April 2016 V8 I4

"I Remember" #4 in the Village Home Series from Stitchers' Village Designs

by Liezbeth Gottschall of Thistles

You may notice a few changes to the social area coming up as updates are made to some of the modules used. One major change will be the activity feed. The plan is to make it so that you can post comments directly to the feed. I hope you will be patient with any site hiccups during the updates, such as the image file size. I have a new project called Collective Stitch. This is inspired by the quilting “Row by Row” event that has been going on for a few years. I first learned of it on a cruise in Alaska and collected the kits from the shops I was able to visit there. I really do not quilt much and have given the kits I collected to a friend who will use them in a quilt. The scavenger hunt atmosphere really appealed to me, however, and I really wanted to find a way to give some of this excitement to cross stitchers. I have come up with a plan to convert this to cross stitch as much as that is possible. I am working to get shops on board. My first approach was to sign up both designers and shops and then pair them myself. I am finding this to be problem, so I have adjusted the parameters so that shops can connect with a designer or utilize an in-house designer. The charted designs will be due to me May 31, 2016. The theme for this year is “Autumn” and will be 84 stitches wide by 14 - 56 stitches high. On July 1, shops will have their single chart available for free for customers visiting their shop. All the shops and information will be listed on the Collective Stitch web site. There will be a publication with all the designs available through participating shops. Stitchers can have a great time doing a shop hop and visit shops while on vacation. I know that Villagers will make this a wonderfully exciting event for everyone!

Thistles is our April featured designer. Design four in the Village Home Series - “I Remember” is a sampler style design from Liezbeth Gottschall. The designer statement for “I Remember” - “Our Village Home would be a home together with all my loved ones. I remember the house where I was born and we lived there with my grandparents. It was warm and cozy and my grandma, mom, and aunt taught me how to stitch there. “ 

The newsletter contains a cross stitch chart "Water Wheel".