Copyright--what is it?

When one (that great impersonal one) starts a blog, they must recognize that many people are not aware of the niceties of ownership.  Ownership in terms of copyright.  When I show a photograph of a canvas, I am always meticulous in stating that the design is from "...this designer."  You must acknowledge intellectual property in  terms of design ownership.  But you must also not STEAL it.  I dislike having to be so blunt, but it is necessary. 

 On my blog, one person has repeatedly downloaded magnified pictures of one of my posts.  The same one--repeatedly.  Duh!  I don't think she is a slow learner--I think she is downloading it repeatedly because she is a slow stitcher.  I want her to stop it.  I have too many things going on in my life to pursue her, but be assured that is possible.  I and other bloggers are sharing our experiences with needlepoint.  Many of us do it as a corollary to our day jobs (retail needlepoint sales).  Don't insult us so blatantly by downloading from our blogs repeatedly.  I know it's nice to be able to look closer at stitches.  Sometimes I know the copied designs are classics--as is the Greek key design for a  belt that I am currently  stitching.  However, you didn't chart it or count it or more importantly think it would work as a belt design--at least have the courtesy to pay for the design since I did.

Of course readers of blogs may not realize that the stat counter tells what town you are in, what type of equipment you are accessing the blog with, how much time you view a page, what other pages you view and even the code for your internet connection. 

I don't expect everyone to buy a canvas I blog-stitch from Needle Nicely, that's why I identify the artist.  But I do expect you to purchase the canvas/es from someone!  

 Maybe you didn't realize that you were stealing my ideas.  I hate being so confrontational, but sometimes being sweet and retiring just doesn't seem to cut it.  My income depends upon my needlepoint sales, whether through my blog or through my retail shop.  Your not paying me for a design is taking food out of my (and my husband's) mouth.  Stop it!

Scissors, ah, yes, me beauties

Anna of the Stitch Bitch blog showed her scissor collection on 11/15/2012.  They are gorgeous.  I love scissors and often have scissor envy.  She reminded me of the many beauties I have in my personal collection.  My husband upon noticing some of them, asked "Should you take these to the shop?"  Excuse me, these are mine.  Not for sale.  I tried not to be too emphatic in my denial, but I carefully removed them from his vision.  They are now hidden from his sight.  But here are some of them for only your eyes to see.
I made two discoveries, though.  There are several missing in action (hmmm, perhaps I hid them too well from Arthur!).  And the points of one of my absolute favorites (the Felix pair with round gold handles and silver points) are bent as though they did a nosedive into a hard surface.   I know Gingher repairs their own scissors.  Anyone know where I could send this pair?

You'll notice that I was rather a snob and didn't show my shears and pinking shears from Fiskar.  I love them, but I don't use them with my needlepoint stitching. They are work horses, not my stylish beauties.  There seems to be a similarity in design--I seem to tend toward scrolls and sensuous curves or modern chrome.

And on another note, my alma mater Appalachian State University has once again made it to the play-offs of small colleges football.  They play Illinois State next Saturday in Illinois.  Obviously, they have the poorer record which is a pity since playing at home at 3,300 feet in questionable weather is a distinct advantage.  Especially since I have mentioned before there is no easy way to get to Boone and the journey tends to exhaust people even young football players. 

Thimbles, my darlings

I have been mentally counting how many times I have been to England.  Once with Trubey and her parents (on the QEII, thank you very much), once with Arthur for our belated honeymoon, twice with Trubey and once by myself.  As an aside, Trubey's daddy thought I should see Europe so he started planning a trip in the late 1980s for all of us to go to Paris and Italy and then take a ship home to Miami.  But then the Achille Laure happened.  So he decided that if the Brits could handle the IRA, we could sail on a British ship.  That's how I managed to sail both ways across the Atlantic on the QEII.  In fact, our voyage home was  during "the perfect storm".  The captain refused to change course until 2am and I don't think there was an intact teacup on board, not to mention "my" broken poker machine (and lots of seasick passengers!).  Thank you, Bill Walker.  

The reason for all my thinking and counting is:  my thimble collection.  I only have size 7 thimbles.  I prefer sterling.  Hence, the reference to England.  Every time I have gone to England I have come home with several more thimbles for my collection.  About 10 years ago, Trubey and I were in London for two weeks.  Every day we went to a different street market.  At the end of 10 days, the vendors thought we were in the business!  They recognized us--and we recognized them!  I learned how to bargain. 

I have a lucite case for some of them.  But my collection seems to have expanded beyond its capacities.  It even includes a seal (or walrus) fur one from Alaska that Trubey's mother brought me from their trip there.

 These are some of the charmers I managed to pick up at those markets.  I tried to photograph some of them individually, but my camera skills weren't up to the task.  They were just shiny blurs.  I had forgotten some of their idiosyncracies--like the one the dealer had labeled on the outside "Made in Holland" and the American-made Dorcas style one that I had left the 1 pound price tag inside.  They both were obviously not up to snuff.  The usual price on the street was from 7 to 20 pounds depending on age more than condition.  One of these has multiple holes in the sides, the dealer told me "it's Edwardian".  And another that I tried to photograph had striations on the side that the needle had broken through.  It was dated 1878.  I really should study the date markings so I can tell how old these are.  That is something for another day.

 I prefer utility to design so don't have many commemorative thimbles.  You can tell from this photo that dusting isn't one of my strong points!

This is the thimble I use at home.  It is almost always resting on the coffee table ready to be pressed into action.  I have another favorite that I keep on the stitching table at the shop--its photograph was just a blur, alas.










Ironically, I have very few requests for thimbles.  I have some inexpensive ones for sale.  People tend to recoil when told a sterling thimble is worth over $50. 

Frosty the snowman, but smaller

Lee's Needle Art Studio (now known as Colonial Needle) has a Snowman pillow canvas which I have stitched and blogged about.  See my blog entries dated 10/17; 10/27; and 11/4 (I'm sorry, but I haven't figured out how to put in links.  Perhaps in my next life.)  Lee's did an ornament size snowman on 18m canvas.  After I saw it, I requested that they paint it on 13mesh canvas so I could use it to teach a class. T

This is the 18mesh gentleman.  I think he is darling.  This picture is deceptive, but he really is small enough to be an ornament.  However, when thinking about classes, my students (who are older) prefer 13mesh. 

This rather portly gentleman is the one from the original snowman canvas that I requested  Colonial Needle  paint for me so I could teach a class. 

I stitched the background in the Diagonal Triple Parisian using silk 'n ivory.  The hat is done in the interlocking or encroaching gobelin with silk lame braid.  The head is the mosaic stitch using white fyrewerks.

You can see that I have started stitching the scarf using Fuzzy Stuff in the chain stitch.  However, this week a long-time customer of Needle Nicely has come to town and came in asking for assistance with about 8 unfinished canvases she has from classes with national needlepoint teachers.  The past 3 afternoons Dotty and I  have discussed which stitches are problematic for her.  She will be here for three weeks which should allow us plenty of time to solve the worst of the bottlenecks.  I think of confusing stitches as bottlenecks because they stop your stitching progress and make you feel inadequate.  Sometimes it is only one thread to the left that solves the problem.  

Anyway, one of Dotty's problem areas is something that should be felted.  I've never done that before, but I found a video on line and Michael's supposedly has beginner kits.  Guess where I'm going tomorrow morning so that I can felt my snowman's scarf?  I'm a little leery of this since I am so clumsy and everything you read about needle felting warns about the barbs on the needles.  Think kind positive thoughts about me, please!

Standing nutcracker, 8

I've been trying to rush my stitching on Gunther so that I can move the canvas on the stretcher bars.  Isn't it true that time slows to a snail's pace when you're anxious for something to happen?  

You can see that I finished his epaulets and managed to do a lot of the chest area of his uniform.  I'm just about ready to do his beard.  I also need to do more on the background Jacquard stitches.  And we must add some "brass" to his buttons. 

This is the time of year when Christmas finishing starts coming in from the finishers and when phone calls start with:  "Is it here yet?"  My ornament and belt finishers are still accepting items which is phenomenal, I think.

Festival of Trees, 2012 donations part II

Yesterday I showed you the first two items Needle Nicely gave to Vero Beach's annual Riverside Children's Theater's Festival of Trees.  Today I'll show you the remaining two donations.

I honestly do not remember who designed this cutie.  The Santa was such fun to stitch with the pom-pom in one stitch and the mustache and beard done in another.  It was a great example of how the flow of design can be shown through the use of one color and variations in stitches.  And the Ho, ho, ho was done in the mosaic stitch with red candlelight metallic.   But it doesn't do you any good to have a model if you can't buy additional canvases to sell.  Needle Nicely has its own design studio but we refuse to get lured into copyright infringement just because I can't locate the original designer.

I came up with the original idea for this canvas, handing the actual designing and painting to Needle Nicely's marvelous calligrapher.  However, the design never caught the eye of our customers.  Sigh!  So several of the canvases are on the sale table and this pretty baby has gone to find a more enthusiastic audience.  But I refuse to let that discourage me, as demonstrated by my redesign of the flamingo slides I stitched this summer on the blog.  And that is selling! 

Festival of Trees, 2012 donations

Each year the Riverside Children's Theater in Vero Beach conducts a fundraiser the weekend before Thanksgiving.  It has evolved over the years into many different offerings.  The original concept was for various local businesses to decorate Christmas trees and the public would bid on them.  Of course, over time the market for predecorated trees has been saturated (or becoming so).  Last year Needle Nicely gave 3 Christmas pillows and a hot air balloon Christmas "feature" (called thusly since it was too large to be considered an ornament).  This year, I gave another 3 pillows and a discontinued Elsa Williams stocking model.

This model had a cuff with the name Ashley stitched on it.  Last week I quit procrastinating and opened up the top, folded down the name area and then hem-stitched the lining down.  Someone should be thrilled with this--I'm sorry that the company that purchased Paternayan has decided not to produce any of the kits or the tapestry yarn.  Elsa Williams had some nice, inexpensive kits.

This Joy canvas by Associated Talents was originally stitched about 20 years ago.  Then it had a red and black plaid ruffle.  Over time it had faded horribly, but the needlepoint still looked as good as new.  So this summer I sent it to my pillow finisher to have her replace that faded fabric.  Now the pillow has a pretty new look.