Shorttakes
A very good question indeed! This is a quickie newsletter to reintroduce myself! I've been MIA for far too long & I wanted to let you know I'm still standing & we're still rocking it at the shop!
Lots of things have been going on in my "away from the shop" world, and that has impacted my "at the shop world" ~ a fact for which I'm deeply sorry. I certainly wish I could say that some of the things were amazing & awesome...but I hate to lie at the beginning of the newsletter! However, I'm not gonna get us all bogged down in the DRAMA of my world these days. I'll just tell ya where we are at the moment!
About 10 days ago, Mom (Ruth Ellen) fell at home while I was out at a West Chester University baseball game. I found her on the floor with a bleeding head wound when I got home. I'll skip the details. At the ER, she was stitched up, scanned, labbed, tested, poked & prodded. No concussion, no brainbleed, no broken, cracked or otherwise damaged bones. The only issue (aside from the big gash on her head!) was a marked drop in blood pressure when she went from lying down to sitting, sitting to standing. All these days later, they are still working to get that stabilized. I am so grateful that when she fell, she didn't break anything. All the folks at Paoli hospital ~ from the doctors to PA's to nurses to PCT's to OT's to PT's to food workers to janitors ~ have been wonderful.
Needless to say, my days since then have been a rotation of hospital ~ shop ~ home to take Charlee out & spend time with her ~ hospital ~ sleep...rinse & repeat. When I'm at the shop, I'm feverishly working on framing & shipping mailorders, placing orders & helping stitchers (although the rest of the gals here have that under control!). I have dropped the ball again & I'm working hard to figure out my new normal! I thank all y'all who sent messages after I posted a message on the FaceBook page ~ they were truly appreciated.
And while I have a long list of immediate jobs to tackle today, I decide that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! It's time to work on a newsletter!!
So this is like the prologue of a book ~ not the "good stuff", but basically backstory & other information that is important to know! This one is just yipyap ~ I'm gonna give you some important dates & other info ~ and then the real thing will come next.
First, and most important, is the FINISHING DEADLINE!
AUGUST 1ST!!!
*WHAT??*
I know, I know! How can we be talking about this already?? But Therese is all kinds of organized & at the beginning of the year she sat down & evaluated last year's load & how much stuff she had to do for stitchers for Christmas, calculated how much she thought she could expect this year & set her deadline accordingly.
So, get your stitching fingers MOVING! Because the cutoff for Christmas/end of the year finishing is:
AUGUST 1ST!
That's right folks, we WILL NOT be taking in any finishing after August 1st. So get those stockings, ornaments, pillows, standups, flat finishes & anything else you are going to want finished by Therese (& we ALL want her finishing...), get it started & get it done & get it in here!
Next, what's up with the sidewalk sale? Well, I had tentatively planned to have it last weekend, but quite a few other issues had cropped up last month & boy am I glad I didn't have that scheduled. It would have been awful to have to cancel it ~ being that I was spending my "free" time at the hospital! We discussed a time next month...but May is always tough for all us as there is Mother's Day, graduations & many other spring events that seem to all occur at once. So Tracy reminded me that the salon next door is always closed for a week in August so we could plan for then & not have to worry about parking! Also, that takes care of the "what if it's cold out still?" issue! I just went & checked with them & got their dates.
So our Sidewalk Sale is now scheduled for
SATURDAY AUGUST 3RD!
Rain date is Sunday August 4th.
Gonna be a busy week ~ finishing cutoff & then Sidewalk Sale! Make your plans accordingly.
We will have more details about the Sidewalk Sale as it gets closer, but the one thing I wanted to say right now is this. Please don't start bringing us your goodies for the sale until early to mid July! We don't have a ton of space for storing it & we don't want anything getting schmucked up beforehand! Don't worry, I'll remind you when to start bringing stuff to us as we get closer.
That's right! We're getting back to our regular May framing sale to go along with our January sale! I'm dangerously close to finishing up all the sale pieces (even with my unanticipated hurdles!) & so many of y'all have asked if we'll do another. Well the answer is YES! Starting Saturday May 18 & running thru Saturday May 25th, all framing you bring in & drop off will be 20% off ~ including the mounting fee. This is the only time you get a discount applied to the mounting fee.
The great news this time around is that we DO NOT anticipate having to deal with a freakin' snow storm in the middle of it!! Good grief, last time I thought Connie & I would drop over on the Thursday of the January sale ~ we all knew that storm was coming Friday & not sure how Saturday would be, so Thursday was WALL TO WALL! Thank you to all y'all who had patience that day ~ although I will say it did run smoothly without a TON of waiting. And the pieces that came in!! OMG! I am so thoroughly enjoying working with so many gorgeous things!!
Anyway!! Mark you calendars, finish up your current projects & come for a visit in May!
No worries, no more deadlines or dates to remember! Just a note to say how very wonderful you all are & how much I appreciate each one of you.
One thing that has been interesting over the last few months is how our Monday~Wednesday work has changed. As you know, we changed our shop hours late last year. The shop is now officially open Thursday & Friday from 10 ~ 5, and Saturday 10 ~ 3. Theoretically, we are closed on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. As I said at the time, this change was to give us a little more time to dedicate to working on mail order & framing, without running back & forth to the shop floor. BUT, I was also adamant that if you were in the area & wanted to stop by, to please do so.
WOW! This has turned out to be fantastic! Many of the "closed" days have been used exactly as planned ~ placing orders, mailing orders, doing framing. But the unexpected & wonderful thing that has happened is that lots of y'all have taken us up on the "drop in". And while that may seem at first like a problem, it has actually been fantastic. What we have come to realize is that when someone stops by on a Mon-Wed, we have so much more time to work with them one on one. One week, Wednesday was actually a busier day around here than Thursday was! I have spent time helping someone change colors of floss & fabric, Therese has worked with folks on ideas for finishing, we've had "birthday trip" visitors who had the place to themselves and there has also been time to just visit with someone who hasn't been by in a while. And while we do all those things on a regularly scheduled open day, it is different when we can take one on one time with a stitcher. Yes, it pulls us away from our other chores for the day, but it is more than worth it. Sharing this love of stitching is the ultimate goal here ~ and while all the jobs behind the scenes are important to that as well, being able to take the time to find that pesky mistake in a sampler so that a stitcher can finally move forward, or spreading out lots of colors & debating on whether the house should be brick or stone or stucco this time, or commiserating with someone who hasn't had time to stitch because their family is crazy right now...all these things are intangible & no they don't generate income, but they are more precious than anything else.
Having said that, last Tuesday 2 dear friends stopped by. Therese had run in for just a minute between appointments to cut backing boards for finishing & she welcomed them in. They wanted to spend some time & I had also been chatting with one stitcher for the last couple weeks about some things. Needless to say, I was at the hospital with mom & couldn't get over to the shop. I was so bummed because I did have a few things for these stitchers & it wasn't something I could do over the phone. So there is always the possibility that we won't be here on one of those days ~ not likely but still a possbility. I say this only to say, if you are coming here specifically from a distance (and with the traffic these days, ANYWHERE is a distance!), you might wanna give us a call. Whenever I'm here on Mon-Wed, I have the phone close by (unless I set the blasted thing down & can't find it...).
So please don't hesitate to come by ~ even though it may be a day we're "closed". 99 times out of 100, we'll be here & we'll be thrilled to see you!
Notes from the Framer (aka, me)
So many times I can remember Lise, our amazing framer for over 30 years, saying "Oh, remind me to tell people...". Occasionally there would be things that were really helpful that we would put in the newsletter. A lot of times I would just nod my head, or even shake my head like, "whatever...". I get it now. So many things run thru my mind when I'm framing! I think, "Oh, I should tell stitchers to do...." or "OH! I should DEFINITELY tell stitchers NOT to do...". And do I do it? No, because 15 seconds later I forget! I know that Lise is nodding her head, eyebrow raised, saying, "See? I wasn't as crazy as you thought!". Anyway! Here are a few things that have cropped up & things that people don't ever think to tell you (because they're shaking their head, saying, "whatever...").
*Gridded fabric - ugh. I hate it. But that's JUST me. I know what the goal is ~ it's supposed to make it easier to keep your place as you stitch ever bigger & more complicated patterns (which I .... don't!). As the framer, let me give you some hints on this.
~ If you are working with overdyed fibers, and you are using pregridded fabric, keep in mind that you are really not gonna wanna wash this piece when it's done. I know most of those fibers say they are colorfast now, but not all of them are. Do you wanna take the chance on the colors running? No you do not.
~ What about if you are working a full coverage piece? Not gonna have to wash it out, right? Well, technically no, but I will tell you that I have framed 4 pieces in the last year that were full coverage stitching, done on gridded fabric. All of them were stunning (as every full coverage piece I've ever seen is...or maybe I'm just blinded by the amazing work involved!). Unfortunately, on all 4 pieces you could see the gridding thru the stitching. And there was nothing we could do about it.
~ One other thing about full coverage pieces, whether using gridded fabric or not: Please don't stitch it by "blocks". Some folks like to stitch each 10x10 square individually before moving on ~ I get it, it's hard to keep track of where you are on some of these big pieces. But if you do this, I promise you when you're done, what you'll see is a big beautiful design, with all these little 10x10 square sections. You really need to complete swaths of color ~ even if that color goes 6 stitches into another block! I know this is really getting into the weeds here & if you're confused, feel free to touch base with me for a more complete explanation.
~ Should you grid your own fabric? Yes and no. Please don't use a pencil & think you can erase it ~ you can't. Quilt marking pens ~ the kind that disappear ~ are...okay (Therese says she has used them with great success). I am leery of ANYTHING on my fabric that isn't thread. So how about gridding with thread? Go for it! This is the least destructive method. However it is also the most time-consuming. I will say that I baste my pieces when I'm doing a long band sampler so I know where my edges & center are. If you do this, use a thread color you can see, but not a dark one ~ don't use red or black or navy. And remove them as you finish that area.
Okay, I think that's enough about gridded fabric!
*Leaving enough fabric for finishing/framing - Another challenge! I'm not going to get into figuring out how big your fabric should be & how to calculate that. If you need a crash course in that, click here: FAQ's (strawberrysampler.com). What I am gonna say is, just because your design is small, doesn't mean you can stitch it on a scrap!! Even if your piece is gonna be 2" x 2" (and I've framed some DARLING pieces that are smaller than that...not jealous, no, not me...nuh uh...), your piece of fabric needs to be AT LEAST 4 inches bigger (so, 6" x 6" for the English majors). Why? Because if you bring me a piece that is 2" x 2" (that's JUST the stitching) & your fabric is, let's say, 4" x 4", that means there is 1 INCH on either side (assuming you centered it well). Now, you would like to have 1/2" of fabric showing all the way around. So that brings us down to 1/2" left. There is a lip under the frame that runs from 1/4" to 5/16" (we'll just stick with 1/4"). So subtract that from your remaining fabric. That leaves me with 1/4" of fabric to wrap around the mounting board. Go measure a 1/4" of fabric. Let's say you're working on 32ct linen. 1/4" is 8 THREADS. If it's 16ct aida, 1/4" is 4 SQUARES. That is really not enough fabric to do a good job of getting that piece stretched & straight.
Can you just sew an extra piece of fabric on it? LOTS of folks do this. Please don't. Believe it or not, that makes it even harder, because getting the stitching fabric straight is difficult when the attached fabric doesn't pull & stretch the same way.
Moral of the story: BEFORE YOU STITCH, make sure your fabric is AT LEAST 4 inches bigger than you design area. We usually say 6 inches (that gives you 3 inches all the way around).
HAVING SAID ALL THAT, you don't wanna stitch your (relatively) small design (let's say, 5" x 8") in the middle of a half yard of fabric! Our hearts break at that too! If we have to choose, obviously this is better than having too little fabric, but as dear as fabric is these days, you don't wanna waste that. At least we can give you back some of that to use for smaller things, but still...
* Framing something "quick & cheap" at a Michaels, etc - What's that phrase in Latin? Buyer beware? I can't remember. Anyway. I have always said that there are great framers out there everywhere ~ none as good as Lise was, but there ya go. So you MAY be fortunate enough to luck into one at a discount place or even a regular framing shop. BEFORE you hand over your work, ask them how they SPECIFICALLY frame cross stitch/needlework. If they look at you quizzically, walk away. The minimum thing they should tell you is that they use acid free EVERYTHING & that they wrap your piece around a board (NOT a sticky board) & attach it on the back of said board. NO STAPLES!
Why am I saying all this? Is it just because I want you to bring all your framing here? No, it's not. But I will tell you that since the beginning of this year, I have taken in 4 pieces from stitchers who had them framed at 4 different places (Michaels, HL, another frame shop) & I am restretching them. The frames on all 4 pieces are lovely. But the work is terrible! I've taken 2 apart so far ~ one wasn't even measured correctly...the frame, while lovely & perfect for the piece, was entirely too big from side to side. Once I took it apart, I realized that since they measured it wrong (or just really badly), they had to adhere it to sticky board, as they didn't have enough fabric to wrap to the back ~ EVEN THOUGH THE STITCHER HAD 4 INCHES ON EACH SIDE!!!! That's right, she had plenty of fabric, but they got such a huge frame that there was no fabric left to wrap. The other 3 sides were stapled. Also, it wasn't pressed AT ALL. By the time I finished with it, while the frame was still overly large for the piece, at least it looked MUCH nicer.
The second one that came in was so incredibly wavy along the edges that no one in their right mind would think that was how it was supposed to look. Again, staples! And again, not pressed.
In addition, neither of these 2 was inexpensive! I will not say that framing is ever cheap ~ some of our frames have quadrupled in cost over the last 10 years! But I will tell you that we have in the past taken a model to Michaels to be framed. We had already picked a frame that we also carried from a standard frame supplier, so we knew what the wholesale cost was & what we (& most regular frame shops) charged for that particular moulding. When we got the piece back, the cost was 1.5 times more than we would have charged...and that was WITH their ever-present "50% OFF ALL FRAMING!!!". Also, the quality, while not horrible, wasn't something we would let out the door.
All this is to say, you may ABSOLUTELY find a great framer at one of these places. We had a friend who had a frame shop behind us in Olde Ridge Village & when they closed their shop, she became a framer at her local Michaels. I would have been more than happy to let her frame cross stitch ~ because she learned from Lise the right way to do it! So there are great framers everywhere. But please do not assume that EVERY framer knows how to frame cross stitch.
I'm sure there are a million more things that have made me think, "Oh, I should really mention this...", but I can't think of them at the moment, & I wanna get this first part of the newsletter into your hands.
Sorry it's all yipyap to start with!! There are definitely LOADS of new things in the shop & on the website & I can't WAIT to finally focus on them & give you my (sometimes questionable) take on them all!
Hugs & stitches ~
Beth & all the hurdlers at TSS
