enough. Nice thing to say to someone who's maybe got a month or two left. I've never in my life seen him that upset. To say I'm furious with my grandmother is an understatement. I'm not exactly fond of her to begin with, but this was just beyond reason. If you've ever watched the Sopranos, think of Tony's mother and you'll get a pretty good idea of what my grandmother is like. No matter what, it's ALL ABOUT HER. It's all I can do not to phone her and just let loose on her, but I promised my mother I wouldn't for my dad's sake, so I haven't. Mom, on the other hand, did call her and let her have it. And what did my grandmother do? Denied she'd even called.

Anyway, back to the remodeling - after my uncle started working on the bathroom, he decided that while he was at it, he might as well fix up the drywall in mom's room too. And the spare room. And now he wants to do dad's room too. This involved getting paint and materials for them all, moving furniture around everywhere... We did get a bunch of stuff done, and the bathroom IS finished. Mom's room is pretty much finished, it just needs to either have the hardwood floor refinished or an area run or carpet laid. The spare room isn't even remotely done, nor is dad's room, since they became storage for all the furniture. So there is tons left to do. I think we'll leave he rest for later. After all is said and done, it's unlikely mom will keep the house, it's far too big just for her. So we'll finish it all up for cosmetic purposes to help it sell.

On top of all of this, mom is trying to get my grandmother's (her mother's) house on the market. Long story short, my grandmother died nearly 3 years ago, and left the house to my mom, my aunt and my uncle. However my uncle has been living there and refusing to allow them to sell it, and for the past year refuses to answer the phone or emails. Last time dad showed up, in July, they nearly got in a fistfight over it. Mom finally took him to court - he didn't even show up - and the judge gave him 30 days to vacate or he'd be evicted - which is up next week. So there's a lot of back and forth for her to the lawyers as well. I just pray he doesn't do anything stupid and trash the house before he leaves. I know there are a few things that need fixing up, but all in all the house WAS in good shape last time I was there. Once he does vacate, there is still a bunch to do to get the house ready to sell, and normally we wouldn't rush, but mom wants to retire. She pretty much has, but money is VERY tight until she can get it sold and pay off a bunch of bills, her savings and pensions will cover the normal stuff, but not all of it. There's just so much up in the air right now.

Nate has been off and on. He's not a mess like me that I've seen, but I know he's terrified. He's grandpa's boy. My dad's nickname is Rocket, Nate has always been Little Rocket. He's busy with work, and I know that helps. I know he's upset because he can't visit as much as he wants to, but sometimes I think that might be for the best. Every time he does see dad, it's a bit of a shock for him. We try to get him down at least every couple of weeks, even if it's just for a night. He had my dad's face tattooed on his leg a few weeks ago, because he wants to keep dad with him always. Dad didn't get it at first, just wondered why Nate would want to do that until mom explained it to him - then he got all choked up. He chose a picture from my parents' wedding day, and it looks incredible.

Jon has been great. He holds me when I need to be held, spends time with me when I don't want to be alone, listens to all my ranting and venting. He takes care of all the household stuff so it's one less thing for me to worry about. He tries to keep me laughing as much as he can. He's much like dad that way, and I'm understanding more and more why I chose him to be with.

The other thing keeping me from a nervous breakdown is stitching. I've been stitching "just for fun" projects and it does have a very calming influence. I'm currently working on - and getting close to finishing - Lavender and Lace's Angel of Winter. I don't have an up to date picture to post, but I'm doing her on 40ct fabric instead of the called for 32ct, and using Silkweaver's Poltergeist, which is a grey with mauve and blue undertones. I'm using petite beads instead of the regular seed beads and they fit pretty well. I may have to do a tiny bit of fudging in a couple spots, but I don't think it will be too bad. I also decided to try out Sullivan's floss for this one and I really like it. I'm finding it covers a lot better than DMC and doesn't knot or tangle as much. The colours aren't exactly the same as DMC, but they're pretty darn close. When I finish it up, I must remember to take a picture!

Holy crap I wrote quite a novel. Just needed to let it out, I guess.

An announcement

Not quite sure how to word this so I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm not quitting or retiring, just taking a step back for a little while. I found out yesterday that my father has pancreatic cancer, which has metastasized to his lungs and liver. The outlook is not good, but we're waiting to find out what the course of treatment will be. He's only 66, and apart from his diabetes going haywire from this, he is still strong and very upbeat. However, I feel like right now my spare time needs to be devoted to him and my family and I will just not have the time - or likely the inspiration - for designing for a little while. I'm going to try to work on models when/if I can but for a little while I think when I do stitch it will be just for me "sanity stitching" - just finding solace in my needle again rather than stressing about deadlines or such. I have decided that I will put off my deadlines for Sampler of Seasons - whenever I get it done I will release it. A Northern Christmas Expression - sampler and matching ornaments - will be put off until next fall as I really do not see being able to get to it this year. I will still be filling and shipping orders during this time, however there may be minor delays over the next few months.

Autumn comes a little early

While temperatures here in Southern Ontario are still skyrocketing (though today isn't too bad yet), Autumn has arrived here in my house. :)

I finished stitching Autumn over the weekend. Well MY weekend anyway, which is Sunday and Monday. :) This is my favourite of the bunch so far, the colours are SOOOOO pretty. 

Thank you to everyone who commented on my question - I think you guys nailed it. I will be selling these as individual designs, and will post the instructions for "merging" them here on my blog with information in each design about where to find them. 

I've gotten a good start on winter, and I think it may surpass this one as my favourite when I'm done - I've only stitched a couple colours so far, but I have to say Valdani has some awesome blue-greys and silver-greys.

Still a lot of work to do on it. I would like to add some more diagonal bands to the corners. Diagonal charting is always a challenge, but I'm finding it quite fun. Haven't decided if these bands will be monochrome as originally planned or possibly using the colour from the tree as well to tie things together. I also want to rechart the verse in a different style of alphabet, for me, something just doesn't feel right yet. This was going to be a Nashville release, but if I can make everything click before then I will release it for the Online Needlework Show in October.

I have to admit to one thing that is bugging me about this design and I have no doubt I will get a lot of flack about this from stitchers who decide to do the piece. Usually I try (I don't ALWAYS succeed) to limit the cost of materials when possible, even though I use a lot of the more expensive silks and linens, because I know not everyone can afford to spend hundreds of dollars on materials for a piece. Personally, I don't mind because I love the expensive stuff. ;) But I can understand how spending $100 or more for materials can be prohibitive for some which is why I always try my best to provide a decent conversion to DMC and/or any other materials I'm asked about. With this piece, I did really go all out, but with the changing seasons, it wasn't really possible to repeat most colours in multiple seasons and keep the feel I wanted. In total, with all four pieces and the borders, it will be 21 colours. Doesn't sound that bad, and if the skeins were average sized, like six or eight yards, you'd be using more than half of each so it wouldn't seem so bad. But I really have this feeling of guilt because these balls of silk from Valdani are HUGE. They're not six or eight yards, but 23 meters (about 25 yards). I don't know if I've even used a quarter of any one of them. So anyone doing these in the suggested threads is going to have a LOT of leftover thread - probably enough to stitch the design 3 times over - and that makes me feel guilty. That said, I wouldn't dream of changing the colours or brands to something else - I picked these because they are absolutely the best match to the picture in my brain and that IS my ultimate goal. It's a fine line really - some of the most fun projects to create are the ones where you just completely let go and play with colour and texture - but where do you draw the line and say "okay, maybe I'm going a little overboard here"? Maybe it's just me? While I'm a designer, I am still first and foremost a stitcher. I guess I see things from both sides and it's a battle that is and always will be constantly raging inside me.

Pondering...

I can't believe August is already almost over. Where did the summer go? Not that I'm complaining, it's been a hot, humid, horrible summer. The past few days are the nicest it's been since May or June! And honestly, I cannot wait for autumn, it's my favourite time of year. :)

I've been working away on stitching sampler of seasons, and I was hit with brainwave. Since I was planning on releasing the ornament "A Northern Christmas Expression" as a standalone chart for Christmas at the Fall Online Needlework Show, why not make it a worthwhile project. Instead of one ornament, why not several? And a sampler too, using all those motifs? So I've been trying to come up with something. Will I be able to get the materials, stitch and release it in time? Who knows. I'm going to try though. Today's project is to figure out what materials I'm going to need and get them ordered, that way when I DO finish designing this thing, I won't have to wait to start stitching it! PLUS, this is a great opportunity to use the awesome Petite Silk Lame braid for a project. Thinking Petite Treasure braid too. And beads! And crystals! Yeah, I'm thinking lots of sparkly bling for Christmas. :)

Speaking of A Sampler of Seasons, I've finished Spring and Summer. Spring went lightning quick, Summer was a labour of love - I made a mistake early on and had to frog and restitch a fair bit of it. The second time around wasn't near as fun and I kept putting it off. I got a start on Autumn, hopefully I'm a little more careful with my counting this time. :) These aren't due out until Nashville Market, but I'm trying something new - preparing projects WELL ahead of schedule instead of racing around at the last minute.  These are stitched with Valdani's silk floss on 34ct Wren Wing from Legacy Linen and I must say I really love this floss. The colours are just lovely and it stitches like an absolute dream. Plus it's really affordable - these are HUGE skeins, 23 yards of six strand floss for $6. Awesome, no?

I would LOVE to get people's opinions on something. I'm having a bit of a dilemma with regards to how I should release these. Because of the enormous amount of specialty stitches involved, releasing them as one design will be rather expensive for printing - probably more than 40 pages. So if someone just wanted to buy it for ONE of the seasons it would be really expensive. I was thinking they would each get released as a standalone design. But what about the instructions for putting them together as one sampler? Release it as a freebie? Include it with each design (which then drives up the price of each)? Release a "combo pack" with all the seasons and the additional instructions? Release them in stages, season by season and release the instructions with the last part? I really don't know what I want to do. Problems arise no matter which way I think about it. Releasing them individually AND as a package deal presents a problem for shops - which do they purchase? It also poses a dilemma for Valdani - do they do threadpacks for each (which is redundant for stitchers since some colours are repeated and one skein would be enough for all four seasons) or a combo pack for the whole thing? And if I do it as one design, what if a stitcher only wants ONE season? I'm leaning towards one design. It's less work for me because I only have to stitch one model rather than five, less involved for shops since I can't see them buying both individual seasons AND a compilation, less involved for suppliers and it's just easier all round. And from the feedback I've gotten, it seems like most people would want to do the whole thing rather than parts, but I would love to know what everyone thinks.

And now to guzzle lots of coffee and set myself to work on the sampler for A Northern Christmas Expression - the ideas are there, but my brain doesn't seem to want to process right now. UGH!

ETA: I almost forgot to mention earlier - another project I am working on. I got news from a fellow stitcher recently that Hand-Dyed Fibers would be discontinuing silk floss in the near future. I've used these threads in several of my designs and while I always include a DMC conversion in all of my charts, I will be working on updating all future printings of these designs with conversions to other brands of silk floss. I will also post these conversions here on my site for anyone who already has the charts. Best wishes to Vikki in all her future endeavours.