We're moving!

We have a new home on the web: http://www.katgetscrosseyed.com Please come check it out, update your bookmarks, yada yada yada. I realize it is a pain when a blog moves homes, but now we have our own website, so hopefully it will be easier to remember, plus it comes with more space and stuff!

I apologize for the inconvience. (Thank you Douglas Adams).

This just in

The results of the Door Prize Patrol...

1st - Vickie M of LA

2nd - Regina D of NY

3rd - Claudia L of AR

Winners have been notified by email and will be recieving their prize packages soon.

For anyone interested, here is how the winners were chosen. First I counted up all the entries from the blog comments and email responses. There were 133. These were numbered in order received. Finally 3 random numbers were chosen. Since I am a computer geek, I wrote a short program (so technically, these are pseudo-random numbers):


using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;


namespace myRandom
{
class Generator
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Random RandomClass = new Random();
Console.WriteLine("The first Winner is entry #{0}", RandomClass.Next(133));
Console.WriteLine("The second Winner is entry #{0}", RandomClass.Next(133));
Console.WriteLine("The third Winner is entry #{0}", RandomClass.Next(133));
Console.WriteLine("\nCongrats to all the Winners!!");
}
}
}

I took the numbers generated by the program and then matched them up to the entries.

Not much to report in other news. I have been under the weather and now my allergies are kicking up again. I'm stitching like crazy to get my model done; hopefully there won't be any more frogs in it. I finally managed to chart the next Snowfight dragon. I lost my original sketch for this and had to redo it. Things are about to hit a frantic pace in getting ready for TNNA at the end of the month.

Even Designers Get the Frogs

Do you see the three sided square below?

Is it mocking me? It had been completely filled in. See the progression of circles below it? One circle managed to escape being stitched, throwing the whole thing off! Yes, this is a small bit of a new design I am working frantically to finish by the end of the month. When you are a designer, you suddenly have things like DEADLINES looming. So frog, I did, and restitching I am now doing. Other than that, things are going swimmingly. The design is fun to stitch - it is done all in an overdye, so it is fun to see how the colors land. It is a bit modernistic and abstract, but it will have a useful purpose. I hope that's not too mysterious, but I have to keep things under wraps until the June TNNA show.

Speaking of June, for those stitchers lucky enough to be in the Houston area, I will be teaching a class at 3 Stitches on June 21st in the evening. Actually, it is a presentation on "The Design Process", a glimpse into the secret life of a designer and how a design goes from idea to real chart.

There's still time to enter the Needlework Show doorprize drawing - I'll take entries up until the time that the Show officially closes. In fact, I've been so pleased reading all of the responses, I'll draw a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners (ok, they'll all be random winners, but I'll make the prizes varying sizes).

Combining Hobbies

Proof that crafts can be done almost anywhere:

That is me knitting while waiting for the MS 150 to start. I wasn't biking this year, so I just had to carry stuff for my bicyclists. I had a little bag with me to carry yarn and an easy blanket project, so that I could fill the otherwise wasted time. The only difficulty was that it was a bit wet outside. At the top of the picture, that is the flash reflecting off of the mist in the air. The start of the bike ride was actually delayed by a rather heavy fog, which made it difficult for the cyclists to see very far. It also made it difficult for the yarn to slide through my fingers properly.

One of the newer Cross Eyed Kat designs had a bit of hobby cross-over as well. Kolya's Sampler took some scrapbooking lettering elements and incorporated them into the design. I thought, why stitch what is already available? Of course, the letters are fully charted in the chartpack if someone does want to stitch them. Nina's Sampler (coming this June), will be similar, but slightly different. I'm actually planning to use more of the stitchable fabric "buttons" which I can fully customize.

Keep your doorprize entries coming, I'm enjoying them all. The drawing will be at the end of the Needlework show and it will be a good one! If you have trouble posting in the comments, email me directly and I'll count that. Please try to post here first, though as I'm processing show orders. One entry per person!

The Stitches are Blowing in the Wind

This weekend, model stitching went on the road. The MS 150 was going on again and I was roped into doing SAG support. For those not familiar with the technical biking terms. SAG is Support And Gear. The MS 150 from Houston to Austin is a bicycle ride that raises funds for the MS Society. This particular MS 150 ride is the largest in the nation with 13,000 riders (there would probably be more, but the registration is capped at that number). I have done the ride four times in the past.

We set out at 5:15 in the morning and saw the riders off, then headed out to the overnight campsite, where our other SAG buddies were putting up the tents. Once all the tents were up and the gear was unloaded, we waited for the cyclists to come in. The weather was nice, if a bit windy (note the parabola my floss is making):

I found out that it is quite tricky to stitch in windy weather, as you have to be careful not to get your stitches tangled.

I stitched, watched riders come in, we ate, we held the Aggie Muster (whoop!), ate some more, then we slept some much needed sleep. The next morning, it was up again at 5, to get the riders prepped and off by 7. Sunday, they would end up in Austin. Here is the stitching visiting the state capitol in Austin (note the bicyclists in the background).

Then we packed it all in and headed home, where Mocha was glad to see us.

On a separate note, there is much rejoicing as The Needlework Show reopens today. I am running a doorprize for consumers who visit the blog and the Needlework Show. Simply post in the comments what your favorite Cross Eyed Kat design is (although I'd love to also here why). After the show, I'll draw a winner from the comments and post the winner here!

Enjoy the show!

Crash!

And that is the sound of thousands of needleworkers bringing an online wholesale show to the ground in a rush to register for...doorprizes. Yes, if you've tried to access the Needlework show that I talked about yesterday in the past 12 hours or so, you've probably had trouble. Apparently, many people rushed through the virtual open doors, and due to the new doorprize registration procedure, the servers got flooded with lots of requests, and thus the hosting servers believed they were under attack (which they sort of were, it just wasn't inherently malicious), and so the whole thing came apart. So the show is closed until it can be brought up again is a way that will stay up, but the good news is that because the show is virtual, it will go on! Yay!

So why was there a rush? Well, a bunch of vendors got together in a virtual way and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if people could register for a doorprize in my booth? That way, only people who actually like my designs would receive my doorprizes." Which sounds all fine and dandy, and the show code was changed so that visitors had to register on each vendors page for a doorprize, if one was offered. Except that the vendors forgot about the "Lure of the Free" and that people were apparently registering for doorprizes on every page without actually looking at what the vendor was offering - essentially dropping their names in the bucket and then running to the next virtual booth. So the system broke down and doorprizes have been suspended for now.

I find it ironic since the IRS/turbotax servers apparently also backed up with all of the people filing electronically at the last minute.

In other news, the canvas kitty cat is complete! Say that three times fast! Now to paint another one. Shops have to see the painted canvas to see how well your painting skills are - lines have to be straight, that sort of thing. I'm stitching on my other model and hoping to work on some other projects soon.

Busy busy busy

Here's a hint at things to come:

It is a bit blurry, but that is what happens when you only have a webcam for picture taking. All I will say is that stitching hand painted canvas is evilly addictive and silk silk silk!

I have a picture of the tree growing, but forgot the camera cable, so you will have to imagine its exponential growth for a day or so. The plants have survived the past two weekends of weirdly, unimaginably, cold and rainy weather. I mean, really, who thinks that it might sleet in HOUSTON for Easter? Ok, it didn't, but it barely made it to 40 degrees the Saturday before.

Luckily with all of the cold weather, I have been getting down to crafting business! Yay! One new design out to the model stitchers, which will be a collaboration design with Dinky Dyes. Of course that means it uses silk! (Say it with me, silk silk silk). Two new colors and two existing colors. It was quite interesting to send instructions off to a model stitcher with an as yet unnamed color. "This symbol is stitched with the funky xyz color." Another design wrapped up for the very patient model stitcher who completed half of it and then waited for me to decide what I wanted the rest to look like. Sometimes creativity comes in spurts. I'm stitching on another model, and had an inspiration strike for another design. Meanwhile, I need to paint and I'd like to complete another experiment. Oh, and I have to get my teaching piece done, which will then be available as a design/kit. All of this before the end of May! Insanity will reign.

But I got my taxes done a week ago!

Oh, just wanted to remind everyone that the Needlework Show opens tonight! http://www.theneedleworkshow.com Stop in and have a look. Although I don't have much new for this show, ok, it all has been out before, you can take the chance to request your favorite designs from needleworks stores. I'm also showcasing stitching T-shirts and the "X Marks the Spot" design!

This is one show where your input can help tell the shop-owners where you think the industry should be going! Your opinions (and dollars) count! Do you want more designs that are the same old same old? Or new, cool, and innovative designs (like Cross Eyed Kat designs)? Obviously, I think we need more new, cool, and innovative designs, but that's my personal opinion. :) If you don't see some of your favorite CEK designs in my Needlework Show "booth", that's because we're limited to 20, and it is a tough choice. I tried to choose mostly newish designs and ones that aren't carried by the major distributors, with a couple of old favorites. Remember, that all CEK designs are available, just ask for them by name from your favorite needlework shop!

Enjoy the show!