Christmas Video in Place on Queendom Website

This morning I posted a video I made of sunsets from our window.
I was doing it just for inspiration for myself and DH suggested I turn it into our Christmas card this year.

So I made it into a Christmas card and posted it on my website this morning.
I also posted a link to Vimeo for people who can't get it to play on my website or would like to see it in higher resolution.

So what does a video of sunsets have to do with needlepoint?
Hopefully inspiration and a personal goal for me, and a reminder that the world need not be literal.

I've decided to monkey a bit with the concept of not being so literal and into the New Year will leave the video in place and write a series of small articles called 'A Reminder Not To Be So Literal'. It will make a good follow-up to my series last spring for Beginners for it is the next necessity in the food chain of design.

So what about more traditional Christmas decorations? They'll come too and soon Queendom Website will have all sorts of wallpapers and gifs celebrating the holidays, but I shall leave my video in place on my home page throughout the holidays.

I hope you will take a minute and look at it. It is just a smidgen over a minute long.
www.GayAnnRogers.com

Gay Ann

Unusual Christmas Decorations for a Needlepoint Website

Since October 21 I have been toiling away in what I call Mail Jail from my E-Week Sale in mid October.

I am almost finished! I am down to my last three orders. I can't finish until I hear from three people, so I have parked these orders for the time being and am transitioning into life after E-Week and Mail Jail.

In the immediate future I face two tasks: deciding on Christmas decorations for Queendom Website and stitching and writing instructions for hearts for my small hearts sale in February. They are both tasks I look forward to doing.
.....................

Near as I can figure I started writing on this blog 5 years ago. Laura, then my webmistress, designed it for me and taught me how to post on it. I used to write on it regularly, I even conducted my first E-Week on it, but then when I began managing Queendom Website myself, my blog fell into semi-disuse. About a year or so ago I began writing on it again as it seemed like a perfect place to post op eds and behind-the-scenes-of-Queendom-Website musings.

The very first photo I ever posted on my blog was of a sunset from our window. DH gave me my first digital camera and my sister in law taught me how to take a photo. Later on, after an all-day struggle, I figured out how to take the photo out of iPhoto and post it on my blog. Those were the days before the advent of Apple University in my life.

Sunsets have always figured in my musings here and on Queendom Website. For two years I ended E-Week with a photo of a sunset and call it 'The Sun Sets on E-Week'.

A short while ago Sally B. wrote and asked me for a copy of my sunset photo. I don't have an idea which photo Sally wants, but she gave me an idea for how to celebrate Christmas on Queendom Website this year (thank you, Sally).

With my idea of an unusual Christmas celebration this year, MacSoph and I toiled away and produced my favorite bit of computer work from this year. I was so excited that I got it to work, so of course I can't wait to post it. Won't be long now. It is an usual feature for a needlepoint website, but I am hoping I can tie it all into needlework as the season progresses.

Meanwhile, my friend Lee said she thinks my Elizabeth video has been on Queendom Website for long enough now, so I've changed the home page: a sunset. Actually, two sunsets, one for real, one with a little bit of help from PhotoShop. I will publish them tomorrow morning. They should mark the Sunset on E-Week, but not quite. A little premature, but not hopefully by much.

As for the hearts? They are coming along. What a joy to have my central task be stitching right now. A joy indeed!

Gay Ann

Of Queendoms and Castles in My Needlework World

I have been toiling in what I call Mail Jail for the better part of a month now. Mail Jail is the process of mailing out orders from my once-a-year E-Week Sale.

I am almost finished; I am down to the last dozen orders and then I have to repair all my mistakes. I should imagine it will take me till the end of the week after Thanksgiving and I will be able to fold up my Mail Jail tent and transition into Life After E-Week Mail Jail.

This morning I established an important date on my website: January 15, 2011. It is the date by which everyone must report any errors in their orders. After January 15 I will not make any corrections.

Why am I being so strict about the date this year? Because MacSoph and I have a daunting winter and spring ahead: we have to build a new castle for Queendom Website and then we have to move. Remember what moving and remodeling are like? I believe that moving and remodeling are two of life's most stressful activities, and I am not sure that our e-move won't be almost as stressful.

A new castle for Queendom Website. Stress aside, I am looking forward to a new look and a new program. For a long time now (more than a year) the kids who teach me at the Apple Store have been telling me that Queendom Website has outgrown iWeb and I need to move, so they don't see the demise of iWeb as a tragedy for me.

Still it is a daunting task and I am properly timid and apprehensive about the road ahead.

How will MacSoph and I soothe our nerves? MacSoph can sing now (at a late date I discovered iTunes) and I am hoping she will sing to me while I stitch. My great temptation of course is to stitch a castle as a commemoration of Queendom Website's move.
Hmmm, a castle. Not a bad idea. We'll see.

For now, it is important that my followers help by checking their E-Week orders and making sure they have everything. For details see my postings in Mail Jail on Queendom Website: www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on Mail Jail on the yellow navigation bar. Remember, January 15 is but a little over 2 months away. And maybe by then Adobe will have my prograph out of beta. Maybe.

Gay Ann

Today is the Final Day of E-Week Annex, so I am looking ahead

It's the last day of E-Week Annex, the part of E-Week where Kate's Corner sells the supplies for the designs I've sold at E-Week this year.

It's the last day of Annex and therefore the last day of E-Week 2011. Kate will be in Mail Jail for some time to come, for that matter so will I. I think it will be a month more before I settle all mistakes etc., but I have made a great start, and whew! Queendom Website will at least in part return to normal.

I always look at the end of E-Week as the beginning of the new year on Queendom Website. That's how it feels, and I am looking forward now. People have already started asking me, could I bring back this or bring back that next year at E-Week, when am I going to sell something else, what will the new mystery be like, etc. etc. Well, I don't know the answers to any of these questions yet. It's in the future, that's what I know. I don't have to decide right now.

Top of the list this year is moving. Remember, Queendom Website has to move into its new castle and I have to start construction very soon. Indeed I have a busy year on Queendom Website, constructing a new home for us.

My target day to move is in June. It will take several days to move, or so the Apple kids tell me. I want to be all ensconced in the new castle by the Summer Solstice so that we can have a 'longest day of the year' party to celebrate the move. And if it all happens well, there will be a couple of surprises along the way.

We'll see how it goes.
meanwhile, farewell to E-Week Annex this afternoon, farewell to E-Week itself, and a big thank you to Kate for doing all of Kate's Corner this year.

Gay Ann

My Mailing List for Needlepoint Designs

Isn't it always the way it happens: E-Week hasn't been closed for 2 weeks yet and this morning I received a number of emails asking please could people buy my patterns.

The answer for now is 'no, my sale is closed'. Why don't I open it again? Because right now I am maxed out, I can't handle any more orders.

The best I can offer is to add people to my Mailing List for future sales. If someone is on my mailing list, she hears from me only 3 or 4 times a year, right before or during a sale of my needlepoint patterns.

So, for example, the next time someone will hear from me is in February when I traditionally sell needlepoint hearts right around Valentine's Day. The next time after that will be probably in April, May or June when I have promised a new geometric mystery (similar to Mystery with a Little Bit of Glitz, Glittering Diamonds and Mystery in a Corner).

This June will be a big time for me: I will transfer to a new website on or near the Summer Solstice, as Mobile Me, my current server, goes out of existence and iWeb starts to fade. It will also mark the fourth anniversary of Queendom Website (my website) and I was thinking of having a small celebratory sale then.

In the summer I will teach my Elizabeth 1, a Portrait, in the summer, and then it will be time again for E-Week 2012.

If you are on my mailing list, you will hear from me about each of these events. Otherwise I will be silent and not clog your inbox.

If you would like to be on my mailing list, write to me at GARRogers@earthlink.net.

Gay Ann

E-Week Annex is on my website!

We have a special treat again this year: E-week Annex, with all sorts of Supplies Packets and goodies to go with my designs from E-Week.

Kate's Corner has put this all together and it is an impressive array of offerings. Kate really did her homework and she has even found some of the threads no longer in production, for example the Medici wool for Golden Acorns and the Marlitt for Tuxedo Heart. The supplies aren't unlimited but indeed there are many Supplies packets available.

This is the second year that Kate has constructed E-Week Annex for me and I am grateful. I don't think I could have done the work, yet people have always asked about the convenience of one-stop shopping for my designs.

So thank you, Kate, for coming back again and helping me!

Gay Ann

Stitching Elizabeth: a video about my needlepoint Elizabeth 1

Yesterday E-Week, my annual sale of patterns from my archives, ended. Whew! Finished for another year! I made it through!

I like to end E-Week each year with a small treat and this year I made a small video of slides of my needlepoint design of Elizabeth 1. I used photos of my Elizabeth and the Elizabeths of my students from Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts last January, along with photos of Carole Lake, Michael Boren and me and portraits of Carole and me masquerading in portraits of Elizabeth.

A fitting way to end E-Week this year. www.GayAnnRogers.com, to see it.

My portrait of Elizabeth 1 made a mystery appearance at E-Week this year. When she was unveiled, it turned out that she will become a class at Shining Needle Society next summer. Kate, director of Shining Needle Society, our online school, will open a room very soon and we will hang out in that room until the class starts.

Why so long? To acclimatize and ready ourselves for the class. We can chat and stitch and enjoy all things Elizabeth and stitching in there. I am looking forward to it. A place to relax.

Meanwhile, I face Mail Jail, that is, mailing the orders from E-Week.

I sent off the first batches of patterns to the print shop on Wednesday afternoon. I expected to have them back yesterday, but the print shop hasn't called me yet to say they've finished printing them. Soon as they finish and I pick them up, I will start mailing them. I imagine it will take me close to 6 weeks, maybe even 2 months, to mail them all.

So farewell to E-Week for another year.

Gay Ann

E-Week, my annual needlepoint sale, is almost over

Only a few hours till E-Week, the annual sale of needlepoint designs from my archives ends.

This is my 5th E-Week Sale. It doesn't seem possible that five years has passed since I first thought up the idea and sold patterns on my blog. It was before the birth of Queendom Website.

This year's sale had its very smooth moments (my Early Morning Sales went off like clockwork) and its rocky moments.
The rockiest was when MacSoph, my trusty little MacBookPro crashed. I think she'd had enough of it all and just decided not to boot up.

After about an hour she'd had enough rest and she was back, but she didn't want to connect with our online network.

About a year ago one of my Apple tutors had told me that he thought I needed a second computer to back up my whole system, and he was so right! Little MacSoph, my other laptop came into service. It's a bit disjointed but I'm surviving.

A man arrives this afternoon to see to MacSoph and try to convince her she needs to go back online.
If he succeeds, then I will end E-Week with a treat. I hope people will stop by and see it tomorrow morning. It is just a small treat, complete with music and all. A fitting end and a bit of calm to a sometimes frantic week.

Is it really all over?

No, for Annex will start in a couple of days, but this time the hassle is Kate's as she begins to live in Kit Hell and Mail Jail. She has been such a huge help to me and I hope to lend a bit of help and support back. Kate is gathering together supplies packets for many of the projects I've sold at E-Week.

And after Annex?

Time to stitch all the stuff! I plan a rigorous year of stitching in my general classroom at Shining Needle Society. If you would like to join us, membership is free, just write to KateGaunt@aol.com.

Be prepared to wield your needle in the next year, till it is time again for E-Week. Yikes! I have to tell you that I have already received a number of requests for next year's sale! Happily I am not thinking about it yet. I have a whole year till then!

Gay Ann

E-Week's Early Morning Sales

Tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday mornings, at 8:00 a.m. California time, Early Morning Sales begin on my website, in connection with my annual sale of designs from my archives.

It is exciting! On my website are 8 windows for each morning. If you click on them now, nothing happens.
If you click on the first one at 8:00, it will open and a special offering will be behind it.

A different window will open every 15 minutes till all 8 windows are open.
Some of the offerings are for limited numbers, some for everybody. Some are returning designs, some are new designs, and new this year: a small twist on a very popular sewing case.

It is lively and quick paced and it stirs up life on E-Week's Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Only once a year; I hope you will come and join us.

Gay Ann

www.GayAnnRogers.com
Remember, 8:00 a.m. prompt, tomorrow morning!

My Needlepoint Mysteries, their variations and colors, and E-Week

So many of you have asked for me to bring my geometric mysteries back in my E-Week Sale.

This morning a person ( I don't know her name, she didn't sign her email) wrote to me and asked if the patterns contained all of the colorways I show in my galleries on my website, www.GayAnnRogers.com.

The answer is no.

Those examples were from stitchers who stitched the mystery when it was first new.
Sadly I have lost the stitchers' names. If I don't have their names, I certainly don't have their threads and colors.

When these mysteries were new, they arrived on stitchers' doorsteps without any color or line guides.
The pattern includes instructions like this:

Choose a Watercolours or other overdyed thread suitable for 18-mesh canvas.
Choose a canvas to coordinate with the Watercolours.
Choose a pearl cotton approximately the same color as the canvas.
Choose a light value that harmonizes with the Watercolours.
Choose a dark value that harmonizes with the Watercolours.
Choose a Kreinik braid that contrasts.

I just made these up to give an example of how I write mysteries.

This is a long roundabout way of saying, the many examples on my website are for inspiration but the stitcher will have to decide on her own colors.

One of the good parts of my classroom at Shining Needle Society is that stitchers may have help from their fellow stitchers in the classroom . For example, if several of you are working on the same mystery, you might help one another. Or you might ask advice of the other members of the classroom. If you would like to join Shining Needle Society and my classroom there, membership is free.

Just write to KateGaunt@aol.com. Kate is the director.

OK, why would I do this to you? Why do I want you to grapple with colors instead of my giving them to you and letting you zone out and stitch.

I'll answer the question in my next post.
Gay Ann

Notes on My Needlepoint Colorizations

I am beginning to receive quite a few queries about my colorizations and whether all Colorways are included in my patterns.

When I include the colorways, I specify in the description of the pattern, for example I included with Summer Solstice Geometric the original colors and the blue-green colors and the light blue and silver.

I do not include the ones for the examples I posted on my website this morning.

I have two comments to say about them:
first, I think you could email the colorization to your favorite shop and ask them to pull the colors.
Once you have the pattern, you could send them the threads and numbers in the pattern so that they would have a guide to go by.
I am sure that Pat Duggan, for example, would be happy to help you with the task.

Second, I am rather hoping that you will use the colorizations as inspiration and grapple with pulling them yourself.
It is a bit of learning and a bit of a stretch and a bit of growth well worth your while.

All summer and fall long (as long as fall has been, ie not long) I have been trotting down to our local needlework shop and pulling the colors to match my colorizations. Sometimes I can't find exactly what I did, but I find something close enough. If I can't find anything in a particular line of threads, say in Vineyard silk, I try pearl cotton or silk (figuring I will use multiple ply) or floss, or some other thread that catches my fancy.

Rarely is a design such that ONLY one thread in ONLY one color will work.

One of the reasons for studying color this way is to gain the confidence to find alternatives.

After all, needlepoint is our way of slipping into a imaginative world and playing with visually satisfying colors and textures.
Part of the joy is finding the exact way you see it in your mind. To do that you have to be a bit flexible and flexibility comes with confidence.

That's one of my purposes in leading my Shining Needle Society classroom. I want people to gain the confidence to try.
If you would like to join Shining Needle Society in general and my classroom specifically, membership is free.
Just write to KateGaunt@aol.com. Kate is the director of Shining Needle Society.

If you have any opinions about my colorizations, good or bad, I would welcome them, either posted publicly here or directed to me personally in an email. GARRogers@earthlink.net.

This post is long enough.

I have a couple of other issues about colorizations and my mysteries. I'll be back in a while and write another post.
Otherwise these will become so long nobody will ever read all the way through them.

Gay Ann

MacSoph is in Mourning

One day many years ago DH said to me that we had been invited to hear a presentation about a new computer system called Next.

At the time we were two of probably 15 people who watched and listened for a couple of hours as Steve Jobs told us about his new ideas and system called 'Next'.

Little did I ever dream that day of the impact that Next would have on my life. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, Apple incorporated the ideas of Next and today MacSoph, my little MacBook pro, is really a Next MacBook.

Today MacSoph is in mourning because her father has died.

The impact that Steve Jobs has had on my own life is incredible. I have gone, in the last year, from traveling and teaching needlework, at my height on the road a week or two out of every month, to life creating a website and teaching online.

Instead of time on an airplane, I now spend so many of my hours learning to use MacSoph and working on Queendom Website. What a change it has been, none of it possible for someone like me, had Apple not made a computer so easy to learn to use, and had it not made a program like One to One lessons to teach me how MacSoph works.

Thank you, Steve Jobs, and thank you, Apple. I will do my best to study harder, learn more and carry on loving Apple.

Gay Ann

Monday, 9 Days Till E-Week

This morning on my website I posted the third of three galleries of my work.

My first gallery is of all the mysteries I've designed and stitched over the years.
They aren't mysteries any longer because people can see what they look like, but originally people bought them with little idea what the pattern would be and took me on faith as the pattern unfolded.

I discovered early on that a mystery was a great chance to offer small options to encourage a bit of creativity, and that's what happened. If you look at various examples of my geometric mysteries, they vary greatly, particularly 'Glittering Diamonds'. Over the years I have seen examples I don't recognize because of the way the color interacts with the pattern. It delights me and I am hoping to do more of them.

The second of my galleries features all 10 of the designs I have made incorporating cameos, from a very large sampler to small ornaments and hearts. I think cameos are so pretty and romantic that for a long time I was very caught up in making needlework to display them. Before now I have never gathered together all of them in one place. It was fun to see.

The third of my galleries displays six of the large samplers I have made over time and sold at previous E-Weeks. All of them were projects I taught at National Seminars for EGA and ANG and of course for a favorite job at Callaway School of Needle Arts.
These samplers include some of my most industrious work.

Aside from these three galleries, I have a large gallery displaying my Elizabeth 1 Portrait and the portraits of Elizabeth from my students at Callaway last January. I am amazed at how much each Elizabeth has her own personality, reflecting of course each student who stitched her.

I plan to keep these up for a couple more days as I prepare for E-Week, my annual sale of patterns from my archives.
E-Week begins bright and early this year on October 12.

This year's E-Week is a trifle different. In the past the patterns have always been from my guild days, projects I had taught at past seminars. This year I have stitched 11 new designs just for E-Week, a first for me, but a harbinger of E-Weeks to come, I hope.

I see more samplers in my future, both large and small, lots more sewing cases, some new figures (I still have Bess and Mary to write) and who knows what else. As the spirit moves me. It is the genuinely best part of life right now, that I can stitch as I wish.

Hope you will stop by Queendom Website to see all these galleries:
For quick reference: www.GayAnnRogers.com

Gay Ann

Elizabeth 1, a Portrait: my needlepoint design

This morning Queendom Website came alive with portraits of Elizabeth 1.

On my home page is my own version of Elizabeth 1; 'inside' are portraits worked by Carole Lake's and my students at Callaway School of Needle Arts last January.

When I first thought of making an exhibition of Elizabeth 1 portraits, I worried they might all look the same, but surprisingly (considering they were worked from my pattern) they each have their own personalities. I have had a great time clicking through the exhibition and seeing all the variations of them -- it has been a delight!

To see the Elizabeths, travel to my website:

www.GayAnnRogers.com
and click on 'Elizabeth Exhibition'.
And enjoy!

Gay Ann

A Book for Thimble Collectors: American Silver Thimbles for sale

For a long time I've been promising to post a sale of my book, American Silver Thimbles.

I did so this morning on my website.

Quite often people write to me with all sorts of thimble queries and I try to answer them as time allows. Over the years, at the top of the list has come the question: 'do you have any copies of your book at a reasonable amount of money?' Finally I decided I have read this too often, so I typed 'American Silver Thimbles' into a book query on Amazon.com and had quite a shock.

The cheapest copy I found was $255.00, the most expensive $350.00.

It was then I decided I had better sell some copies, so I posted them at the book's original price of $47.95 plus $6.00 priority shipping. I am hoping that fledgling thimble collectors to whom I have long promised copies will be able to have a copy now.

American Silver Thimbles is valuable in this sense: it is a record of American silver thimbles from 53 collections at what I think of as the height of thimble-collecting frenzy more than 20 years ago. At just about the height of the frenzy, I visited many remarkable collections, shot so many rolls of film, then stood in a dark-room converted from a bathroom and processed and printed all the photos for the book.

So many of the collections have since been broken up that I look back and think to myself it was a great time to shoot so many thimbles. I doubt I could assemble the collection today.

..............

After I wrote American Silver Thimbles, thimbles were at their height. Good ones were scarce and fetching all-the-time higher and higher prices.

I had never been a singularly devoted thimble collector; I had bought them, but only as one of many needlework tools, and when they continued to fetch higher and higher prices, I gave up looking for them.

For the 20 years that followed my book, I transitioned into teaching needlework full time, and I more or less forgot about collecting thimbles.

Then last November, when I was surfing eBay for interesting auctions to post on my website, I came across some remarkably wonderful American thimbles for auction. I followed along through the Christmas season and was amazed to see the high quality and relatively low prices of the thimbles that 20 years ago had been so sky high in price.

And guess what: I became interested in thimbles all over again. I am at heart a contrarian when it comes to shopping for antiques. I don't believe in shopping for things when they are at the height of fashion.

Last Christmas I began looking back through American Silver Thimbles and just for fun, I began ticking off the thimbles I'd found on eBay. I had a great time! It was just like visiting old friends who has slipped out of my life for a while.

Of course I bought a few of them. I think my favorite finds were two: I bought the Liberty Bell thimble at a fraction of its former price and I bought a very rare Untermyer Robbins thimble of two lions. Finding any UR thimble was, in the old days, a happy occasion; finding a highly decorative one a joy indeed.

An old hobby renewed. Now I look every week to see if some interesting thimbles turn up.

And now I am hoping maybe a new generation of thimble collectors will be inspired to enjoy these tiny little treasures.

Gay Ann

Busy Busy Busy

Up front I have kept my website going with eBay listings I like and hope will be of interest to my followers.
I've now stripped down my navigation bar to only 2 lines in preparation for new postings.

Behind the scenes MacSoph (my computer) and I are scrambling scrambling. MacSoph's worn out her keys and I've worn out my fingers typing on those keys. iWeb is now swollen to a dangerously large level and MacSoph crosses her keys and I my fingers that everything won't crash.

Up front it looks like nothing's happening.

But things will start to happen soon.

I have a wonderful exhibition coming soon. I can't wait!
And I have some galleries of my own work coming soon.
And soon, too soon, it will be time for Pre-Week.
And then for E-Week itself.
And then for Early Morning Sales.
And E-Week Annex where people can order supplies from Kate.

Yikes! Come on, MacSoph, we have to go back to work!

But up front it all still looks so leisurely.

Gay Ann

A New Adventure

Here it is, in my busiest season (with E-Week just around the corner) and I've started a new adventure:
I am tackling stitching on linen ground.

I've been at it for about 3 or 4 days now and I've learned a lot, with help from my Shining Needle Society Classroom.

Today I had a note from Jane-Ellen Balzuweit offering me a suggestion or two and suddenly into my mind jumped: Idea for an online class at Shining Needle Society, called 'Linen Technique Clinic' and I am hoping Jane-Ellen will lead it.

Jane-Ellen, if you have ever followed her embroidery career, is one of those amazing needlework whizzes who can do anything with a needle and thread and get it to work. She reminds me a little of Carol Algie who has the same talents. They both seem to be able to tackle anything, easy or difficult, and have it come out well.

For those of you who don't know them, you should! Both have taught for EGA for years and years and they are both people I look up to.

Here I am, on a new adventure, and I look forward to help from Jane-Ellen and from other members of the class.

Does this mean I am giving up needlepoint? No, absolutely not. I just have a vision of a sampler I would love to make and it deserves to be on a linen ground. I will write more about it as time permits. For now I am content to doodle on different types of linen and see how I do.

And of course I have too much work to do for E-Week, so I really shouldn't be doing any stitching at all.
But who can live without a needle in her hand at least some time during the day? Not me, that's for sure.

If you'd be interested in taking this class along with me, write to KateGaunt@aol.com. She is the director of Shining Needle Society and she and Jane-Ellen are starting to plan the class.

I can't wait!
Gay Ann

Reflections on Designing and Stitching in 2011

This morning I posted on my website my own personal favorite of the Summer Solstice designs I doodled this summer.

For a long while the Flower was my favorite and I would still like to try and convert it into a thistle. I don't think it would be a difficult conversion and as I love purple, green and white together, I would enjoy working on it. Maybe early next year. Till then I fear my days are filled to capacity and I would like to know, does anybody know how to stretch the days?

Right now an elephant is standing very near me in my work room. The Elephant is E-Week, my yearly sale. A month and a half to go and I am working away every moment at it.

Some time ago an acquaintance remarked quite authoritatively at a meeting that I had stopped stitching entirely and I spent ALL my time on my computer.

I do spend a lot of time on my computer, most of it writing instructions for the nearly 30 pieces of needlepoint that I have designed and stitched since January 1 this year.

5 hearts, the Royal Wedding pieces and the Summer Solstice designs have all turned up on my website so far but they account for only a part of 2011 for me. Most of my new pieces are for E-Week and I have indeed been busy writing instructions on the computer.

I have not given up stitching. I don't think I ever will. Quite simply I love my time with my needle. It feeds my soul.

And besides, I have far too much stash to give up stitching. Far too much!

This brings me back to Summer Solstice and my favorite of the designs in the series. In the end I like my original Sun-like Geometric the best. It looks like the Summer Sun to me and after all, that is the most appropriate of the designs from a Summer of busy stitching time.


Gay Ann

Plans for My Summer Solstice Designs

I had a great weekend, a bit of everything I spend my time doing.

I stitched quite a while on both Saturday and Sunday evenings.
On Saturday I went bead shopping (yes more beads, it seems an endless addiction).
On Sunday I went to the Apple Store for lessons. I face the long task of redoing my website in the next year.
In between I wrote about my plans for Summer Solstice, my designs from a summer of doodle-stitching.

I just posted my plans on my website in Summary 4 of my Summer Solstice experience, but here is a bit more about my plan.

I had not been working for long on Summer Solstice when I noticed that I was using a single center motif and building up patterns around it. It surprised me how much the various patterns changed what was essentially the same design. By the time I started colorizing the parts, I thought all the designs took on such a different appearance, even though as I said they were essentially the same design.

In the Summer Solstice Banner I made up a series of new squares and each could easily function in the role of my original center design. If someone took one of these little center squares, she could gently and non-threateningly build herself a new design.
She could juggle my patterns and add her favorites to them; she could experiment almost endlessly with different colors.

In short, I could turn Summer Solstice into a simple little design experience with anybody willing to try.

Of course anybody who wishes to can stitch any one of the designs just as I did, but I am hoping they will join me in a Study Room at Shining Needle Society and watch what happens. I even have a prize, a yummy cake shipped, for the stitcher who makes the most creative adaptation of Summer Solstice.

I am hoping to start the Study Room for Summer Solstice the first week of the new year and have it up until April 1.

More details on my website, and still more will show up at E-Week, my sale in mid-October.

Gay Ann

Forty-Six Cheers for Adobe!

This summer my life got a lot worse: Apple took away the program I use to create my website. Yes, iWeb is disappearing and MacSoph, Queendom Website and I have become iWeb Orphans.

All summer long my angst has been, what do we do?

Now almost every sophisticated computer person has looked askance at iWeb as 'not sophisticated' 'a very bad web design program' 'not for serious people' 'only for amateurs' etc. OK, I've learned enough to know that some of the complaints are well founded.

Still, iWeb gave me a very simple format and a great deal of freedom to stitch together my bit of magic.

As I've looked around for a program to replace iWeb, I've 'auditioned' several and found that the simple ones slot me in a box and force me to stay in the confines of the box. They may be more sophisticated in terms of web stuff, but for design possibilities they don't live up to iWeb.

The only way around the dilemma was the long arduous task of learning code, so I spent a considerable amount of time learning a bit about html and css. I found I actually enjoy it, but I was not at all certain I wanted to spend each day using it to make daily changes to Queendom Website. I could see my treasured stitching time evaporating in a mist of angle brackets.

Still I soldiered on, each day feeling more and more like sending a stream of darts toward Apple's management for its decision to kill iWeb.

All along DH has told me, there are too many iWeb users and someone will step up to the plate and do something that will help all the iWeb Orphans.

Who knew that the someone stepping up to the plate would be the almighty Adobe itself.

Forty-Six Cheers for Adobe! It is as if they heard my own personal cry and brought me the perfect solution for Queendom Website!

MacSoph, Queendom Website and I will live on for another day after all. Thank you, Adobe! Thank you thank you thank you!

Gay Ann