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The Needlework Nutshell?August 1, 2007 Volume 3, Issue 8 August 1, 2007 <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> THE NEEDLEWORK NUTSHELL Needlework news, musings, tips, contests, and what?s happening now at FUNK & WEBER DESIGNS <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> Editor: Jen Funk Weber Mail to: mailto:mail@funkandweber.com Web site: http://www.funkandweber.com Your privacy is important to us. Our subscriber list is NOT made available to others. *********************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE *********************************************************** 1. Needlework Musings 2. Who's Who - NEW! 3. Tips and Tricks and Brilliant Ideas 4. What?s New at Funk & Weber Designs 5. Readers Ask 6. Reader Commitments 7. Make It Yours 8. Puzzle Contest 9. Contact/Subscribe/Unsubscribe *********************************************************** 1. NEEDLEWORK MUSINGS *********************************************************** I've begun my next EGA ICC. That's an Embroiderers' Guild of America Individual Correspondence Course. I'm taking "The Art of Teaching Embroidery." Part of Lesson 1 requires brainstorming 4 possible needlework classes. I love brainstorming, but it can be hard, especially considering that I recently submitted 4 brand new class proposals to TNNA for 2008 trade shows. Okay, it just dawned on me Right Now that I might have used the TNNA classes for my EGA assignment. I'm a goody-two-shoes, though, and that feels a little like cheating. Besides, I came up with 4 new ideas last night before the slacker-method occurred to me. That seems about right, doesn't it: a slacker idea showing up late? Anywho, when I started the ICC lesson, I wondered if I'd be able to come up with 4 new ideas, good ones. Once I had them, I was on top of the world! The act of generating ideas--ones I like--is enormously satisfying to me. Is it just me, or do you feel the same way? I think this is why I take classes, read books, and seek new experiences: all those things generate new ideas. My idea for a lecture class was about the turning points in needlework history. What were the catalysts for change or for the development of something new? Scrap quilting came about when American settlers moved west. Supplies were scarce, and people needed to make use of every bit of fabric they had. I wonder what turns are being made *now* and what new developments are taking shape. Thanks to technology, our world is changing faster than ever. Is it changing the needlework world? There is no shortage of online needlework communities. What about trends and techniques? Are there new ones? I'm not sure we can see these things while we're in the moment, but I want to think about it nonetheless. Is it possible to deliberately develop a new technique or trend or use for needlework? Can *we* be a catalyst for needlework change? If so, what would we want to change? Send me your answer if you have one. *********************************************************** 2. Who's Who *********************************************************** In the mood now for something new? Ready for a turning point? I thought it would be fun to interview cool needlework folks who I've gotten to know online and through trade shows, and to share those interviews with you. My first sucker--I mean subject--is Heather Holland-Daly of monsterbubbles. No, that's not a mistake: the company name is *not* capitalized. Heather's website explains the origin of the name. Heather's designs are colorful and playful, which is, all by itself, sufficient reason to put her at the top of my Get-To-Know list, but there are other reasons, too. She was born the same year I was, if what I read into her blog name--maryheather1966--is in fact true. She's a happy, can-do person, game for exploring what's Out There...way out there! Get this: she's built several designs around songs she learned in Girl Scouts. I learned the same songs in 4-H. Check out the piece she calls "Wadlee Acha." http://monsterbubbles.com/gallery/pages/wadleeacha.html I KNOW THAT SONG! Maybe she had a printed songbook, but I didn't, and I sing "Wally Ottra." Chalk it up to regional differences. The list of reasons to get to know Heather goes on and on, so here goes my first attempt at an interview. J: Where would you most like to take an all-expense-paid vacation? H: Ireland J: Hmmm...very revealing. I think I'm going to be good at this! J: When and why did you start stitching? H: When I was YOUNG. I have some embroidered pillow cases I did when I was a Brownie. So, second grade or so. But it really took hold when I went to college for some reason. Every time I came home I raided my mom's stash! J: What made you want to design? H: I was always changing everyone else's patterns and had lots of ideas. When I first started talking about it though, I had a job that gave me very little spare time. When I finally quit that job to go back to doing theater full time it was the perfect time to give it a shot. Now, I hardly do any theater because monsterbubbles did much better than I EVER dreamed it would. It still surprises me that anyone else wants to stitch my designs. J: If you weren't working as a designer, what other job would you have? H: I would probably be performing somewhere, a singing gig, as well as auditioning a lot. Teaching voice, church gigs, that kind of thing. J: So, theater and singing. Can I make the daring leap to musical theater? (Fingers crossed.) H: Yes. I am one of "those" people. I am a musical theater person thru and thru. J: Ohmygoshmetoo! I built sets and worked on light and sound in college. H: My mom is a set designer, not by trade, but a hobbyist. She is an artist, and theater enthusiast that got involved in set building and designing 30 years ago or so...and has designed for colleges, dinner theaters and community theaters all over the place. She is pretty amazing and could have made a career out of it. She is a rehab counselor at a state facility for the criminally insane. Crazy stories she has... Mom has great ideas for cross stitch all the time too. Pretty cool chick. She used to make us audition, and dragged us along to set painting, construction days....all of the time. I think I fell into theater as a career because it was so familiar; I had a clue and I could sing. When I originally went to college I was an elementary Ed person on a Tennis scholarship...go figure! J: What shows have you been in, and in what roles? H: Ok, I have been doing this so long that is an impossible question. I have done "Oklahoma!" four times as an actor. I have now been cast as Laurie (though I did not do it), done Eller, Gertie (twice), and Ado as well as been in the chorus twice. Both times I was a Saloon girl in the dream ballet. This is not the only musical I have done more than once. Some of the most fun things I did were original shows like... http://www.judyschristmas.com J: What role would you most like to perform? H: As cheesy as this is, I want to be Eva in "Evita" and Reno in "Anything Goes." Both are WAY overdone, but I would love to do those roles anyway. I am going to get too old VERY soon to do Eva anywhere, including a community theater...the drama of an actress.... J: What's one of the strangest singing gigs you've had? What was the best? H: There so are many... The one that comes to mind at the moment is that I toured for 18 months with "one hundred and one Dalmatians" playing Lucky the puppy. I have done LOTS of children's theater over the years, but that entire experience, living on a bus and hotels with the same 11 people for that long, the make-up and costumes, performing for thousands of children at any given venue, REALLY stands out in my mind. Touring is a great way to see the world. I have seen Canada, parts of Europe, and the entire USA ( minus Alaska!) because of a tour. I would love to encourage Myles [Heather's son] to do something like that when he is young. Or do shows at the amusement parks, like Six Flags, or do summer stock. Good money, good college jobs to have for those who want to see the world and have no "attachments." J: Do you also dance or play a musical instrument? H: Yes I dance. J: Of course you do! We gotta dance down the aisles of the next TNNA trade show. H: Though I am a singer first, I do choreograph sometimes. I did a few national tours, and some dinner theatre choreographing, but what I like to do most is to work with kids. When I was in college, during the school year I made pretty good money working at different high schools in the area, choreographing their spring musicals. I play the clarinet and Piano. J: Guitar and saxophone here, very badly. Though there was a time when I was pretty good on the sax. H: I am very average at both clarinet and piano. I have played the guitar on and off over the years, but never long enough to really build up calluses. I am jealous that you play, and love when people can also sing. J: Wish I were one of them...moving on...What's the craziest thing that's happened to you, or you have done, as a needlework designer? H: When I designed and published "Lizzie Borden" with the childhood, schoolyard poem we all heard growing up, I was AMAZED at all of the comments I received from people. Emails, snail mail, phone calls, etc. Good and Bad. I printed pages and pages of comments about it on several chat groups that went on for days when it was released. I received unsigned "hate" mail. No joke. J: Yikes! H: Someone even called one of my distributors and threatened not to purchase anything from them again unless they removed it. True to his style, he told the customer that that was their decision, and to lighten up! It remains in their inventory. I believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I received twice the number of hits on my web site than usual during that time. I simply was not prepared for some of the reactions. It remains one of my best-selling charts, and I get pictures of it stitched up all the time. J: You can check it out here: http://monsterbubbles.com/gallery/pages/lizzieborden.html J:Do you have a design that you are most proud of? H: Usually it is the one that I am working on at the time. I just designed one called "magic" that is a beanstalk climbing into the sky the reads, "do you believe in magic?" that my sister is stitching for me, that is one I am proud of. I also just did a series for Just Cross Stitch called "The Fab Four" that I am also fond of currently. J: What other kinds of crafts do you do? H: I am a beader, wireworker, jewelery maker. I am a fanatical collector of things to make charms and jewelry with. Dice, watch gears, broken pottery, old flatware, stuff like that. I find all kinds of things at auctions. I also have started making felted beads. I sell jewelry retail at local craft fairs and wholesale in local shops. I do some punch needle, I used to scrapbook and do mosaic work, but honestly it is really difficult to find time for anything that doesn't directly apply to monsterbubbles. J: Make up a g-rated expletive. I use "crumb" a lot. H: Rats! J: What color are the walls in your house? H: Purple, gold, banana, tangerine, lime, baby blue, red...obviously all not in the same room. J: Not obvious to me. Many thanks to Heather! You can learn more about her and see all of her designs at: http://monsterbubbles.com/index.html Then listen to another interview with her here: http://www.craftsanity.com/podcast/files/pod49.html And check out one of the segments she did for NeedleArts Studio: http://www.knittingdailytv.com/programs/1600/1608-2.asp So what do you think? Should I do some more of these? I think yes. *********************************************************** 3. TIPS AND TRICKS AND BRILLIANT IDEAS *********************************************************** Heather is providing this month's Brilliant Idea starting point. Heather stitches on screen. Not sunscreen, not movie screen, but window screen. She prefers the poly-something kind to the metal kind, but it's all good. I love this idea! For those of you who don't have your "ideal view" out your windows, whip out those fibers and make it happen. A prize to the first person who stitches our Termination Dust pattern on her window screen. No, a prize to the first FIVE people who stitch Termination Dust on one of their window screens! I don't mean a screen that you frame and hang on your wall, I mean your actual window screen so that when you look out your window you see Denali (the highest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet). For all the people with less-than-ideal views, this seems like a wonderful idea! Another Brilliant Idea from Heather is stitching on a flyswatter, and she's rounded up some absolutely elegant swatters. So what else can we stitch on around the house? Where else might screen come in handy? What about a terrarium or fish tank lid? We have these pull-down sun shades that are a see-through mesh that could be stitched. Kind of like those sun shades people put on car windows to protect babies' eyes. My sister's minivan came with them pre-installed. Let's stitch 'em! One last Brilliant Idea: a bug jar! Great for anyone who, like me, enjoys catching fireflies and beetles, or looking closely at frogs and such. If you look at my blog, you'll see a picture of a frog I caught just recently. There aren't a lot of frogs in Alaska. All you need is a mason jar, the screwy ring that goes with the mason jar, and some screen (not sun, not movie...). Use a pencil to trace around the ring on the screen, then stitch a little something on the screen (a bug, a name, a phrase, a doodle). And I mean something little: remember, the point of the screen is so the critters can breathe. Cut out the circle of screen and glue it to the inside of the screwy ring. Voila! Bug jar. Critter Keeper. Looking glass jar. *********************************************************** 4. WHAT?S NEW AT FUNK & WEBER? *********************************************************** Making progress on the Needle and ThREAD campaign. Dinky Dyes is offering a full set of their silks as a prize to one lucky participating shop. Will your local shop be in the running? http://www.dinkydyes.iinet.net.au/ I've got a set of these. They are exquisite! ~~~~~~~~~~ Here in Alaska, I'm working with the Loussac Library in Anchorage, Arctic Needle (local shop), and Arctic Needleworkers (local EGA chapter), to offer two Make-It / Take-It bookmark events in October, during the Bookmark Challenge. Arctic Needle will accept the Bookmark Challenge and will donate collected bookmarks to the Loussac Library. I hope to see lots of Alaskan Nutshell readers there! (No, I don't have dates yet. We'll decide that at a meeting in August.) ~~~~~~~~~~ If you read the blog you know bookmark #2 has been a bit of an ordeal. Lots of color changes, a size overhaul, and three restarts from scratch. The good news is: at long last, I like it! And it's done. Now to get it ready for the printer. ~~~~~~~~~~ I got a call from the Simon Scribbles editor recently. There may be a new activity book gig in my not-so-distant future. ~~~~~~~~~~ I'm also back to work on the new puzzle pattern. It's the same "new" pattern that I started in February (or sometime) and will remain "new" until it's published and has been for sale for at least 6 months. What can I say? Needlework progress is slow. ~~~~~~~~~~ The Nancy Drew activity books are out. Yay! It took me ages to finally see them, but when I did I wasn't disappointed. I think Simon Scribbles did a great job. I revealed a couple of secrets about them on my writing blog: http://tinyurl.com/yt2sxe ~~~~~~~~~~ Due to exceptional busy-ness next summer, we have decided that the next Alaska Stitch-N-Safari will be scheduled for the summer of 2008. Information about these special stitching tours is available on our web site: http://www.funkandweber.com/fw/tour.html *********************************************************** 5. READERS ASK *********************************************************** Please e-mail me with questions for this section. mail@funkandweber.com Elizabeth asks if we ever give up on a project. Yep. Sure do. I don't think of it as giving up, but rather as practicing. In that light, it's okay to throw out a piece and move on because it has served its purpose: we've learned. Sometimes ("Bearly" Night, for example), we simply put a piece away and come back to it later. Sometimes I save bits and pieces of projects, parts that I like, and use them elsewhere--my beloved fridge magnets, for instance. When you've lost the love for a piece, it's okay to move on. See if a fellow stitcher wants to adopt it. If not, salvage what you like, thank the rest for the learning it provided, and let it go. *********************************************************** 6. READER COMMITMENTS *********************************************************** We, the daring and determined, commit ourselves to making progress NOW on projects we wish to complete before the end of the year. This is what I call "throwing our hats over the fence." Once we do that, we have no choice but to go get them; we have to follow through. *Gail* July: "Finish THE GREAT OUTDOORS that I got in Alaska 2 summers ago." She's done the border and that's it. August: She's finished A-G. Whoa! That's great! *Rayna* July: "Make 8 Christmas ornaments, one for each of my granddaughters." Holy kangaroos! Eight grandchildren and ALL GIRLS?! In the past month since Rayna announced her commitment, she's completed one ornament. But she didn't send me a picture. August: Done. Yay, Rayna! *Linda* July: "Finish SILENT NIGHT. Start and finish a design made from a photo of best friend's cabin in Alaska. Start and finish THE TRAIL HOME." August: Finished SILENT NIGHT (see Make It Yours), purchased fabric for THE TRAIL HOME and have it started. Linda had the photo of her friend's cabin made into a chart, but didn't want to tackle the resulting pattern. She had someone else do it in greyscale (about 10 colors), and will give that a go instead. Way to stick with it, Linda! Jen: I want to finish the new puzzle pattern and make crazy quilted ornaments for my nephews and niece. I've been meaning to make those ornaments for *years!* August: Well...um...I finished bookmark #2 and I've begun the Roman shades for our house. Does that count? Pretty please? Psst, Rayna! Want to make 3 more ornaments?! Let's go, team! *********************************************************** 7. Make It Yours *********************************************************** Check out Linda's (from Reader Commitments) Silent Night. She's allergic to French knots, so she made her own stars with double (Smyrna) crosses. And look at her mats. http://www.funkandweber.com/fw/make-it-yours-linda1.html *********************************************************** 8. PUZZLE CONTEST *********************************************************** Okay, okay: July's puzzle was hard. It's good to beat your head against a wall now and then, right? I was going to say that this one is easier, but I changed my mind. "Easy" is a relative thing. Play with me! Solve this puzzle, and be entered to win a free Funk & Weber Designs pattern! Winners will be randomly selected from all correct entries. E-mail your answer, with ?PUZZLE CONTEST? in the subject line. The deadline for this month?s puzzle is midnight (Alaska time, of course) August 7, 2007. The winner will be selected on Augutst 8, 2007 (or shortly thereafter), notified by e-mail, and announced on our web site and in the next NEEDLEWORK NUTSHELL. To avoid sending e-mail attachments, contest puzzles will be uploaded to our web site. I will provide a link to the puzzle in THE NEEDLEWORK NUTSHELL. To the puzzle! http://www.funkandweber.com/fw/nutshell/golf807.pdf ~~~~~~~~~~ July PUZZLE CONTEST WINNER: Nancy, from Williamsburg, KY. Answer: escape, swiped, calico, doorknob What do you get when you cross a porcupine with a glacier? A slow poke! *********************************************************** 9. CONTACT FUNK & WEBER DESIGNS *********************************************************** SUBSCRIBE: 57410-subscribe@zinester.com UNSUBSCRIBE: 57410-unsubscribe@zinester.com ARCHIVES: http://archives.zinester.com/57410 Jen Funk Weber mail@funkandweber.com http://www.funkandweber.com http://JenFunkWeber.com/ http://6writers1story.blogspot.com/ Copyright 2007, Funk & Weber Designs |
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