Royal Wedding Eve and My Celebrations

All month long on my website I've been celebrating the Royal Wedding with the best tidbits I can think of, and today I posted my latest: Needlework Royalty and a beautiful wedding dress worn by one of Needlework's Royal Princesses.

My Needlework Posting is the latest of my attempts to move into the future and to date I think it is my tutors' favorite. It is probably a toss up between me rising up out of the back of my personal e-Rolls and this one. In time I am hoping I can do even more with this one, but for now it makes me smile. I enjoyed making it to celebrate my Queenship and the Royal Status of a few of my friends.

So it is the Eve of the Royal Wedding and tomorrow is the Big Day. I suspect many of us will have a great day-long or, depending on how industrious you are, an all-night stitch in in front of the television. I suspect, because of a very bad cold, that I will sleep tonight and Tivo it for tomorrow, so now my final decision: which station do I want to record?

Enjoy the eve and the day.
Gay Ann

A Week till the Royal Wedding

All month long on my website I have been celebrating the upcoming Royal Wedding.
I confess, it isn't so much for the 'royal' part as it is for the wacky commemoratives and souvenirs that everybody comes up with on such occasions and I have been posting links and photos of them on my website since last January. What people can come up with! Now I see that Dunkin' Donuts has a Royal Wedding Donut in the shape of a heart.

I even made up my own Royal Commemoratives, a sewing case, a geometric, a heart and a series of fobs potentially with 'Diana Rings' at the end of the fobs. The rings are available at very reasonable prices on eBay, but I don't think they are real sapphires and diamonds. At first I was disappointed I didn't get a multi-carat sapphire for $17.95 including postage. Then I thought, mnever mind, as the beads I used in the fobs weren't real sapphires and diamonds either.

During the month I have had three quizzes, one on Famous Wedding Dresses, one on Famous Brides and one on Famous Couples and people have been guessing the answers. An amazing number have guessed most of them. The least known of the celebrities was Couple #1 in the 'Famous Couples' quiz; as an aside, everybody knew Couple #3.

Now I have started gathering Favorite Wedding Dresses. I actually think this exercise has some worth as a design exercise. This morning I started writing a tiny bit about Style. Not High Style or Fashionista Style but a bit of Vintage/Historical Style. Along with others I have been surfing Wedding Dresses for the one I like best. After viewing everybody's selections so far, I must say that my choices aren't very conventional, but that's fine. I will post my choices at the very end.

I still want to do a feature on 'Royal Commemoratives' from the past. I don't have a huge collection of them but as a long time collector of sewing tools, I do have a few and I think they are great fun. I will start posting photos early next week.

In a windup to the wedding, I've saved my favorite bit for the last. MacSoph and I just finished it (it was a joint effort), with much help from my favorite kids at Apple. They all liked it and laughed pretty hard, so I have high hopes it will amuse my website followers. I will post it sometime toward the end of next next week, likely on Wednesday or Thursday.

So there's still a busy time ahead on Queendom Website, followed by an all-nighter. Perhaps. I am thinking, should I stay up all night, or get lots of zzz's and use Tivo. I keep telling myself that's why they invented Tivo.

But then there's the lure of seeing it all in 'Real Time'.

Which? Don't know yet.

Gay Ann

In the Springtime: an Extravaganza.

I have been looking forward to a Springtime Extravaganza on my website since last November. Through the doldrums of winter and into my favorite time of year.

Why my favorite time of year? Because the days grow longer and it is time for strawberries and asparagus. Yummy foods to eat that aren't even bad for you, and longer times to stitch in the natural daylight. Two good reasons, don't you think?

I began my Springtime Extravaganza with a quote: In the Springtime, the only pretty ring time, the birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding, sweet lovers love the spring.

The quote was full of hints about my Springtime Extravaganza, and now the cat is out of the bag.
Yes, the Lord Chamberlain himself has invited Queendom Website and its followers to put on our best tiaras and spiffy pyjamas, set our alarm clocks and watch the Royal Wedding together. If you travel to my website you will find a replica of the actual invitation, just a little reworked for all of us, and a page of crowns, coronets and tiaras appropriate for the occasion, even if the bride herself decides to wear flowers, not a tiara.

The only thing missing from our Extravaganza so far: some special mementos to stitch through the night and into the day as we celebrate with a night-and-day stitch-in on Shining Needle Society. So, behind the scenes I have been stitching stitching away small patterns to commemorate the day. Now it is the eve of my posting them for the first time and I am anxious to see how Queendom Website looks when it all goes live tomorrow morning.

I have been stitching and MacSoph and I have been working away, and I have a couple of proud moments to crow about:
I have a little geometric and guess what: it sparkles! And when it stops sparkling, the viewer can click on it and it will sparkle again.

I have a little sewing case that opens and closes, and on demand opens and closes again.
And my best effort so far: a little heart that revolves and does a bit of magic.

Last month I celebrated my third anniversary of life with both MacSophs (Little MacSoph and MacP.Soph), my two computers. I didn't have time then to celebrate (toooo many deadlines!) but I will take time this month to reflect on how far I've come and how far I still have to go.

Springtime. The season of growth. Time for me to grow and grow. Now, on the eve of my Springtime Extravaganza, I look forward to taking the next step. All day Sunday I go to school again at the Apple Store and I hope to do a bit more. Building blocks they are, one step more toward my fantasy.

So I hope you will visit Queendom Website and see my new building blocks: the geometric that twinkles, the sewing case that opens and closes and the heart that revolves.
They will be up tomorrow morning first thing.

And I hope too that you will join Queendom Website for the Royal Wedding and the celebration in general of the spring.

Gay Ann

Wrapping Up My Month-Long Series, 'For Beginners'

As March comes to a close, I am wrapping up my month-long series of suggestions for beginners. A number of people have written asking if I would leave up the series on my website. I will leave it up for a while, but ultimately I will take it down because of Website Real Estate. Not enough to keep up everything.

However, the month doesn't mark the end of the series, and I will, from time to time revisit the themes, particularly the themes of the last three posts which weren't truly beginner subjects. They apply to all of us in needlework. The themes of a little restraint, of judicious choices in thread and stitch to enhance the design, that sort of topic.

My big needlepoint Springtime Extravaganza started today with a sort of 'Pre-Start' which will tide me over till I am back from teaching and I have a chance to start in earnest. This Springtime Extravaganza will last for the whole of April and when it finishes, I have a genuine treat, a photo of a new piece from one of the iconic needlework teachers who has indeed taken up her needle again.

Surely as soon as I post the photo of her newest piece, I will have to revisit the themes I mention above, for she is a master of choice of thread and stitch to service the design. So soon as I take down my series for beginners, I will have to re-post some of it all over again.

See what I mean, it may not be there all the time, but it will definitely return, time and again, as the occasion suits.

Meanwhile, I planned to write a wrap-up for the month and I ran out of time.
I will write it when I am home again.

Gay Ann

www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on 'For Beginners' to visit my series.

Compensation: not in money but in needlepoint

For all of March I have been writing posts on my website for beginners. Day before yesterday I tackled the basics of compensation, then decided I couldn't stop with only a definition. Yesterday I wrote more on compensation and touched on the subject of how compensation and stitch choice are inextricably bound together.

Compensation is basically using parts of a stitch to fill in a design element when the whole stitch unit won't fit. Stitchers get all caught up in the art of compensation and sometimes it seems to me, one compensates just for the sake of making it difficult.

Alas, I have seen bad stitch choices where 50% of the stitches are compensating stitches. I know many stitchers think this is a sign of expertise, but all it does essentially is goop up the piece.

I was pleased with my post yesterday because I used illustrations to define compensation, then I changed the compensation and eventually I changed the stitch choice. In the illustration of my final stitch choice, there was hardly any compensation, mainly because the stitch fit the shape so well.

Stitch selection is all important in all ways including compensation. If you have to do too much rigorous compensation, my guess is you are using the wrong stitch. Start working on another choice.

When you look at a design, look at the shapes involved and try to figure out stitch patterns that reflect the shapes. A shape isn't something to be filled with any old stitch pattern just because you like the stitch pattern. The stitch choice should play into the shape and enhance its line. More often than not, if you find a stitch that mirrors the shape in scale and in line, you will find you don't have to struggle much with compensation.

Gay Ann

For my articles on compensation: www.GayAnnRogers and click on "For Beginners".

About My Series of Posts for Needlepoint Beginners

On the first of March I began writing a series I have always meant to write: my own guidelines for beginners.
This morning I just posted my fifth post.

I knew it would be difficult to do, in a large part because I haven't taught beginners for at least 30 years.
Whenever we are in a field for a long time, we use too much jargon, so one of the jobs of writing for beginners becomes the definition of terms we avid stitchers take for granted. It isn't difficult to define the terms; it is just surprisingly difficult to recognize that they are indeed the jargon of needlework.

I have had a good time thinking about beginners and how I would advise them to start. I am hoping, as I continue writing posts, that I am able to incorporate the elements of design and color right from the start. Even though people always say 'learn the rules' then you can break the rules. I am not certain that I agree with this; in a creative field I am not certain that 'the rules' are a good thing.

Recently friends came to visit and we spent a considerable amount of time stitching. My own personal style of stitching is very idiosyncratic, and for the umpteenth time in my long needlework tenure, my friends called my attention to several of my idiosyncrasies. I look on my idiosyncrasies as a part of my style, a part that evolves hand in hand with my sense of what to stitch and how to stitch. Take away those idiosyncrasies and I will not be the same stitcher at all.

This week I feel the issue even more strongly, as I learned about the death of Judy Harper. I never met Judy in person, but I 'met' her online and we had some wonderful conversations. When I wrote a post about 'Goop' on painted canvases, Judy wrote to me and cheered me on. When I first started exchanging emails with her I didn't realize she was an iconic canvas painter from my youth: she did a painting line called 'Creative Needle' and I remember in particular her beautiful Imari plates.

As I have been writing posts for beginners, I have been thinking about Judy and all that she wrote to me about design in needlepoint. I am trying to find a way to incorporate the ideas we discussed into my series, so that fledgling needlepointers learn there is more to needlepoint than the sum of a stitch library.

It isn't how many stitches you know how to do; it is all about what you do with the stitches that really matters. So the most important challenge in a series for beginners becomes, how do I incorporate the importance of personal choices right from the start? How do I explain the basics to beginners, yet reserve and preserve the importance of developing a personal style? How do I hit a balance between technical skill and artistic judgments?

So far I am five posts into the series; it remains to be seen if I can indeed do the job.

Gay Ann

Collecting Thimbles

On my website I have a page where I post eBay listings for thimbles. I started this page right after Thanksgiving because I watched some of the best examples of American thimbles come up for sale and I was enjoying following the auctions. I have no financial interest in the listings I post, but I love to collect and like most collectors, I love a bargain.

There was a time when I spent untold hours shooting photos and writing about thimbles and the effort resulted in my book, American Silver Thimbles. At the time the book was published, thimbles were substantially more expensive than they are today. Thimble collecting reached a feverish pitch for some of the iconic American silver thimbles and prices then were sometimes more than 4-6 times what I saw them fetch this past Christmas season (with some notable exceptions of course).

Yesterday I saw a prime example of fallen glory: a little Columbian Exposition thimble sold for $89.89. Under $100.00. An unheard of low price back in the 1980's-1990'a.

I also remember well the days the Simons Bros. 'Stitch in Time' thimble fetched over $700.00; this past Christmas one went for $128.00.

Why have thimble prices fallen? I would guess a series of reasons.

Several substantial thimble collections have come back on the market and eBay has made comparisons more efficient; we know, for example that 3 or 4 Stitch in Time thimbles came on the market all in a month's time and we could compare the prices they fetched. We also found out there were likely more of them than we thought.

At the height of a collector fad, the prices soar beyond expectation, then when the fad dies off, the prices fall lower than we might imagine.

Sometimes a poorly photographed and written eBay listing results in a bargain price. I took advantage of this factor within the last month: I found a thimble I have always wanted, at a bargain price because the photo was terrible and the write up very vague. I almost missed the listing altogether, clicked my heels when I found it and it is proudly sitting in my thimble case now.

For years after I wrote American Silver Thimbles I didn't pursue thimbles. I don't like to search for collectibles in the midst of a fad; I would rather look for something not in favor. So when, quite by accident I rediscovered thimbles at much more reasonable prices all these years later, I thought the time had come to see if I could fill in some holes in my collection.

I have had a great time posting thimble auctions on my website and indulging in a few of the thimbles for myself.

Will thimbles ever reach their highest prices again? I have no way of knowing and I don't think it matters. I am not buying these thimbles as an investment, just for the pleasure they bring. Thimbles have a rich and interesting history and the workmanship and quality of the designs are often wonderful. I marvel at how much the thimble-makers managed to fit on the band of a thimble. I have always loved needlework tools in general because they are working tools, often with beautiful designs.

And right now another attractive feature about a thimble collection: it doesn't take much room.

Gay Ann

P.S. On my website I have kept photos of past thimble auctions and the prices they fetched as a record of comparison. I will continue to add to the photos as the auctions finish.

February continues....

February, one of my favorite months, continues, and I am celebrating this evening! I am celebrating because I just finished writing the last of the instructions for my hearts sale which will start as soon as I get it all together.

I usually post everything at one time, but this year I've been doing it differently. For several days I have been posting a heart or two from my past. I have been stitching lots of hearts for a long time now, and tomorrow morning the 9th and 10th will find their ways to my website.

This year I succeeded in stitching 5 new hearts and those are the instructions I have been working on since I returned from Callaway School of Needlearts on January 19. Finally (FINALLY!) I just put the last of the graphs into place and the last heart is set to go.

The last heart, which is really the first heart, was a bit of an adventure. I intended it to be one sort of heart and it just cried out to be another sort of heart. One cannot deny its place, so I let this heart follow its bliss (thank you, Joseph Campbell, even when it comes to needlepoint hearts).

So the heart won, and I am thinking of breaking tradition and posting it all on its own so that I can write about it. I am considering giving it pride of place for a couple of days before I introduce the other four new hearts. The odd thing is, for years I intended to make the heart that this one turned into, I just didn't intend this heart to become the one it did. Convoluted, isn't it, and I am not sure I am making good sense.

What does make sense to me is the idea that a design tells me where it wants to go. I have said for so long: the skill doesn't come in predicting what will work, which thread will work or which stitch will work. The skill comes in learning to watch a design and see where it wants to take me. I say this all the time and that's why the little heart won.

I've snapped a few photos; I just haven't had time to stuff them into MacSoph and have a look at them. If they turned out well, watch for my first new heart in a couple of days. After I finish posting my old hearts.

I guess the frames on my home page have been empty long enough now.
It is almost time to fill them.

Gay Ann

February 2011

I hadn't realized how much time had passed since I last posted on my blog: the whole month of January has gone by and here it is, nearly the end of the first week in February 2011. As I have said many times, I am still back in 1999 afraid about Y2K. Do you know there are 10-year-olds who weren't born yet in Y2K? Oh my, old age has set in....

I love February. I love it because it is the most GirlieGirl month on the calendar. In addition to being a GirlieGirl month, I see the days are getting a bit longer now and by the end of February they will be that much longer and spring is just around the corner. I know, I know, the country is freezing cold, but hope of spring is just awakening.

Back to GirlieGirl. What is more GirlieGirl than lace and hearts and a yummy box of chocolates and a bouquet of favorite flowers.
When I think of these things, I think of February and Valentine's Day.

I hadn't realized how many hearts I have stitched until I started looking for them and through them on February 1. I have a drawer full of them, and all intentions of making more of them. In fact, I have made 5 new ones for my Hearts Sale on my website and I am scurrying now to finish the instructions for them. In addition I am just starting a gallery of 10 of my hearts from the past.

MacSoph (my computer) and I have been pounding away, building the gallery and the first of My Hearts from the Past will show up on my website tomorrow morning.

I will start my sale as soon as I have finished writing instructions. I do have one small problem: I didn't finish in time to have Ann&Co proof the instructions, so I had a choice: cancel the sale or ask people to report mistakes as they find them and I'll post them on my website. I put the choice to several of my friends and 100% they voted to have the sale and report mistakes.

So I am game to try this, albeit with some hesitations. I will have an extra go through the instructions but I am not good at proofing my own work. I learned this years ago when I was writing books. I'd pour over and over the ts but not find anything.
I never could believe what the copyeditor found!

We'll see how it goes.

In any event, I am pleased with the new crop of hearts, in fact I am ready for more! I want to take the opportunity to start the first one for next year's hearts sale tonight at Date Night.

Yes, Saturday Night is Date Night: a Date with my Needle. Perfect time in this GirlieGirl month to start something over the top Girlie Girl. I think something with pulled thread would be just the ticket!

Gay Ann

Iron Wrought in Silk

Thank you, Pierrette, for such a nice comment about Iron Wrought in Silk.

As I wrote in Part 1 of my commentary on Iron, I had started and abandoned the sampler a couple of years ago. Only when I wanted a sampler with a gate did I start to work again on it. All the way through this sampler I struggled, all the way through had my doubts. Only when I took the last dozen stitches did I decide it was perfect for my purposes and now I confess, I am so happy that I decided to continue with it and I love the way it came out.

This morning on my website, I posted Part 2 of its story and a photo of it just after I began work on it again. When I look at the photo of it part way and the photo of the finished sampler, I think indeed, sometimes there is a bit of magic in how these pieces sort themselves out.

As I said earlier, it will become such an important part of my website if I can learn how to do all I wish to do. It is always a struggle, but therein lies much of the reward.

Gay Ann

Looking forward to 2011

It's the day after Christmas, Boxing Day if you've ever spent a Christmas in the U.K. It's also Sunday, and cold across the U.S. Perfect time to snuggle up and stitch, which is exactly what I plan to do today.

I am finishing a little scissors case to commemorate Callaway's Needle Arts School's 40th anniversary. With any luck I should finish today; I don't have far to go.

I had a lovely time stitching yesterday, didn't even have to feel guilty about running away from Kit Hell and Mail Jail.
Yesterday also I posted on my website three new projects I finished this year: Mary Queen of Scots, Bess of Hardwick -- and a sampler called 'Iron Wrought in Silk'.

Iron Wrought in Silk is so important for my website, for it leads the way to The Future for me and yesterday I started telling its story. So far Part 1. With all this in mind I look forward to the New Year and all it holds. I have so much stitching to do and so much to learn about MacSoph, my computer, and I so greatly look forward to it all!

Time to start planning to 2011. 2011: I hope it is a lucky number.

Gay Ann

Christmas Story on my Website this morning

It has been a sad year in one respect: we have lost too many friends in our stitching world. This year, in January we lost Linda Wilken who had bravely battled cancer for 5 years. My Christmas Story is a tiny vignette of her last Christmas. It is such a small bit of Christmas Magic, but really about the power of a special friendship through our needles.

I just posted "The Twelve Santas" on my website earlier in the morning.

Gay Ann

It's Snowing on My Website!

This afternoon, with lots of help, I finished decorating Queendom Website for the holidays, and it's snowing on my home page!
Like my first adventure in animation, I got so excited with the first flakes fell across my sewing case.

I look forward to the holidays this year but with some degree of sadness too. We lost too many people this year -- my friend, Linda Wilken, lost her battle to cancer in January. Then Kathleen Rake, such a gentle soul. And a very big part of my life for a while, Ben Grundfast, who was such a seminar and Callaway fixture for many years. And Molly Holt such a short time ago. I will miss them all and I realize only too keenly something I didn't understand when I was young: the ghosts of Christmases past.

All year long I have kept one story about Linda and some Santa Clauses. I saved it for Christmas, and I will publish it sometime within the next week.

In Queendom Website's Chrismtases past, I have always saved a special piece I've stitched and I post it as a small treat on Christmas morning. This year's is framed and waiting, and it is the first piece I have made entirely for my website. When I have learned much more than I know now, this sampler will play a very large role in the future of Queendom Website. But more about that on Christmas Morning.

For now, I have spent some time reorganizing my thimble pages. I now have a page for thimbles for sale now and a page for ended auctions with prices the thimbles fetched. If one looks at auction prices, one can learn a lot about pricing a collectible. As it is the shopping season, I will keep the thimbles, sewing tools and cameos on Queendom Website through the holidays.

Yes, cameos too. At E-Week I had several requests from people for cameos. I am out of the cameo business now -- I bought them only when I was actively teaching my cameo pieces. Instead, I would like to help people find suitable cameos for all my cameo samplers, then next summer I hope to bring the cameo pieces back for a little Cameo Extravaganza.

I had a good time decorating Queendom Website this year. I headed into it without many ideas, then it just came to me as I was searching through my files for a wallpaper. So I hope you will have time to stop by and watch it snow, check out thimble prices and needlework tool prices, and cameo prices as well, stay for my story of Linda Wilken and the Twelve Santas. And if I have a chance, a new Techniques Column too.

Happy Holidays!
Gay Ann

Thimbles and More Thimbles!

Like most collectors I enjoy surfing on eBay. Some time ago I started a page on my website where I mention eBay listings I find and like and think might interest Queendom Website's followers. To date I have posted mostly scissors. I have a true scissors fetish, no doubt at all.

A couple of days ago I found an unusually long list of America's noteworthy thimbles for sale. I haven't seen this many of the famous thimbles for sale for a long while, so I wrote on my website a feature about thimbles. I put them on my home page, I've now done 2 pages of thimble listings from eBay, and I've written a long long column of comments on the vagaries of thimble prices. It was like a stroll down memory lane for me, as I spent the better part of 3 years writing about American Silver Thimbles.

Back in the relative dark ages when I was writing American Silver Thimbles, I knew each one of the thimbles and could tell you who made it. Now? Well, I confess I remember a surprising number of them and who made them, but I don't remember how to spell the names any longer. I had to check my book to see how to spell one of the most noteworthy of the American thimble makers, Ketcham & McDougall. The spelling of their names aside, wow, what great thimbles they made!

If the thimbles now for sale on eBay don't encourage a thimble collecting fetish amongst my followers, I give up, can't be done.
Whether you want to collect thimbles or not, do take a few minutes to look at them and enjoy one of America's smallest art forms. www.GayAnnRogers.com

Enough chatting here about them. I will leave the details to my website, save for one last comment: will I indulge in one or two of the thimbles for sale? Most definitely! I bought my first one tonight. I thought it was a terrific buy and I will likely be back for a second one and perhaps a third. Which ones? Hmmm, let's see how the auction goes for now....

Fun and games in the thimble world, that's for sure.
Gay Ann

Remembering Molly Holt

On Thursday evening our needlework world lost one of the bravest people I have known. Molly Holt died peacefully after a near 25-year-long battle with cancer.

I don't remember when I first met Molly but I would guess that Betty Chen Louis introduced us. I don't remember largely because Molly has always been such a big a part of the needlework world as I've known it. She was a regular at most guild seminars and I cannot remember a time I didn't see her at Callaway.

Molly was one of those students who made needlework a better, livelier and more inventive place. Not content to work on designs from others, Molly was a leader in studying design and color and the application of both to needlework. She studied memorably with Wilcke Smith, Jan Beaney, Jean Littlejohn, Pam Godderis and Charlotte Miller. Last year at EGA she applied and was accepted as a member of Fiber Forum, EGA's more experimental group.

Last January at Callaway I saw what I thought was such a worthwhile culmination of Molly's expression in a piece she displayed in the Callaway exhibit. It was her artistic look at her battle with cancer and it so impressed me that I posted a photo and her artist's statement on my website homepage. In honor of Molly I have re-posted the photo of her piece (above) along with her artist's statement (below).

We who knew Molly will greatly miss her and her influence on our embroidery world, although I suspect her spirit will remain close to many of us, urging us to try harder, be more experimental, look at alternatives and stray from the easy. So I won't say good bye to Molly. She will stay and help us all in memory and in spirit.

Gay Ann

Molly's artist's statement follows, below. The photo of Molly sipping coffee was from Callaway last January; the photo of Kate, Rivers, Lee and Molly was from our day at 'The Birth of Impressionism' at the DeYoung in San Francisco when we were all together for the EGA Seminar in September.


From Molly Holt:

In September 2009 my breast cancer was found to have suddenly metastasized into my liver. This piece was begun in early July of that year, a time when the cancer was actively moving, but I was not yet conscious of its presence. However, I believe my inner artist WAS very aware of what was happening in my body and that this piece came out of that awareness.

The first layer of the piece uses plain sheer fabrics to create a geometric design of recto-linear shapes. These represent the underlying strength of my overall health, although if you look closely, some of the edges are beginning to fray here and there. The second, top layer of fabric is created using both plain and printed sheers and some solid cottons as well. These very organic, slightly sinister shapes writhe and mover over the geometric surface beneath and represent the cancer cells. The machine stitching moving around the organic shapes is the chemotherapy I'm currently undergoing engulfing and attacking the cancer cells.

There are two border areas made up of black areas machine-stitched and design without the machine stitching surrounding them. Are the borders prologue, representing the time before I began treatment, the chemotherapy "lurking" and waiting at the edges, the cancer cells not yet as large or full of movement, the underlying health fraying further? Or are they the epilogue, what remains when the chemotherapy is withdrawn? That remains to be seen, but I believe my inner artist knows.

This piece was begun in a class with Maggie Weiss. She challenged us to work in black and white, although in the end I chose to add a bit of color for emphasis -- and perhaps hope. Maggie further "assigned" us to do our underlying layer as a geometric structure and the top layer in organic shapes. The shapes were to be in three sizes and have cut out areas. The design itself was left entirely up to each student.

Post-E-Week

I have been absent from writing on my blog because I have been steeped in Mail Jail for E-Week's sales.
Now, after a month in Mail Jail, I have reached my last dozen orders and this morning I put out an official call for mistakes in the orders I have filled. Time to start mopping up and soon time to move on.

Next come the kits for my final travel-teaching job at Callaway in January and for my job with Pat Correz in the spring.
And after that? The beginning of my small dream for Queendom Website.

Actually my small dream begins this weekend for I am driving on Saturday morning up to my framer (the noteworthy New Creations Framing in Pasadena) to pick up a sampler called 'Iron Wrought in Silk'. Iron Wrought in Silk marks the beginning of the dream, let's say Part 1, so needless to say I am excited to see how the sampler looks and to begin work on a bit of magic for it.

So when will my followers catch a glimpse of Iron Wrought in Silk?
On Christmas morning, of course. A fitting time for the start of a dream, don't you think?

And when will the dream begin to happen? Well, not tomorrow, that's for sure. I have two more large samplers to stitch first and a long road of computer lessons to travel, so it will be a while. A while filled with a bunch of happy stitching and studying hours.

I am hoping the people who are in my general classroom at Shining Needle Society will keep me company as I stitch stitch stitch toward making a little dream a reality.

Gay Ann

Reflections as E-Week begins to head toward the finish line

It is almost over, only one day to go for my 4th annual E-Week Sale. Some E-Week it has been too, with a record number of people coming to my Early Morning Sales. I kind-of held my breath that I would get it right and that all the windows would open smoothly. We had one hiccup but nothing like last year when Little MacSoph, simply sick of the whole thing, posted an Apple Ad.
(I know Queendom Website's followers remember that ad because one person wrote me this year and asked how much the computer MacSoph was advertising last year cost).

So the windows all opened in a timely fashion and each day lasted about 2 hours. Several people wrote to me and said it was just like Stitchers' Christmas and I wanted to write and say 'thank you' for such a kind thought!

One more day to go, then E-Week will morph into a new feature this year called 'E-Week ANNEX'. By and large Kate Gaunt has done the work and I owe her a big debt. I couldn't have begun to undertake it all. As followers of Queendom Website know, I struggle under the weight of Mail Jail, so it is wonderful for me that Kate has undertaken ANNEX.

We never intended to end up in the kit business, in fact for the first years of E-Week, I avoided it as best I could. But I have heard from so many people that they have struggled to find the supplies for my projects and increasingly I have become concerned.

Last spring in my Shining Needle general classroom I posted a questionnaire. It wasn't a long one, just 5 questions. I had well over 100 people reply and the vast majority asked please, could I offer a kit option. As many have local needlework shops they wish to support (don't we all wish for that), they didn't want kits to be mandatory, but they did want the option. People who live in areas without needlework shops report that they increasingly depend on the internet for all needlework supplies and they very much favored a kit option.

So with Echoes of Elizabeth Sewing Case last summer Kate and I joined forces to see if we could provide a kit option for the students in my Echoes class. It worked out surprisingly well. Most of the mistakes were ones I made, but most got sorted out fairly quickly.

Echoes was successful enough that we decided to try making ANNEX for E-Week this year.

We both would be very interested in your opinion of ANNEX. Neither of us intends to have ANNEX be a full service needlework shop, only to provide the supplies for my E-Week designs.

We will see how it works out.


So E-Week is drawing to a close and what will come next? Time to stitch! I plan to carry on with Stitch Gay Ann Stash in Shining Needle Society. This year I will lead Stitch Gay Ann Stash in my general classroom at SNS for people working on my designs; I also plan to lead '12 Stitches a Day' in Shining Needle Society's 'Student Lounge'. Let's see if we can all have a productive year until E-Week 2011 rolls around. Heaven forbid the thought!

For now I am going to toddle off to Mail Jail where I expect to live for the better part of a month and a half.

Thank you to everybody who came to E-Week 2010. I hope you will stitch along with us now.
Gay Ann

I am set for tomorrow morning

Finally I am finished and my early morning sale on E-Week's Saturday is ready to go.
Tomorrow 8:00 a.m. California time.

Once I finished, I've been stitching and its nice to keep company with my needle.
Nice to kick back for an hour and unwind.

Till tomorrow morning, then.
I hope it all goes well, hope MacSoph does well. Last year little MacSoph derailed and put up an ad for Apple right in the middle of the sale.

We'll see.
Back to stitching.
Gay Ann

E-Week Eve

It is E-Week Eve, the day before my E-Week Sale starts and there's a small lull before the frenzy of trying to post everything correctly. It is all set to go, I just have to check it twice more.

Then I will stay up tonight as long as I can and post it all.
This year it took me just 2 days short of a month to make more than 70 pages in total so far. Poor MacSoph (my computer) is groaning under the weight of it all.

Right now MacSoph and I are at work on my Early Morning Sales for Saturday and Sunday mornings, but not in earnest yet. I won't know which designs I will sell until later today when I close my galleries. For now we have started blocking in pages and getting bits of it all set up.

Then guess what: once I go as far as I can, I am off to look at threads and I plan to stitch today for a good hour or two.
Yippee! It has been a long time since I have had a block of stitching time!

Gay Ann almost set to go

All four of my galleries are posted

This morning I posted the last of the galleries I made for my Pre-Week celebrations. Although they are not comprehensive, the four galleries do offer an idea of what I stitch.

E-Week, my annual sale of patterns from my archives is only a 4 days away now, with early morning specials on Saturday morning and Sunday morning at 8:00 am each day, California time. I will offer in the Saturday and Sunday specials those designs people have requested most frequently. I haven't made the tally yet; I will in a couple of days. I am wondering which ones.

To visit my galleries:
www.GayAnnRogers and click on the yellow navigation bar.

And enjoy!

For me it is a stroll down memory lane, and what I like thinking about most is this: I am thinking of all the ones I will be able to add in the years to come.

Here's to lots of stitching time!
Gay Ann