I have always believed in doing my best (and occasionally getting away with what I can, I am not pattern card of good behavior). I believe in Karma, in “doing onto others…” etc. I believe E=mc2 and 2 & 2 = 4.

But I have just discovered in the commercial world, the printed word is meaningless and
5 inches X 7 inches is not 5 inches X 7 inches.

I know this is not earth shaking, Chicken Little’s sky is not falling (yet) but still. This shakes what (little, very little ) faith I had in the great & mighty gods and goddesses of retailing.

Ok, as you probably know I have a category over at NewNeedlepoint.com called Stitch & Frame Needlepoint (no link tonight, it is best you do not go there just now).

The needlepoint canvases and kits I have (had) for sale there were small, quotes, pithy sayings, Kanjis and designs all sized to fit into a standard size 4 X 6 inch, 5 X 7 inch or 8 X 10 inch picture frame.

Well, I laboriously stitched my first sample. I posted it here yesterday.

Very pretty. Then I put it in a beautiful hammered pewter 5 X 7 inch picture frame.

It did not fit, it did not even nearly fit. I figured the fault was mine. The decorative stitched frame around the quote was too narrow and slightly too long for the frame.

Well, I was half right. I got the height wrong but the width should have fit.

Then today I finished my 2nd sample. This one went much faster since I did not stitch the background.

Even without the background done, I thought it looked good. I like both the design and the quote from the famous French writer, Colette. I am a fan of her writing. I think I read that they recently made a movie out of her short novels “Cheri” and “The Last of Cheri”. I have not seen them but I have read those books many times. It is important to read them together.

Anyway, I placed the stitched canvas in another *standard size* 5 X 7 inch frame.

AWK! Double AWK! Maybe even a Triple AWK!

So, I ran around late last night snatching all the pictures out of my own 4 X 6 and 5 X 7 pictures frames and measuring the inside area of them (where the glass is, where the pictures go) and I discovered no 4 X 6 inch frame is 4 X 6 inches.

They range from 3.4 inches to 3.75 inches by 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A few were even slightly smaller.

5 X 7 inch picture frames are indeed “more” standard. They range from 4.5 to 4.75 inches to 6.5 X 6.75 inches.

Unfortunately, while 1/2 an inch on both sides is not such a big deal to a picture of someone’s face, it is a huge difference to a needlepoint canvas.

I went through all my Stitch & Frame canvases, found that all but 3, maybe 4 were too big. I pulled them all off the web site and Keith & I got to work at 8am this morning.

I redesigned and resized all the templates, designs and text or Kanji sizes. I put the finished designs together in new smaller sizes.

I made templates of the different frame size’s inside measurements and each new design got checked and rechecked against the templates.

Keith began tracing the new designs on the canvas. Fortunately I had quite a bit of canvas all hemmed and ready, I did a bunch last weekend.

Most of the new ones came out very well, there hs been 1 reject, which he re-drew but that was a design fault, not a size error.

I have to re-photograph them and do new listings. I hope they will begin to show up on line as early as tomorrow.

It will take us several weeks to re-draw the stock we had, before we begin again on new stuff.

The only possible advantage here is the Keith’s Stitch-Drawing skills are much improved even from when he drew the first of these.

I have kept some of my favorites, changed some a bit and edited some.

I don’t think we will redo the John Lennon quote
“there’s nothing you can know that isn’t known”

It did not seem to be anyone’s favorite.

and the Mae West Stitch and Frame will be re-done with a different flower design. That one always looked muddy to me.

I am doing Tiara again, the Gertrude Stein and the Katherine Hepburn. I am doing all the Kanjis and adding a few more.

So, I know I usually joke abut this stuff but this time I don’t feel quite so amused or amusing.

I mean, I know this is hardly an crisis or anything really important to anyone but me but it does feel like 2 & 2 do not equal 4, as they should.

It is an odd feeling.