Trail of Orts

"Trail of Orts" is officially booked! Cathy Habermann of Hands On Design and I had both signed up to show at two different retreats/festivals this fall. When the dates were finally announced, they turned out to be only a week apart. So, rather than attempt to fly back home and immediately turn around and fly off again, we decided to make a road trip of it. We're inviting everyone to join us in the fun.

We kick off with the Celebration of Needlework in St. Charles, Missouri, the longest running show of its kind.  I'll be teaching a class on using and understanding variegated threads and will have a booth with lots of models to see in person.  It's set up boutique style in the hotel room suites, where everyone builds a mini-shop in the front room and sleeps in the back room. This show is open to the public unlike the TNNA shows I've been doing. There are many rooms and areas where stitchers get together and hang out between shopping sessions and classes. Then...

We've set up Meet and Greet events at shops all along the way. We'll each bring in a collection of models and charts, and will be anxiously awaiting meeting stitchers and seeing what they are up to. The shops and times are listed above - I hope folks will be able to break away from whatever they're doing and come by to visit. Then...

We arrive on the Atlantic coast at Myrtle Beach,South Carolina, ready for the PALs Stitching at the Beach retreat. This is the 17th year that Down Sunshine Lane has organized this event, and I must say it sounds like they've gotten the formula right. Stitching. Beach. It's a combination of various scheduled activities, a merchant mall area, and plenty of relaxed stitching time. This is my first time, but Cathy has told me how much fun it's going to be.

I must say this is the most planning and thinking ahead I'm having to do. I'm probably over preparing in some areas, but I've never had to be stocked for seven events in a row. We've got some new little surprises and special things that we'll be revealing along the way, so even if you can't meet us on the trail in person you can follow along on our blogs and facebook pages.

Road Trip!

Fan Love

I was recently delighted to see that the number of likes on the Ink Circles Facebook page had grown to the 3000 mark. I decided that this deserved a big thank you.

About this time, I was sharing some photos of stitching on wood and a friend (waves at Julia) pointed out that Red Gate Stitchery's skinny bamboo blank looked perfect for a T.A.R.D.I.S.

Occasionally there is a minor kerfluffle to bring it into the light, but many stitchers do not realize that practically every chart they see that pays tribute to a movie, a TV series, a superhero, a band, a song, anything to do with an empire run by a mouse wearing pants, etc., needs to be properly licensed to be legal. The ferocity with which the trademark holders swoop down on you depends on a few factors: their own in-house legal budget, how prominent/obscure the violation is, how much they think the artist is going to make, and whether Mercury is in retrograde.  Licensing is extremely expensive and really inhibits the commercial level cross-stitch designers from getting in the game. Swarms of hobbyist designers play (or are) ignorant and put up infringing charts for sale on Etsy or their blog or wherever.

So, absolutely no TARDIS charts coming from me. I offer instead a complimentary chart of this generic substitute: Perfectly Ordinary British Police Box. ( I really did look it up to ensure that a generic version did exist and they weren't invented just for the show.) No trademark. No money changing hands. No problems.

Click here to download my PDF.

The Horse Latitudes

Picking an obscure grouping for the 2014 RYO series has been an interesting and educational exercise. I probably should have confirmed ahead of time that there even were seven named lines of latitude that would provide inspiration, but this way I have the opportunity each month to do a little research, a bit of digging, and some playing around.

The titular Horse Latitudes are actually a matched set, between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south of the equator. Rather than one specific latitude, each is a band of latitudes characterized by the type of air current. Wikipedia offers much maritime discussion and a few different possibilities on the origin of the name which involve sailors and dead horses (both literally dead and figuratively dead.) See - you learn things when you cross stitch.

I've worked a team of horses into this mandala. They are subtle, and in fact are winged, as in the immortal (thus very not dead) Pegasus. I figure they can keep Draco company. As always with these RYO charts, any of the existing color palettes can be plugged in with an extremely high success rate.


The topmost version in blues and greens is called Door: 3750/931/3752, 3847/3849/472, 561/562/564, 500/502/3813. (Inspired by this Design Seeds Photo.) The second one down is in Geode: 347/3712/761, 3834/3041/3743, 413/414/415, 312/334/3841, inspired by this Design Seed photo.

Here is Horse Latitudes in Victorian (600/602/605, 349/351/743, 3842/3760/3761, 911/913/955.)

And of course, it's still fun to make new palettes. Here is a short example of how you do it.

1) Find a photo, a fabric, a flower - something that you like the look of. This example was suggested by a friend on facebook. I tried to find the original poster to give credit, but it has been share a ton through Tumbl and such and I gave up pulling the thread. It brought a smile to see the Facebook share had come to my friend by way of Patricia Polacco's page - she was one of the kids' favorite author/illustrators when they were young. I also particularly like the message in this photo. The news media seems to be a constant stream of bad things happening due to racism and intolerance. (Be good to each other!)

2) Find four distinct colors in the photo. You do not have to pick every color you see, just four dominant ones.

3) Now find a dark, a medium, and a light for each of those four colors. You do NOT need to see them in the photo, and the four you picked above can be the dark, the medium, or the light of their respective families. Access to a DMC color card or a drawer/wall of threads makes this easier.

4) Plug and Play.

Here are the six Merry Go Round mandalas in the "Human" palette: 355/356/754, 938/400/3776, 3340/3341/967, 838/840/842.

Here is another example, starting with a photo from the website Design Seeds. You might notice that I like that site and use it for color inspiration often: 

Bonus Bits that come with this chart!

Horse Latitudes in Carrots:
3340/725/727, 349/350/351, 895/3346/3348, 915/3607/3609.

I really like Carrots!

One more round to go with this series. 

RYO charts are now available only in printed form from your favorite shop or directly from my webshop.