Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching

On October 10, Spark Craft Studios was delighted to host Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching! It was great fun to hear about Jenny’s experiences designing embroidery patterns, publishing books, and running a successful craft business. Jenny did a demo with patterns from her new book, Sublime Stitching, and answered some questions. Here’s a bit of what we learned:

- Start-up Story: Jenny was a novice stitcher just a few short years ago – once she learned to stitch, she discovered there was a huge need for updated patterns and solid how-to books, so she jumped on the business opportunity. "I learned embroidery from my mother around the time she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a stressful time. The second I started to stitch, I chilled out. It’s such a great stress reducer. There’s a reason why people do this."

- Marketing Tips: Bring cards everywhere and hand them out to everyone; Don’t be above guerilla marketing techniques (like setting the homepage on café computers to your business website!); Customer service is key.

- Book Suggestion: The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. "This book advises you to work ON your business, not IN your business – you have to be thinking about the big picture and not get buried in the details."

- Major Accomplishments: Two publications – the Stitch-It Kit and Sublime Stitching (Chronicle Books); A pattern line from Plaid Industries/Bucilla

- Embroidery Tips: "The best way to learn embroidery is to have someone teach you" and "Swipe embroidery floss with Velcro to separate the strands before you start working."

- Most popular patterns: Dia de los Muertos, I Luv Veggies, Monkey Love

- On Jenny’s Crafting to-do list: "Experimenting with embroidering different types of materials. Recently I made a leather embroidery design with human hair."

Lion Brand Knitting Tutorial

From customer Laura T.:

"As a beginning knitter I was having all sorts of problems with twisted stitches, dropped stitches, extra stitches, and really funky issues with the ends of my rows. Then I discovered this great little knitting tutorial that I could download, or reference online ('cause sometimes I knit at my desk at work. Shh...don't tell my boss.) I like that the pictures are very big and I easy to understand. It's a great reference."

Knitter's Companion

From customer Heather K.:

"The Knitter’s Companion book – this book is great. It’s compact, so you can take it with you. I use it to remember how to do certain stitches. I love that I don’t have to lug around my larger knitting reference books."