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Xs And Ohs |
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| Designer's Name: Joanne Gatenby | |
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Location: Mallorytown, Ontario, Canada
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We appreciate you taking the time to answer our questionnaire Joanne! Would you begin by telling us about your needleart background?
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How did you get your design business started?
I always tell people it’s my husband’s fault. Over the years he often teased me about never doing anything the way ANY pattern said to do it. I would comment that ‘this would be an easier way to do that’, or ‘I’m just going to change this part’, and he would say “of course you are!”. When I took up cross-stitch, he watched me take pieces of several designs and put them together to form something new – like a wedding sampler, and he finally asked me why I didn’t just design my own. I was totally floored by the thought, and sat down to prove I couldn’t think of any ideas to create designs of. When the list grew to almost 50 items, I had to admit that wasn’t going to be a problem, and set out to chart my very first cross-stitch design. Of course, we also didn’t have the great computer programs back then that we have now! Our first designs started life on huge sheets of graph paper – hand-charted (!!), and were then taken to a copy shop to be reduced in size on their biggest copiers. Our first little 8” round design took over 6 months to produce. Now we release 2 designs a month (at least), and try to work 6 months to a year in advance!
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How important is your website to your business and do you use other Internet tools for marketing your designs? In some ways it’s important, but it’s not a major source of business for us. We look on our website as an advertising tool, and if we do enough business from the site that it pays for itself, we’re happy. We are strong supporters of local needlework shops, and know that the SHOPFINDER on our website is often used by stitchers to find shops near them. We do have a newsletter, two actually! One goes to shops, and one goes to anyone else who signs up. This is a great way to let everyone know what’s new, and we always offer the shops a monthly special, which we hope will help them better afford to order unique and original designs their customers might just love! I also try to maintain a presence on some of the stitching boards, to get stitchers visiting the site and looking for our designs in their local shops… and of course the needlework business boards have been invaluable to us over the past few years. And we better not forget the model stitching boards either – at the moment I have 38 stitchers working on various projects. It just wouldn’t be possible to find enough stitchers w/o the Internet!
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New From Xs And Ohs... Spring Promenade Coming soon from X's & Oh's is "Spring Promenade", depicting a serene countryside setting that will get your heart pumping for springtime! The sky and grass are half stitched, which make them softer and recedes the background. The foreground figures are stitched with three strands to really make them pop off the fabric. The suggested retail price is $12.00 and the stitch count is 316w x 124h. |
You offer an astounding variety of beautiful designs. Is there any particular category or style that’s your favorite? I am very fortunate to work with a number of designers and artists. The artists provide me with artwork that I convert into beautiful cross-stitch designs (to the delight of their fans), and somehow in the past year we’ve become publishers, and now publish designs (under our company name) by some very talented designers! A favorite style is hard to pick, as my own designs tend to roam from realistic to whimsical! I do find that working with artists makes me grow into new areas – for example, I never designed fantasy before I began doing some art conversions and now I have a whole line of little dragons (our Beverage Dragons), and PLAYMATES (a design I created of a teddy bear and dragon) is one of our best sellers. But at the moment, I’ve been inspired by another artist, Shelley McVittie, who provides me with gorgeous artwork of old-fashioned scenes (the most popular of these has to be SLICKER PARADE). Her work inspired me to try my own hand, and in January I released my first Victorian themed design, SPRING PROMENADE. And I’m already thinking about a follow-up design!
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Have you noticed more (or less) people learning how to cross-stitch lately and do you feel the industry is taking the matter of cross-stitch outreach seriously enough? I think the desire is there, but I’m not sure how strong the outreach currently is. I know, as basically a one-woman operation, how little time there is to do things I’d love to do more of – like teaching in schools. People who love cross-stitch, whether in the industry or not, tend to be passionate about it, so I think we’ll see it growing stronger again before too long. Things tend to run in cycles, and cross-stitch is no exception. I find it encouraging that a creative festival we attend in Canada every April has asked me to do a class on beginner cross-stitch. Over the past few years they’ve wanted classes aimed at a high-level stitcher, so I take it as a good sign that they feel a need for a basics class!
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What are a few of your designs you might recommend for a beginning stitcher? I actually have strong feelings about beginners, and the problems they have. As I attend shows (like the one above), I tell people that the materials are as important as the designs! Too often a beginner picks up a little ornament kit by the checkout register, thinking “this is small, I’ll try it to see if I like it”. But what they don’t realize is that the kit may be 18, 28 or even 32 count, and they grow frustrated trying to ‘see’ the tiny count. We actually have a BEGINNER HANDBOOK, which was designed at the request of a schoolteacher. This manual covers everything, from the materials and how to read a pattern, through how-to stitch explanations with diagrams. There are 7 designs in the chart, if I remember correctly, plus 2 bonus designs that take the stitcher to the next level. And since the designs are animal heads, they appeal to both genders, which was one of our goals in creating the chart! Our STITCH NOTES would also be good for beginners, as they include simple patterns and 14ct perforated paper (no quarter stitches!). We publish a chart by Lisa Overduin that has a handful of very realistic frogs in it, (called, appropriately enough FROGS FROGS FROGS)and since Lisa’s designs don’t generally have any backstitching or quarter stitching, they are GREAT for beginners!
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When you’re not stitching, what are some of your favorite pastimes or hobbies? I am an avid reader, and I love movies! So I can often be found in the evenings with stitching in my lap, and a book across the arm of the chair (for commercials, LOL), watching the movie channel or a DVD with my DH.
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Would you share a little about your family? I am lucky enough to be married to a wonderfully supportive man – in fact, we celebrate 25 years in April! We have 2 beautiful daughters, who are both in University at the moment. Our youngest is engaged, but the happy couple is sensibly waiting to graduate before getting married (but only 2 weeks after graduation) then they’ll go on to grad school. Our oldest inherited my love of reading (in fact, I think she reads even MORE then I do!), and her father’s love of math. He’s still mad at her for hooking him on Sudoku ! Our youngest inherited my artistic bend (she’s an art history major) and her father’s sense of humour). We are very proud of both of them!
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What’s your favorite vacation spot? My husband’s sister and her DH have a cottage that they generously allow us to use for a time each summer. We love nothing better then to spend days sitting by the water, rocking in the hammock, doing absolutely nothing! I am forbidden to bring stitching, and he is forbidden to bring the laptop, LOL. Which means by the time we get home, we’re both going into withdrawal!
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Would you mind parting with a favorite recipe in closing? Hmmmm, I recently shared some family favorites on another venue, so I’ll try to come up with something new and different. OK, this is a meal my guys adore, but we don’t have it very often, as it’s very high in cholesterol, but it’s soooo yummy! You’ll understand why my family dubbed this one: A CHOLEST-O-FEST! sausage (2 per person) bacon (2 strips per person) cold, cooked potatoes (about 1-2 per person) eggs (1 per person) cheese onion Quantities are entirely flexible. The great thing about this meal is that it’s easy to stretch to feed more people – just reduce the amount of meat, and increase the number of potatoes! It’s also a great way to use up leftovers, as you can throw anything else in the pan that appeals to you or your family, tomatoes, peppers, whatever you have room for! PREPARATIONS: Cook the sausage and bacon ahead of time. Chop up and set aside. Break all the eggs into a bowl, and whisk to combine. Set aside. Grate about a cup of cheddar cheese, and set aside. IN A LARGE FRYING PAN: Brown the onion in a couple tablespoons of margarine, adding chopped cooked potatoes when the onions are about half done. When the onions are cooked, and the potatoes are heated through, add the chopped meat, and blend. Pour the eggs over top, and stir until they seem to be pretty well cooked. Season with salt/pepper if desired – but don’t add too much, as the sausage will add spice, and the bacon and cheese will add salt! Sprinkle the cheese over top, remove from heat and cover with a lid, until the cheese melts. Blend the cheese in, or leave it melted on top, whichever you prefer. Better serve with green beans, whole-wheat bread, and drink a tall glass of cold milk, so the meal has some nutritional value!
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