for a long time, i’d been really wishing that i had some of that cute goldfish-in-a-bag print by heather ross and it is soooooo out of print and soooooo highly desirable that i’d pretty much given up hope. until my common threads friend amber blogged that she had found some. i took a long shot and e-mailed to ask if she would at all consider swapping something with me for a piece of her fabric and…. she agreed! i made her the needlepoint piece pictured above (the pattern is now available for free in my “patterns” section, see top menu bar) and just for fun, i also threw in a felted monster finger puppet since she’s a soccer player:
i also recently scored big in another swap with a local friend. i’d made her some screen printed linen tea towels (hmmmm…. i seem to not have a photo of the completed towels, unfortunately) for a gift for her mother-in-law and in return, she knitted me these cute socks!
thanks, friends, for wonderful swaps!
on a total side note, i’ve been toying with the idea of posting a needlepoint pattern on my etsy shop for sale. if i were to do this, do you think i’d also need to include “how to needlepoint” instructions (the way that some quilt patterns on etsy explain quilting)? do you think that i should also include instructions on how to make the thing that incorporates the needlepointed piece (i.e. a wallet or the pocket of a tote bag….)? do you think that i should put together kits (that include the canvas, the thread/yarn, a needle, the pattern and maybe stretcher bars if it’s a larger piece)? or is this a silly idea? if anyone out there has actually ever tried one of my free patterns and has suggestions to improve the pattern format, i’d appreciate hearing them!
I love my needlepoint and the little soccer player is SO cute! I think patterns would be such a good idea. I think instructions on “how to needlepoint” would be great too. Kits would be great too – just more time-consuming and costly for you but still – really great ideas!! Do you like how many times I used the word “great”?
dude–we need to do a swap of some sort.
including a ‘how-to’ would increase potential client base. i would make it a separate document, though, for those that don’t need it, unless that particular pattern has quirks that require explanation.
Adorable!
I would definitely buy a beginner’s how to kit with all of the stuff I need to make a little canvas. I’m a little overwhelmed with trying to figure out exactly what I need
I think a kit with a one sheet “how to needlepoint” is a good idea for several reasons – the most important being that a beginner might not have access to a good local store with yarns and needles of the right size. If you’ve ever, um, experimented with low quality yarn or tried to stitch with the wrong needle I think you know what I mean!
What you might want to do is offer canvases alone or as a kit – that way people who don’t need the extras could just buy your wonderful designs!