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The Needlework Nutshell??”December 1, 2005 Volume 1, Issue 2 December 1, 2005 <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> 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 a holiday gift for you!) 2.5 All I Want for Christmas (from you to me) 3. What??™s New at Funk & Weber Designs 4. Readers Ask 5. Contest 6. Contact/Subscribe/Unsubscribe *********************************************************** 1. NEEDLEWORK MUSINGS *********************************************************** Well, my holiday shopping is done! How much do you hate me? Remember, I rip imperfect stitches, so it makes sense that I like to have my shopping done early??”it??™s all part of the obsessive-compulsive personality. It doesn??™t always happen, but it??™s nice when it does. My stress level is reduced and I enjoy holiday proceedings more. I??™m onto phase two: annual ornaments and holiday letters/cards. One of my favorite childhood memories is making holiday gifts with my family. We made gifts for all the neighbors and a number of friends??”gifts like candles, cookies, and ornaments. Sometimes we purchased ornament kits on December 26th and spent the week after Christmas assembling them for the following year. (That obsessive-compulsive thing? It??™s in the genes!) Half the dining room table would be relegated to styrofoam and wood forms, pins, paint, beads, sequins, ribbons, and glue. I??™d squish in between my father and sister for meals. When my sister began having kids, it seemed the perfect opportunity to rekindle that tradition, and make annual ornaments for my two nephews and niece. Any craft will do: tatting, knitting, embroidery, origami, twigs and string. This year, I??™m making 3-D decoupaged paper stars. One year, when I was particularly busy (or lazy, take your pick) I asked my sister of the kids would notice if I skipped a year. She hesitated, then answered truthfully, ???Well, yeah. They would notice. It??™s part of their tradition, and they look forward to it.??? Talk about a kick in the pants! I couldn??™t let them down. That twigs and string reference above??”they became primitive star ornaments, and *fast!* Since then, I??™ve never again contemplated *if* I??™d make them ornaments, only *what* I??™d make this year. One year when they were in Okinawa with the Marine Corps, there were no pine trees imported into their base, so there was no Christmas tree. Instead, they sat a potted plant on a small table and decorated it with ???Aunt Jen??™s lightweight ornaments.??? I was in Alaska, and yet I was a part of their make-do holiday??”one they will surely remember for its uniqueness. I??™ve been making ornaments for The Kids for many years now, and I??™ll keep on making them for a long time to come. Crafting something tangible, and creating a tradition around it, enables me to be a part of their holiday this year, but also for years to come, maybe even after I??™m gone. The things we create with our hands, and with our needle and thread, connect us to others. Those connections are celebrated this time of year. Share your creative efforts. Yeah, they notice. *********************************************************** 2. TIPS AND TRICKS *********************************************************** I??™d title this section ???Tips and Tricks and Treats,??? but that sounds rather Halloweeny. There is, however, a treat that accompan 74359/103947_just4u.PDF http://www.funkandweber.com/pdf/just4u.PDF This pattern is my holiday gift to you, and is both a peek at a new online class I??™ll be offering in 2006, and an example for this month??™s TIPS AND TRICKS. We??™re going to talk about resizing patterns. Resizing patterns requires simple math. Once you master it, you??™ll be able to substitute any fabric for a design, *and* manipulate patterns to fit your needs. This is handy when you want to use an alternate ground fabric, use leftover fabric from your stash, or change the size of the finished piece, perhaps to fit a particular frame or pillow form. Our SEASON??™S GREETINGS example is 78 stitches wide by 46 inches high. This is the ???stitch count,??? and most designs list this on the pattern. Worst case scenario: Count the blocks on the pattern; they??™re usually in groups of 10. I wanted to stitch this design as a reusable gift tag, so I wanted it to be smallish, but I didn??™t want to use a small (boring) font for the letters. So I opted to create a pattern I liked, then stitch it over 1 thread, rather than the more usual 2 threads. That??™s one way to shrink a pattern! I chose 22-ct Christmas Green Vienna from Zweigart?® (3322/647). All right??”who groaned?! (Stick with me, there??™s an alternative; this is about resizing, after all!) Stitching over 1 on 22-ct fabric will give me 22 stitches per inch. With 78 x 46 stitches, how big will my design be, and what size fabric do I need? Here??™s the formula to figure it out: ~~~~~~~~~~ # OF STITCHES / FABRIC STITCHES-PER-INCH = INCHES OF DESIGN ~~~~~~~~~~ 78 / 22 = 3.5 inches wide, and 46 / 22 = 2.1 inches high. The design for my tag will be 3.5 x 2.1 inches. If I were framing the piece, I??™d want to add 2-3 inches around the whole design (that would mean adding 4-6 inches to each dimension), but I??™m not framing this, and a half-inch around the whole design will suffice, so a scrap of fabric, 4.5 x 3 would work. (By the way, this works nicely in some ready-made card blanks, too. Oh, the possibilities!) Now, let??™s pretend that stitching over 1 on 22-ct fabric does not appeal to you. Let??™s say you want to stitch over 2 on 28-ct Christmas Green Meran from Zweigart?®, instead. Stitching over 1 thread on 28-ct would give you 28 stitches per inch, but stitching over 2 threads on 28-ct gives you 14 stitches-per-inch, same as a 14-ct Aida. 78 / 14 = 5.6 inches, and 46 / 14 = 3.3 inches. So, on a 14-ct fabric (or 28-ct over 2), the design will be 5.6 x 3.3 inches. That??™s a little large for a tag, perhaps (depends on the size of the package), but would do nicely in a standard 5 x 7 inch frame! (Happy coincidence? Not really.) And to be sure you have sufficient fabric to mount for framing, you??™ll want to add 2-3 inches all around, so you??™ll want a piece of fabric between 10 x 8 inches and 12 x 10 inches. Anything between those 2 sizes will work. I prefer the larger size so that I have more to work with when lacing the back side, but if a fabric is very expensive or I want to use something from my stash, it??™s good to have a *minimum* size needed. Now, let??™s pretend you have bionic eyes (or a good magnifier) and a scrap of 32-ct dark green linen lying around. You want to stitch this over 1 for a more delicate tag. How big will the design be, and how much fabric will you need? You??™re on your own for this; I??™m not printing the answer. Whatever size you choose to make this pattern, I hope you enjoy it! Instructions for completing a tag are on the PDF pattern. The measurements are based on 22-ct fabric stitched over 1, but feel free to alter them for other sizes. Adding reusable tags to gifts enables the recipient to pass it on next year. I??™m looking forward to getting one back someday! Stay tuned in 2006 for an online class on reusable gift tags. There are tons of cool ways to finish tags! *********************************************************** 2.5 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS *********************************************************** How tacky and shameless is it to request a holiday gift? At least my list is short. There??™s just one thing I??™d love to get from *you*: Tell someone about us. Tell them about our bracelet class, our web site, our patterns, our Stitch-N-Safari, our weird life as caretakers, or this newsletter. Any little tidbit will do. If that doesn??™t sound like much to you, great! I assure you, it??™s HUGE! Many thanks, and best wishes for a Happy Holiday. *********************************************************** 3. WHAT??™S NEW AT FUNK & WEBER DESIGNS *********************************************************** BRACELET BASICS & BEYOND ONLINE CLASS, JAN. 11-16, 2006 Give the gift of needlework! Looking for a gift for a stitching friend? Why not sign her up for our bracelet class in January? And since we often give what we??™d like to receive, why not sign yourself up, too?! Four lessons provided in a private Yahoo! Group will guide you through the process: the decorative griffin stitch, the edge stitch, finishing the back side, and stringing the beads and clasp. See our web site for further details and to register. ~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT IN THE WORLD IS ON THE COVER OF GAMES MAGAZINE! That??™s not a question; it??™s an exclamation! Our design, WHAT IN THE WORLD?, is the cover puzzle for the February issue of GAMES magazine. The February issue comes out in early December, so heads up if you want to look for it. I got 2 early copies of the magazine when the editors shipped our model back to us, and I couldn??™t be more pleased! They were a wonderful group to work with: they handled the needlework well, were timely and communicative, and they produce a sharp-looking and entertaining magazine. I already knew that last part; I??™m a sometimes-subscriber. ~~~~~~~~~~ STITCH-N-SAFARI 2006, JUNE 24-JULY 1 Dates for the 2006 Stitch-N-Safari are set! If you??™ve ever dreamed of coming to Alaska, we hope you??™ll consider joining us for this trip. Mike and I both spent a number of years guiding for ALASKA WILDLAND ADVENTURES, and are now proud to offer this special adventure through them. We will visit protected wild places, enjoy spectacular scenery and (we hope) wildlife, then relax and stitch at comfortable wilderness lodges in the evening, while someone else prepares dinner! Visit our web site for further details, the itinerary, and costs, or contact ALASKA WILDLAND ADVENTURES http://www.alaska-wildland.com (1-800-334-8730) for their free brochure. Be sure to ask about the Funk & Weber Designs Stitch-N-Safari. We??™d love to show you our Alaska! *********************************************************** 4. READERS ASK *********************************************************** Please e-mail me with questions for this section. Chrissie asked if we plan to offer online classes for kids. I would love to! I??™m working on a beginners??™ class now. It would be fun to re-tool it specifically for kids. In addition, the BRACELET BASICS & BEYOND class is so thorough that I believe it is suitable for ???tweens and teens, provided they know the basics of stitching. It??™s not a beginners??™ class. There is no discussion of stopping and starting threads, etc. It??™s for anyone with basic needlework knowledge and a sense of adventure! *********************************************************** 5. PUZZLE CONTEST *********************************************************** Play with me! I??™m a puzzle fan, and have sold over 200 puzzles to children??™s magazines and web sites. My first children??™s book, due out in March 2006 from Sasquatch Books, is??¦you guessed it??”a puzzle book! Specifically, it is an Alaska natural history puzzle book, illustrated with Mike??™s photos. 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) December 7, 2005. The winner will be selected on December 8, 2005, 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 only in 74359/103948_holiday.PDF is intended for subscribers, not the public at large, and all winners will be subscribers. To the puzzle! http://www.funkandweber.com/pdf/holiday.PDF ~~~~~~~~~~ NOVEMBER PUZZLE CONTEST WINNER: PATTY FROM GREENVILLE, UT ???What a teaser??”took me 2 afternoons to see how easy it really was!??? Thanks to everyone who participated! Answer: Dot--5 Bev--7 May--3 Pam--2 Sue--1 Eve--6 Zoe--4 Lib--8 There was a fairly common error among entries in November. It??™s one of those eye-rolling, head-shaking errors we all make now and then. I thought I??™d point it out so that maybe you won??™t get caught again. Don??™t worry if you??™re one who fell prey to this error??”you??™re in excellent company! Sentence 2 in the instructions states: ???No two stitchers have the same number.??? Oh-so-many entries ignored that rule! Sigh. Look at all those shaking heads! I told you it was silly. Okay, okay??”those who got it right can laugh and have their fun. Those results are history, and we??™re starting from scratch this month. Good luck! *********************************************************** 6. 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 Copyright 2005, Funk & Weber Designs |
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