It has been a wild and crazy month here for us at Sheila Landry Designs. Both Keith and I have been busy changing, rearranging and updating things at all of our venues. It has been thrilling and exciting for us both, and we are truly enjoying seeing everything come together.
It is hard to believe that we are approaching the final quarter of the year already. As usual, the time has just passed by too quickly for my taste. I suppose that has always been one of the biggest complaints that I have had. There is always so much that I want to accomplish and there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I suppose I have been like that for as long as I remember though, and no matter how many ideas I implement, it seems that I will always have at least ten times more things that I want to do. But I do believe it is a good thing, as it leads to a full and busy life and one that drives me to accomplish. I hope that never changes.
Besides cutting and filling wood orders for my painters, I have spent the last week or so completing the final steps to really launching my new pattern kit line of embroidery projects. Since completing the ribbon embroidery project “A Perfect World” a couple of years ago, I have longed to develop and create kits of my own. I had many inquiries as to whether I would be making my own kits or sharing my techniques with others, and these encouraging words really fueled the idea that I could really do this. I have been actually seriously planning and thinking about this step for over a year now, and while it is somewhat frightening, it is also very exciting. I want everything to be just right.
In my last post, I mentioned that I settled on a name for this new division of Sheila Landry Designs. I am calling my new adventure “The Stitching Kitty”. (What else?) Since having three separate, full websites to manage was probably a little much, I have designated my Etsy store completely to this arm of my business and renamed it The Stitching Kitty and will have everything embroidery-related available there. For those of you who like this kind of work, I would appreciate if you would go over there and see what you think. By ‘liking’ my shop, it helps it become more visible.
The goal of my store is to offer full and complete kits which include just about everything you need to make the projects. I did see a need for this, as when I purchased my kit(s) in the past, there were so many key missing items that I had to search for and track down and purchase, that by the time I had all the materials, the cost of the kit was nearly twice what I already paid. The only thing needed to complete my projects are scissors and some really basic sewing supplies that aren’t really specific and used in general and easy and cheap to obtain. I have searched literally all over the world to find high-quality supplies to include, and I have invested a great deal in making this possible. Now the fun part comes – offering the designs.
I put two new in the shop this weekend. They are cute and fun and relatively quick to make. I feel that starting small and working my way to larger projects is a good path to take, as it will not only help me get my own bearings, but it will also be less intimidating for my customers as well.
The two designs are little Halloween Witch Hats that can be used for lapel pins, ornaments or magnets. Really, they can be used as any type of jewelry or decorating, and they are colorful and fun to make.
The first one is made with black and iridescent purple colors:
I found some lovely metal charms and pretty beads to make the little tiny stars:
I used high-quality Validani hand-dyed threads and silks and all glass or metal embellishments to make it beautifully textured and colorful:
The other hat was done in oranges with some purple added in:
It also has beautiful details like a silk ribbon bow that I hand-dyed myself and a pretty crystal bicone bead to make it shine:
Again, I used lots of different glass beads, silk threads, and textures – including a metal spider charm with a crystal rhinestone set into it:
You can imagine the fun I am having with these!
Little by little, I am adding more pieces to my shop. I hope to build up things slowly while I am still doing my other designing and work.
I am still working on wood stuff as well as creating some new painting patterns. My days are full and fun and it has been great to see everything coming together. I suppose that is part of why I have been laying low for a while with blogging. The research, gathering materials, and planning has taken a large amount of my time and it really doesn’t make for interesting posts. I hope to return to posting more regularly as things settle in. I am feeling good about things though and I believe the time away from writing has been put to good use.
Keith has also been working on many new things. He recently completely updated the Tole Painting Designs catalog and is currently in the process of updating the much larger Sheila Landry Designs woodworking catalog. That is no small task and takes a huge amount of time and effort. In addition to that, he rearranged BOTH of the websites and made things a lot easier to find made them look much better. We hope you all like having things in two separate sites better, as we feel it is far less cluttered and less confusing for everyone. So far our feedback has been very positive.
Keith also has two great new ornament patterns for our woodworking followers to enjoy. The first set is a wonderful layered wildlife set of eight ornaments (Product SLDK741):
I love this type of scrolling. The individual layers can also be stack-cut so you can make them efficiently for shows and upcoming holiday sales.
The other set is a beautiful set of dimensional slotted filigree bell ornaments (SLDK739)
While these are a bit of a challenge, they can also be cut in multiples, making them more efficient if you are making them to sell. They are beautiful in natural wood colors, but look stunning painted with pretty metallic paint, too. (I would even add rhinestones if I were doing them for myself!)
So you see, we have both been busy.
As I keep saying, I hope to get back into the habit of writing here in the mornings. I miss talking with many of you and appreciate your feedback and friendships. All I can say is that I will do my best to keep on posting as time permits. I hope you come and visit us at our sites as well. We are always trying to add fun and interesting projects for you all to enjoy.
Happy Monday to you and happy AUTUMN!
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