Second, the following people submitted ideas for Christmas Ornaments in the Advent Ornament series and their ideas became actual charts!
Heather L
Annette
Katrina
These people should also check their inboxes because I need their snail mail addresses. They’ll receive a complementary copy of the design they suggested.

Third, it is always very interesting to see what people request for designs when given the opportunity. I’m seeing many requests for more (more origami ornaments, more dragons, more knotwork, more math, etc.) which is nice because in theory it means that people like the first design if they want more. Although in fall, I got a lot of requests for a Stonehenge Ancient World Sampler and that wasn’t in the list this time.

I am working on the Father/baby dragon concept (it has been in the brain since it was first suggested). This design has a border charted and several rough sketches of the dragons.
I love celtic knotwork, so I definitely have more of that coming out.
I actually keep a spreadsheet with a list of design ideas. There are more than one hundred design ideas on the list right now. Usually the design that is yelling in my head the loudest is the one that comes out. This is tempered by constraints such as time (I actually have a full time day job that pays the bills) and other stitching obligations (model stitching and design obligations).

Fourth, does the “all” in the “we’re all mad here” quote look better with the l’s reversed?

I guess I make my l’s backwards.

Fifth, someone asked what I thinks of the new holographic Kreinik threads. First I must confess that I love all things sparkly! The blending filament in the spool is very, very sparkly! I’ve only done some minimal stitching with the thread and none with the #4 braid yet. The filament makes a nice sparkle when blended with DMC. I tried stitching with just two strands of the blending filament and found it way too slippery for that – at least when stitching in hand the way I do. I also tried out stitching with the #8 braid, but I was using a 30 count fabric, so that didn’t work out well. I should be getting the #4 braid soon, which is the real standby with cross stitch, so I hope to do lots of stitching with it soon. These threads immediately say “Dragons” and “Fairies” to me. I hope to have some designs out with them soon.

Sixth, if you’ve been to the main Cross Eyed Kat website lately, you’ve probably noticed some weird things going on. I’m in the middle of revamping it so that it will be easier to update. I’ll also be cleaning up the “Where to buy” list to add new shops and remove any that are no longer in business.

Finally, it is not too late to send in a bookmark for Stitching for Literacy! I’ll be collecting through May 7, 2010. Becca sent these lovely bookmarks in:

Everyone who sends a bookmark to me will receive a free bookmark design!

A couple of weeks ago I ran into the gals from Blackbird designs at my local needlework shop. They were in town for the wholesale quilt market and stopped in for some shopping because even designers shop!

(I’m the vertically challenges one on the far right).

Then, there was the Stitchers Village (1st annual?) Big Texas Get-Together. We also had company visiting, so I didn’t get to play the whole weekend, but here is some of what I saw:
First, I met the gals for lunch on Saturday – here is Jo of Dinky Dyes presiding:

Then we all went off to 3 Stitches for some shopping (Anita and Chris are serious about their shopping):

Sunday was an Aussie bar-b-que at Jo’s:

Not quite a 360 view, but I didn’t want to stand on the table.
And the indoor group:

Also, the winners from the Needlework Show doorprize were:
Cathey from Canada
Nikki from Michigan
Leigh from Illinois
And Heather from Georgia won the Twitter prize!

I spent part of the weekend printing up orders so prizes and orders should ship out tomorrow (I hope). That’s the unglamourous side of this business – standing in line at the post office!

When I got tired of backstitching, I worked on this:

A second bracelet! It is slightly longer than the first one and also completely different colors.

Contest Winners! I used this site to pick three random numbers since I couldn’t find the one I wrote last year. I’ve contacted all the winners and heard back from them, so here they are:

Michelle R.
Kathleen R.
Beth H.

If you didn’t win, try again at the next online show. Also, keep reading this blog, as you never know when there will be a contest!

Here’s Becca stitching while watching the Tour:

And is that a red dragon I spy coming to life?

And here she is “Putting the hammer down” as Phil and Paul would say:

I spy: the Tour, a bicycle, stitching (with yellow), CEK charts, kittens, wine, cheese, bread, and a book on French impressionism!

Becca wins six CEK charts of her choice!

Cheryl P
Trish
Karin in NV

Congratulations! And thank you to all who participated! It is absolutely wonderful to get feedback on the designs. I will continue to design what I love and hope that you like it as well!