Wow is right! But wait . . . there’s more!

Mare met with her local librarian and did a bookmark demo for her, suggesting it be part of the library’s summer teen reading program. A few of the kids in the teen program walked in during the demo and were curious. When they saw Mare’s completed bookmarks, the kids went nuts.

There were 2 or 3 girls and one guy. They wanted to make one. The teens texted their friends about doing them as part of their weekly library/craft group and created a buzz. Kids texted the librarian asking when they were going to be able to do them.

I had the librarian stitching one as we discussed it. She was very happy to see the kids so excited about it. So I am teaching 25 kids at the end of July.

The theme of the summer reading program is travel and different countries. The country she wants me to promote is Africa so I’ve read up on African weaving, the dyeing of the reeds, and what the colors signify. I will talk about dyeing fabric and threads with natural produce (beets, onion skins, tea, coffee, kool aid, berries, etc.) as we stitch. The ribbon yarn I’ll be getting will be vibrant.

How fun is that? How generous is that?

Does your local library have a summer program where you might be able to do a demonstration or make-it-take-it? Mare made up her own project for her program, but if you’re not comfortable doing that, I’ll be happy to help. I’m sure Mare would be, too. Let us know!

A huge congratulations and thank you to the Redwood Stitchers chapter of The Embroiderers’ Guild of America in Santa Rosa, CA! Fourteen members stitched and delivered 112 embroidered bookmarks in the name of Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy to

• the Kawana Elementary School in Santa Rosa, CA,
• a local Christian school, and
• a second grade class in North Sacramento.

This is almost double the number of bookmarks the Redwood Stitchers crafted last year.

“The children were thrilled to receive them,” says Rose, the project coordinator. “It was definitely a successful and enjoyable project.”

Thank you for reaching out to kids to encourage and reward reading and to introduce them to the wonderful, creative world of embroidery!

I have an idea. Actually, I have several ideas. Shocking, isn’t it?

You know how authors do school visits to teach and inspire writing? One of my writing partners does them, and I, myself, have done a couple. Where I live is not conducive to in-person visits because there’s only one nearby school, so travel time and expenses are high.

I know some authors who do virtual visits through Skype or other digital means. I’ve never done that. I don’t even own a computer video camera. But I could get one.

I’m always encouraging you S4L readers to take your needlework into a local classroom or library and get the kids started stitching. Well, I think it’s time I practice what I preach: I’d like to put together a virtual Stitching for Literacy school/library visit. To help make it happen, I think I’ll use the Monday accountability posts to set goals and mark progress on this project.

My first goal is to do some research. I want to talk with some librarians, teachers, school occupational therapists, and random others to find out if they think this is a good idea and what the program should contain to provide maximum educational benefit and inspiration.

My goal this week is to e-talk with my first librarian/teacher/OT. Maybe a second and third one, too.

So, tell me, do you think virtual school visits to teach embroidery in classrooms and libraries is a good idea? What should my program contain to provide the best benefit to all involved?

What’s your goal for this week?

We can speculate on why this would be—teachers being forced to “teach to tests,” kids’ participation in non-stop structured activities, the amount of time spent consuming digital media, etc.—but mostly I’m interested in whether it is, indeed, true or not.

I’m curious what teachers and parents (and OTs) here think about this. Is this something you notice, too?

• Colleen stitched bookmarks for a class in December.
• My community embroidered bookmarks for the local school’s Love To Read week in March.
• SuperMo’s bookmarks will be used during her library’s summer reading program.
• Erica is introducing the program at a Crafty Lady Retreat in Ontario this weekend and planning a competition around it that will conclude at the Fall retreat.
• Anne, who was one of the winners of the Funk & Weber Designs puzzle contest during The Needlework Show, will be cross stitching Monkey Read, Monkey Do bookmarks as holiday gifts for as many of her colleagues as possible at the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture. For the 2010 holiday, she embroidered 45 bookmarks!

So here’s my new goal for the Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy program: have someone—or some group—somewhere Stitching for Literacy every month of the year.

I suspect we’re pretty close to that now; I just need to do a better job of finding out what’s going on. The new Stitching for Literacy website (which you all doubt is ever coming—I know) will have an event calendar so we can post all our doings, month by month.

Here are some ideas for the summer months:

• Teach kids to stitch at a summer camp (vacation Bible school, Girl Scouts, Campfire Boys and Girls, YWCA, etc.).
• Contact your library to see what summer events they have scheduled where you might be able to demonstrate or teach embroidery.
• Assemble some extra supplies and go stitch at a playground. Make a sign that says “Stitch with me!”

There is a summer camp facility very close to where I live, here in the middle of nowhere. I’ve been meaning to make contact and see what I might offer.

There. I’ve said it publicly. Now see that I do it, okay?

What can you do to encourage reading and stitching this summer? Who will you contact?

And don’t forget to let me know so I can put it on the calendar! Send your info to mail AT funkandweber DOT com. Our email address is in the sidebar, you know.

Cross Eyed Kat
PMB #294
14900 Avery Ranch Blvd Suite C200
Austin, TX 78717

She’s a busy woman, but she took some time to answer some questions for us.

You’ve been on board Stitching for Literacy since Day One. Why? What does it mean to you?

Reading is simply a large part of my life, so it seemed a great cause to be involved in when I heard about it. I can’t imagine not loving books and reading, so I hope that this program inspires people to a life-long love of reading. Also, I love how it ties in with stitching, which is my other favorite thing to do!

Most “collection sites” are shops, guilds, or stitching communities that have access to and support from many stitchers. You’re one person. Are you insane? No, no, don’t answer that. How will you go about collecting bookmarks for your recipient school or library?

Insane? Maybe? I really wish I could do more to collect bookmarks, but Life has just gotten in the way lately. I hope next year, I can maybe partner with friends who are involved in scouting and do a project with kids. I’d also like to have a simple project kit with double the materials so people can have one to stitch and one to give away. Right now, I’m publicizing it on my KatGetsCrossEyed blog and the Cross Eyed Kat Facebook page.

You’re also a designer. You have a Stitching for Literacy bookmark pattern (10% of profits from sales of that pattern are donated to literacy organizations!), but you know how I love to take bits and pieces of larger patterns and turn them into bookmarks. Are there any bits and pieces of your patterns that you’d like to see as bookmarks?

I think my “Design Elements” designs would be easily adapted to bookmarks. They contain smallish motifs, which could decorate the end of a bookmark. I’m a fan of experimentation, so I think it would be fun to try snippets of different designs: a Post Modern Cat over one, a strip from one of the Mini-Impressionist designs, any piece of a border would work well.

When do you find time to read?

I try to read some fiction every day. Typically, I read a bit at breakfast, during lunch if I’m eating at my desk, and then just before bedtime. Reading before I go to bed is almost a necessity: it helps my brain switch off from the day and really helps me fall asleep.

When I was a kid I read a bunch of non-fiction. I remember loving books about poisonous plants and histories about pirates, but I hardly ever read non-fiction any more.

Do you listen to audio books while you stitch?

Audio books are something I really haven’t done much. I’m worried I won’t enjoy it as much, or that the characters won’t have their own voices to me. When I was a kid, I listened to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” radio show over and over before reading the books. When I read the books, I could “hear” the voices of the radio actors in my head (no, I’m really not insane).

I typically stitch while watching TV (I guess I like my audio books with pictures). This can aggravate The Husband when I miss something, but sports events always have replay and nowadays, we can rewind TV shows as well. Like Gayle, this allows me to enjoy reruns as well! I did once get in trouble when I tried to stitch while watching a complicated movie (Memento), but I was able to fudge around my mistake later.

You like to design and stitch dragons, and you like to read fantasy. What would you say is your second-favorite genre for both needlework and reading?

Ok, I’m going to cheat here and say that my second-favorite genre for reading is Science Fiction. While Sci-Fi and fantasy are distinct genres (with many distinct sub-genres), they are often lumped together. I would guess that 90% of my fiction book collection is sci-fi and fantasy.

That is cheating, but if that’s 90% of your collection, I think we have to allow it. One of my reasons for starting the S4L Book Club was to encourage myself to read more widely. It’s already working.

For needlework, I like stitching pictures, so I’m less drawn to things like Quakers or strict samplers. In addition to fantasy subjects, I like landscapes, animals and geometric designs.

Funny! Our reading tastes differ, but our embroidery tastes are very similar. I love this Mini-Impressionist Rose! And I like your idea to stitch a column of this as a bookmark—I can imagine it, and it’s beautiful.

Do you use an embroidered bookmark to mark your books?

Sadly, no. All of the embroidered bookmarks I’ve made are either models for designs (and hanging out in a shop), or I donated to Stitching for Literacy! I have a big stack of other bookmarks, but I tend to try and memorize the page number I just read. I was using a stitching-themed bookmark just the other night, but lost it in the bed somewhere!

Kat is leading our S4L Book Club discussion this month on The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. Come chat with Kat—and the rest of us!

Gayle Horton, owner of Accents, Inc: Fine Needle Art & Framing has been participating in the Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy program since day one.

When I have an idea I want to kick around, a question to ask, or need the opinion of a retailer, who do I call? Gayle.

When I want to get S4L brochures to a trade show that I’m not attending, who do I call? Gayle.

When times get tough, who steps up to encourage and even sponsor another year of Stitching for Literacy? That’s right: Gayle.

I hope you’ll visit the Accents, Inc. website, and for goodness sakes, if you’re anywhere near New Orleans, I hope you’ll visit the shop in person and give Gayle a hug from me.

She took time out of her crazy schedule to answer some questions for us.

You’ve been participating in the Needle and ThREAD: Stitching for Literacy Bookmark Challenge since the git-go. What has been your favorite Stitching for Literacy experience?

I would say the expressions of delight on the faces of the ladies at the library when I delivered the stitched bookmarks in the first year.

Oh, how fun!

Do you have a favorite bookmark that you’ve stitched or a favorite way to finish bookmarks?

I stitched the Funk & Weber Read It! Read It! bookmark and finished it so that it opened like a book. Instead of attaching the “Read It! Read It!” on the back of the frog, I stitched them side by side and sewed a blank piece of fabric to the backside (which became the inside of the book). Then I attached a piece of wool felt along the center vertical seam to serve as pages of the book. One could write the title of their favorite book and author on the wool felt insert, a favorite sentence from the book and sign the back.

What a Brilliant Idea! Any chance you have a picture of it?

How long have you owned Accents, Inc.?

I opened Accents in Stitches on July 5, 1984, figuring the worst thing that could happen was that I would lose all of my start-up funds and then have to go to work to replace the monies. Little did I know that I would still be “working” over 25 years later.

What made you decide to open (or buy) a needlework shop?

I learned to cross stitch in Atlanta in 1976 and had the advantage of living along the east cost of the US where cross stitch was brought into the U.S. When we transferred home to New Orleans, the type of needlework supplies which I was used to having access to was limited. When the craft store near my home was closing I had the bright idea that I could convert it to a counted thread shop. I secured the lease for the same space and then purchased the inventory. Thus was born Accents in Stitches—which carried craft, doll house and art supplies—and three spin racks of cross stitch books. Over the first few years, we divested the craft products and moved exclusively into needlework.

I know you carry designs based on local themes, what are some of those?

Crawfish Boil pattern by Leslie Wristers, available at Accents, Inc. I am so fortunate to live in a city whose culture is so unique and whose residents “live” that culture. If you know New Orleans, you know that it’s mostly about the food—and we carry many charts featuring that cuisine. Another big seller is architecture, and the French Quarter and Garden District have a wealth of buildings that adapt to cross stitch charts. Our best sellers are St. Louis Cathedral (which is the oldest cathedral in the U.S.) and Oak Alley Plantation. Since hurricane Katrina, fleur de lis’, which were always popular, have exploded into a symbol of recovery, and so we have increased our designs of fleurs. In 2009-10 we were blessed to have our beloved boys in black & gold, better known to football fans as the Saints, have a fantastic season that ended with a Super Bowl win! So anything black and gold was a great seller. And the list goes on. Basically, if a design relates to the culture of New Orleans or Louisiana, natives want to stitch it.

And you design, too. What made you want to start designing, and what are your favorite things to design?

Eye of the Storm pattern by Gayle, available at Accents, Inc. Let me begin by saying that I have no artistic talent. I started creating local designs after hurricane Katrina because so many of our local charts were out of print and the stitchers were trying to recreate in stitching what they lost in the storm. I actually began with a hurricane eye, that evolved into the Eye of the Storm chart, featuring the outline of LA, and part of MS, AL and FL. The evolution occurred from input of my customers who stitched in the shop in the months after the storm. They provided solace and encouragement to each other during those stitching nights and kept giving me advice about what should be included with the hurricane eye. I guess you can say that, though my artistic design talents are limited, I discovered the joy of seeing stitchers find their inner serenity by what I could chart.

I have mostly created charts around the things of NOLA. This year I’m stepping out to create two new seasonal designs every month—one to fit into the Accents pre-made pillow Tuckables and one to fit onto the STS Fingertip towels. By the way, I am in love with the towels from this company. They are awesome.

Note taken!

What do you like to read?

I mostly read a lot of spiritually philosophical books and usually also purchase the ones that resonate with me as an audio book so that I can listen in my car. I also like mysteries and human interest books. The most recent book that I purchased is The Land of Painted Caves by Jean Auel. I haven’t started it yet because I decided to reread the series, so I am currently reading The Clan of the Cave Bear. I am embarrassed to say that I have a library card that I have never used because I purchase my books from my local bookstore because it’s important to me to keep them in business.

I think you should be proud of that, not embarrassed. We need both local bookstores and libraries.

Do you ever listen to audio books while you stitch?

I usually have the TV on when I stitch. I find that the glancing from my project to the television screen helps my eyes. The difficulty with this technique is that I never really watch what is on the TV. The benefit to this technique is that I get to watch reruns without knowing how they end.

Do you use an embroidered bookmark to mark your books?

I do not because I have a tendency to drop my books and, unless my page itself is bookmarked, I lose my place when the inserted bookmark falls out. I found the most awesome bookmark that works for me. It’s a small heart, about 1″ square, that’s open sort of like a paper clip. I am able to slide it directly onto the page of the book and it stays put, even when the book is dropped. They come five on a card and I purchased every package I could find at the book stores. I think I have enough to last me through 200 books. While that may seem like a lot, I make it a habit to give books as gifts, and I always put a bookmark into the book.

Hmm…I think I have some bookmarks to show you, Gayle.

As a kid, what did you like to read?

My favorite book as a child was Swiss Family Robinson. Today my most inspirational book is Horton Hears a Who. I think it has something to do with my last name being Horton, my spiritual belief that things that seem coincidental are not just coincidence (such as my name being Horton), and the story that “a person is a person no matter how small” which speaks to my heart’s desire that we, as people, are accepting of each other in all of our many differences. Oh, and yes, there’s also the between the lines lesson that we shouldn’t judge another just because we don’t share their experience.

This leads me to “every Stitching for Literacy effort is worthwhile, no matter how small.” Gayle’s Stitching for Literacy efforts make a difference in her community—and to me.

So do yours.

Check out Gayle’s complimentary jester cross stitch chart. You’ll find a link on the Accents, Inc. Home page, which is where that link will take you.

Lauren believes the woman in the picture is Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, a leader in the Women’s Suffrage movement. Follow that link for Lauren’s excellent article about the bookmark and Carrie.

I’ve talked before about “membroidery”; i.e., memorializing people, events, and places with our embroidery. I think doing that in bookmark format is a Brilliant Idea.

I also like how the photo is incorporated in the bookmark. We could do the same: print a photo, cut it out, punch two holes in the top and bottom, and attach with a length of ribbon. Postcard photos, news photos, kids’ school photos. Or how about artwork? Your own or a child’s. Reduce an image of it that will fit on a bookmark.

And then there’s the text which has been written or painted on the silk ribbon. Remember the painted flowers on the mittens two weeks ago? Mixed media is hot right now, and with fabric markers and paint pens, we can easily add handwriting and drawings to our embroidered bookmarks.

Isn’t it fun to wonder about who made this bookmark and why? Gayle at Accents, Inc. reminds me that “we can never know what will become an heirloom.” When I make a bookmark, I don’t make it with the idea that it will be an heirloom or collectors’ item someday; I make bookmarks to be used. But we never know, do we? What might someone think of our hand-embroidered bookmarks a hundred years from now?

Do you suppose the increased number of embroidered bookmarks currently being made because of the Bookmark Challenge will result in a greater quantity surviving and being collected in the future, much like the perforated paper ones from the Victorian era? Wow. That’s an interesting thought.

I wanted to show you these cute bookmarks sent to me from my Aunt Sue in Virginia for the 2011 Bookmark Challenge. Aren’t they so cute! I’m sure they will put a smile on some children’s faces for sure.

Last summer I sent out several letters to stitchers I know requesting help with making bookmarks. I did not get as many participants as I had hoped, but my aunt came through for me. Thanks Aunt Sue! I hope she’ll make more for next year as I will ask for help with making bookmarks again for the 2012 Bookmark Challenge. I also hope I get more participation next year. That way I can double the donation amount which is thirty bookmarks this year. YEAH!!!

If you’d like to get a Stitching for Literacy ball rolling in your area, this is a great way and time to start. Mo asked stitching friends and family for help through letters. You can do the same. She started last summer, almost a year before the 2011 Bookmark Challenge.

Because people are busy and it’s easy to forget (hence, the lack of participation Mo discovered), maybe you can send monthly updates and reminders to your target audience. Maybe, if your embroidering friends live nearby, you can host bookmark stitching parties once a month.

What else can you do to solicit stitching help for your own Bookmark Challenge?

Keep up with Mo’s stitching adventures on the Maureen’s Mountain of Stitching blog.

Brooke reads as Jackie cross stitches initials on what will become a bookmark.

The Glacierview school has a Love to Read week every spring. They invite community members to read with students, host an author visit, and this year, thanks to Jackie’s organization and community volunteers, every student received a brand new book and a hand-embroidered bookmark with his/her initials.

Way to go, Jackie!

Brooke is already an avid reader. She often reads to her mom in the car; those trips to town are long.

Do you Stitch for Literacy? If so, we want to hear about you.