06.29.09

Surprise – Golden Circle Designs is now live…

Posted in GoldenCircleDesigns.com at 7:00 am by deRomilly

Lucinda in the Rose Garden

The website for Golden Circle Designs, my needlework and art design company is now live!

I am very excited. Also very nervous. Most of these patterns had a previous life as printed charts back in 2000 when I first opened GCD. Then I went and moved cross country, got married, and life intervened – I never reopened in my new state. Until this year. It’s been a hard six months trying to get my ducks in a row to do this. But I’m very happy with the results.

Charts are all in pdf format, so if you order them, you’ll be able to download them as soon as your payment clears.  This will let me keep my costs down — and yours, too.  If you absolutely have to have a printed chart, please let me know.  I hope to add them to the site in the next couple of months (no promises, though!) The cost will be slightly higher, however, to cover printing and packaging costs.

Currently there are items for sale in the patterns and the Accessories area. I’ll be adding more over the course of the summer, although some of the charts I have on the burners are still in the process of being test-stitched, so expect more jewelry first.

And as an Independence Day/Grand Opening  present – use the code INDEPENDENCE in the checkout screen for a 10% discount on everything in your cart.  This will be in effect until July 10.

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06.26.09

Amazon Affiliation Terminated…

Posted in Book Reviews at 2:49 pm by deRomilly

I have to admit I’d been thinking of doing this myself, as I prefer to support smaller independent bookstores.  I had put the links in as a service to people who stop here and for some reason or other trust my advice in books on needlework. But the state of North Carolina and Amazon have made the decision for me.

North Carolina instituted a program this week that makes retailers responsible for sales taxes on any purchases made through a “click through” program such as an affiliate program.  My understanding is that this means that even if someone in Oklahoma buys a book through my Amazon link, Amazon is required to collect sales taxes on it and pay it to North Carolina. Or maybe it means that they have to keep track of clicks coming to them through my site AND from North Carolina and are only responsible for taxes on those… I honestly don’t understand the ramifications of this yet.  It’s something I’m looking into, because it might affect any other small independent business that I choose to support.

Because of this, Amazon has terminated my affiliate status. Just because I happen to live in North Carolina. I feel for the people  in the state who are making their living through affiliate programs. (And there are some.)

What it means right now, though, is that the link to the store of books I recommend is no longer available. And the links to books from my past book reviews will not be available until I figure out what to do. Hopefully I’ll figure something out soon.  Do go read the reviews and buy the books from your local bookstore, though! The books are just that good.

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06.24.09

The Sad, Sad, Sampler

Posted in Samplers at 7:00 am by deRomilly

Sad Sampler

I thought I’d written about this before, but I don’ t seem to have – maybe on a forum or rec.crafts.textiles.needlework usenet or somesuch.

So here goes again.

Years ago I was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (that’s also where I got the name Romilly, but that’s another story). I don’t fight, so I needed something to do with my hands — I started a sampler, taking historic motifs from various patterns I owned and mixing them up, adding a few of my own and such.

It was also a way to use my stash of Gentle Arts Sampler Threads and Weeks Dye Works threads.

What I learned, the hard way — they mean it when they say “don’t wash.”

How I learned it. Squirrel pee. Or bird. Whatever it was, it’s three drips on the sampler. In retrospect, these were not thread or fabric choices I should have made for a piece I was going to be carrying around in the woods with me!

I tried to wash out the stain – it’s still there, though I can’t get a good photo of it. I think it melted some of the fabric threads. And the red threads (aren’t they always the culprit?) ran. All over the old-formula lugana – the stuff with NO cotton or natural fibers in it at all (OK, so it was also a way to get rid of a fabric I hated stitching on…) so it stains easily.  It’s sad. Both the situation and the sampler.

The sampler sits in my UFO (unfinished objects) box to this day. I keep meaning to try overdying it in a tea color to antique it a bit – or just cut it up and use it in a crazy quilt as is. I never seem to get around to either of them, though. And so it sits. Waiting for me to do something – anything with it.

Details below. As usual, click to see closer.

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06.22.09

Why Do I stitch?

Posted in Stitching Genres at 7:00 am by deRomilly

An EGA petite project in stumpwork

And why do I dance leads me into “why do I stitch?”

I stitch because:

• I like to create beauty from small bits of “stuff.”
• I like the feel and texture of the supplies.
• My husband, the EO, would be REALLY annoyed if I just brought supplies home to pet them like cats and never used them.
• I love the variety of things one small piece of thread can turn into.
• Egotistically, maybe, I love the fact that I can say, “I made that” when I’m finished. Note:  sometimes I say, “I can’t believe I made that. It’s so beautiful!”
• Like dancing, I can’t not stitch and still be me.

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06.20.09

Why do I Dance?

Posted in Dance at 5:04 pm by deRomilly

At ShimmySouth 10 - Photo by Megan Freeman

• I dance to celebrate life.
• I dance because moving my body to music, even when I was very ill, reminds and reminded me that I’m alive and that this is a good thing.
• I dance because my inner child still likes to spin until she gets dizzy.
• I dance because it’s as close to flying as I can get.
• I dance because I love wind against my face and I don’ t run or ski.
• I dance because I love my body.
• I dance because I’m human.
• I dance because I can’t not dance and still be me.

It’s been a hard couple of weeks. But we’re still here, and I’m still dancing, even if my posting has been sporadic.

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