Designing Today

We are having some new furniture delivered this morning, so my house is all topsy turvy, making it impossible to stitch. That's a bit unfortunate as I've been putting in some good hours on my newest piece.

So I've decided to do some drawings today and design some things that I hope World of Cross Stitching or Cross Stitch crazy will like.

I'm also thinking about Embroidery and Cross Stitch future designs. She absolutely loved my fairies. They arrived yesterday and she phoned to tell me how beautiful they were. I'm so pleased, but I cant' always do fairies for her. So I was thinking about what other things I might stitch for her. The brief for the magazine is elegant, classy, nothing cute, nothing overly niave and country. What springs to mind when you think of those words. I'm also trying to get away from the ladies a little. I adore them, and could stitch them all day long, but I should broaden my horizons.

Roses is the first thing I think of. I've done one rose for her and I think I could do another. But what else? How about shells? I'd have to come up with a way to make them colourful. I'm sure you've noticed, bright colours is one of the major elements in my style, because that's what I like. Leave a comment and tell me what you think is elegant or classy.

Have a stitchy day.

Oh, and I've included more charts at the ETSY store, some that have already been featured in ECS, including the cameo rose, Angel Moon and I'll soon put up Autumn Romance.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TapestryMoon

Autumn Romance

Favourite Scissors

I have a pair of scissors that Cucki sent me and they have become my favourite pair to use when stitching or beading with thread.
They are nail scissor shape, thin and curved with a pretty pink water colour pattern enamelled (?) on the handle. They're so shapr and I can get in nice and close to my work with the curve of the blade.


Do you have a pair of scissors that you love? Or a lucky needle?

Good Morning

Hello there lovely followers (and interested visitors),
This morning I'm working on my next design which is the Peacock Princess. She will be stitched on the same sparkly fabric as the Butterfly Princess (which is called Peacock fantasy and produced by Stitches and spice - go check them out)
http://www.pantheon.com.au/stitches/index.html
You need to look in the spice blends section for Peacock fantasy fabric, but she has so many gorgeous fabrics for you to choose from.

ANYWAY;

Peacock Princess is progressing nicely. After two hours of design she is about a third done. Then I get to stitch. YAY.

It's going to take me forever to make a 12 design collection. But I hope it will be well worth it.

Introducing

Butterfly Princess
She is currently available only at ETSY as a chart only.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/93251945/butterfly-princess-cross-stitch-chart

The distribution company that I will eventually go with has asked for at least 12 desings to make a collection of my works. That means a few more months work before Butterfly Princess will be available through them. So that's why I decided to offer it for a limited time at ETSY at a very special price. Once the distrubtion company takes the designs they will be about 30% more expensive.

Now I need to get REALLY busy stitching non stop for the next few months to create this collcetion.
I'll keep you updated on what I come up with.

Thanks for looking.

Much Better News

Well, after yesterdays shock I pulled myself out of my funk and got busy.
I offered my designs to five distrubutors and two have already gotten back to me with interest. So yes, everyone you were right. it wasn't the end of the world, and i'm sorry I over reacted. :)

Hopefully by the end of the week three of my designs will be available for purchase through these distributors (I'll tell you who they are once the deals go through).

And now I can show you the full finished designs!!!

'Shhh' was stitched on my hand dyed linen. I think I've already told you she is a despiction of my daughter pretending to be a fairy and saying 'Shh, dont' tell the gorwn ups'. The wings and mushroom were added by a talented photo manipulator who used this image on teh cover of his book and then gave me permission to turn it into a cross stitch design.

 The little Mermaid is stitched on 11 count cream aida and is also a depiction of my daughter ... this time as a mermaid. She was dressed up for her 'Pedlars Parade' event at school. I made her the costume (the tail was split at the bottom so she could walk).

As a special thankyou, I'd like to give everyone who has already commented on the last thread a free copy of the mermaid chart.
So Cucki, Miamina and Rhona, if you would like a copy, please send me an email with the title 'gift', jenni@exemail.com.au

I'll have the Butterly Princess ready to show you tomorrow.
Thanks again everyone, have a lovely stitchy and beady day.
Jenni

What Happened?

I'm completely down in the dumps this morning.
The deal I thought I had with a UK magazine has gone south with the editor moving on.
So I now have 3 designs with no publication deals.

I've just completely lost confidence in my abilities. And all I can think of is that I dont' have a job to fall back on. And God PLEASE don't make me have to back to teaching.

Sorry to dump this on you ... I'm just at a loss.

Sorry

I have been neglecting my blog lately.
I was facing some pretty long term Demons last week with the sleeplessness. So I did a lot of beading work that didn't require thinking to keep myself occupied.

I was also workign pretty hard on my ETSY shop, listing new items of jewellery.
I decided to try a promotion with ETSY and paid for a showcase of pendants for the 16th of Feb, so I've been busy making things for the shop.
And once that is over I need to get back to some magazine work.

I also applied to a gallery in Mosman (Sydney) called Incube8rs. I hope to put in works of beading, cross stitch and other textiles there. I haven't heard anything about my application yet (I only applied this Tuesday). There is also a market stall in Mosman run by Incube8rs comign up. I need to have a number of items made by March the 3rd for that stall.

Artfest is also coming up fast.
Artfest is an art and craft show run by my kid's high school. It is their major fundraiser for the year and over the years has become a pretty big event. I've entered art works in water colour once (sold nothing) and an artbook (sold none). This year I was going to try fine art textiles, but I'm running out of time for that. And as I have been busy making things for the gallery anyway, I'm taking a craft stall at Artfest. I'll have jewellery, beaded decorative boxes and some cross stitch decorative items (the same items that I hope to put in the gallery).

So you see, though I haven't written about it, I have been very busy.
I promise to be a better blogger this week so my posts won't be as long :)

Profile Piece

Express Publication editor Marni Franks is doing a profile piece on me in a few issues time. It's very exciting. I had to take a decent photo for the profile pic, so I put some make up on, wore my latest creation (Solar Flare, available at ETSY ... plug, plug, self promotion !!!!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/91628148/solar-flare
and set up a tripod to take some photos.
I don't take a very good photo, but this was the one I chose

What do you think? That's my loom in front of me (obviously) with a rose design I just completed (I'm pretending to stitch it for the photo) and just next to my elbow are some polymer clay pendants I varnished yesterday.Photos of those will go up at ETSY soon. And behind me are some of the many cupboards that house my craft supplies. I do a lot of work at this table.

I'm too tired to stitch at the moment. I've been battling insomnia for years. The doctor said I have to stop sleeping in the day time to make up for lost sleep at night. It's been a week now and my night time sleep still hasn't improved. I was awake at 3am this morning and had to get up at 4:30 despite the sleeping tablets the doctor gave me. I think I took them too early in the evening (though I didn't go to sleep until 9:30pm).

Ah, that's enough of my woes.

Keep creating everyone.

Whoo Hoo

I've been working hard today (didn't stitch at all yesterday). I've been beading and backstitching, and cross stitching the Butterfly Princess. I probably have a few more days of working on it. But I can already see it's the nicest thing I've designed so far. So ... let's hope the UK magazines will also think it is lovely and buy it.

It's hard that even if they do buy it, I won't be paid, or see it published for about 12 months. Luckily that won't always be the case. As I get better known and when I have the website up and running, I'll be able to release designs as soon as I've finished stitching them.

I think the next 12 months will be the hardest as I only have the designs I completed in the last 6 months of 2011 to rely on for income.  Well, I guess that's the choice I made.

But for now I can just enjoy the beautiful Butterfly Princess.
I can't post pictures of it here, but if you would like to see it finished, leave me a comment and your email, and I'll send you a pic of it.

Housework cures all

I started the day cleaning the bathroom, and boy did it ever inspire me to stitch!!! LOL

Yesterday I stitched for 6 hours. The bodice is done and most of the straight part of the skirt. i worked on one fo the flowers and some of the leaves. I'm happy with the progress I'm making and I'm enjoying stitching again.

I think I've made a bad choice of movie this morning. I'm watching 'The Island' and I can't look away from the screen ... not at all productive. :) Mmmmm sean Bean and Ewan mcGregor.

I can't wait to get to the beading part of this design.

OK, I'm not doing any work!!! This movie is one you have to watch.

Perfect day

I'm stitching today - gotta finish that butterfly princess!
It's the perfect weather for it - grey and wet.

I've done 2 hours this morning and managed to finish most of her bodice. There's so much left to do ... I wish I could just relax and enjoy it instead of worrying about how long it's going to take. Like all stitching projects, it's done when it's done - you are supposed to enjoy the process!!! Lets just hope I can sell this pattern once I've finished stitching it.