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.