Category: Feature Stories

Stories about cross stitchers, designers and vendors.

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Clare Bray – Cross Stitch Designer

oday I want to introduce you to another great designer in the world of cross stitch.  Her name is Clare Bray of Climbing Goat Designs.  I stumbled upon Clare  through another cross stitcher, Timothy Johnson.

Tim is doing great work with a charity project for the victims and first responders of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, FL.  I wrote a feature on his story and if you have not read that yet, please take a few minutes to read it here now.  It’s a VERY inspiring story!

Now on to Clare’s story.

Clare lives with her adorable pooch in a lovely area on the southern coast of England.  I asked Clare how she came up with the name of Climbing Goat Designs and this was her response:

” I’d seen pictures and stories about tree-climbing goats in Morocco, and goats teetering precariously up steep cliffs, and thought they were basically awesome! I am crazy about animals and wanted a fun and funky shop name which matched my spirit, and it just fitted!”

I am going to let her Clare tell you her story in her own words. Hope you enjoy!

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Mel Farnsley – Cross Stitcher and Marathon Runner

This feature story is about a member of my Facebook group, Cross Stitch Club. Her name is Mel Farnsley and of course, she loves to cross stitch. I had the pleasure of meeting this wonderful woman at the 2015 Cross Stitch Club retreat I hosted in Hershey, PA.

Just in case you are not aware yet and are interested, I am hosting the next retreat this coming September in Harrisburg, PA and you can find more information on that by joining the Facebook group 2018 Cross Stitch Club Retreat. I also have started to plan for our 2019 Cross Stitch Club Retreat to be held in Nashville, TN in August 2019. You can join the 2019 Cross Stitch Club Retreat on Facebook to keep up on details for that one as well.

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Ursula Michael – Cross Stitch Designer, Publisher and Book Author

Who is Ursula Michael?

I am going to begin this story about how I first got to know who Ursula Michael is. When I became admin of the Facebook group Cross Stitch Club, I wanted to create a logo for our group. So I began to search on Google looking for the right image. The first one I came across that caught my attention was this one:

Let’s Cross Stitch

 

I posted the picture to the group and asked what they thought. A group member commented, “That is one of Ursula Michael’s designs so you had better get her permission.” At this time, I really didn’t fully understand the copyright laws and such, but I quickly became really well versed in them! LOL

I looked for Ursula on Facebook and I sent her a message asking her if I could use this design. She said that if I bought the pattern and had someone stitch it and then took a picture of it, I had her permission to use it.

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Heather Maraldo – One of A Kind Baby Designs

I want to introduce you to a cross stitch designer, Heather Maraldo,  that I just recently had the pleasure of getting to know. Her name is Heather Maraldo. Back in the beginning of November, I had attended a little cross stitch retreat in Allentown where a group of about 40 or so stitchers got together for a weekend of fun and stitching.

Meet Heather Maraldo

 

Heather was at that retreat, but I really did not get the chance to meet her at that time. Then a couple weeks later I was searching on Google for a baby birth sampler to do for a co-worker that is about to have a baby.

I let my co-worker choose a design she liked and this is what she had chosen.

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Timothy Johnson and Rainbows for Peace and Comfort

Meet Timothy Johnson

This story is a feature story on a fantastic gentleman that became a member of my Facebook group Cross Stitch Club Originals sometime early last year. This story tells about a man who had a vision to reach out using the art of cross stitch to provide peace and comfort to those suffering from a great tragedy.  Read on to see how you can help him achieve this great vision and help him bring peace with his cross stitch charity project.

His name is Timothy Johnson and he is from the Sunshine state we all know as Florida.  He is one of the most upbeat and happy go lucky people I have had the pleasure of meeting.  I asked him to write me a little bio about himself and you will find that below the picture.

This is Tim.

Tim

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Ronald McDonald House Project – Need Help!

First of all, thank you for taking the time to visit this page and see what it is all about.  Let me first give you a little history on what this project is and how it got started.  As I began to plan my first Cross Stitch Club retreat in 2015, I decided that I wanted to do a fundraiser and I decided to choose the Ronald McDonald House in Hershey, PA.

If you aren’t familiar with what the Ronald McDonald House foundation does, their main focus is providing families with a place to stay when their children have to be put in a hospital far from home.  There are over 300 Ronald McDonald Houses and Family rooms throughout the world!

Early in 2015, I contacted the Hershey RMH and told them of my plans to have a fundraiser for their House and of course they were very appreciative and excited.  One of the designers that I asked to be a guest designer for this retreat was Ursula Michael.  If you are not familiar with her work, she does a lot of word designs. She takes a theme and then makes the shape of that theme with words that have to do with that theme.  This is one of my favorites that I used for making t-shirts for another fundraiser I did for the PA Wounded Warrior, Inc at our 2016 retreat:

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