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Calico Crossroads |
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| Designer's Name: LINDA L. CONNORS | |
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Location: GEORGETOWN, TX
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Thank you for taking the time to be our “Friday Feature” this week Linda! Would you start off by telling us a little about your company and how you got it started?
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Is there someone in your past you might credit with teaching you how to stitch or did you just pick it up on your own?
Both. My grandmother and mother both were adept with a needle, both hand embroidery and sewing skills. I learned embroidery and crocheting from both of them. Mother would tear up old sheets (didn’t matter what color they were as long as they were solid) and trace pictures from our coloring books for patterns. I still have one I did on a blue sheet at probably about age 8 which shows a little pig drinking milk from a spilled bucket. I must say my embroidery skills have improved quite a bit since then! When in high school, I fancied myself a fashion designer and would sew the most outrageous clothes which I designed for myself. Although they were, indeed, different than anything anyone else had, sometimes they were not very practical. I remember one that had an overskirt with diamond shapes cut out of it to show the skirt beneath. Sounded like a good idea and looked pretty, but the darned diamond cut-outs were always catching on things like drawer handles and door knobs, etc. Many of my creations had hand embroidery on them. I’ve always been involved in some sort of handicraft and more often than not, it had to do with needlework and/or fibers. All my life I’ve been involved in one way or another with the fiber arts. Throughout the years, I’ve tried my hand in many forms of fiberart other than embroidery and sewing including macramé, knitting, weaving, crewel, spinning, natural dyeing, quilting, silk ribbon embroidery, wool appliqué, needlepoint, batik and probably some I’ve forgotten. However, I fell in love with counted cross stitch in 1982 and pretty much focused my attention to that area of needlework for many years. Much of it was self-taught, but I’ve also taken many, many, many classes and seminars in various techniques. Since about 1996 I’ve become very passionate about beading, too.
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Your “Kats By Kelly” series has been very popular from day one. How did your work with artist Kathleen Kelly begin and do you plan on continuing this series into 2008 (and beyond)? While shopping at a gift show somewhere in 1996, I discovered some of Kathy Kelly’s calendars and notecards. I immediately recognized the potential for adapting them to cross stitch. I called her and proposed my idea and she said she had just been waiting for someone to call her with an offer like that. I guess that was one of the few times I was in the right place at the right time. My husband and I flew to Chicago to meet with her and it was like we had known each other all our lives--we really hit it off. We published our first adaptation which was called Paperbag Kats in September of 1997 and have not stopped since. We now have adapted 74 of her drawings which include the smaller series called Mini-Kats™. At the beginning, we were only going to do a few of them as we didn’t want stitchers to get tired of them. Well, it is now 10 years later and people still ask when the next ones will be coming out as soon as a new one is released!! I think they have such appeal because Kathy has an eerie ability to depict cat behavior exactly. And no matter if your cat is black, white, striped or pink, you can relate to the black cat in the drawings. It’s the situation and attitude of the cats that even have “non-cat” people amused by them. They have definitely been one of our trademark design series. Unfortunately, I think we are only remembered for those designs and are overlooked for our many other lovely designs. When people think of Calico Crossroads®, they immediately think of cats! We do, indeed, plan to continue releasing new Kats by Kelly™ designs in 2008 and beyond. As long as customers want them, we’ll continue to adapt them. There certainly is an abundant supply of Kathy’s drawings to choose from. Watch for another year of Mini-Kats™ in 2008.
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New From Calico Crossroads... Yule Kat (December) New from the popular "Kats By Kelly" mini series is the December Mini Kat! The stitch count is 57 x 57 and the suggested retail price is only $4.00. This simple but catchy design looks even better when displayed together with the entire Mini-Kats series. Look for them all at your local cross-stitch shop! |
Would you describe a few key steps taken in getting a design graphed and published? With the licensed designs, such as the Kats by Kelly™ series, I have a drawing, of course, to begin with. I scan the drawing, import it into my charting program as the bottom layer. I then can graph over it keeping as close to the original drawing as possible. Sometimes is gets a little tricky when you need more details than the numbers of squares you have to work with, but all in all, I think I do a pretty good job of translating her artwork from drawing to fabric. After the chart is ready, I pick out the colors I will be using. Black is a large part of these designs, but there is always a little bit of color, too. I then stitch the design making any changes to the chart that I need to. I always do my own model stitching as part of the design process. I change my mind a lot which means “unstitching” a lot. Photographs are taken after it has been stitched and framed or finished. The written instructions need to be finished to get it ready for the printer. When it comes back from the printer, it is ready to ship. If working on one of my own original designs, I do not use any paper and pencil/pen. I draw the design directly into or with my computer. I used to use paper, but over the years this step has just been eliminated. I seem to be just as efficient with the mouse as with a pencil. The process is the same once the graph is charted.
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Do you have any thoughts on how this industry might go about getting more people interested in counted cross-stitch? That’s a tough question. I’m sure everyone in this business would like to have an answer to that. I’m not sure I have any suggestions. I do know that we have to pass along the passion for needlework to those that come after us. I think one of the reasons I love needlework so much is that is covers so many techniques. If you get tired of one, you can just pick another one. Maybe it isn’t so important to get more people interested in counted cross stitch, but just needlework in general. They can discover the myriad choices including cross stitch for themselves. But cross stitch is an certainly an easy technique to begin with.
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What are a few things you like to do when you’re not working or stitching? I stitch or bead all the time, even for relaxation. I especially enjoy stumpwork and goldwork which is a change from what I do for work stitching. I’m very active in my local EGA chapter, too, and teach often. Beading is quite important to me as it is not what I do for work and it is sometimes necessary to get away from that for a change. Another type of needlework I especially enjoy is wool appliqué. The buttonhole stitch is one of my favorite stitches. Wool embroidery is great to take along on long plane rides because it doesn’t usually require the use of a magnifying glass or extra light. I travel quite a lot with my husband. He works for a company based in Finland, so he travels to Europe a lot and I can usually work my schedule to accompany him. In September this year we were in Scotland and we just returned from a trip to Sweden and Finland. Next year we will go to Poland and Estonia. We also travel all over in the U.S., too, particularly the Southwest. I like video games, puzzles and I read books all the time. I am especially fond of needlework books, of course, and have an extensive needlework reference library.
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Where are you originally from and what are a few of your favorite things about living in Texas? I was born in Butte, Montana, and grew up in Wyoming, but have lived in 12 different states. The best thing about Texas is not having to shovel snow in the winter. It does get hot in the summer time, but you get used to it and it is a fair trade-off for icy roads, drifts of snow and blowing ground blizzards (referring to Wyoming and Colorado). We’ve been here in Texas longer than any other place either my husband or I have lived so we now consider it our home. We are closing in on retirement age and have looked at places to retire. We’ve come to the conclusion that this is as good as any and better than some. Taxes are not outrageous, there is no state income tax, the weather is good for old bones and all of our friends are here.
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Would you share a little about your family? It’s just me, my husband Jim of 22 years and our two cats, Dexter and Murphy. My son, an only child from a previous marriage, was killed in 1986 at the age of 20 in a car/pedestrian accident and Jim and I have never had any children. I have two sisters, one in Wyoming and one in Seattle and my husband has a brother in Boston and a sister in Florida. We are a small family, but we are very close, my husband and I. He is my biggest fan, my greatest advocate, best friend and constant companion and I can’t imagine life without him.
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What’s your favorite time of the year? Autumn. It is the time of year when the heat is less intense and the cool weather is more than welcome. I particularly love the smell of autumn. Autumn doesn’t come until November here, but I look forward to it all summer long. I say here in Texas we have six months of summer and six months of other. Autumn falls into that “other” category. I am a horror film buff, too, so autumn means Halloween which means lots of scary movies. I love them!!
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Would you mind sharing a favorite recipe in closing? Boy, if you knew how I cook, you wouldn’t have asked that one! Kidding (sort of). Here is one of my favorite ones, is easy and just right for that autumn weather. You can pop it into the oven and get back to your stitching! Foil Wrapped Stew (4 servings) 1 to 1.5 pounds beef round steak, 1/2 inch thick 1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas* 4 medium carrots 4 medium potatoes 4 medium stalks of celery 1 large zucchini 1 large onion 1 can (10.5 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup 1 envelope (about 1.5 oz.) onion soup mix 8 cherry tomatoes Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut meat into 1-inch pieces. Place frozen peas in colander or sieve. Run cold water over peas just until broken apart and drain. Get 4 pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil each approximately 18 x15 inches. On the center of each piece, place one carrot thinly sliced, 1 potato cut into quarters, 1 celery stalk thinly sliced, 1/4 of the zucchini and the onion cut into chunks, top with 1/4 of the meat. Stir together the mushroom soup and the onion soup mix. Divide into 4 equal portions and spoon over the meat and top with peas. Wrap the foil securely around the mixture and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 50 mintues or until meat is tender. Just before serving, garnish each dinner with two cherry tomatoes. *Two packages (10 oz. Each) frozen peas and carrots can be substituted for the frozen peas and fresh carrots.
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