Copyright

All works on this site, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted to the author Missy H. (aka M. Hull). Please do not use any posts without permission of blog author. You can contact me via email.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sad Painful Day

Curled up in the baby doll car seat that Bridgette has for her stuffed Minnie Mouse Doll

On lay-z-boy with Stephanie talking on phone  

playing on the bed when I went to get clean sheets

 The above pictures are of my baby Pharaoh. We have cats. 3 black and white tuxedo cats (Calliou [9yrs], Blackbeard [6yrs] and JJ [5yrs]) whom we call the "black cat mafia" (there used to be 4 of them, but Romeo [JJ's brother] went to live with my daughter Sam in Wisconsin this past August), and one Siamese cat named Pharoah (2 yrs). I think I have the ages correct. We had a second siamese cat (female named Shinya) but she recently went to live with her favorite person (my step-daughter Rachel) in September, leaving us with just the 4 cats.

This morning my brother Brian was woken up by a dog yelping and what he thought was another dog growling etc. He assumed it was two dogs fighting in our side yard. When he looked out the window he saw  a large dog (breed was Akita, apparently a breed known for attacking cats) attacking Pharaoh. Before he could do anything, the dog killed my cat by breaking his neck. Brian woke Stephanie (his wife) and told her, she came and woke up Ron and I to tell us.

I immediately went outside, not caring where the dog was (by that time the police had him in a yard across the street and were keeping an eye on him waiting for animal control to come get him). I was hoping that my cat was okay, just stunned or something, maybe unconscious, but not dead. But no matter how intensely I wished it, he was gone. I've been crying off and on all day. Especially after I found what was on my front steps because the story this evidence told is very clear and it hurts to know that when my baby really needed one of us, needed our help, we weren't there..I wasn't there. I didn't save him when he wanted and needed it. That hurts. I know its not my fault, but emotions are not always logical.

Animal control wanted to take him. They wanted to put him in a bag and "dispose" of him. I was appalled at the idea! No way! I would take care of my baby not some stranger. I lovingly wrapped him up in a soft towel and held him for a while, telling him I was sorry that we weren't awake and didn't help him and that I love him. A couple hours later, with my husband's help, we buried him in the back yard next to the garage. It was so hard and I cried a lot. I've been crying off and on all day because every time I do something I expect Pharaoh to be there like he usually is and it hits me real hard when I look for him and he's not there and I remember this morning.  I want my cat back.

Pharaoh was one of my favorite cats. He really loved me, cared about me and I really loved him too. We got him when a friend of my daughter's joined the navy. He owned two cats, Pharaoh, and an all black female (American short haired) named Isis. His brother took Isis, so I took Pharaoh. He was only about a year old when we got him. Such a pretty, soft, sweet, and lovable cat. When I was stuck in bed due to pain, he would insist on coming into my room and laying on the bed with me. If I was in too much pain for him to lay right up against me or on my lap, he would stretch out and lay next to me without touching me. Or he would curl up around the top of my head, just above my head, on my pillow. Other times he would lay along my chest, with his head resting on my arm. When I was sitting up reading, he would lay on my crossed legs/ankles (I tend to sit with my legs and ankles crossed, Indian style) and put his head on one of my thighs and just go to sleep. He would sit with me on my computer chair too, either curled up on my lap, behind me, or stretched out beside me. When he wanted to be near me but wasn't in the mood for cuddles or petting, he would lay on Ron's side of the bed and sleep.

He was very playful too. He loved to chase this little red laser light we had, it would make a red circle. We'd turn it on and move it around on the floor in circles and he would turn in circles chasing it. We'd move it along the floor and he'd pounce on it, he'd even try to climb the wall after it! He loved it and we would laugh, it was a lot of fun. I would play with him with a long piece of embroidery floss, or a balled up piece of paper, or just my hand under a blanket or towel.

When I would make a sandwich or a bowl of cereal, he would follow me to the kitchen. There he would hop up on to my bar stool (That I use when I'm preparing a meal so I can sit down while working) and watch me carefully. Then he would meow, asking me for some. I would give a piece or two of my sandwich meat. His favorite was roast beef and he did not like pastrami when it was heated up for a hot pastrami sandwich. When I was eating cereal, he would follow me sit and wait until I was done eating because he knew that I would give him a small amount of the milk at the bottom of the bowl (amounted to a tablespoon, the rest I drank). It was so funny! His eyes would never leave the spoon and he'd move his head following the spoon from the bowl to my mouth. A few times I teased him by moving the spoon in circles, or side to side but he kept his eyes glued to it and just followed every movement. It was so funny!

I'm not the only one he would cuddle with, slept with, played with, or begged food from. He would also cuddle with Stephanie (my sister-in-law) and Brian; sometimes even Kyle and he would let Bridgette pet him.  With Stephanie, he would lay with her same as with me, along her chest with his head on her arm or shoulder and his body under the blanket. When she was sitting in the lay-z-boy recliner, he would get into her lap, or lay right beside her and cuddle up, just like in the picture above.

He really was one of our favorite cats and I am really going to miss him very much.





WARNING: FOLLOWING STORY/DESCRIPTION COULD BE VERY UPSETTING TO SOME

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When I started to go back into the house after speaking with the animal control officers (who took the dog) I noticed odd lines on the concrete of my front steps. I looked closer and what I found tore my heart apart. Apparently the dog dragged the cat off the steps. Pharaoh tried to hold on and left claw marks in the cement on the steps as well as the cement that is on top of the little brick wall that is around a flower bed in front of the house, right next to the steps. (the second step actually meets the edge of the wall as can be seen in the first picture). Also on the steps we found two of my baby's claws which were torn off while he tried so hard to hold onto the cement step. I also found paw prints, drag marks, and claw marks dug deeply into the dirt of the flower bed. All I could think of is that my cat came to the door for help and since no one was awake, we weren't there and the damn dog literally dragged him from the porch, over the step and through the flower bed then into the side yard, cornering him where the chain link fence makes a corner. This left my baby with no choice but to turn and try to fight. A fight that woke Brian, but that Pharaoh lost.

Animal control took the dog. It seems that this dog belong to a neighbor on the next street and is a breed that is known to strongly dislike cats and to kill them. This is not the first cat in the neighborhood that this dog has killed, but animal control can't do anything until the dog hurts or kills more than one cat or attacks/harms a human being. I am so angry that the owner was negligent and allowed an aggressive dog to get loose in a neighborhood full of small children and many cats.

I took the pictures of my stairs to show how the animal behaved in getting my cat, should it be needed as I plan to do my best to get this dog either relocated to a farm area, or put down as he is very aggressive. He was aggressive with the police officers and animal control officers as well.

But mostly..I WANT MY CAT BACK!



top of brick wall around flower bed, to left of second step


beginning of claw marks, set of 4 but 4th isn't very visible

left side longer mark a few inches from first set, am guessing front paws

right side claw marks, inches behind first set of 4, am guessing right front paw

The dog looked almost exactly like this

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Update Christmas Dreams and Quaker Welcome

I managed to complete the main part of stitching on Christmas Dreams, the crescent shaped Santa. All that is left is the backstitch, the words, a few stars, and the beads. Here it is:

Christmas Dreams © Joan Elliott
Stitched by: Missy H.
I wanted to switch to a different piece so I pulled out Quaker Welcome by the Stitcherhood and corrected the error that Sam made when she tried stitching on it to attempt over 2 thread stitching. Here that is:

Quaker Welcome © The Stitcherhood
Stitched by: Missy H.
That's it for stitching this past week, but I did get some done so that's good!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Update on Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott

Because my camera is in North Carolina, I had to scan my progress. So this picture is a bit yellow. The fabric is white with silver metallic threads through it. Looking at the last WIP pictures I took, I can see that I have made more progress than I thought. In the last couple days I have filled in quite a bit, hopefully I can continue making progress.

Christmas Dreams © Joan Elliott
Stitched by: Missy H.

I am getting closer to a finsh! YAY!

It feels good to have my pain level low enough to actually do some stitching.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Being Awake Again

Sorry I have not been posting. It has been a very rough few months and I am finally recovering. I will hopefully get the pictures I promised up soon. My camera is currently in North Carolina with my sister in law and brother who are up there visiting family. They should be back next Friday or Saturday.

I haven't been doing much stitching. I just haven't had the energy or the ability to sit up long enough to do any. The more detailed account is on my Chronic Pain Blog.

I am finally feeling better physically and am working on the mental and emotional aspects of spending weeks in severe pain without relief.

I am still around :)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Radio Frequency Procedure

I put up a post, complete with a flouroscopy picture, on my chronic pain blog about radio frequency. This is a procedure which is done to assist me with my pain levels. I describe how it is done and how it feels for me. If you wish to read it you can view by going to http://ravenpain.blogspot.com/

I hope to have new pics for tomorrow showing an update on Christmas Dreams and the peach/white stocking completed (washed, blocked, threads all tied off and hidden correctly, and the ribbon in place).

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Love the Postman

I love ebay and getting mail and I've gotten a bunch of stuff over the past few weeks. This will be a picture heavy post.



These are some of the back issues of magazines and hard cover books I got



More books I received and my son Kyle. He insisted on being in the picture


Ann, from Beadlework, was selling some silk floss from Caron. So I bought the skeins. They are gorgeous!


These are Soie Crystal. Aren't they beautiful?!?!

These are Caron Waterlilies, the two on the left are cotton, the rest are silk. They are just gorgeous!



Ann included a gift of a very pretty beaded scissor fob. These actually fit my scissors so I put them on. This is my one pair of needlework scissors that my friend Curtis gave me a few years ago on Christmas.

Thank you so much Ann! The silks are gorgeous and the fob is wonderful!




Back in May I had a giveaway for a couple gift certificates to 123 Stitch (ONS). Karen (Karen's Handiwork) was one of the winners. In late September I received a small package, inside were these gorgeous hand made note cards! Karen made them for me as a Thank You for the giveaway! They are beautiful Karen, thank you so much!


And last but not least..a crochet project I finished:

In one of the Leisure Arts The Magazine issues I got was this pattern for little Christmas Stockings in thread crochet. They looked easy enough so I thought I'd give it a try. This is my first one. I think it is adorable! I started a second one that will be red on top and white for the rest. Near the top a thin ribbon will be run through the stitches (I have to get some ribbon).

I have done some work on Christmas Dreams but didn't take a new picture. I filled in the stitches I skipped in Santa's hair and upper beard, so the progress is not easy to see. Hopefully I will do some more stitching on him today and upload a new pic in a couple days.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Giveaways

Katherine at Windy Ridge Designs is having a giveaway! If you like LHN and petite needles, load her blog and enter! Here

Edgar is having his birthday giveaway. You can join in here.

Deborah at cranberry samplings is also having a giveaway. You can join in here.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Floss, WIPs and RAKs ...Ohmy! Floss, WIPs, and RAKs...ohmy!

I can't believe I forgot to post this! I am very sorry Robin! A couple weeks ago I received an unexpected gift in the mail. When I opened the package it contained a beautiful LHN chart called Two Red Houses, some floss, fat quarter of very pretty fabric, a little thread cutter with magnifier, and a notepad with a note written by Robin on the top sheet. I was very surprised! Thank you so much Robin, I really appreciate this RAK and I love it all!





I've been stitching a little bit the last couple of days. I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked but I did make some. I chose to work on Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott which I am stitching on Charlescraft Silver Dusted 14 ct Aida fabric. Here are some pictures:

Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott ©
Stitched by Raven's Stitching Nest



closeup of new areas added in the beard

Better picture of whole piece as of September 22, 2010
I have also started collecting Anchor floss. Some of the designs which are in my magazines are ones I would love to stitch, but they are charted for Anchor floss. Since I am not real good at color conversions, and the conversion charts that I have found are not very accurate, I decided to just go ahead and start building my Anchor stash. Off of ebay I managed to purchase 254 skeins for $20.00, which was a very nice price! Now comes the fun of getting it all wound up on bobbins and put into boxes. I've already wound a few skeins and marked a box Anchor Floss, but since it only has 5 bobbins in it I didn't bother taking a picture. I did get some skeins that I was not expecting. There are variegated skeins in the bunch and I was expecting only solid colors so this was a very pleasant surprise. One of the orders was for 201 skeins but I only got 198. The seller was real nice about it and immediately shipped me out the missing floss. I got that small package today and was very surprised to find 6 skeins in it instead of just 3. I thought this was wonderful and I really appreciate the seller sending a few extra when she did not have to.


Well that is all that has been going on with me as far as stitching goes. Now that homeschooling has gotten into a routine I have started stitching when my son is doing written work that does not require my direct input. So while he is working on the assignment, I sit at the table and stitch. This way he gets to have my company (which he really wants) and I get to stitch (which I really want and enjoy)!. I would like to finish another project before the end of September if I can. I'm hoping to get Christmas Dreams finished so I can turn it into a small wall quilt and pack it up ready for gifting.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Full Set Of DMC

Thanks to ebay I have finally managed to get a full set of DMC embroidery floss. I have at least one skein of each color. My floss is arranged by number, with that bunch of skeins waiting to be put on bobbins. YAY!


I have also managed to give my sister-in-law Stephanie almost a complete set of DMC floss for her stitching. She is about 15 to 20 skeins short. Hopefully I can complete her set in the next couple of months.

I have one more order from ebay coming in and this will be 201 colors of Anchor embroidery floss. I figure that will give me a decent start to that brand of floss and make it possible for me to stitch the designs that I like which are charted for Anchor. I'm not very good at conversions so I figure having some Anchor floss won't hurt.

Because I won an auction I wasn't expecting to win, we ended up with a bunch of duplicates as well, which replaced my backup floss which I have packaged up to send to a friend of mine.

So now I have plenty of floss, lets see if I can actually start stitching again to use the floss. LOL

Monday, August 23, 2010

Blackwork

I haven't been doing much stitching. My daughter Sam came home for a 2 week visit. She went home again yesterday. I already miss her! It was so nice to have her in the house again. I have to say that there are many difficult times for a parent, but having my child move out has been very hard. I am very proud of her though, she handles things better than I did at 22 years old!

While she was here she started a blackwork piece for her boyfriend's mother's birthday. It didn't get done in time, and she left it here, so I will work on it then send it to her to finish. I wanted to stitch part of it as well because I really like her boyfriend's mother. Sam had a rough time counting the blackwork piece, but this is her first piece. She picked a fairly small design that has no name of it's own. It it contained in the softcover book "Beginner's Guide To Blackwork" by Lesley Wilkins. This is a great book that explains blackwork very well and has gorgeous examples of the technique. The one Sam chose is on pages 18 and 19, a small sampler with a pretty border and floral motifs in the center. Sam had put in the 2 straight line outlines and started the knot-work border down the left side. When I picked it up on Wednesday (early morning, like 3AM) to add to the piece, I found a miscount and had to pull the entire section and start it over. So I didn't make much progress, but I did make a little as I did both sides of the knot-work border (easiest way to work it was to split it in half, come down one side, then go back up the other using Holbein stitch to fill in the extras).

Anyway here is a picture of the whole piece so far:

Small Blackwork Sampler by Lesley Wilkins
Stitched by Sam C and Missy H.


Here is a closeup of the knot-work border:

I do love doing blackwork, it looks so wonderful when it is done!

So far this year seems to be my start new stuff without finishing much year. LOL Oh well, I will try to finish stuff soon!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

My Prize From Cyndy, Stash Enhancement, and Magazine Review

This is kind of a long post but I have lots of updates! No new stitching pics though, sorry about that! I have a couple other things going on but I'll put those in another post as this one is already long enough LOL

On July 31st I won a giveaway on Cindy's Blog ( Cindy's Cross Stitching Ornaments and Projects ). I was so excited to be chosen as a winner! I was expecting a few stitching goodies as that was the stated prize for the giveaway but Cyndy's generosity went way beyond just a few stitching goodies. The box arrived yesterday afternoon. It felt like Christmas! I was so excited and when I opened the box I was completely floored! So many wonderful stitching goodies, trims, ribbons, patterns and just WOW!

In the box was a ziploc bag full of ribbons, ric rac in lots of different colors, a packet of Madeira metallic floss (dark blue), a keychain to put stitching in and a tiny little tuck pillow for making an ornament (it is so cute!); ohhhh so very wonderful! One of the ribbons has beautiful little roses on it, the other is a very pretty blue. Now I have lots of stuff to try my hand at finishing stitching into items other than little pillows such as maybe a flat fold or pinkeep. The ribbon and ric-rac will be excellent trims for those items!

Stitching Goodies from Cyndy's giveaway!
As if this wasn't more than enough, Cyndy spoiled me even more! Included with all the wonderful finishing items was a large stack of magazines, charts, and a kit! There is a 2009 calendar full of Margaret Sherry designs. A UK Cross Stitch Crazy magazine, an older Just Cross Stitch (US) magazine, a few Cross Quick magazines including the premier issue, a bunch of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazines, Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine and a magazine I have not seen before called Stitch and Craft. I am enjoying reading each one (I started with Cross Stitch Crazy UK mag). I love magazines and have quite a collection. They are a great resource for patterns. There is a Prarie Schooler Santa chart, and a Stoney Creek booklet of celebration type samplers (weddings, anniversaries and such). The kit is a Needle Treasures kit of an adorable mother and baby giraffe. Here is a pic of all these goodies as well!

Charts and magazines from Cyndy's Giveaway!

Cyndy thank you so much! You have spoiled me with all these wonderful stitching goodies, thank you so much! I was not expecting so many different items and I am truly grateful for your generosity. Thank you very much I love it all and I am sure I will put these items to good use!

Thank you thank you thank you!

I've been working on increasing my magazine stash and helping my sister-in-law build a stash of patterns through magazines as well. I won a few auctions on ebay for lots of magazines (one was 15, one was 30 and one was 40+). These lots pretty much doubled my stash of magazines. lol I am slowly going through them all. I love reading stitching magazines, specially the older ones. I find it very interesting to see how patterns have changed over the years, and reading the interviews with older designers that are new to me. I now have magazines from the mid-eighties, as well as 90's and early 2000's. Some I already had so those duplicates I gave to Stephanie (DSIL) right away. The others I am currently sorting and reading, then I will let DSIL take her picks. As I have gone through them I've come across a couple that are a third copy. Since Stephanie and I both have a copy of those issues (legal copy, actual magazine not a photocopy) I have decided that when the sorting is done I will post a giveaway for those extra magazines and some additional stitching goodies! So keep an eye out for the giveaway announcement and rules. 

Speaking of magazines, I got a subscription to Stitch Magazine from The Embroiderer's Guild in the UK. I ordered it because Jane Greenoff's (The Cross Stitch Guild) The Embroideress sampler is being published in the magazine over 3 issues and I really wanted the chart. Since I also enjoy stitching magazines and have enjoyed my subscriptions to other UK magazines (Cross Stitch Gold, Cross Stitch Collection etc.) I wanted to see what this magazine was like. So rather than just order the 3 individual issues, I got a subscription. I am very impressed with this magazine! It is full of gorgeous pictures of many different types of stitching and needleart. It has great articles and projects for trying different embroidery techniques and articles about different artists. In the current issue (Aug/Sep. 2010) there is an article that includes blackwork (which I love) and getting shading with blackwork. There is an absolutely fantastic full page picture of a blackwork tiger that was designed and stitched by Sarah Homfray. If you scroll down on this page http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch/currentissue.html you can see a small image of the sketch Ms. Homfray used to design her blackwork tiger. The completed embroidery is as beautiful as the sketch and the shading is gorgeous. A very impressive piece! I wish the chart was included because the piece is truly outstanding and I would love to stitch it for my DD Sam as she loves tigers! If you are looking for a magazine that includes information and articles on many different forms of needlearts, as well as how to's and charts for various beautiful projects, then you may want to give this magazine a try! Here is a picture of the current issue. On the front is a beautiful biscornu that is canvas work embroidery rather than cross stitch. It is quite beautiful!

Again, thank you very much Cyndy for the wonderful giveaway prizes! I love them all!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

An Honest Look At The Size Of Copyright Problem

For the last 3 days, I have been making a list so I can do some math as an example of the scope of the copyright infringement problem. This is in response to the opinions I have been told (via email etc.) that this is blown out of proportion, exaggerated, or in some manner made-up to hide a loss of interest in the needlework industry as a whole. 

I went through the 2009 posts for the site located at http://acspontocruz.blogspot.com to give a clearer picture of just how large copyright infringement has become and to show that it is not being exaggerated as some would like to believe it is.

I made a list (available as a word document upon email request) of every entry from Feb 7, 2009 to Dec 30, 2009, that counted the number of charts, or magazine pages full of charts posted on those dates.  I would continue for 2010 but this has already taken me enough time (3 days) and I think it makes my point quite nicely the way it is.

On the pages where entire pages of magazines, leaflets etc were posted I counted the pages rather than the individual motifs found on each page when those pages had more than 4 motifs to the page. Otherwise I counted individual charts. I noted the copyright holders if I recognized them, or the copyright statement was part of the scan (as it is on many of the scans posted)

Here are some facts about that site:

This site has 213 followers as of 10:14AM (Central US Time) Aug. 4, 2010.

The site counter shows over 900,000 hits.

It links to 36 other blogs on its front page, left-side column.  Of those 36 links: 20 have copyrighted cross stitch charts posted for free download within the first two pages of their blog. 2 have knitting and crocheting patterns, including full copies of magazines (copyrighted) available for download (not counted in those 20) and 1 needs to be logged into before it can be read (also not counted in those 20).

So 20 out of 36, that is over 50% of her links are also stealing copyrighted charts. So right there you have 21 blogs (counting the original) and 21 separate people providing cross stitch charts for illegal download. The 50 people that MyMark Designs used as a figure isn’t looking so “made-up” now.

The site owner links to a second blog (on the right side of blog, not in list of 36 links) that she runs which also lists copyrighted charts for download. So this one person has 2 blogs providing stolen copyrighted charts.

Of the 5 commenter’s whose blogs I loaded, 4 also provide copyrighted charts for free download. Most comments are “Anonymous”. So that brings us up to 25 separate people providing charts, all associated with this first site in one way or another.

Total charts on offer during that time: 2242

Following copyright Holders that I recognized: DMC, Anchor, Rico Designs, Beatrix Potter, Disney, EMS (31 of her animal baby charts are on this blog), Brittercup Designs, Leisure Arts, Cross Stitch Card Shop (UK Magazine), Cross Stitch Crazy (UK Magazine), a Russian Magazine and a Spanish Magazine, Hello Kitty, Garfield (paws, Inc), Vervaco, Lanarte, and others.

Now let’s do some math. For the sake of argument, and to allow for errors I will use the following numbers for my math:

Instead of all 213 followers, I will assume that only half (213 divide by 2 = 106.5) or 106 people downloaded charts.

Also to allow for not every chart appealing to every stitcher, I will use only half of the available charts for the year 2009. 2242 divide by 2 = 1121

I will use an average of $5.00 (USD) per chart because magazines cost about that much, most of the charts I recognized were at least 10.00 (or more) each so we’ll use a slightly smaller number to allow for variations.
106 people downloaded 1121 charts each: total downloaded 118,826 charts downloaded in 1 year

118,826 times $5.00 each equals $594,130 dollars lost to the needlework industry if they were only downloaded by those 106 people and only downloaded once in the entire year.

This is just 1 site, using half of the followers and half of the charts available for the year 2009. My guess is that the actual figures lost (if they could be accurately calculated) would be a lot higher because I doubt that only half the followers downloaded these charts and I doubt only half of them were downloaded. I am quite sure many people who are not listed as followers also downloaded charts without making their presence known via following or commenting. Since those pages are all still visible, and the charts are still available, people are still downloading them even though they were posted a year ago. Due to these unknowns there really is no way of figuring out the exact amount of money lost, but even the conservative estimate I have created is far too much money.

Since 1 person with just one site can cost this much to the needlework industry, it is not exaggerated that 50 people can cause over 800,000 dollars to be lost on a single $7.00 chart.

Remember this one person also links to a second blog she offers additional charts on, plus 20 more people’s blogs that also offer charts. That’s 20 more people off this single site, plus the 5 commenter I loaded making a total of 25 additional blogs and people with stolen charts. If you follow the links on all 25 of those sites, you’ll find even more people providing even more copyrighted charts.

As you can see this is not being exaggerated, made up, or in any other manner lied about in order to cover up a loss of interest in the needlework industry. This is an actual, major problem that costs the needlework industry a lot of money per year.

I wish that I could just turn away and justify it to myself as being exaggerated, made up, or a lie to cover-up a loss of interest in the needlework industry, but I can’t because I have seen it for myself. What I have given here truly is a SMALL sample of the sites that are available out there.


There are sites out there that offer charts and magazines literally within a few hours of them first being published. Those sites have thousands of charts and magazines available for download with thousands of users downloading daily. Some of those sites even require the users to PAY for the privilege of uploading and downloading pirated charts and NONE of that money goes to the needlework industry, it goes to the site owner who provides the space for the pirated charts to be accessed.

Copyright infringement is a major problem and the figures I have provided here, based solely on 1 site, are not exaggerated. In fact, the numbers are conservative and in actuality are probably much higher.

You can continue to believe that the problem is not this large if you wish, but you can no longer believe that the problem does not exist at all. It does.

Now for something to smile about, a WIP update:

Quaker Welcome © The Stitcherhood
28ct Jobelen


This is where I am at on Quaker Welcome and I think it is coming along very well!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Another Loss to Needlework and Stitchers

Many people believe that designers aren't affected very much by piracy of their charts. This is not true. In my last post I did some math with very basic numbers to show a few different things, one that cross stitch charts are reasonably priced and do not reflect the hours put into producing them, and two to show how much money is actually lost through theft of the charts.

Well a designer, Monique of My Mark designs, posted a blog entry where she did the math surrounding actual piracy of just one of her charts. I feel it is quite an eye opener if people actually read it. Her figures show a loss of over 800,000 dollars in a single year for the needlework industry. This loss takes into consideration 50 people providing a single chart which is normally priced at $7.00 and uses the actual number of downloads from a single person in one year (2,470). It is utterly amazing! I would say that $800,000 dollars is a MASSIVE loss to the needlework industry!


See for yourself how seriously stealing cross stitch charts does affect the needlework industry.Go here and read it: http://mymarkdesigns.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/do-the-math-2/

Sadly another designer is closing her doors as a direct result of internet piracy crippling sales for her business. As of October 31, 2010 Lavender Wings will close and the charts will no longer be available for purchase. Ms. Hinckley makes it very clear on the first page of her website that internet piracy is the reason for closing her company. Her charts are beautiful and due to piracy the needlework industry is losing yet another wonderful designer. You can read her words here: http://www.lavenderwings.com/ 

Out of curiosity I started following the links that these thieves put in their emails to pirate groups. Each link leads to a blog or posting board that contains even more links. All of these links lead to yet another web site, posting board, email group, or blog that "shares" stolen charts for free. Thousands of people are doing this every day. The money lost has to be somewhere in the millions per year! These same people profess to love needlework yet they happily continue to steal charts and cripple the industry they say they love. To me, that is not love.

I have also noticed that not many people respond to posts about copyright infringement (either on blogs or facebook or emails). I hope that this does not mean that the majority of people do not care, but I suppose it could mean that. Heck, it could mean many different things. But if more people spoke out against copyright infringement, if more people notified designers when they find a site that steals charts, and if more people refused to share copies of charts then we could put a major dent in the number of thefts occurring every day. We can't keep waiting for "someone else" to work against piracy. It only takes a moment to fire off an email about a web site or email group that is sharing charts. That one moment could be the one that keeps a favorite designer from closing their doors and quitting.

This web page answers many of the common misconceptions about copyright of needlework and other craft patterns. http://www.skinnersisters.com/copyright/not_innocent.html

If we continue to turn a blind eye to piracy, and continue to think "someone else" will handle it, then we will continue to lose designers and the hobby we love so much will suffer.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

New WIP

I started a new design as my desire to stitch smaller pieces continues. Here is my start on Quaker Welcome by The Stitcherhood. This is a small Quaker design that I really liked. To give it a little extra impact I chose to stitch it on opalescent jobelen from Enchanting Lair called Meadow. It is a very pretty shade of light blue. Rather than stitch the piece in black I chose a dark navy blue from DMC, number 820. I am really liking the dark blue against the light blue fabric. Like the larger Quaker WIP I have it seems to be crisp, and clean even though it is a dark blue floss on a light blue fabric. I wasn't sure I would still get that crisp appearance on a colored fabric like I got with the white, but it still looks that way to me. The colors in this picture are a bit faded. I took the picture late at night, using the flash because that is when I finished stitching.

Quaker Welcome © The Stitcherhood
DMC floss 820
28ct Opalescent Jobelen "Meadow" By Enchanting Lair

I did do a little more on Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott, but it wasn't enough progress to take another picture. I filled in a little more white on his beard but not much.


I noticed that I now have 75 followers! WOW! Thank you all very much for following my little blog despite the occasional rambling post. I really enjoy reading other stitchers' blogs and am happy that you seem to enjoy reading mine.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Apology and Update to Yesterday's Post

Yesterday I posted about copyright infringement. Sadly I posted some erroneous information. Since I know not everyone goes back and re-reads an old post, I am posting the corrected information as a new post as well. The additions and new information to this (now) essay are in italics.

Thank you for taking a few moments to read this plea.


An Honest Plea For Help

Edited to add: I made an error, Dragon Dreams has not closed its doors completely! Please re-read for correct information. Mrs. Aikman-Smith, thank you for correcting me and again I am sorry that I posted inaccurate information about your company.

Earlier today I came across a web site. It is a Chinese posting forum that people have to spend money to get fake cyber money that they call "gold coins". The rate is 1 US dollar buys 100 gold coins. You then spend this cyber money to download stolen charts. I recognized many of the designers and made lists of their designs. I then emailed those companies and provided them the list with direct URL's to the files. I also created a fake log in and password so that I could access the "subscribers only" areas to get as complete a list as possible. I provided this log in information to the designers as well, so they could search for more of their charts. The site was just too large for me to find every chart. As it was I spent 4 hours getting that list. I was so sad by this. The Gift Of Stitching magazine and Heaven and Earth Designs recently made public comments about copyright and copyright infringement. I was sad to find that this site must be one of the sites they meant as many issues of the magazine and many HAED designs are illegally posted for download. Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks, Lizzie*Kate, Tam's Creations, Barbara Ana, Bothy Threads, Brittercup Designs, Brooks Books Publishing, Casey Buonaugurio, EMS, Golden Kite, Mystic Stitch, TGOSM, UK mags like Cross Stitch Card Shop, Cross Stitch Gold,  and so so many more all had their charts stolen. This site requires that individual people scan in the charts and upload them so that others can download the files.

Don't people realize that doing this takes money from their favorite designers? That doing this will eventually cause those designers to stop designing charts? It is written on every chart and magazine that they are copyrighted and can NOT be copied or redistributed in any manner without written consent of the copyright holder, yet people still insist they did not know this. How can they not know it in this day and age? Especially after the massive news stories that arose when Napster (the music file sharing program) was sued and found to be breaking copyright laws? That was all over the news for weeks! 



Think about it, if the designers can no longer support themselves and have to stop designing, then the demand for such luxury threads as over-dyed flosses and silks and hand-dyed fabrics will also drop and as a side effect we'll lose those also; we'll lose the different magazines that are currently available. Every aspect of stitching that we currently enjoy will be affected. Stitching will go back to only those designs that the larger companies (such as Leisure Arts) provide us. People who run their own companies have many reasons for doing so and one of those reasons has to include profit. If a company loses money (such as occurs when their product is stolen) then eventually that company will no longer be able to afford to stay open.

Edited to add: Considering the number of hours it takes a designer to create a cross stitch chart, compared to the price those charts are sold for, their profit comes from the total number of charts sold, not from the price of a single chart. 

If charts were priced based on an hourly wage, they would be a lot more expensive. For example (using small easy number for this example only): 

small design/drawing/idea takes 10 hours..
charting the idea takes additional 10 hours..
model stitching takes 10 hours..
corrections to chart found during model stitching takes 5 hours
that small chart required 35 hours to create. 

At minimum wage (USA minimum wage $6.55/hr) that would be worth  $229.25 (35 hours X $6.55=$229.25). That's just the man hours required to produce a single small chart. The larger and more detailed the chart, the more hours and materials it takes and even a small chart probably takes more than 35 hours to create.

Now add in cost of printing the chart, materials with which to stitch the model, postage, and hours required to put it all together and the price goes even higher. Many charts are sold through a distributor, who takes a cut from each chart sold thus lowering the revenue that the designer receives from the sale of their charts. Yet charts remain at reasonable prices and selling a single chart of any design does NOT come close to even breaking even for the designer's time spent. Kits, of course, cost more as materials are included in the pack. For ease of understanding I am speaking solely of a chart, not a kit.

So every chart that is stolen and given to someone for free, directly affects the income of that designer's company and even a few such thefts are devastating. The more thefts which occur, the more damaging it is to the business. The less income that business generates until eventually the business can no longer stay open as there is no profit. A business can not operate if their costs are higher than their income same as a person's household budget will not work if they spend more money than they make.


Please, fellow stitchers, if you come across a person or a web site that is violating the copyright of a cross stitch designer (or other copyright holder such as an author), send an e-mail with the URL to that designer. If we don't all band together and fight copyright violations more of our favorite designers will be forced to stop designing or severely reduce the number of charts they put out per year like Dragon Dreams had to do. Some of these designers are running small businesses and thus can't afford to hire an attorney to fight this, but if stitchers band together, pass the word and refuse to tolerate the theft of a designer's hard work we can put quite a dent in such theft! If we don't, if we just sit by and think that it is no big deal, we will eventually find ourselves losing many of our favorite designers and the wonderful variations that are currently found in the stitching world.

So please, do not tolerate such theft when or if you come across it and help preserve the wonderful variations that are currently available in our favorite hobby! If you have copied patterns to pass along to your friends in the past, please stop doing so! It is stealing. It is illegal and it does take a toll, one that every stitcher including yourself will pay for when those companies have to close their doors.

If it makes a difference to hear this directly from a designer then go to Jennifer Aikman-Smith's old blog and read about how copyright infringement affected her business "Dragon Dreams" and how it forced her to stop severely curtail the number of cross stitch charts she designs in a year. She had to turn her focus to other areas (such as her beautiful illustrations) in order to keep her business open. designing cross-stitch charts. The entries are all still visible at this link: http://dragondreamsjen.multiply.com/journal

**edited to add: The above link is to Mrs. Aikman-Smith's old blog. I provide that link as it gives her specific story of her battles against copyright infringement in her own words, and clearly states the major impact this had on her business including the percentage of income lost to such theft. To see what Mrs. Aikman-Smith is currently involved in please visit her current web-site at http://www.dragondreams.ca and be aware that she is still producing the occasional cross stitch chart through Patterns Online.

This is not a joke and we can no longer sit back and assume someone else will take care of it, or that it doesn't affect us, or that it can't be that bad.

It does affect us and it is that bad!

We all need to do our best to preserve our favorite hobby!

Edited to add: Mrs. Aikman-Smith, I am very sorry for posting that Dragon Dreams had closed. I went back and re-read your older blog and realized that I had misread it. I am sorry and have corrected the post. 

I am *very* glad to hear that you are still designing, even though it is not as many charts as in the past. I love your work and have many of your charts in my stash and on my to do list. Thank you for taking the time to correct me, I greatly appreciate it.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Un-neat Back and More Copyright Infringement

To show that not all my backs come out neatly here are some pictures of the backside of The Guardian by Teresa Wentzler. This is a large design with many blended threads and lots of color changes in small areas, specially the dragon's scales and wings. I couldn't do the knotwork border as I damaged the fabric right where one of the corners was supposed to go, so I had to leave it off. I cried for hours when I realized I had damaged the fabric and since I was three-quarters done with this at the time, I refused to start over.

Here is the full picture of the front:

The Guardian © Teresa Wentzler
Front Side Full View





 Full size picture of the back:

The Guardian © Teresa Wentzler
Full Size View Of Back



Closeup of the head front:

The Guardian Teresa Wentzler
Close-up of dragon's head front side view

 Closeup of the head back:

The Guardian © Teresa Wentzler
Close up of the head back side view

Closeup of the wings front:

The Guardian © Teresa Wentzler
Close up view of wings, front side

Closeup of the wings Back

The Guardian © Teresa Wentzler
Close up view of wings, back side

Closeup of stitching to show the color blends and changes in the wings:

The Guardian © Teresa Wentzler
Close up of wings to show stitching detail


So as you can see, my backs are not always neat. The longer carried threads show where I got tired of trying to hide them by running them under already placed stitches and just focused on getting the stitches done. lol

An Honest Plea For Help

Edited to add: I made an error, Dragon Dreams has not closed its doors completely! Please re-read for correct information. Mrs. Aikman-Smith, thank you for correcting me and again I am sorry that I posted inaccurate information about your company.

Earlier today I came across a web site. It is a Chinese posting forum that people have to spend money to get fake cyber money that they call "gold coins". The rate is 1 US dollar buys 100 gold coins. You then spend this cyber money to download stolen charts. I recognized many of the designers and made lists of their designs. I then emailed those companies and provided them the list with direct URL's to the files. I also created a fake log in and password so that I could access the "subscribers only" areas to get as complete a list as possible. I provided this log in information to the designers as well, so they could search for more of their charts. The site was just too large for me to find every chart. As it was I spent 4 hours getting that list. I was so sad by this. The Gift Of Stitching magazine and Heaven and Earth Designs recently made public comments about copyright and copyright infringement. I was sad to find that this site must be one of the sites they meant as many issues of the magazine and many HAED designs are illegally posted for download. Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks, Lizzie*Kate, Tam's Creations, Barbara Ana, Bothy Threads, Brittercup Designs, Brooks Books Publishing, Casey Buonaugurio, EMS, Golden Kite, Mystic Stitch, TGOSM, UK mags like Cross Stitch Card Shop, Cross Stitch Gold,  and so so many more all had their charts stolen. This site requires that individual people scan in the charts and upload them so that others can download the files.

Don't people realize that doing this takes money from their favorite designers? That doing this will eventually cause those designers to stop designing charts? It is written on every chart and magazine that they are copyrighted and can NOT be copied or redistributed in any manner without written consent of the copyright holder, yet people still insist they did not know this. How can they not know it in this day and age? Especially after the massive news stories that arose when Napster (the music file sharing program) was sued and found to be breaking copyright laws? That was all over the news for weeks! 

Please, my friends, if you come across a person or a web site that is violating the copyright laws of a cross stitch designer (or other copyright holder such as an author), send an e-mail with the URL to that designer. If we don't all band together and fight copyright violations more of our favorite designers will be forced to stop designing or severely reduce the number of charts they put out per year like Dragon Dreams had to do. Some of these designers are running small businesses and thus can't afford to hire an attorney to fight this, but if stitchers band together, pass the word and refuse to tolerate the theft of a designer's hard work we can put quite a dent in such theft! If we don't, if we just sit by and think that it is no big deal, we will eventually find ourselves losing many of our favorite designers and the wonderful variations that are currently found in the stitching world.

Think about it, if the designers can no longer support themselves and have to stop designing, then the demand for such luxury threads as over-dyed flosses and silks and hand-dyed fabrics will also drop and as a side effect we'll lose those also; we'll lose the different magazines that are currently available. Every aspect of stitching that we currently enjoy will be affected. Stitching will go back to only those designs that the larger companies (such as Leisure Arts) provide us. People who run their own companies have many reasons for doing so and one of those reasons has to include profit. If a company loses money (such as occurs when their product is stolen) then eventually that company will no longer be able to afford to stay open.

Edited to add: Considering the number of hours it takes a designer to create a cross stitch chart, compared to the price those charts are sold for, their profit comes from the total number of charts sold, not from the price of a single chart.

If charts were priced based on an hourly wage, they would be a lot more expensive. For example (using small easy number for this example only):

small design/drawing/idea takes 10 hours..
charting the idea takes additional 10 hours..
model stitching takes 10 hours..
corrections to chart found during model stitching takes 5 hours
that small chart required 35 hours to create.

At minimum wage (USA minimum wage $6.55/hr) that would be worth  $229.25 (35 hours X $6.55=$229.25). That's just the man hours required to produce the chart. The larger and more detailed the chart, the more hours and materials it takes and even a small chart probably takes more than 35 hours to create.

Now add in cost of printing the chart, materials with which to stitch the model, postage, and hours required to put it all together and the price goes even higher. Yet charts remain at reasonable prices and selling a single chart of any design does NOT come close to even breaking even for the designer's time spent.

So every chart that is stolen and given to someone for free, directly affects the income of that designer's company and even a few such thefts are devestating. The more thefts which occur, the more damaging it is to the business.

So please, do not tolerate such theft when or if you come across it and help preserve the wonderful variations that are currently available in our favorite hobby! If you have copied patterns to pass along to your friends in the past, please stop doing so! It is stealing. It is illegal and it does take a toll, one that every stitcher including yourself will pay for when those companies have to close their doors.

If it makes a difference to hear this directly from a designer then go to Jennifer Aikman-Smith's old blog and read about how copyright infringement affected her business "Dragon Dreams" and how it forced her to stop severely curtail the number of cross stitch charts she designs in a year. She had to turn her focus to other areas (such as her beautiful illustrations) in order to keep her business open. designing cross-stitch charts. The entries are all still visible at this link: http://dragondreamsjen.multiply.com/journal

**edited to add: The above link is to Mrs. Aikman-Smith's old blog. I provide that link as it gives her specific story of her battles against copyright infringement in her own words, and clearly states the major impact this had on her business including the percentage of income lost to such theft. To see what Mrs. Aikman-Smith is currently involved in please visit her current web-site at http://www.dragondreams.ca 

This is not a joke and we can no longer sit back and assume someone else will take care of it, or that it doesn't affect us, or that it can't be that bad. It does affect us and it is that bad!

We all need to do our best to preserve our favorite hobby!

Edited to add: Mrs. Aikman-Smith, I am very sorry for posting that Dragon Dreams had closed. I went back and re-read your older blog and realized that I had misread it. I am sorry and have corrected the post.

I am *very* glad to hear that you are still designing, even though it is not as many charts as in the past. I love your work and have many of your charts in my stash and on my to do list. Thank you for taking the time to correct me, I greatly appreciate it.

Friday, July 16, 2010

New Finish And Wonderful Find!

I have my third finish for 2010! YAY! I finished Lizzie * Kate's "Peace, Love, and a Cure".

Blogger still won't let me upload pictures so I uploaded to Webshots again. Here is the front of the piece.

Lizze*Kate

I am so very proud of the back of it as it is one of the neatest backs I have done so far. Here is a picture of the back as well.

Lizze*Kate



I really enjoy stitching works by Teresa Wentzler. I was very sad when she announced that she was closing her needlework design company TW Designworks. So I was very happy to find that she started a second blog, solely for her needlework and that she will post updates to her designs (and new designs as well) on this blog. For any of you who would like to read her needlework blog here is the URL: TW's Needlework Blog (http://twneedlework.wordpress.com/) Her original blog will now contain updates for her artwork, which are very beautiful to see. The URL for that blog is here: TW's Artwork Blog.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Biopsy Results

The biopsy results are a good and bad kind of thing.

Good news first: BENIGN (not cancer yet) 

I do not have cancer yet, but it was a tumor called Phyllodes Tumor. This is a rare tumor (counts for less than 1% of all breast cancer diagnosis). It is a connective tissue tumor rather than the more common ductal or lobal tumors. It is very aggressive (it grew 3cm in 9 days..2.4 at ultrasound..5.4 when removed 9 days or so later, it weighed 25grams), does not respond well to chemo or radiation. It counts as a positive breast cancer diagnosis even if the tumor is benign at the time it is found. Unlike other breast cancers it is not classed by stages (example stage 1-4), it is classified as benign, borderline, or malignant (cancer) based on the number of irregularly shaped cells in the tumor and how fast cell division is occurring.

I am glad that I insisted on a full lumpectomy for this biopsy because these tumors ALWAYS give a false negative (remember Dr Idiot said false negatives never happen?!?! IDIOT) on a needle biopsy, in fact they usually come back with a misdiagnosis of fibroadenoma (very benign type growth). Had I followed the surgeon's idea of a needle biopsy, I would have been misdiagnosed. They are also very hard to diagnose by mammogram, ultrasound and MRI due to the fact that they look very similar to fibroadenoma. Though an MRI can give the best view of the tumor and thus be helpful in planning surgical removal. Surgical removal is the usual choice for treatment of these tumors, sometimes requiring full mastectomy.

Next step will be genetic test (Dr. Idiot said if I come up with one of the genes, he will do the mastectomy I asked for) and bilateral mastectomy as this is the best way to prevent a new tumor (which will be cancerous) from growing (the less breast tissue I have, the lower my chances of growing a second tumor (this one cancerous) of this type.

You can find out more here:
http://breastcancer.about.com/od/types/p/phyllodes_sa.htm"

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/BreastCancer/DetailedGuide/breast-cancer-what-is-breast-cancer"


Due to the type of tumor I will be seeing a couple different surgeons in the hopes that one of them will do the mastectomy without the genetic test, though I plan on getting blood drawn for the test in case all the surgeons I see demand the test.

Leave it to me to get a rare type of tumor that is difficult to treat and difficult to diagnose.

Monday, July 12, 2010

A Blogging Milestone and Giveaway

Cindy of "Cindy's Cross Stitching: Ornaments and Projects" has reached 100 followers on her blog! Congratulations Cindy!

To commemorate the occasion she is hosting a giveaway, check it out!

Here is where I am at on Lizzie*Kate's "Peace Love and a Cure". For some reason Blogger is not wanting to let me upload pictures, so I placed them in my Webshots album for WIPs and will try to link them.

Love Peace and a Cure

and a closer view

Love Peace and a Cure

Monday, July 5, 2010

Not stitching

I haven't done anymore stitching on the L*K design. I've been too antsy to do much of anything. I really hate the waiting periods of medical stuff, I am not very good at it.

I will try to stitch some tonight, because I doubt I will be able to stitch for a few days after the lumpectomy tomorrow. I am not sure, but I am guessing that the incision in my breast may make it difficult to raise my arm for stitching (hopefully it won't, but who knows).

Just wanted to let you know I'm still around..just not doing much but waiting.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Giveaway Alert!

Missie over at Eat, Stitch, Love is holding a Christmas In July giveaway! She is going to give a pair of Ghinger scissors to one lucky winner!

Aren't they beautiful? I love the pattern on the handles! So go on over to Missie's Blog for a chance to win!