Captain's Notes



So, I seemed to have missed announcing the challenge winner here on the blog, but a huge "Thank you" to Shelley AKA Spin for doing so on the team board and keeping things moving.  As many of you know, the winner was Daniel of Tails32x with the Christmas Ice Castle.  Congratulations!

The winner of the current challenge always chooses the next challenge theme and this time its:

Vehicles!

The reveal date here will be December 16th, which is when you will all be able to share your work and we will start voting Tuesday the 20th and will run it through Christmas.  You can see all the details on the discussion board here!

We have added some new memebrs recently.  I want to welcome:

vintageandwhimsy

bstudio

aniajane

and

majestickreations

Sadly, we also lost one of our old leaders and a wonderful teammate, Rebekah of Beetastic.  Rebekah has decided to take a break from etsy for awhile and hopefully will be back in the future.  I am certain I can speak for my fellow team leaders when I say we have appreciated the work Bekah put into our team and we hope to see her back soon!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  November is speeding right along! 

Featured Member frommyatelier

This week's Featured Member is frommyatelier 

 

Q.  Tell us a bit about yourself and your shop.

A.  My name is Yuki. I'm a mother of a four-year old living and crafting in Saitama, Japan. I spent my student days studying art history and fashion design and have variously worked as an archives assistant, a floral designer and at an online yarn shop. But I’m really a craftsman at heart-- so a few years ago, I opened my first Etsy shop, Barefoot Shepherdess, offering naturally dyed fibers, yarns and threads. From My Atelier is my second shop, focusing on my handmade creations. Since my interests are diverse, so are the things you’ll find in my shop. Knitting, embroidery, natural dyeing-- I go where my whim takes me.

Q.  What or Who inspires you?

A. My inspiration often comes from nature, everyday life, children's picture books and my wild & mischievous son. I also draw my inspiration from past experiences, particularly-- for my current designs-- upon the few years I spent as a floral designer. But really, I'm always looking about for anything that strikes me with a new idea-- because most often, inspiration comes when I least expect it!

Q.  When you're not doing things for your shop can we find you around the internet?

A.  I can be found at my blog, Barefoot Shepherdess and at my Flickr photostream. Though I used to be more active on the internet, I decided that I'd rather spend that time creating.

Q.  What tool could you not live without?

A.   Other than the basics (i.e. needle & thread), I find my ice cube trays particularly useful for organizing my partially-used embroidery floss. I used to keep them all in a single box, but with that method, the floss, in addition to being jumbled, couldn't be identified by color number any more. As a result, the remainders often never got used... By keeping them well-sorted, I can easily find the color I want and use all the leftovers, down to the very last bit.

Q.  How did you learn to stitch?

A. Two years ago, I decided I wanted to learn embroidery and picked up a stitch dictionary and an embroidery sampler. Those two things were all I needed to learn to stitch... that, and the desire to give it a try! :)

~Bekah

Captain's Notes and "SUN" Challenge

 (by UrsulaThomson)

Happy Friday!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. 

I would like to start by welcoming our newest member this week:

UrsulaThomson

Bekah AKA Beetastic is looking for members for the weekly blog feature.  If you are interested, please contact her or simply leave her a note here!

Today also marks the beginning of entries for the May/June challenge.  This time the theme was "sun" and was chosen by the last challenge winner Shonette!  You can add you entries below and we will start voting on Tuesday the 28th.  

So this week please add challenge entries only to the linkies.  We'll be back next week with new work links!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Featured Member MaMagasin

This week's Featured Member is MaMagasin

Q.  Tell us a bit about yourself and your shop.

A. My name is Sarah and I like to design and make cross-stitch jewellery and accessories for my shop 'Magasin'. 

Q.  What or Who inspires you?

A. I can get inspiration from anything - usually I like traditional themes like birds and florals, but also anything with a bit of a quirky edge.

Q.  When you're not doing things for your shop can we find you around the internet?

A.  You can follow me on Twitter @magasinxstitch and 'LIKE' my Facebook page to get updates on new products and any promotionswww.facebook.com/weheartmagasin

Q.  What tool could you not live without?

A. Sewing needle!

Q.  How did you learn to stitch?

A. I remember my mum letting my play around with some needle and threads on old hankerchiefs or scraps of fabric, but largely I am self taught and got into embroidery during my time at university.

~Bekah

Featured Member Tails32x

This week's Featured Member is Tails32x

Q.  Tell us a bit about yourself and your shop.

A.  I’m a high school English teacher working on his second masters at SUNY New Paltz. I’m the youngest teacher on the staff and at New Paltz I am considered an up and coming with several poems and articles published. I’ve taken my needlepoint and started applying it to video games a little over a year ago, and then branched out and attempted to view other mediums of needlecrafting. From exploring other mediums I learned I should be the best at what I do because needlepoint is what I truly adore. My Etsy shop came into existence after selling on SomethingAwful and EBAY. I liked the idea of creating video game and cartoon characters; furthermore, people really seemed to enjoy a product that was not made out of beads, but out of yarn. This is my second attempt at a shop here on Etsy, but I’ve made a strong commitment to adding at least six new products a week and I’ve seen a positive response.

Q.  What or Who inspires you?

A.  A lot of my inspiration clearly comes from video game, cartoon and comic books. To create items I general find sprites from a video game and then zoom in and simply start stitching. A lot of my inspiration comes from what perler beaders are doing as well. I’m always on the look out to see what new creations they’re coming up with, and I’ve recently started exploring Wall Art and 3D design. But I’m also inspired by documentaries which show a passion for art (origami, pop art, street art, painting, etc). Seeing people become masters of their specific craft really makes me strive to push myself to new limits.

Q.  When you're not doing things for your shop can we find you around the internet?

A.   lurk around the internet a lot. Some of my items have been featured on SomethingAwful, SpriteStitch and other blogs. While I’m not selling anywhere else, I am an active poster on the Pixelgasm forums (www.pixelgasm-forum.com/) in the stitching section. There you will see some of my more avante garde designs (such as stitching through beads) and I’m also known to post tutorials and my own personal designs. My goal for July is to start a facebook fan page and really offer some unique promotions.

Q.  What tool could you not live without?

A.  My needle of course. I mean, how could I ever get anything done without it? I have been using my lucky needle for the better part of six months.

Q.  How did you learn to stitch?

A.  In the summer my parents used to send me to Puerto Rico to live with my great Aunt Mercedes. I wasn't really a rough and tough guy, and so she taught me how to needlepoint tissue boxes. I always enjoyed it. About two years ago I picked it back up and it was like riding a bike. I then applied the needlepoint idea to sprites, and you can now see the products that I sell today.

~Bekah