Little time to stitch
The last few weeks have been rather hectic both at work and at home, so embroidery of any kind has had to take a back seat. The vines are going mad this time of year so the vineyard is busy and this weekend Adrian had a rather significant birthday to celebrate. When I am that busy, I find it hard sometimes to take a deep breath and just sit down and stitch even for a few minutes and I am looking forward to putting needle the fabric a bit again.
Apart from dusting off my sewing machine and getting a few little 'must-do' jobs out of the way, I did manage to finish the small crewel design I was working on. Of course I couldn't help but changing a few colours and stitches here and there from the original instructions. Now all there is left for me to do is a revision of the instructions to match the changes and also to get them into the form and shape that I like them to be.
The weekend before last, I did find a few hours in the afternoon to sit on the front porch and finish a scissor keep I had been wanting to do for a while. It matches a pincushion I made a little while ago. Both are worked with Cascade House shaded crewel wool, which I love to work with. The colours are beautiful and the yarns are slightly finer than Appleton. I am hoping to have the instructions for all three designs in my Etsy shop in the next couple of weeks and the full kits soon after that.
I am debating how much to include in the the pincushion and scissor keep kits - just fabrics and yarns or everything you need to finish the project. I very rarely buy kits myself so I am not sure what stitcher's prefer. What do you think?
I have not done a kit since I was a child. However, I do follow several embroidery blogs, and many people do prefer kits. I imagine each individuals reason for prefering kits (or not) may be different. It may be a time issue, you know, they don't have time to find a pattern, put the pattern on fabric, and all the fiddly stuff, so they prefer kits. Or it could be that they are relative beginners and have not yet built up the confidence to do the fiddly bits themselves. It could also be that they do not like the fiddly stuff, and kits are available in numerous places, so they just do that. Another item may be that certain patterns will be more appealing to people who prefer kits, and other patterns appeal to fiddly-preference people like me.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, it might be an idea to make both kits and patterns available, and it will give you an idea which is more popular, and tell you whether or not future kits are a good idea. Testing the waters so to speak. :-)
Nice cushion and case by the way.
I think many people appreciate the convenience of a complete kit, especially newer stitchers who don't have a deep stash to rely on. The advantage of a pattern is that people can choose to make something else with the design, or change the size, etc. So I do agree with Anonymous there that if it's possible to offer both, that could be a good way to go.
ReplyDeleteYour designs are so, so beautiful. They are the kinds of things I would love to surround myself with, to enjoy everyday. I'm looking forward to these being available!
ReplyDeleteRegarding kits - I've seen kits with only fabric and threads, kits with everything and in-between. Admittedly, the include-everything kit for a specific finished project, like those above, was dreamy to work with, with no running around getting things, but if a little less inclusions meant less cost, maybe I would buy more? A bit of fence-sitting here!
Thank you for the feedback everyone. I better get on with getting it all ready.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna, I just thought I'd add (as someone who lived overseas for a long time where embroidery supplies were hard to come by) that some people buy kits because it's the most economical way to do it for them. I am rather enjoying being back in Australia with access to good stores again!
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