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The Needlework Nutshell—January 1, 2008 Volume 4, Issue 1 January 1, 2008 <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> 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. Tips and Tricks and Brilliant Ideas 3. What’s New at Funk & Weber Designs 4. Readers Ask 5. Puzzle Contest 6. Contact/Subscribe/Unsubscribe *********************************************************** 1. NEEDLEWORK MUSINGS *********************************************************** As we come out of the holiday season, we yearn for ways to keep the holiday spirit alive throughout the year. Holiday spirit takes many forms, I know, but one I especially enjoy is the one conveyed in Chris Van Allsburg's beautiful picture book, The Polar Express: Believe. Believe in what, exactly? Santa? Holiday magic? Good things are possible? Does it matter? I don't think so. I think the point is to simply believe in something, anything, have faith, maintain hope. A good place to apply this is in our creativity. I've been making Fiber Artist Trading Cards (FATCs) for a class I'm teaching with 4 other designers next week at the TNNA trade show. I had a million ideas when I set out to create my segment for this FATC class; there were all kinds of materials I wanted to use and techniques I wanted to try. I have only 20-30 minutes, though, so I picked one idea that's been rattling around in my head for ages: needlework decoupage. I've mentioned that here before, I think. I bought Matte-Mat Mod Podge because I couldn't find Fabric Mod Podge and started gooping up old bits of needlework, UFOs, doodles that hadn't been made into magnets, scraps, etc. The first efforts weren't impressive. In fact, they were kind of ugly and juvenile. But I didn't quit. I didn't give up on the technique. The results weren't what I wanted, but I BELIEVED. I had faith that the process would eventually yield a pleasing result. I think it's the same kind of believing that The Polar Express encourages and that moves us during the holiday season, a sort of belief in magic. I kept going, gooping up more needlework, digging up more scraps, always optimistic that this time I'd wind up with the Taj Mahal of FATCs. It was *fun!* How often do you get frustrated when a project doesn't turn out the way you'd like? How often do you give up on a creative process or technique because you're convinced it won't work? Well, stop. Believe. Apply that holiday spirit to your creative pursuit and keep going and going until you find the magic or it finds you. We all know that The Polar Express is a story, yet somehow we're still moved by it. We believe in the power of believing, and we are fulfilled by this spirit of the holiday. That same fulfillment comes when we apply the spirit of believing to our creativity. When we let go, have faith, and just create, magic happens. Yeah, yeah, you've heard it before. Well, guess what. You're going to hear it again. Creating is one of the most satisfying and fulfilling experiences I know. I hope you'll give it a shot. It's a way to keep the holiday spirit alive January through November. ~~~~~~~~~~ SUBSCRIPTION NOTICE The last time I checked, there were over 400 "pending" subscriptions to The Needlework Nutshell. That means 400 people took the first step to subscribe, but did not confirm the subscription. You must "double opt in" to receive this newsletter. That means responding to an e-mail confirmation. This second quick step prevents random people from subscribing others to newsletters and mailing lists. If you're reading this in the Zinester archives or some other place and would like to subscribe, please remember to confirm your subscription. If you don't receive the confirmation email, contact Zinester support to let them know. Thanks! *********************************************************** 2. TIPS AND TRICKS AND BRILLIANT IDEAS *********************************************************** One of the reasons we stitch is to create personalized pieces of art and handwork. Some designs have personal information built into the pattern. These elements usually take the form of empty boxes into which we insert names and dates. Wedding and birth samplers popped into your mind just now, didn't they? Mine, too. Some excellent stitchers cringe at those empty boxes. I cringe when I see a beautiful piece of work with a name just slightly off-center, but noticeable enough to pull my attention to the unbalanced gap. Filling those empty boxes with names and dates that are balanced and professional looking isn't that hard. It requires two things: planning ahead and graph paper. (Computer software works, too, but I'm not expecting you to have that.) I use 10-squares-per-inch graph paper for needlework designing (as opposed to the 4-squares-per-inch graph paper I use for puzzles). What? You don't have a tablet of this paper on the shelf above your computer between the construction paper and watercolor paper? Huh. I guess that could be a problem, except it's not. You can print all kinds of graph paper off your computer. Here's the site I use, but if you Google "graph paper," I'm sure you'll find other sources. http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/ What you want is 1/10" Cartesian Graph Paper. Click "print" and the site will generate a pdf of the graph paper that you can then print out and use to plan the text for the empty box on your needlework pattern. Once you have your graph paper, use a pencil to draw the name and/or date exactly as you would stitch it. Most patterns that are meant to be personalized include an alphabet/number font, but you're free to use another. Since you're planning ahead, you'll know beforehand that your chosen font works with the space provided. How does your drawing look? Is the letter-spacing pleasing? Different characters take up different amounts of horizontal and vertical space. It's not always best to leave one thread between each letter, or some other rigid format. For instance, a fancy T may have a long swooping horizontal line. To place the next letter one thread beyond the end of that horizontal line might look as though it's the beginning of a separate word. Space the characters so they look nice and are clear. It's an art, not a science; stretch and smoosh as needed. If there are multiple words or multiple lines, I draft each unit (group of letters or numbers) individually. Now it's time to fit the unit(s) into the empty box on the pattern. Rather than drawing on the pattern, I recreate the empty box on my graph paper and work there. SINGLE WORD If your nicely designed personal information is a single word, find the horizontal and vertical centers on your drawing and mark where they intersect. How? Count the squares that you used on the graph paper and divide by 2. You'll do that twice: once for the number of horizontal squares used, once for the number of vertical squares used. Next, find the horizontal and vertical centers of the empty box. Match the center mark of your information drawing to the center mark of the empty box and you're golden! Stitch away. MULTIPLE WORDS OR LINES If you have more than one nicely designed unit of personal information (3 names, or a name and a date), cut them out individually, and manually place them (a glue stick comes in handy for this) in the empty box you've recreated on your graph paper. Play with the spacing of the units. Do they look best with 4 squares separating each unit? Is there room in the box to allow for 6 squares between each? If you have 3 lines of information, are the lines spaced evenly? Sometimes, you're left with an odd number of empty spaces outside your design unit. You might have to have 3 empty spaces on the left, and 2 on the right. No big deal. When it comes to horizontal extra spaces, I don't have a preference: sometimes I put them on the left, sometimes on the right. I go with what looks good to my eye. For vertical extra spaces, I tend to put them at the bottom. Of course, there will be exceptions. Now, what happens when your information doesn't fit in the designated space? You might: 1. Use a different stitch font. There are entire books of needlework alphabets, or you might find one in a magazine, in another pattern, on the Web. Or--gasp!--you could draw your own. You know how to write the letters of the alphabet, right? If you're trying to save space you won't be creating fancy letters. 2. Use different information. Instead of a full name, how about just the last name or a nickname? Instead of a name, how about an inspirational word or phrase, or a saying? 3. Break the boundary of the empty box. Check out the Funk & Weber Designs pattern, THE GREAT OUTDOORS. http://funkandweber.com/fw/greatoutdoors.html Look closely at the border. It is broken on all 4 sides. There is an arm reaching out from the border to the letter K kettle, and a saw cutting the O on the opposite side. The owl sitting on the caribou antler extends into the border at the top, and a mosquito buzzes into the bottom border. In each case, the border disappears for a time. We left empty spaces around each of the extended elements, further separating them from the border. You can do the same with your personal information: break the boundary and pick it up again when you can. You might think of it as whiting out the border and adding your info on top. 4. Add spaces. Is it possible to enlarge the empty box without interrupting the pattern? Maybe, maybe not. It's worth checking. The more personal information you add, the longer the process takes. That's designing. The possibilities are myriad, if not exactly endless. No, I take that back: the possibilities are endless. You've already spent a good bit of time stitching the piece with care and skill, take the time to space your letters, numbers, and words in a balanced, pleasing, and professional way. Trust me, you can do it! *********************************************************** 3. WHAT’S NEW AT FUNK & WEBER? *********************************************************** I am in the thick of TNNA NeedleArts Market prep. There is a never-ending list of things that could be done for this wholesale trade show, more than I can possibly do. I must pick and choose what to do, and do as much as I can or want to do. It's that way with all self-employment, education, etc. You know what I'm talking about; it's that way with needlework. You can't possibly do all that you might want to do, or even all that you feel you should do, so you do what you can. Well, same here. I've got 3 displays to create. Only 1 is done at the moment. ~~~~~~~~~~ I will be teaching 3 classes at the TNNA NeedleArts Market in Long Beach, CA, in January: *Fabulous, Funky, and Fun Fiber Artist Trading Cards - This is a group class taught with Heather from monsterbubbles, Jenny from Sublime Stitching, Kat from Cross-Eyed Kat, and Sharon from Crescent Colours. *Make-It/Take-It Projects for Cross Stitch, Needlepoint, and Embroidery *Reaching Tweens, Reaching Teens, Reaching Out - Ideas for outreach programs targeting this audience. This is a wholesale trade show, so students are shop owners and designers. If you have any advice or ideas to offer on any of these subjects, I'm listening. ~~~~~~~~~~ I'm also preparing 2 displays for the CHA trade show in February. That's the Craft and Hobby Association's wholesale trade show. This is a new one for me; I've never been to a CHA show before. I'm super-excited! ~~~~~~~~~~ I have signed on to create a children's natural history puzzle book and 4 sudoku puzzle books for Taku Graphics, an Alaska graphics company that makes cards, calendars, books, etc. showcasing Alaskan artwork. I'm so excited about the project, but a little overwhelmed what with 2 trade shows looming in the next 8 weeks. So now I own sudoku software. I'm going to practice on you. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! ~~~~~~~~~~ The Spiderwick activity books that I created last February are now available at Amazon. Nope, I've not seen them in person yet. http://tinyurl.com/2qtl4b http://tinyurl.com/3dkmcn ~~~~~~~~~~ The decision has been made to cancel the Stitch-N-Safari. If we get commitments from 6 people, a trip will be planned, but the tour company will no longer arrange the trip prior to those reservations. If at least 6 people contact us prior to January 1, 2008, we will plan a trip for 2009. Please understand that it takes a good deal of time to arrange the logistics of such a trip, reserving vehicles, boats, and rooms. If we don't get enough bookings to make it run, it becomes a financial loss for the tour company. ~~~~~~~~~~ I have made tentative arrangements to work with an educational publisher to provide puzzles for a series of vocabulary books. This is a new publisher and venue for me. Way fun! *********************************************************** 4. READERS ASK *********************************************************** Please e-mail me with questions for this section. mail@funkandweber.com Belinda asks, "What's the worst thing you've ever stitched?" Hmm. That's a hard question. First, what do you mean by "worst"? Do you mean ugliest, most frustrating, or poorest quality? Nothing comes to mind that fits all those definitions at once, but that doesn't mean my projects have all been slam dunks. I think it means that I enjoy stitching, no matter what the result. But I'll try to answer the question anyway. I like hard questions, so keep 'em coming. I'll try to pick a project that fits each definition of "worst." UGLIEST There was the "Bearly Night" debacle. If you've been with us long, you know the story. The first attempts at designing pandas for the Funk & Weber Designs LET THERE BE NIGHT black-and-white Stitchling series were hilariously bad. The pandas looked like floating diapers. Take a look at the middle panda here, and you'll know what I mean: http://funkandweber.com/fw/bearlynight.html Floating diaper, right? Can you think of an uglier thing to stitch? It took years to get over the diaper hurdle, but I think we succeeded in the end, and it was at least a funny debacle. MOST FRUSTRATING Prior to that, there was the caribou conundrum during the designing/stitching of "Portraits of the Wild Life." http://funkandweber.com/fw/cariboukit.html I stitched the caribou 5 times. That's FIVE complete pieces, not including ripping of various parts. First, the antlers were so tall that to make them fit the available space we wound up with a little pea head and a couple of skinny sticks swimming in a sea of background. We curved the antlers to allow for a closer/larger image of the head. Then there was the background. Each of the 12 animals is backed by a stylized interpretation of its native habitat. Caribou live on the tundra. First, I tried to depict grassy tussocks, as seen in the arctic. I used a solid cross stitched background with evenly spaced groups of 3 straight stitches forming grass tufts. I stitched it in green. It was rather dull, so we tried to give it depth, making rolling hills with different colors of green and different sizes of tufts. I wasn't crazy about the larger tufts: there wasn't enough room to have very many of them, and when they were interrupted by the animal, they looked kind of nebulous and dumb. We decided we had too many green backgrounds (a hazard of nature subjects), so we stitched it again in brilliant fall colors. I still didn't like the large tufts, and we had a terrible time combining red, orange, yellow, and brown on close and distant hills. It got ridiculously complex and confusing. Plus, the caribou color blended too easily with the flora colors. Finally, we used pastel shades of real fall colors so the caribou would stand out; we lumped the colors together on the different hills to keep the background from being too busy and overwhelming the animal; and we nixed the grass tufts. I think this habitat interpretation might be one of the least comprehensible, but I like the overall effect. And I was drained of ideas at that point, not to mention sick to death of stitching that caribou. POOREST QUALITY I'm going to switch over to tatting here. I wanted to make something for not-close friends who were getting married, and I happened to be on a tatting jag. What I really wanted to do was tat a wedding bell ornament. The woman's name was "Michelle," and I routinely teased her by singing, "Michelle, dumbbell" instead of "Michelle, my belle." I wanted to tat a "dumb bell" for her wedding. But Mike thought that was weird and maybe rude. His lack of enthusiasm swayed me, and I instead tried to create a "double-wedding ring" ornament. I was making it up. I thought it would be easy to just tat 2 entwined circles, and it was. But it didn't look nice. They sagged when hung, but they didn't look especially good laid flat, either. You couldn't distinguish the patterns where they overlapped, and it wasn't obvious what they were supposed to be. I should have thrown them out, but I didn't. Worse still, I *gave* them to the couple in our card. I cringe to imagine their befuddled faces as they must have held the thing up at different angles, puzzled as to what it could possibly be. I hope they had better sense than I did and that they threw them out. I'm *still* embarrassed about that one! I should have gone with the bell theme. I hope that answers the question! *********************************************************** 7. PUZZLE CONTEST *********************************************************** 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) January 7, 2008. The winner will be selected on January 8, 2008 (or shortly thereafter), notified by e-mail, and announced on our web site and in the next NEEDLEWORK NUTSHELL. *WARNING: I'm going to be at the TNNA trade show Jan. 9-13 then traveling for a time. I'm going to have sporadic internet service, and will be swamped with email when I manage to get online. The end result is that I'm sure I'm going to be late notifying the winner and getting a prize in the mail. I was insanely late in December, too--ask Angi. She still doesn't have her prize, but it's on its way. I will follow through. I always do. Thanks for your patience and understanding! 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/sudoku0108.pdf ~~~~~~~~~~ December PUZZLE CONTEST WINNER: Angi, from Peterborough, England. Answer: The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man, A Christmas Carol These are five Christmas stories by Charles Dickens. *********************************************************** 7. 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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