Our Mid-Year Sale

For the last eight or nine months I have been working on stitch videos and also, video dictionaries for all of the designs in our current range.  

These dictionaries comprise videos of varying lengths that cover all of the stitches or techniques in any particular design.  Along with each video clip is a comprehensive downloadable step-by-step guide for that particular stitch or technique.  

So, this is what it all looks like, using the Barry the Tiger dictionary for these examples.

When you order any particular dictionary, our website will send you an access document to the private domain where that dictionary is located on our tuition website.  You block and then copy the password by pressing cntrl C on your keyboard.  This copies the password.  Then you click on the link that is provided on the access document.  When the page opens up in your browser, it will look like the image above.  You click in the password box and press cntrl V on your keyboard.  This copies the password into that box - it will show up as a line of dots - and then you click enter.  

The page should then open and will look like the the image below.  If it doesn't open you've done something wrong.  You can email us and we'll guide you through it.  But with time zones and what have you, you might not get an immediate reply so, quicker and easier will be to find a teenage boy to help you.  They can do this kind of thing in their sleep.

Once you're into the private domain, scroll down and you will find general information that describes what is on the page.  All of the stitch videos are worked on small samples and a little way down you will find the link to a templates document.  

When you click on that, a page will open in another window.

The red arrow in the image above shows you where you need to click to either download, or more likely to print the document so that you will be able to trace the templates onto your doodle cloth.

Scrolling further, you will find the video clips.  Below each clip there is a link.  If you click on that link, another page will open.  Once again, this page is downloadable and printable, as indicated by the red arrow in the image below.  

This is the PDF document that gives you step-by-step instructions, along with tips, variations and clear illustrations.

Each video clip has an additional downloadable PDF with instructions, in much the same format with some running to quite a few pages.

Each video clip is embedded on the page and to watch it, you click the red play button as shown by the green arrow in the image above.  

Each video has been filmed in high resolution, edited with additional zooming in and given a voice over which, along with the PDF instructions, should give you everything you need to know about each stitch.

If you are familiar with watching videos online, you will know that you can click on the icon in the bottom right corner if you want the clip to show in full screen.

You may choose to work the stitches directly onto your project or, if you are uncertain (especially where some of the more complicated stitches are concerned), you can experiment, work them onto a doodle cloth using the templates provided.  That's up to you.

As I said to you at the start of this newsletter, it is a huge project and is taking a long, long time but for now, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I have got about 12 dictionaries up and available on THIS PAGE on our website.  

They are divided up into categories that seemed logical to me, i.e. which book each design belongs to and then the non-book, or studio designs.

You can order these dictionaries directly from that page or, if you need the kit as well, a link is provided on the dictionary page.  That will take you to the page from which you can order the kit and if you choose, you can order both kit and dictionary on that second page. 

When you purchase one of our stitch dictionaries, your name and email address will be added to our Q and A list.  Starting in August, you will be sent an invitation to join a monthly Q and A session.  These will typically last an hour or two and will give you the opportunity to clear up any confusion you might have with regard to any of the projects.  Or, to just join us anyway to show us how you are doing.

 

This dictionary project is by no means over.  I will be adding to it all the time.  

I'm not going to say every day because, depending on how many videos I have available or whether I have to make additional video clips, a single dictionary can take me anything up to a fortnight.  

Coming next is Norman the Tortoise, probably followed by Maureen the Owl, both from the Crewel Creatures book.  

As each one becomes available, I will announce it on our Facebook page.  I will also be adding dictionaries for designs that have featured in Inspirations Magazine and also, the Inspirations' Passion for Needlework books.  

Frank the Zebra won't be available yet because I am doing that as an exclusive online workshop for the EGA.  

Bookings for that one open on the 5th of July on THIS PAGE, so if you'd like to do that full workshop (it's not just the dictionary but a full workshop) and you are a member of the EGA, diarise that date and book for it.

Like Frank, Colin the Rooster and Creative Crewel are also not yet available because I will be doing those as exclusive online workshops attached to the Boston Stitch Party.  

Information about those virtual workshops are on THIS PAGE.  Like Frank the Zebra above, these will be full workshops, with live sessions, not just the dictionaries.

I have also been asked to do Gladness the Giraffe as a virtual workshop for the Canadian Guilds.  We're still working on the details of that one and I will post those when I have them.  Like the EGA workshops, that will only be available to members of the Canadian guilds.

And now.....

You might not need a whole dictionary to work up a particular project.  For example, you are no stranger to backstitch, fly stitch, chain stitch, etc. but you're flummoxed when it comes to a needle lace stitch, or a needle weaving pattern.   

To accommodate you, you can get hold of those stitches individually and you'll find those on THIS PAGE.  You will find the stitches are divided up into logical categories and you can surf through those categories to see what is there. 

And those simple stitches?  You'll find them HERE and HERE.  

Have a look at those two pages because, if you click on any of those stitches you will be taken to the page with the instructions and the video clip.  These give you a good idea of what you'll find in the dictionaries.  They are much same as the pages in the dictionaries and the mini-stitch workshops.

So, if you've got this far, if you're still reading this 'novel' that I'm writing, and if you've had a look at all the pages, I think you'll understand with all the work so far, with the fact that we're beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel (and it's not a train coming towards us), we needed to have a minor celebration by having a mid-year sale with a 25% discount on everything on our website.  It includes the only other new item that we've got out this year - the Bead Embroidery techniques book which is on THIS PAGE.

Obviously, our virtual products don't have to be shipped, our website sends you everything you need to get into the domains on our tuition website.  When it comes to physical items, the things we have to send to you, like with all of our international sales, shipping is expensive.  I wish we could do something about it but we can't.  We don't add anything onto the courier costs.  Sadly it costs what it costs and because of this, my advice is to get together with members of your groups and guilds, place a combined order and share the shipping cost.  It works on a sliding scale and a heavier parcel is very much cheaper per item than the contents of a small parcel.  I did a calculation for a group order at the beginning of the year and whilst I knew there was a difference, even I was surprised at how much cheaper it worked out for each individual, if they did a combined parcel.

There is however, one little shining light.  It seems that our politicians may have loaded arms on a ship and sent them to a place where they should not have gone.  When it became public knowledge, the value of our currency plummeted and if you are buying in another currency, that's very much to your advantage.  Not just in terms of the products, but also the shipping costs.  

So with that, I think I've said everything I need to say.  I hope you'll like the idea of the online stitch dictionaries and, in closing, if there is a dictionary that you'd particularly like to have, please let me know because I will probably be able to move it up on my list and get it up there sooner than I might otherwise have intended.

So now, go off to our website HERE and have some fun.

 Catching Up

I think it’s time to catch up with all of you.

 

I’m not great at putting out newsletters and that’s mostly because we’re so busy getting on with all of the things that need to be done to create what we create and get those products out to you.  I have, however, gone a bit quiet – particularly on social media – over the last few months and there’s a reason for that.  It’s the learning curve, the journey that we’ve all been on since the whole world went online, started Zooming. 

 

In September last year I acquired a wonderful new video camera, on the advice of someone who knows a lot about these things.  It is one with high resolution – sometimes too high – and I sit most days, 7 days a week, making new stitch and technique videos.  As I do each one, I work up new illustrations and instructions.  Then I upload them on our tuition site.

 

I am fully aware of the fact that I don’t make things easy.  I modify ‘other’ needlework techniques for use in embroidery, I invent things and I also tweak existing stitches to make them somewhat out of the ordinary.  Then I must teach people what to do because as much as I explain them in my stitch instructions, sometimes it is just better to demonstrate, show how it’s done. 

 

As much as I have had plenty to say about the political reaction to Covid (and don’t get me started on the vaccinations, I was one who had a reaction to it), the one thing that it did do is to force all of us kicking and screaming into doing things online.  It forced me to learn how to do videography, a thing I was always a bit scared of (if I’m honest).

 

I started with a GoPro on my head.  It worked and worked quite well but all the time, I knew it wasn’t quite good enough.  With a bit of homework, a bit of experience, a bit of advice, I am now satisfied – with the new camera – that the resolution is darn good.  Other than my fingers sometimes getting in the way, you really can see exactly what I’m doing and that is why I am redoing every single clip. 

 

Other than updating the clips on the existing online workshops, most importantly, I am updating the online needle lace dictionary.  My needle lace techniques book is no longer available and I’m not sure that it’s going to be reprinted.  I might put out a publication in the future but for now, I am making all of those stitches available online, in that dictionary.  Each stitch comes with a video and a downloadable pdf instruction sheet.  One that includes a diagram and, as always, the words. 

 

If you’ve already bought that product, you will find that every time you access it, it has changed slightly.  Been added to, video clips changed, and pdf instructions added.  If you haven’t and would like to buy it, click here and you’ll be taken to the page on our website where you can order it.   Once you’ve completed the order, our website automatically emails the access document to you, you click on the link, the access document opens up and you just follow the instructions to get into the private domain.  It’s a good idea to save it somewhere on your hard drive so that when you want to access it again, you know where that document is.

You might not want to have the entire needle lace dictionary or, you might want other stitches.  Maybe the needle weaving or some of those tweaks and inventions of mine.  Whilst still being added to, those are available by clicking here.  If you surf through that category on our website, you’ll find all sorts of embroidery, needle weaving and embroidery techniques which are available to purchase at a very reasonable price.  Each one consists of a video clip and pdf instructions with diagram/s and like with the needle lace dictionary, when you place the order, access is automatically emailed to you. 

 

Or not.  Because sometimes things decide not to work like they’re supposed to.  But then, you just drop me an email and I make sure you get what you need to have.

 

If you want to see the quality of the videos and instructions, have a look at this page.  It will give you a reasonable idea.

In between all this high-powered technological stuff, I have completed my bead embroidery techniques book and it is currently at the printers being printed.  It is available as an e-book here but for those of you that would prefer a hard copy, it’s on the way and as with most things, when we have it in stock, I’ll announce it on our Facebook Page.   

 

If you don’t already follow us on Facebook, may I suggest that you do.  We find that it is the best way to get things out to everyone and we use it whenever we have something to announce.  I post on Instagram as well, but I find that I’m not very good at that, so Facebook is the better option.

In between all of this, I still stitch.  Believe it or not.  The image above is a small design, colourful, interesting stitches and well, just pretty.  One of my proof stitchers is currently busy stitching through it and as soon as she’s done with it, we’ll print the books of instructions and make the kit available on our website.

I don’t know about you but sometimes I get the urge to work in monochromes.  So, that’s the image above and like with the previous design, one of my proof stitchers is currently busy stitching through it and as soon as she’s done with it, we’ll print the books of instructions and make the kits available on our website.

 

When I sent my crazy patchwork book off to my publisher, she phoned me to tell that it was a veritable encyclopaedia.  This prompted us to count up all of the techniques featured in that book, and it came to something like 160.  The main reason for that is because my original idea for the book was to explore the concept of embellishing crazy patch ‘from scratch’.  In other words, why stitch on a piece of machine-made lace when you can work needle lace in situ.  Why turf on a button when you can put a 3-dimensional beadwork flower in that place.  I took it even further by doing one or two of the designs that were truly from scratch.  Even the ‘patches’ which would normally be pieces of fabric, were worked with weaving, needle lace or embroidery techniques to resemble crazy patchwork.

 

I had such fun working up that book and there is a special place in my heart for the embellishment of crazy patchwork because each little area is like a small project on its own.

So, coming soon – as soon as I’ve finished the other videos – is an online workshop which I am going to call the Embellishment of Crazy Patchwork.  It’s an extensive workshop that will involve some live sessions and also, lots and lots of access to videos of the techniques on the tuition website.

 

Also on their way are some of the workshops that I did online for the EGA last year.  Specifically, Tumbleweeds 1 and 3. 

 

When these become available, you can choose to do them on your own or – having now got some experience of online workshops, my advice is to do them in groups.  Because online teaching is somewhat remote, we have found that when people are gathered in groups, they help each other here and there.  Because one person understands the concept quicker and better than others and can assist those that haven’t quite got it.

 

I find it so frustrating when I hear someone battling in the background and can’t just say, ‘give me your hoop, I’ll show you’.  But those gathered in groups tend to help one another and at the end of the day, everyone gets it – even those sitting on their own at home.  It just takes longer.

 

So, keep an eye on our announcements.  As soon as all these things are ready, we will announce them.

 

And if you thought I had given up writing books, I haven’t.  Phillipa Turnbull and I are collaborating on a book that will best be described as A Timeline of Crewel Embroidery.  Phillipa, with her historical knowledge and expertise, will be doing the historical stuff and I will be doing the more modern interpretation of this wonderful genre.  We are both providing three designs.  One each a floral design, one each an animal design and then, one design that starts off with an identical drawing which will be interpreted by each of us.  Great fun to do and as I am always getting requests for designs that incorporate pets, as opposed to wild animals, my animal design includes a tabby cat. 

 

Here's a little hint of the kitty.  

We don’t have cats because Boxer dogs and cats are not a good mix.  Not kind to the cats.  My son has a tabby cat called Tiny (because he was found in the wheel arch of a truck, very tiny, very young and was hand reared to adulthood).  I send him phone photos of my progress and he assures me that what I’m doing looks just like Tiny. 

 

So, somehow between all of this we manage to still play with the dogs in between working.  Duke the Bulldog and Donald the Boxer love their tugs-of-war with the rope toys every morning, throughout the morning and we keep going between our power cuts – I’m currently working in the dark with my computer on an inverter.

 

It is worth mentioning, while I have your attention, that the electricity problems in South Africa are so bad that it is not out of the realms of possibility that there will be a complete grid collapse.  The whole country will go down and apparently it will take two to three weeks to get it going again.  We have alternatives in the form of generators, solar and inverters in our own home but I suspect that if the grid collapses, internet and communications generally will disappear. 

 

So, if you have emailed me and don’t get a reply in a reasonable time, google something along the lines of ‘South African power grid collapse’.  You might find that it’s happened and you’ll then just have to be patient, knowing that I will get back to you as soon as I can.

 

You can also think about the fact that we will be surviving on the tinned and dry goods that we have stocked up on.  Because we won’t be able to buy anything.  We won’t be able to draw cash and the card machines won’t work.  Oh well.  Maybe it won’t happen but if it does, we have prepared for it.

 

So, that’s my catch up.  As I’ve said, keep any eye open for our announcements.  As soon as I get all these things finished, ready to roll, we’ll announce it on the Facebook Page.  Click on the link to begin to follow us, if you don’t already.