The first thing that has to happen is booth setup. Since this is a hotel show, the front room of the suite has to be transformed from a sitting room/kitchen/dining area to a display room.
Before:

And after:

Here are all the charts ready to be sold (since this is a cash and carry market):

We all advertise by hanging banners off the balcony so that they can be seen across the central atrium:

Sometimes I do a little song and dance for the shopowners:

Market is work: prep work, production work, advertising, networking, travel, accounting, shipping and more. Luckily, we have occasional breaks – here are the Dinky Dyes ladies taking a much needed rest:

And here I am with Elizabeth Talledo of Dames of the Needle:

It is possible to sell wholesale to shops without attending market, but it is even more work because out medium is very visual (think about how much better a stitched piece always looks when compared to the chart cover).

This year, I decided to approach designing from a different mindset than I think I had prieviously. I alluded to this in my Market post, but this blog post about 1000 True Fans (and this one) really sums it up better. What I’m striving to do this year is really concentrate my designs on things that are “Kat” and don’t have to approach market trends. What I’m hoping this will do is serve both my artistic sense and please my “True Fans” who really like what “Kat” does in cross stitch. I know I’m not mainstream and I’m not likely to become mainstream, but when I stitch something I like, it makes me happy and I hope it makes some percentage of Susie Consumers happy, too. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already a “True Fan” and I thank you! Let’s all keep stitching!

Here is a sneak preview of “Briar Rose: Page 1″

Remember that these sneak previews won’t be sold to shops until the Nashville Market, February 7-8, 2009.

I’m very excited about The Tale of Briar Rose because it has been an idea gestating in my head for a couple of years. The pages of the series will all go together and will tell the story of Sleeping Beauty (aka Briar Rose). This has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. The idea is that each design can be stitched up and hung on the wall, or the designs can be stitched together to make a fabric book. The cover will come out last because I need to know how big to make the binding of the book. This series is a huge undertaking; there will be sixteen to eighteen charts in the series. I’m currently working on sketches for charts four and five. Page one and page two will be released at Nashville Market.

Here is my completed production run:

This stack doesn’t include existing inventory of charts. I am tempted to print additional charts for the new stuff. It all depends on how popular everything will be. I am saying that I’m not doing any more single-page sheet charts after this. Because I have to manually duplex them, and my printer sometime likes to skip pages during printing, it is actually more work to print a single, double-sided cardstock chart than a cover, pattern and back page separately.

I’m continuing to work on new designs. I’m currently stitching on more of the Advent Ornaments. I’m also working on charting page 3 of The Tale of Briar Rose. I thought this would be an interesting picture of my design work:

I have several different methods for designing. For some simple designs, I can draw them directly into the computer software. Some designs, I sketch directly on graph paper and then transfer the lines into the charting software. Still others, I sketch individually, trace onto graph paper and then transfer into the charting software. Finally, sometimes the process is an amalgamation of the different methods. For the design in this picture, I created the knotwork border directly in the charting software. I then used a sketch/tracing technique to create the lettering and the start of the “Sleeping Beauty”. Actually, I created all the alphabet letters at once, since they’ll be used over and over. Finally, I sketched directly on the chart to make the picture the size I wanted it to be. That’s when I wanted the colored pencil lead – I wanted to sketch the different areas in different colors in case I had overlapping lines. I made do with a self-sharpening colored pencil that is a little bit wider than I wanted it to be. Finally, I tweaked the design in the charting software and colored it in. Any changes I make while stitching get noted on the pattern and then put back in before the chart goes into production. It is very important that I not loose that original pattern!

Here’s a sneak peak at a new design that will debut at the Nashville Market in February:

I’ll be posting more previews in the next week or so!

Kindof scary looking isn’t it? That’s 10 inches of my hair, which I’ll be sending off to Locks of Love soon. I’ve had a big cut before, but never saved it all in one chunk.

Here’s what my hair looks like now:

So it isn’t exactly short, but no longer uber-long. I’m really happy with the result as the length was just too much to manage.

To answer Jen’s question from the comments, here’s a link to book I got. I haven’t read a whole lot of it yet (too engrossed in a new paperback), but what I have read is interesting. The author is an archaeologist and anthropologist, but not a stitcher. It seems that archaeological “smalls” are now being looked at as a way of finding out what the domestic lives of women were like. For instance, did you know that needles were more expensive than pins? As a result, more pins are found at archaeological sites than needles. Think about how that feeds the development of stitched items like needlebooks.

We decorated the cupcakes with Oreo halves, Oreo crumbs and icing mixed with smashed Oreo. They were a definite sugar rush. One of DH’s coworkers (lucky recipients of leftover cupcakes) mentioned that it made him feel like he needed to brush his teeth after eating one. That’s a good cupcake.

I got some goodies, including a book on archaeological findings of sewing and needlework items as well as a Doctor Who encyclopedia.

Ok, now I’ve almost caught up to real life. For the next few days, I’m going to be concentrating on printing for the Nashville Market. This is an annual wholesale market that I’ve gone to several times in the past. For once, I’m hoping to be ready early!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, DH, Mocha and I went off to Baton Rouge for Thanksgiving. We feasted there with my Mom; no rare Who-Roast-Beast, but plenty of Turkey and trimmings. The day after Thanksgiving, we went out to a newish local park called the Bluebonnet Swamp:

There was a boardwalk for walking out to the actuall swamp area, which was more trees and more water. Here is a swamp flower:

Mom and I getting out to walk without having to deal with the holiday crowds! If you’re ever in the area, the park is worth the small admission price. There was some damage done by Hurricane Gustav, but much of the boardwalk had already been fixed:

And now for the present!

Over the holiday, I managed to finish the stitching and finishing for these:

These are the first three ornaments in a 24 ornament series. Yes, that’s right, twenty-four ornaments. The back of each one has a date on it: December 1 through December 25. I finished them as little pockets, so that they can be used as an Advent Calendar with goodies! These three will be out at Nashville Market, with three more each quarter for two years. These were really fun to stitch and finish up. I even learned to make cording for them! If you’re in the northwest Houston area, you can sign up for the 3 Stitches Fiber Class and stitch these with specialty threads (they’re charted in DMC).

It is T-30 days until Nashville, so time for me to gear up for production work soon!