Fractional Stitches tutorial

Puzzle Contest Winners announced

11-11-11 Special

One day only. On 11/11/11 use coupon code 111111-Oh! for an 11% discount in the Funk & Weber Shop.

Hello, old Nuts, long time no e-see. I've missed you and your creativity.

Welcome, new Nuts! It's great to have you here.

Yep, it's been a very long time since I've sent a Nutsletter, and the crickets think they own the website. I've never been an uber-productive speed designer/writer, but I've never been this quiet, either. I'm not even going to try to make up an excuse. No use crying over knotted floss, right?

All is well, and I am oh-so-ready to get back into a needlework groove. I'm working on two projects now, but I can't talk about them on the blog because they're holiday gifts for people who read the blog.

I am also pulling together an e-book with all the bookmark tips and finishing ideas and tutorials that I've posted on the Stitching for Literacy and Funk & Weber websites over the past five or six years. It will be a pdf file to start, but I will also put it into .mobi and .epub formats so it can be read on Kindle and Nook e-readers, iPads, etc. I'm eager to learn how to format for those platforms.

This book is going to be free to Nutshell mailing list subscribers, and I hope to have the pdf version done by December. Really. I'm stating it here as incentive to Get It Done. I belong to a business mentoring group where I've also made it my November goal.

I'm curious how many of you use an e-reader, so I've set up a four-question survey to find out. Four questions--that's it. You can probably complete the survey faster than you can thread a needle.

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There are some new things on the website. First, is a tutorial on Fractional Stitches. Some of you have told me you hate them, but I love them. If you don't like fractional stitches, you don't have to avoid patterns that use them; you can simply choose to not stitch them. Make a whole stitch out of three-quarter stitches, and skip the quarter stitches. In the tutorial, I talk about how to judge ambiguous stitches to determine if they should be three-quarter (stitched) or quarter stitches (not stitched).

Don't reject a pattern you like because it has fractional stitches.

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I finally posted winners of The Needlework Show puzzle contest. For the second time in the history of our contests, we had a winner not respond to the notification, so we selected a new winner earlier this week.

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Are you jazzed about 11-11-11? I am, and not just because it's my nephew's 21st birthday. We're using the day as an excuse to offer a special in the Funk & Weber Shop. On Friday, we're offering 11% off all orders. During checkout, use the code

111111-Oh!

to receive the discount. You should say that out loud as you copy and paste or type it into the coupon code box: one-one-one-one-one-one-oh!

Funk & Weber Shop

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Don't forget to take the four-question e-reader survey--even if you don't have an e-reader! (I don't.)

That's it for now. Send your questions, pictures, and Nutty News to mail AT funkandweber DOT com. I'll e-see you next time!

Smiles and stitches,

Jen

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Ari's Garden