Filed under: Needlepoint & Me
I subscribe to The Atlantic Magazine. It comes out every other month and is usually interesting enough to justify the time spent reading it but this issue…..
(smoke coming out my ears)
The issue dated July/August 2009 with *The Ideas Issue: How To Fix The World* on the cover has an article beginning on page 44 titled “Home Economics”. In it the author, Megan McArdle, discusses the ways many Americans are coping with this new *depression*.
She writes that people do not eat out as much, go to movies or spend on entertainment like they used to. She discusses how they seem to be compensating by buying premium foods to replicate lost restaurant meals and how low-end flat screen TV fly out of Wal-Mart stores.
She discusses how Pioneer Electronics has discontinued making their top-of-the-line flat screen TVs (now, I have one, 7 years old and it represents some of the best money I ever spent, a well made, quality TV) then Ms. McArdle talk goes on to say that Suze Orman et al do not question their callers on how often they entertain, fly home to visit family or …
(and I quote) “whether their needlepoint is taking up too much of their disposable income”
I swear, she writes this. Then she goes on: “(Don’t laugh – I can testify that needlepoint, like many other crafts, is surprisingly expensive)”
Thanks alot Megan honey. As it is business is slow for even the established internet needlework designers and retailers, why don’t you just nail that coffin lid right on down now?
And, it is not always or even often true.
Yes, you can go to Ehrman Tapestry and buy a $1500 limited edition Kaffee Fassett wall hanging kit with gold threads or to one of the very flossy. glossy high end web sites and spend a fortune or go to a needlepoint store where they will make sure you do not get out the door without spending $300. +.
Or go to pitiful little NewNeedlepoint.com where for $90 you can get a already assembled and ready to stitch needlepoint kit Like Dancing Penguins
Or an Original Design Needlepoint Canvas like Lisianthus
Lisianthus can be bought as a Canvas alone for $55, or a Kit with the colors carefully chosen and assembled by yours truly for $120 or You can Choose Your Own Colors and I will assemble them as a Custom Color Choice Kit for you for the same $120.00.
Or maybe for $170 a 16 X 16 Inch Custom Color Choice Florentine Embroidery Bargello in the beautiful Spires pattern in your Choice of Custom Colors including the (difficult to do) establishing line already stitched for you in one of the colors of your choice.
Or Maybe for $135 a 12 X 12 Zig Zag Bargello Needlepoint Design in your own Choice of 5 Custom Colors or choose 9 different colors to be used in the pattern for just $150.00. Again, with the establishing line stitched for you
So, I am hopping mad.
Thanks a lot Megan McArdle, how about I do my next blog on how magazine writers are obsolete and the only genuine journalism these days comes from the many Blog Writers on the net, we have the timely pulse of the nation, with no publishing time lag to slow us down.
I hate it when people write about something they know nothing about. This lady did not do her homework or she would know that there is lots of inexpensive embroidery out there. So also misses the fact that embroidery of all kinds helps to lower the blood pressure and is a wonderful way to relax from the ills of the day.
Comment bywhy is it any of this judgemental, liberal, know-it-all’s what anyone does with their money. I know we are headed toward socialism, but the last time I checked it was none of anyone’s business how much money I or anyone else spends on anything. This is America for goodness sake! This woman is probaly a prune and never has any fun at all and probably never does anything remotely artistic and lovely. I really do not think you should read this magazine anymore. They obviously are having a hard time finding decent people to write articles! And by the way, if someone can afford to spend $300 on needlepoint the need to and I hope they do! This is the only way our economy will truely and naturally recover. And I am not talking about some propped up, bailed out recovery. I am talking about real people spending their hard earned money on what they want to! As for me, I am going to Amy Bunger’s class this Friday and I intend to help the economy of Memphis out while having a fabulous time!
Comment bySorry to have offended. As it happens, I needlepoint. And as I’m sure you all can attest, that trip to the needlepoint store sometimes (often) consumes more than you really intended . . .
It wasn’t a slam at needlepoint. Rather, it was a note that we don’t consider needlepoint an extravagence, even if you spend $1500 on a gold-threaded tapestry.
As an aside, I’ll note that for a journalist household, $100 is an expense that requires some thought.
But I like the site. You may have a new customer.
Comment byThis isn’t a comment really, just a hello, howzit?
I like your site, I like your designs, your colours and the way you think. Unfortunately for both of us, I’m sitting in the depths of the recession in the depths of a South African winter … but things will improve and the cash will flow in instead of out.
Like you, I enjoy bargello; sadly, my husband doesn’t. But he does like Trianglepoint, which was invented by someone called Sherlee Lantz: are you aware of it? She wrote in the 70s and her pieces are based on equilateral triangles like the ones used for patchwork. I think you’d enjoy it.
All the best, and I’ll keep popping in
Comment byMegan McArdle’s response: pure class.
Comment byHi Megan, I read you all the time in The Atlantic, you are a terrific writer. Are you still stitching?
Comment bymarianne
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