Trubey's bow doorstop--long-time shop model

Both of my current stitching projects involve the basketweave--the JP brick purse and one of the "leaves" of the Susan Roberts' Christmas tree.  Progress on both is slow, so today I looked for something else I could talk about tonight.  I spied the bow doorstop that Trubey designed over 35 years ago.  Actually she was designing bow luggage rack straps for a special order and rejected this design.  I pulled the piece out of the waste basket in her studio and argued it's case with Trubey.  Not only did that customer get the bow design, but we added the straps in various colors to our Needle Nicely design portfolio and even adapted it to the doorstop (and a pillow).  I want to discuss the brick cover because of the thread-blending technique we used in stitching the background.  The design was stitched using DMC perle cotton 3.  The background utilizes two-ply of Paternayan Persian yarn.  For a different look, we blended one strand of a very pale blue with a strand of a slightly darker shade of blue.  Up close, the look is mottled, but at a distance (i.e., while the brick is on the floor), it looks nicely blended and tweedy.

Ironically, writing this blog entry made me reflect and realize that Needle Nicely sold many more luggage rack straps 25 years ago than we do today.  The number of doorstops we sell seems to have remained constant.  I wonder about why the drop in luggage rack straps?