no quacks
I was a little surprised to see that it has been 7 days since I wrote a blog. I don’t seem to have much to say. This is not a bad thing, in fact I have been quite happy.
I have been going places around here instead of staying home like a good little worker bee. I have been buying and returning earrings. I swim in my pool in my own screen pool enclosure where I can whale around in my bathing suit and no one sees me.
I have stopped wearing all those dismal black MiracleSuits that hold you in like crazy and feel like putting on a huge tight rubber band.
I wear suits filled with tropical flower patterns and colors, again quite happily. So why am I giving you all my pseudo-pollyana details?
It is because NewNeedlepoint.com is a dead duck. I had a week of flat out activity after Jane’s lovely blog about me on her excellent Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog….then nothing. I have had 2 orders placed on nn.com in 3 weeks.
Yes, I have a bunch of new books and Amy Bunger instructional DVDs to list, some pretty good used books and new Patt & Lee canvases to kit & list.
I have no interest in doing any of it, none. I keep intending to…I tell myself “today” and then today goes by and I say “tomorrow”. Ha!
It is difficult to get up the enthusiasm to write these blogs. How much can I say about the books few are interested in and the needlepoint canvases & kits, tools and Claire Sanchez Bags no one is interested in.
Heck, I sell the Claire bags for less than anyone else, even less than Claire’s own web site (if you include my free shipping) and still no one buys them.
I have some Claire bags from past seasons that are sold out everywhere else in the universe, but not on my web store.
I have been doing this for 14 months. 6, often 7 days a week. Hours & hours. I have invested ……not exactly sure how much right now but more then $25,000. I am not a drop ship web store.
I do not take your order, forward it to a manufacturer who ships to you and I keep my percentage.
Each book I have I research, buy, clean (not kidding, some are quite grotty), photograph, edit the pics and review before I list them.
Each canvas has the edges finished (be it taped or sewn), I individually select the threads for each kit and then photograph, edit the pictures and list them as both canvas alone & kit.
I write these blogs, I try to be interesting. I try to be clever and funny and unique.
I think I succeed, sometimes anyway. Still NewNeedlepoint.com is flotsam and seaweed on the ocean of web commerce (good analogy isn’t it?).
This is (a little) interesting. I track my web site visitors with Google Analytics. In the last 30 days I had 1,261 unique visitors to my web site. That does not include anyone who has it bookmarked. That is down 2.85 % from last month.
48% of them stayed on my site, once they got there. I can’t give you an accurate sales figure here since the results are skewed by Jane’s kind and flattering blog about me.
I had such hopes. After I had been open 1 year, my sales went from 1 or 2 a month to maybe 4,5,6 a month. I was jazzed but now it is back in the doldrums.
I know the economy is bad. I have lowered all my canvas & kits prices 10%. I offer free shipping which in the case of a kit can be $8 or$ 9, $5. at the absolute minimum for Priority Mail.
More reality? I blame myself. I have not done the marketing I was told to. I can not abide Twitter, all those small web merchants bleating at each other, annoucing this and that.
Facebook? It really is a pretty awful place. Once you *friend* everyone, what is there to say? I can’t imagine myself announcing the things I do to my *friends* Why would they care? I don’t care what people I don’t know do. And everyone and their Farmville updates & requests. AGH!
Ning, I am supposed to begin a group on Ning. I belong to 2 needlework groups there already. I delete their email posts & updates without opening them.
Pay Per Click? I think not, you see. I understand what a “click-bot” is. Do you?
When you set up pay-per-click you assign it a finite amount of money, when that is used up you disappear from the “front line of listings” until you put more money in.
There are programs out there (click-bots) that click on your pay-per-click listings until your “budget” is used up.
BTW, ultra experienced web shopper tip: The blue highlighted first few lines on any Google search and the listings/ads on the right are pay-per-click. As such, they are not really targeted to your search. Not like the *real* google search results.
They will pick up one word, like “shoe” from a search like “purple open toe shoe” (no I do not have a pair of those….yet) and give you pay-per-click shoe listings up the yazoo.
So, what am I going to do? Nothing. I am going to continue to pay the $170 a month plus 2% of every sale NewNeedlepoint.com costs me. I can afford to do this forever, it I want to.
I expect I will eventually get some steam and list the things I have sitting and staring at me reproachfully (ever seen a book be reproachful?). Or maybe I won’t and like Miss Haversham of Dicken’s Great Expectations, these items & I will moulder quietly.
Reading? I am reading. I am working my way through a big box of old Victoria Holts romance novels. They are quite good, they all have some Gothic mystery or thriller element to them. Below is a picture of Victoria Holt. I like it.
Victoria Holt also writes (wrote) under then names Jean Plaidy & Phillipa Carr. A prolific writer, indeed. I read them and go away to where ever they are set. It is a pleasure for me, to do this.
This might be fun to do more of. Here is the picture of Georgette Heyer everyone knows, the only one she ever released to be put on her books. She looks like a “governess” from one of her novels or a maiden aunt.
But here is an unapproved for release picture of Georgette Heyer. Looks different doesn’t she?
Yes, it is the same woman. Interesting isn’t it?
Public Service & buying books
I am going to be civic minded in this short little post. As some of you already know, I am a supporter of the Ohio Woman’s Prison Needlearts Program.
As part of the rehabilitation program the women do all sorts of Needlearts. I contribute Needlepoint Canvases & Threads/Yarns and I am sending out a big box of books I could not sell on NewNeedlepoint.com.
The ladies need sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery materials, anything related to Needlearts.
Their address is:
Community Service Stitching Post
Ohio Reformatory for Women
1479 Collins Ave
Marysville, Ohio 43040-9102
contact Elizabeth Wright at Elizabeth.Wright@ordc.state.oh.us
I think this is a terrific way to re-cycle your unused needlework materials and help these women.
Also, I just had an email from a reader who wants to sell me a rare book. I had thought my request had dropped like a lead balloon but I guess not entirely so….
One of the best ways I can think of to get rare & hard-to-find needlepoint & bargello books is to ask my readers if they have any books of this sort they would like to sell me. It is a good way to (again) recycle books that are collecting dust on your bookshelves or lighten the load before a big move (I got rid of tons of these books before we moved to Florida from Boston).
So, they way it works is I buy them from you. I pay a little less than if I took consignment but this way they are sold and you do not need to fuss with them selling or not.
Include your postage costs in your price. Media Mail is a good cheap way to send book but you have to be careful and not include anything that is not books, magazines, papers, dvds etc.
Check out the media mail prices, per pound at http://www.usps.com/prices/media-mail-prices.htm
Please email me directly at m@newneedlepoint.com with the titles of books you would be interested in selling.
Ok, public service portion of this blog is ended.
Sadly, I do not have much more to say. I have been on an earring buying spree. I expect to return more then half of what I have bought but it has been a blast.
There are amazing things out there, even for short money it is awesome what you can buy (sadly, even short money adds up)
I am listing 2 new used books this morning. They are both by Mira Silverstein. They must be very rare or at least hard to find in decent condition, I have returned 2 of each of these titles to the distributor for being in just horrible filthy condition.
These are not in great condition but the titles are unique enough that I will let you (the buyer) have the final say here.
They are Mira Silversteins Guide to Looped and Knotted Stitches. I have not ever seen another book on this subject.
Mira Silversteins Guide to Upright Stitches which are, in other words, Bargello Needlepoint stitches.
I cleaned them up the best I could. These were, without doubt, the best of a bad bunch.
I have others to list plus new canvases from Patt & Lee to kit, photograph & list.
I do feel better having done my small civic duty. I will repeat this every few months, I hope no one minds.
I want to finish with a picture of Jack The Cat asleep on a couch in our room. That is some position but he looks very comfortable, doesn’t he?
more nothing & 2 books
My mother and I are probably the last adult women anywhere who do not have pierced ears. I just never did it, back when I was the age that girls were wild to get their ears pierced, I was just not interested in jewelry.
My mother did not, I am not sure why, but she never did. She does like earrings for dress up. She wear clip-ons. They hurt.
She gave me a few pairs of her clip-ons and amazingly enough, they looked terrific on me. ( I never really even thought of it, to be honest).
OK, but clip-ons hurt. 4 hours of clip-ons hurts for 3 days after.
So, 3 weeks before my 60th birthday I had my ears pierced. I did it this morning.
It feels weird. It hurt for a split second and then it was done. Part of the price was these teeny weeny “starter” earrings. I am supposed to keep them on for 4-6 weeks.
These tiny little, itsy bitsy garnets won’t make it (the least offensive of her starter earrings since the impossibly small pearls were sold out).
The nice Indian lady (as in India) who did it for me was amazed I had never had them pierced before, so was I.
She told me to come back when I had other earrings suitable for the healing time and she would put them in for me. Nice lady.
She warned me not to try it myself.
Ok, so today (during the day today) I have been buying earrings.
I have had a blast. Really nice earrings are sometimes not very expensive (if you avoid diamonds, LOL).
Want to see some of the earrings I have ordered (on-line, of course. Jarod Jewelers have driven all the smaller jewelry stores out of business and I do not care for Jarod’s “taste”).
Skip this next part if you are not interested.
These next ones are from Overstock.com. I am impressed with their prices, selection and quality.
These are all 14K and real onyx or gemstones and incredibly inexpensive. (no joke, the most expensive the dangling gemstones is $104.)
And one gorgeous pair from Neiman Marcus
And that is my new earring wardrobe. (as if you cared).
More as if you cared. To explain my style choices, my ears sit so close to my head that I can’t wear any earrings with straight post backs. They literally stick in to my head. (odd huh).
Besides, I look best with a little dangle (that sounds funny, doesn’t it?)
Ok, back to the real world and NewNeedlepoint.com
I listed a few new books this evening. One of them is a new book *My Canvas Embroidery Notebook* by Susan Ettl started out as her dissertation for the ANG Master Teacher Class. It is remarkable and complete. This book has the best described stitch directions I ever read.
I also listed a used book that might as well be new, it is in perfect & new condition. It is Exotic Textiles in Needlepoint by Stella Knight. This is an unfortunate book title, I found it confusing. Needlepoint? Textiles? makes no sense. Until you get to the subtitle: Designs From Around The World”.
Ah ha, this is a *world design* book, not something about needlepointed textiles or yard goods done in needlepoint (YIKES to both)
The designs here are very beautiful, deeply colorful and unusual. Once you get past the title, this is a great international design book.
OK, that’s about it for me. My ear lobes kind of hurt. What was that John Mellencamp song (back when they made him be John Cougar) “Hurts So Good”.
You will not recognize me from now on, I will be so very dazzling.
HA!
Shirlee Lantz & me
In general, I don’t have lots to say tonight. I do have one slightly amusing story for you but otherwise nada.
I have not been doing much NewNeedlepoint.com work this last week. Just listing some replacement books for ones that sold.
I have been very active in the stock, bond & mutual finds markets, on my own behalf and for the trust accounts I manage. The markets are in a turmoil and I am taking a lesson from the last big stock market crash.
I was worried then and aware that things were not good but I stayed fully invested ( when I say *I* I mean me and all the trust accounts, I am more conservative in my portfolios for trusts then for myself)
Many people got out, I did not. This time I am paying attention. I am totally out of oils and any oilfield delivery or pipeline stocks etc.
I have also pulled out of any European exposure. That is getting scarier by the day.
I am, of course, no professional but I have been doing this for 18 years. So………
Back to my web site biz. I have sold so many of the new books so fast that I am expanding the category a little.
One of my wholesalers has some (all) of the Amy Bunger Instructional DVDs from her “How Did YOu Do That” series:
Tips, Hints & Knots
A Closet Full of Stitches (I am told this one is great)
Mop tops & Buzz Cuts
Just Fur
Fancy Flowers
The Ins & Outs of Needleweaving
Spiders & More: Needlepoint.
Plus a few more off-the-beaten-path books I think look interesting.
Ok, here is the slightly amusing story.
As you might already know I sell and have sold copies of Shirlee Lantz’s books in my rare Needlepoint Reference Books category.
I list A Pageant of Pattern for Needlepoint Canvas. This book was reviewed in the current issue of the ANG magazine, NeedlePointers. They liked it as do I.
At the time I had 2 copies. The first sold fast. The picture I am showing you below is of that copy. It has it’s nice dust jacket. The current copy I have for sale, while it is in good condition, is not as nice as the first one. (and such is the business of used books)
I have sold 4 or maybe 5 copies of TrianglePoint so far, I have more copies on order but none listed right now.
These are both terrific books.
Out of the blue I received an email from Shirlee Lantz last Monday.
I have pasted her email below:
“May I point out that Publishers Weekly was not referring to my book “Trianglepoint” as a “bible” but to my first book “A Pageant of Pattern for Needlepoint Canvas”. I think “bible” has been applied to this book very often. I assume it is meant as a compliment.
I quite agree that “Trianglepoint” would not be classifiable as a “bible” or, indeed, as a resource book for general reference.
Sherlee Lantz”
HUH? I think she has this wrong, I said I was told her Pageant of Patterns was considered by some to be a “needlepoint bible”.
Below is my response, also Monday
“May I point out ( I can take this formality as far as you like) that my listing for your
Book “A Pageant of Pattern for Needlepoint” is the book I am referring to as a *bible*,
not TrianglePoint.
You have misread my listing.
Plus I have no idea who “Publisher’s Weekly” is. The idea that your book was considered
a “bible” type reference book was suggested to me by a needlepoint expert I know.
I am a small on-line needlepoint store also selling some used books. Hardly worth your
spanking. And you misread my words.
Oh Dear
marianne goodman-Smith
NewNeedlepoint.com
I am going to have fun with this on my blog”
Then Ms Lantz’s re-response
“Dear marianne goodmnn-Smith,
I merely copy/pasted an Email address that was printed on a deleted site
that I’m no longer able to access. It was forwarded to me by a friend.. In
that blog, there was a comment about “somebody called Sherlee Lantz” who
wrote a book entitled “Trianglepoint”. This was followed by the comment to
which I referred……. (I am sorry, but I cannot quote verbatim). . The
author, whoever it was, quite rightly took issue with the possibility that
“Trianglepoint” could be assigned the “title” of “bible”. In my polite
effort to correct a misapprehension, I agreed that “Trianglepoint” was
unlikely to be called a “bible” by the Publishers’ Weekly reviewer or by
anyone else.
I did point out that “A Pageant of Pattern for Needlepoint Canvas” was the
book that was reviewed by Publishers’ Weekly (the leading book trade
publication). I have often heard and seen the term “bible” applied to the
“Pageant”, which is a more comprehensive work than “Trianglepoint”, a book
based on one stitch..
Although the Email address was copy/pasted from the site in which I read the
comment, it is certainly possible that an error was made…..perhaps by me,
it would not be the first time.
Fun? Why not? We all have different means of recreation……when we are
fortunate enough to find it.
SL ”
I did not completely understand this. I think it says that someone posted something to her along with my link and without reading my blog, she undertook to correct me.
That is how I read this, I am open to other points of view here, I remains somewhat confused.
MY next email to her:
“Dear Shirlee,
I am somewhat confused by your explanation, about how you found my listing of your book.
My web site is NewNeedlepoint.com and your book is on the 2nd page of mt rare Needlepoint
Reference Books category.
I have sold one copy of it already, this is my second. Below is a cut & paste of the
first few paragraphs from my listing of your book:
“Sherlee Lantz is perhaps better known as the creator and author of the book
TrianglePoint. This is her encyclopedic and huge (508 pages) book on the structure and
geometry of needlepoint.
The book is subtitled: Centuries of Design, Textures, Stitches A New Exploration
From the front dust jacket” We usually associate the abstract beauties of structure and
geometry with the so-called fine arts and with architecture. Mrs Lantz’s fresh vivid text
shows structure and geometry to be, as well, the essence of truly creative needlework on
canvas> Not only dies she show them to be the essential beauty of this medium, she places
them within the grasp of anyone who appreciates and will strive for them”.
I hope you will forgive me for quoting from the dust jacket that came with this book
originally. As you can tell from my use of the past tense this copy of A Pageant of
Pattern does not have a dust jacket.
The book contains many historical pieces of needlepoint and an enormous number of
needlepoint charts, beautifully done by Maggie Lane in 2 and often 3 colors.
I am told by someone who has been doing needlepoint for much longer then I have, that
this book was once considered “the Bible” for needlepointers.”
I say you are perhaps better known for Trianglepoint because I have sold 4 of those
books, so far.
Since I have your attention. I used TrianglePoint stitches for the border of a piece of
Bargello I stitched.
I could not figure out how to do Mitered (Mitred?) Corners using the Trianglepoint
format. I could not find this information in the book.
Is there a way to do this type of corner in Trianglepoint?
If it helps, I am sending you a picture of the Bargello. It is an early piece of my
Bargello so please overlook any errors. As you can see, I ended up “fudging” the
corners. I am not happy with them.
marianne goodman-smith”
And her final email to me, the end to this “discussion”
“Dear Marianne,
A friend forwarded the link to the site in which I saw the comment about
“Trianglepoint” and “the bible”..
I think “A Pageant of Pattern….” is really much better known than
“Trianglepoint”. It has received awards, is listed in a great variety of
bibliographies of scholarly studies….not only those about needlework but
in geometrical pattern and textile histories. Many Needlework organizations
currently use it for classes. Some base entire courses on it, distributing
copies of the diagrams. A number of them are even polite enough to ask for
permission for this usage. The price range for the book varies considerably,
but the Atheneum edition in good condition fetches quite high sums. There is
a long and complicated story about the book…..why it ended up in a
Grosset and Dunlap reprint.
I wish I could help you with your query about the mitred corners. It
intrigues me because, as you have noted, I have a passion for geometric
form…..and for geometry in general. Unfortunately, my studies were
conducted long ago…..and I haven’t been involved in any needlepoint
projects since. I often wonder if I would have improved the books if I had
had the advantage of the computer during the time I was researching and
creating the two books. I really hate to think of what might have been
accomplished if I had had the advantage of technology..
Trianglepoint is wonderful for those who want to create some fascinating
diaper patterns quickly and with great ease. There was a site I saw some
years ago that showed some very complex variations made by an artist who did
large wall hangings based solely on Trianglepoint. She had exhibits and I
gather she sold her large hangings very well. And I know that the Washington
Cathedral used it for their altar cover. I cannot recall their question, but
I remember that they wrote to me about it not very long after the
publication of the book.
If I decide to look into your mitred corner question…..and if I solve it
satisfactorily…..I will let you know. But it has been a long, long
time……….
Regards,
SL
P.S. I much prefer the name “Hungarian Point” to “Bargello”. I mention this
in the “Pageant”. If you visit Florence and see the one sample in the
Bargello Museum, you would understand why. ”
Ok, this is me again. She seems to be a nice lady but I have to admit, I have never heard Bargello called “Hungarian Point”. I have heard and read many other names but never that one.
I thought it was interesting that indeed there is no solution to my Trianglepoint mitered corner dilemma. Oh well.
The Best?
I listed an excellent new book last night, The Best Bargello Book by June McKnight
It really is a great Bargello book for several reasons.
First, it is larger then the usual June McKnight 5 X 5.5 inch books, it would be difficult to show anything as complex as Bargello pattern in such a small format.
Each pattern is shown in full color, stitched with different color threads, so you can follow how the pattern is formed more easily plus each has a B&W graph.
The names are her own, even for common patterns and they are quite witty (although they may cause confusion when using other Bargello books).
A good book, a very worthy entry into the sadly thin list of Bargello Needlepoint books overall and the even thinner list of current Bargello Needlepoint books but still….
And to be fair, the June McKnight books have become big sellers for me, I have ordered all the books in her series to sell here (be here next week I hope. Who knows how long it will take me to list them?)
I have to (of course I do) take exception to the title. The BEST Bargello Book? According to whom? Who says so? By what standards?
There are some terrific Bargello Needlepoint Books out there.
There is, needless to say, Margaret Boyles Bargello: An Explosion in Color. It was published in 1972 but has anything really changed, in Bargello, since then?
(sold a copy of it last night, will re-list with another copy today or tomorrow)
There is Frances Salter’s excellent The Bargello Book. First published in England in 1995 in this edition
And still being published today in this edition
There is Dorothy Phelan’s wonderful book Florentine Canvaswork. This is the English Edition published in 1991.
The exact same book was published here in the USA as Traditional Bargello.
Lastly (to my knowledge anyway) Is Florentine Embroidery by Barbara Muller. First published in German in 1986, this is the English edition published in 1989.
Besides these are Elsa Williams Bargello Book, a good book despite it’s lack of charts. The Mira Silverstein books. Her Bargello Plus is really something
Anything by Dorothy Kaestner.
I could go on (I won’t).
Without in any way denigrating Ms McKnight’s book or books, who is to say which is THE BEST? Not me.
With thanks and appreciation to Jane, the master stitcher and doyenne of the Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog for her very nice blog entry about NewNeedlepoint.com last week. She talked about my books. I have been selling lots of books since then.
The response to my new NEW books categories has been amazing. I ordered 1 of most and 2 of a few and am busy ordering replacements. Once I see the sale patterns clearly I will begin ordering bigger multiples.
I have already done that with the Father B book
And Ruth Dilts Needlepoint 101: Guide to Painted Canvas. I originally bought 2 copies of it and they both sold within 2 weeks.
Plus my rare/hard-to-find/used books continue to sell. I am seeing sales on some of the more rare and expensive ones I have in stock as well as the ones I know very well by now sell over & over again.
There is a book I want to feature here, since I am “booking it up”.
The Needlepoint Doctor by Mary Kay Davis. Ms Davis is also the co-author of the Needlepoint From America’s Great Quilt Designers & More Needlepoint by America’s Great Quilt Designers 2 book series ( I have them both, I was waiting to list both until I got a replacement copy of the 1st book)
Ignore the dried wet spot on the dust jacket, the book inside is very good (as usual).
This is maybe the one book all stitchers should have. It has the solution to many of our “OH NO!” moments.
As far as I know, this is the only book of it’s kind. The chapters include:
how to use this book
preventive medicine
preparation
Education
Kits
Design & Color
Creative Problem Solving
unusual projects
Wall Hangings
Upholstery
Rugs
Antique Needlepoint.
That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
As I wrote in my listing for this book “In thumbing through this book it is all here. Not just how to fix a problem but basic questions like how many strands of thread do I use? etc.
This looks to me to be the one book we should all have on our needlework book shelves and I am going to see if I can find a few more copies of it, I want one for myself too.
Published by Prentice Hall in 1982 this is a hardcover book with 288 pages.”
As they say sh_t happens! (usually to me). This book may well have a solution to it.
To end I want to return to my *The Best* theme (bear with me). I am reading Julia Quinn right now. Re-reading one the the books in her Bridgerton Family series. They are a wonderful series of romances. Well written and with humor, style and soft-core sex.
After reading a bunch of Georgette Heyer and Fiona Hill the sex can be something of a shock (and I am hardly a prude).
But the cover’s claim that Julia Quinn is the *new Jane Austen* does not fly. It is so wrong.
Same thing with the cover claims that Fiona Hill is better then Georgette Heyer. How then do you explain that all the Georgette Heyer regencies have been re-issued in nice trade paperback format and Fiona remains firmly out-of-print?
People should not say these things, even publicists.
celebrity needlepoint
As promised, I am going to discuss the book Celebrity Needlepoint by Joan Scobey & Lee Parr McGrath published in 1972.
This should have been a better book, it is a classy looking hard cover book from The Dial Press but instead of all color pictures it only has 14 of them in a book with 166 pages.
The choice of which will be shown in color is odd, some people have lots shown, most none and there is a pointless color full page picture of Kathryn Crosby (the late Bing Crosby’s wife). I wonder why. Also one of Russell Lynes. I have no idea who he is but he is, by far, the best needlepointer in here.
I apologize for my pictures. Some of them were taken in the proper way with the right lights and all and some of them were “snapped” in my office tonight at 2am. It is easy to see which are which.
The celebrities included are (in the order they are in the book):
Claire Bloom: The actress has a wonderful pillow she needlepointed based on the famous LOVE painting by Robert Indiana lithograph
Rocky Cooper Converse & Maria Cooper Janis. The daughters of Gary Cooper. Maria Janis is shown doing a pretty needlepoint rug but other then that, there stuff is all “cowboy themed”. I guess they have watched many of GC’s fine westerns.
Next is Kathryn Crosby. Her work does not impress me but it must have had some ….something on somebody. There are 3 pictures of one of the canvases as well as the color one of her.
Next is Ann B. Davis. Her claim to fame is playing the housekeeper on The Brady Bunch. The only needlepoint shown here is in B&W, it is her “director’s chair” canvas for the chair she sits on on the set. it has the 8 Brady kids as stick figures and her as a stick figure in an apron. (I don’t make this stuff up)
Julie Eisenhower’s needlepoint which she stitched for her sister, Tricia. This work is shown in full color on the title page but in B&W here. It is perfectly good amateur looking work.
Joan Fontaine stitched this messy looking design. I can’t tell you much about it, this is the only picture.
Betty Furness (I have a vague memory she was on a lot of game shows or something) at least is a real stitcher. She stitched this rug. I wish there was a big picture of this and not Kathryn Crosby. She also stitches Bargello. I wish these were in color too. I suspect she is very good.
Let’s please skip Hermione Gingold with her series of 4 butterfly pillows. They are probably just fine. She did some floral rugs too.
We come to Princess Garce of Monaco was was known as a stitcher. There is a gorgeous picture of her and a vest she stitched for her husband, Prince Rainier. I wish I could see this in color too.
Rosey Grier gives a nice plug to the needlepoint shop he used in LA. He did these ducks. The B&W picture does nothing for them.
I am getting bored with this, let’s skip ahead to the “notables” on the list. Does anyone Remember who Melanie Kahane is or Abbe Lane? Not me.
Janet Leigh’s work maybe be very good. One can’t tell from this terrible B&W picture.
Now, as I said, Russell Lynes, who ever he is, is the best stitcher in this book. This is done using a Pointillist technique.
Meredith MacRae. I barely remember her either but at least her Bargello is photographed in color.
Dina Merrill, Classy lady, good actress. Interesting pillows. (as I sigh) Color, they need color.
Now, Mary Tyler Moore is well known as a avid stitcher. I once saw a picture of a couch whose cushions she stitched in a bold graphic color design.
This is all the book had for MTM.
Mollie Parnis, who stitched these slippers for President Johnson. I am sure they are fine, I could have lived my whole life happily never having seen them.
Roberta Peters, good thing she sings better then she stitches.
The last chapter is called US Cabinet Wives” There are no needlepoints shown but Martha Mitchell is mentioned and this picture of Mrs. Richard Nixon and Mrs. Spiro Agnew.
I don’t know about you but I felt (and still feel) terribly sorry for Pat Nixon. Imagine being married to Richard Nixon and living that awful political life, which she reportedly hated and never wanted.
What else? I have finally given up on trying to save some of the worst of the paper Dust Jackets on some of the (old) rare & hard-to-find books that I sell on NewNeedlepoint.com.
Many of them are not worth the effort. What decided me was a terribly yellowed and very foxed on the inside dust jacket on a book that was otherwise in Very Good Condition. I asked myself, why am I doing this?
Why would I want to risk the condition of this nice book by keeping it and storing it until it sells inside this disgusting dust jacket.
In the future, I will fix and save what is worth fixing and saving of the dust jackets but no more heroic measures and keeping ICKY ones on otherwise good books.
I know this flies counter to accepted used book value practices but if I don’t want to touch it, why would you?
I am currently taking a break from my unexpected and unusual Regency & Romance reading and went back to my bookcase. I pulled out a collection of stories by Shirley Jackson.
She was a great and subtle writer. Most people only know her from her famous short story “The Lottery” and it deserves to be as famous as it is.
I am also a fan of her short novel “The Bird’s Nest” and of course, her other books. Reading Shirley Jackson, Dorothy Parker, Fay Weldon, Susan Hill, Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell’s alter ego) and Robert Parker et al is more what I am used to reading.
I am not sure where this sentimental reading jag came from but it is clearly not over yet.
I was very sad to hear about Robert Parker’s death recently. I once, briefly, worked at Kate’s Mystery Books, a famous Cambridge, MA book store. All the shelves there had been built by her friend Robert Parker. They were great shelves.
I did not last long at Kate’s. She could not get the idea that if I had to pick up my son at school at 3:30 that did not mean 4:000 and the teachers did not appreciate it that Kate just couldn’t get back to relieve me in time, just couldn’t.
I am not going to sell Celebrity Needlepoint on my web store. I do not think the book is worth even what I paid for it.
Had the pictures all been in color it would have been.
70′s chic & more
In response to an article in the ANG magazine, Needlepointers, on photographing needlepoint I recently bought an easel to use for taking my pictures.
It is much better for the canvases. This picture of the Empress Needlepoint Canvas was taken lying flat on a table with my camera held above it.
This picture of Patt & Lee’s Scrap Threads Cats canvas was taken with the canvas hung from the easel and the camera looking straight at it.
Or these books. Susan Higgenson’s Your House In Needlepoint was shot laying on a table, from above. (I just received another copy of this, I will re-list it this week, sold 2 so far)
The book Pulled Work on Canvas and Linen is shot on the easel, straight on. The only drawback to the easel and it is a small one, is the lip which olds the books in pace does obscure the bottom 1/4 inch of the book at the bottom.
(this looks like a excellent book, listing it this week)
One of the more or less hard-to-find books I am listing this week is called Needlepainting: A Garden of Stitches by Eszter Haraszty & her Husband Bruce David Colen. It was published in 1974 and it shows. I don’t mean the condition of the book, that is pretty good.
First up, I want you to see a picture of the authors from the back dust jacket flap.
I don’t know if you can tell from the picture but she is clearly in her late 40′s or 50′s. ( I vote for 50′s). Showing a lot of thigh.
The book is interesting for several reasons. There are lots of color pictures and that is good. It is very “chatty”. She talks about everything plus her concept of Needlepainting.
She is also into gardens, much of her work is floral based. aThe book demonstrates 4 stitches The Chain Stitch, The Satin Stitch, Turkey Knot and French Knot. From what I can see, she uses the Satin Stitch quite a bit. Her technique seem to be a thick “laying on” of wool.
She does talk on, dropping names left & right and discussing her immediate success with Needlepainting. Relatively early on she was commissioned to stitch this rug.
The color pictures are grouped throughout the book so I have no idea the size this rug is or any other details. The picture includes her & her dogs sitting on it.
I don’t know about you but if I commissioned this clearly big and probably expensive rug, I would not want her dogs lounging around on it.
Next is a picture of her living room. It is obvious they live in California (they do).
Wow, 1974.
Her work is not all “too much” and some of it I am very taken with. These chairs are lovely and the rug is hooked using her Needlepainting principles.
Their bedroom, need I say more?
I don’t think I could actually sleep in that room, could you?
This blog was fun to write, I hope it amuses you, as it did me. It also reminded me.
My next blog will be based on the Book Celebrity Needlepoint from 1972. It will probably not ever be for sale on NewNeedlepoint.com. It is something of a disappointment to me. Most of the pictures are in B & W, and they should be in color in a book like this.
Wait till you see what these Celebrities stitch. Anyone remember Abbe Lane? I sure don’t.
Mother’s Day misc.
Happy Mother’s day all mothers (me included). It is going to be a lovely day. Sunny & hot here, of course it if S. Florida. I woke up this morning at 5m and for the first time in days (longer then I care to admit) I feel good. I feel awake, alert and raring to go.
This is a huge change from my recent lethargic, low, sleepy, dead brained self. I am quite cheerful about it and hope it stays this way a while.
I have 4 new Patt & Lee canvases & kits to list. 1 of them is in advance of the Spring TNNA Market coming up. I expect a few more any day now. Those will also include designs ahead of the market.
I have lots of new not new books to list. My usual 1/3 of the books I ordered are not salable (by me anyway, remember they were sold to me as very good).
There is one seller who is the worst. I know I should stop buying from them but then I get sucked in by how much they have and how cheap it is.
Only it is not so cheap anymore since I now pay more to get the “better condition rated” books which still come in just awful, in the end.
I am not really a stupid person but sometimes I am. I bet you know what I mean.
The most rare book of this whole order was a incredibly hard to find very good condition copy of Needlepoint Patterns For Signs & Sayings by Rhoda Goldberg & Marion Pakula. It was no where near VG, it was ICK (my own designation for awful & nasty).
I do have new not new books:
The Craft of Florentine Embroidery by Barbara Snook &
Florentine Embroidery by Barbara Snook.
Oddly, these are different books.
I have a very rare copy of The Fiber Book Ridge Needlepointers Chapter The American Needlepoint Guild. I will discuss this more in it’s listing. I am not yet sure what exactly it is.
The Star of David Needlepoint Book by B Bossuck
1001 Designs for Needlepoint and Cross Stitch by B. Bossuck
Martin Leman’s Needlepoint Cats with needlepoint designs by his daughter Jill Leman
Needlepainting, A Garden of Stitches by Eszter Haraszty & Bruce David Colen. What till you get a look at the dust jacket photo of them, pure 1974.
Now Needlepoint by Jan Orr. I have no idea what this is yet but I loved the title….more in the listing.
Decorative Needlepoint: Tapestry and Beadwork by Julia Hickman
Celebrity Needlepoint by Joan Scobey & Lee Parr McGrath. Yes, I finally gave in bought one of these. So far I think most of us are much better stitchers than these celebrities.
The Milner Craft Series Textured Canvas Work by Alison Park
American Needlework 1776/1976 by Leslie Tillett. Here’s a kicker, with a forward by Rose Kennedy
Picture It In Needlepoint by Judy Clayton & Deborah Dow
Pulled Work on Canvas and Linen by Rosemary Drysdale. This book looks fascinating.
Needlepoint: Design Your Own by Muriel Baker, Barbara Eyre, Margaret Wall, Charlotte Westerfield. I figure one of them, at least, has to know something worthwhile.
The Crewel Needlepoint World by Barbara H. Donnelly and Karl W. Gullers. No idea what this is, we shall see.
Needlepoints To Go by Brande Ormand. Grab & go small projects
Designing for Needlepoint and Embroidery from Ancient and Primitive Sources by Jan Messant. I assume it is about what it says it is about.
There are also replacement books for some of the ones I have sold. I have sold so many New New Books that I have had to place more orders there as well.
Ok, want to hear the follow up to my quilt/rug lady story.
As you know I got her odd and paranoid email, accusing me of such cruelty and spite. When I did not respond, as requested, with an email with an “apology in the subject line or she would not read it” plus I talked about her here, even though I had been asked not to (all bets were off), I assumed it was over.
But NO, 2 days later I got an order from her through my web store for a needlepoint ornament kit. OK, I thought, I can be professional (to a point). I filled the order.
The next day I get an email from her. She complained I had forgotten the free neeedle with the Patt & Lee Scrap Threads canvas I sent her. Fair enough. She then asked me if I could supply her with plain 16 mesh mono canvas and hanks of plain Paternayan Needlepoint wool.
She told me she lives over 100 miles from a LNS.
OK, we are not exactly friends and NewNeedlepoint.com is not really that kind of needlepoint store but I would do this. A sale is a sale.
I knew she had no idea what she was asking for, a hank of Paternayan
Wool is a full pound. I only buy those in black, white & cream. Usually colors are ordered in 1/4 hanks. Even that is a lot of yarn.
I went back into my purchasing records and got the exact figure I was paying per ounce. Figured it up and the plain canvas cost and sent her a very professional email apologizing for forgetting the needle and telling her I would send one immediately (which I did) and giving her the prices she asked for.
The next day I get back the oddest email from her. Oh….she begins telling me in great detail what projects she is working on now and how long they might take her. She is referring to these designs as if I was her best friend and stitching partner, like I knew what “the moon” was.
She said maybe…when she finished this, that & the other she might stitch something she already has or maybe order the canvas & yarn from me.
I am sitting there reading this bizarre email and thinking to myself. “I let her *get* me again”. “what is the matter with this woman, she acts like nothing happened and we are intimate stitching friends”.
I am an odd person myself. The first thought that occured to me, beyond that this woman is crazy is “Maybe she has multiple personality disorder?”.
Clearly I have seen The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil too many times. I have even read the book the movie Sybil was made from.
So I wrote her back and more or less (ok, more but we will not go into that here) wrote that I did not want to do any business with her again, to take it elsewhere.
Or as Patt, my good friend and the Patt & Lee designer says “they all seem to find you” meaning me.
I am still reading escapist fluff. I am over my little Fiona Hill-a-thon. All 3 of them were her early works, all published the same year. They must have asked for her early stuff after she became (however briefly) popular.
Her talent is there, buried under the much she needed to learn.
I am now embarked on a Victoria Holt reading thing. I started with the The Bride of Pendoric. I’ll tell you, maybe I would have married the hunk but as soon as the attempts on my life started I would have taken my self and my newly inherited millions away from there. Far away.
I do not care how handsome and charming he is. A man who woos and marries a young woman, knowing she is soon to be heir to a huge fortune, without telling her this, is a cad. Period.
Why are all the *Bad Men* so much sexier then the *Good Men*?
Remember Cleo?
This is interesting. Remember Cleo who posted a comment here about using my web store to learn about which books she wanted by reading my descriptions and them going to buy them elsewhere?
It turns out that “Cleo” was not “real”. She sent 2 emails to me and I sent 2 to her and the 2nd I sent her has just been returned to me as undeliverable.
Hmmmmm. This means, I suspect, that “Cleo” was not a “real” person sending me email from a “real” email address.
Very Fishy.
Why Me?
Does this stuff only happen to me? Is this typical for everyone or just poor little me?
This has been going on for the last few days. A lady in Ohio bought a New Book and a Patt & Lee Scrap Threads canvas. In her purchase order she asked me if I sell rugs?
I, good retailer that I am, emailed her back that I did not and probably would not, they are high dollars items and the investment is more then I can manage right now.
I went on to tell her that I did have a 2.8 X 4 foot Hand Painted Rug Canvas of my own that I knew I would never get to stitch. I paid $495 for it 5 years ago at my LNS. Was she interested?
She replied immediately yes. I sent her a picture. Said I would take $300. for it
She replied again, she loved it. Then we emailed back & forth about stitches. She said she was newish to needlepoint and had many questions. I opened the package with her order in it and added my Beginner’s Needlepoint Booklet (the one I wrote that I send out for free).
She told me early on in our correspondence that she had had several back surgeries, that she was disabled and lived in pain.
She asked about wools and told me her husband, a teacher, supported them both on his meager teacher salary. Now, I knew I was being manipulated for sympathy but the truth is, the rug was a lot of money sitting rolled up in my closet.
She asked could I supply the wool, I said yes. I would and still sell it for $300, shipping included.
OK, This was kind of me.
It sometimes happens that people underestimate me. I can be kind (for short periods of time). I am a fat middle aged lady with blonde hair and I often seem to smile (usually it is a grimace but people think it is a smile).
Her next email asked would I take installment payments. Sure, I said. $100 a month for 3 months then I send the rug.
Hmmmmm. That meant she actually had to pay for it. Her very next idea was to offer me one of her handmade quilts in barter. One was done by her.
It is, imo, quite ugly and amateurish. Machine quilted and just really awful. I did not say this to her, of course.
This one she said was done by her mother.
It is not as bad as her own but still…. It is a very “country feeling” and I did not like the colors. Below is the exact email I sent her after she sent me these pictures.
“Dear Janet,
This is hard for me, I did not love the quilts. The first one was pretty but not my colors. I have absolutely no blue in my house.
And the 2nd was really not me.
I live in south florida year round. Quilts for beds, yes, but quilts over chairs, to
snuggle under…nope. Not in S. Florida.
I understand if you do not want to proceed with our transaction and this is not a
judgement on your taste, just me.
My son was briefly (but not briefly enough) married to a woman from Lancaster, PA. When we visited him I bought a few genuine Amish quilts, but my taste runs to the minimalist.
Very much so. I have 1 just black & white quilt and one just off white with amazing hand quilting.
As to blues, my mother (and father) have 2 houses, both done in all blue, the same shades blue so everything is interchangable.
They used to have 3 homes, all the exact same blue. I grew up in a blue room in a blue home.
I have NO blue now.
marianne”
I thought it was a very gentle no.
Below is part of the email I got back from her, 2 days later
“Marianne,
you probably have wondered why I have not replied to your email yet. I really was not going to say anything but then decided to tell you that I was so upset by it that it made me physically ill for most of yesterday…I had a terrible headache and felt very depressed. You seemed so nice on Monday and then I felt like you verbally slammed me on Tuesday. I really didn’t expect to have you angrily rant on to me about the color blue, the use of quilts in Florida, Amish quilts, etc. I have plenty of other quilts I could have shown you but I felt like you totally cut it off right there and offended me while you were at it. I probably don’t have a queen sized quilt or as I think of it, you may not like anything I have since we seem to have differing tastes and I’m sorry
about that. I don’t understand the harsh response to my photos and small comment on how you may have liked the Asian style quilt…which does not have any blue in it..that is a teal but may have looked like blue to you.”
Huh? rant? where?
She goes on the say she could have showed me other quilts but that she indeed does not have a queen size quilt ( She had previously mentioned this and said the double sized quilts were perfect for over the back of a chair and to snuggle under).
I did not see where more possible quilts were mentioned either.
Now, you judge, did my email slam her, was it a rant? I sure don’t think so.
Her last email goes on to say not to contact her again unless I say something *nice* in the subject, she will not read it,
And not to blog about her.
Too Bad! Here it is.
Want to know what I think? I think she tried to get something valuable from me by playing on my sympathies and trading me something either valueless (her own made quilt) or something of far less value (the one she said her mother made, btw..I can see the quilting errors in it even in her picture).
Feeling (some) sympathy for her does not render me stupid. Besides, I wonder how much of her story is true.
Like Mr Wickham’s claims to injury by Mr Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, her “hurt and pitiful claims came way to soon in our “acquaintance”.
I think she tried to play me for a fool and is chagrined that she did not succeed.
If I am wrong and my email response to the 2 quilt pictures she sent was indeed harsh, please tell me because I do not see it.
What am I reading these days? I went through a 3 book out-of-print Diane Farr book mini festival and now am reading the first of 3 very out-of-print Fiona Hill regencies.
They are very cool. They are “large type small paperbacks”. Often these older paperbacks have teeny weeny type making them harder to read.
The type in these is not HUGE like in those oversize large print hardcover books, it is just bigger and very easy to read while lolling in my bed or a bathtub and out in the sun.
Work? Am I doing much work? Not really but I did break up the big and getting bigger Patt & Lee Designs Category into smaller and specific Patt & Lee categories.
Now Patt & Lee Animals is listed in the category list just below Animals Needlepoint and so on. It is no longer hidden near the bottom.
I seem to be selling a lot of P & L. But have I listed the new canvases I have of hers or made them into kits yet? Nope.
I am lolling.
Once again, I have to stick my link in way down here.
Please visit my lovely & amazing Needlepoint Store on the net. I specialize in Hand Painted canvases & kits, Patt & Lee Canvases & Kits. Needlepoint and Needlework books both new and hard-to-find & rare used books, Claire Sanchez Totes and ShoulderBags and the best in tools and accessories.
All this is at NewNeedlepoint.com How can you resist?
p.s. Yes, the “lovely & amazing” is a take off on Nicole Holofcener’s films.
