Thread Treasures - Celtic Inspirations IX

I have released my latest set of Celtic inspired designs.  10 Fun and Funky designs that are exclusive to Thread Treasures.  You will not find these designs offered by any other digitizer.  A complimentary sample is at the bottom of the page, so please enjoy.

Thread Treasures - Cupid Time

Well, Valentines Day will be here before you know it.  I realize it is just the first week of 2011, but time seems to fly by.  Heck, I remember this time LAST year.

I created a little Cupid that is perfect for decorating items for Valentines Day.   Can you imagine a husbands face were he to pull out a pair of boxers with this design on the leg?

Thread Treasures - One Color Butterflies

Winter is in full swing, yet my thoughts drift to spring and the return of flowers.  With the return of flowers, Butterflies will soon be fluttering in the air again.  I can spend hours watching them dance in the invisible wind.  I created the One Color Butterfly set from artwork from Clipartopolis to remind me of their beauty as they land and drink from the nectar.  Hopefully we all will be blessed with their sight before long.

Thread Treasures - Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

I have always been in love with archaeology, and dreamed of being an archaeologist when I was a young girl.  I just knew I would discover the largest unknown tomb and go down in history as the best archaeologist of all times.  Hey, if a girl is going to dream, why not have a big one.

Life did not take me on that venture, but I never fell out of love with ancient Egypt.  I love the myths/facts of that time, as well as some of the beautiful artifacts that we have today thanks to the ancients.  I have always been taken with the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, and even named a ton of computer systems after them once.  I found some open source clip art of them, along with their hieroglyphs, so I digitized them.  Now I'm on the hunt for the perfect fabric to make a lap quilt.  I saw some that would be fantastic years ago - to bad I didn't buy it then.

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

Thread Treasures - Has Your Johnny Jumped?

When the winter sets in, I often find myself dreaming of spring.  With those dreams, my thoughts turn to beautiful flowers, turning the soil, and planting seeds.

I created the Has Your Johnny Jumped set to remind me of the little Johnny Jump Up flowers that I see growing.  I love them, as well as pansy and violets.  Heck I love all flowers.

Maybe these designs will warm your heart and get you to think about your spring planting.  Imagine a small lap quilt draped across your legs as you turn the pages to find the next beautiful wonder in your seed catalogs.

Thread Treasures - Cocoa Teddy

I purchased clip art from JDS Clipart on a Black Friday sale.  One set that I purchased was a limited edition set of Christmas Teddy Bears.  I have called my digitized designs Cocoa Teddy, and he is having adventures getting ready for Christmas.

You can see all of the Cocoa Teddy designs that I have digitized by looking at my Single Designs.

Thread Treasures - Is It Holly Berry?

I created my Is It Holly Berry set to be a funky take on a season favorite of Holly.  I wish I could get scratch and sniff thread to bring the scent of holly into the projects stitched with these unique designs.

Thread Treasures - Vintage Christmas Redwork

I created the Vintage Christmas Redwork set as I reflected back on much simpler times. 

I remember watching shows like Frost the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Charlie Brown Christmas while I was growing up.  If I find when they are on TV, I try to arrange my schedule to catch a few of them over the Christmas season. 

The Vintage Christmas Redwork has a free sample design to download, so head on over and pick it up with my compliments.

Thread Treasures - Victorian Snowflake Redwork

I took an exclusive set that I had, Victorian Papercut Ornaments, and created the Victorian Snowflake Redwork set as dainty snowflakes.  If I am going to be stuck with them coming down from the sky, I might as well digitize a few.

A sample from this set is available HERE with my compliments.

Thread Treasures - Celtic Ribbon Snowflakes

I simply love designs that are inspired by Celtic knot work.  I believe that is why I design and digitize so many sets around that theme.

I thought some snowflakes with a Celtic influence would be different, thus I created my Celtic Ribbon Snowflake set.

Thread Treasures - Tropical Beauty

The longing for warmth and the beauty of flowers continues with my Tropical Beauty set of embroidery designs.

These designs are perfect to chase away the winter blues.  Think hot vibrant pinks to adorn the tropical quilt that you have always wanted to make.

Thread Treasures - Anticipating Spring

Winter hasn't officially began, but I find myself yearning for spring.  I am tired of the cold already, and the frozen precipitation has yet to even begin for the season.  Today was cold and rainy.

My mood was pointing me to flowers, so I digitized a set that I call Anticipating Spring today. Just a sneak peek.

The full set can be seen Here

Thread Treasures

Wow, it is already into November.  Christmas will be here before you know it.  I've had my first show of the season, and while I did just okay, others didn't even make their entry fee back.  It appears that the venue did not advertise at all.  I had put something out on Craig's list, but that is no guarantee of foot traffic coming in the door.  I will need to weigh my options next year before I commit to doing that show again.

All is not lost, because the Oak Park High School will be having their craft fair on Nov 20th.  I am stitching again to fill orders that I did get at the other show, as well as replace the items that I sold.

I am having an issue finding a specific placemat that I embroidered on and sold a set.  I will need to keep looking.  I have to keep my purchase price low enough so that when I embroider on them that I still make a profit.

I did manage to get a set completed that I had been working on for a while  Florid Ornaments.

Thread Treasures - Shows are almost here

Wow - I simply cannot believe how long it has been since I updated my blog.  A LOT LOT LOT has happened since I updated it last.

Thread Treasures seems to be doing well, at least as well as I had hoped during the first year.

The season is starting for Christmas shows, and I have been very busy getting ready.  I have a smaller show on Nov 6th, and then a larger show on Nov. 20th.  I am excited.  The show on the 20th will be my second year doing that show.  It was the very first show I ever participated in, and I was so green.

I will not say that I am a seasoned pro now, but I have participated in a few shows since that time.  I have been stitching and embroidering like mad.  I will have a larger selection of products this time around, as well as some of my old faithfuls.

I have been trying to digitize, but realize that I haven't made as many design packs as I have in the past.  Hopefully in about a month, I will be cranking them out again.  I do have a few that I will be posting in the next week, and I did post a new set this week as well.

Oh well, I am going to close this out for now.  I need to start making my shopping list as the Sewing and Quilting Expo is headed to town next week.  Thread Guy.... Here I come.  LOL

ThreadTreasures.com - Christmas in July/August

It is HOT and I mean HOT.  We have had heat advisories for the past couple of weeks.  It is hard to think about Christmas when it is so HOT outside.

None the less,  I have started production of Christmas items for some of the fairs later on this fall.  I have been so busy that I haven't had much chance to digitize much.  I will need to get some done for the coming week.  I have been working on some Christmas designs that are so cute, but they are not a full set and not fully tested as of this moment.

ThreadTreasures.com - SEO Submission

Well, I know that some of the big web crawlers are now hitting my site on a regular basis.  Only time will tell if everything has been done correctly and the site starts to rise in the rankings.  Of course, people searching for it helps as well.

I have just completed two new sets that have been made available.  One is an adorable little set called Ghastly Ghosts that are cute little redwork designs for Halloween.

The other set is 10 adorable Little Baby Boys which would look beautiful on a baby blanket.

ThreadTreasures.com - Sample Downloads

Just when you think that everything is going along great at the shop, I get up in the morning to find frantic emails saying that the Sample Designs were not working and that they couldn't be downloaded.

I almost had a heart attack I tell you.  I had worked so hard, and had seen them being downloaded by so many people.  What happened?  I mean, I go to get a couple hours sleep, only to wish that I had the coffee hooked up to an IV drip going straight into the blood stream.

So, I start the process of tech support to see if I can determine the issue.  I verify the files still exist, and that the permissions are correct on them.  I test, and BAM...403 error.  I am FORBIDDEN from getting my own samples.  What's a girl to do?

Of course I try the interactive technical support chat and get someone that can 'type' English, although I am sure that if I had been on the phone with him I would not have been able to understand a single word.  After an hour or so trying to get the support person to TRY to download the samples, he tries.  Lordie Lordie Lordie...  Can I please have my wisdom teeth removed while my contractions are coming 30 seconds apart please?

I had to finally open a email ticket, which usually means file 13... if you know what I mean.  I wasn't about to  let my business suffer at the hands of someone that still can't wipe their nose.    After another hour, I had pinpointed the issue and was putting into steps the resolution to the problem.  Needless to say, not 15 minutes AFTER I fixed my own issue, I receive the email saying that they do not experience the problem.  I replied that I had fixed the issue myself and proceeded to let them know what it was should another client of theirs experience the same issue.  I'm sure my return email probably ended up in someone's automatic wastebasket.  Oh well...

ThreadTreasures.com - Venitian Mask and Virtual Advertising

Yeah!!! I have my Venitian Mask set of embroidery designs complete and tested.  I think that they turned out pretty good.  They look better in real life than a simulated view.

The virtual advertising seems to be paying off, as I have had a steady stream of people in the store today.  Some are looking around while others are enjoying the Sample Designs that I have offered up.  Some have purchased designs.  Quite a few have signed up for the Newsletter that I will start sending out soon.

Overall, I'm happy with the progress thus far.

ThreadTreasures.com - Virtual Advertising

I have now switch part of my focus for Thread Treasures into advertising as the store front seems to be set up and working. I have joined various Yahoo groups in order to spread the word about my designs.

I guess I found one good group to advertise on, as I ran an intro ad that came out at 2:30 in the morning, and found 8 different clients on the store looking around.

Most have created accounts or used the test account to download the free sample designs that I have made available for people to get to see my embroidery.

I will need to spend some time reading some of the different types of ads that other digitizers use, or the services of an individual that writes ads for tons of places, and come up with a method that will hopefully produce successful copy for me.

Anyone know a marketing major that works for free?

ThreadTreasures.com - Blog overhaul

I thought that I would be a good person and come look at the blog before I started my day doing some digitizing and modification of some Venetian Mask designs that I am currently working on.

Low and behold, up pops a little message that the background that I had been using was going the way of the dodo on Friday. What a pain to try to get it removed and go back to some of the Blogger supplied backgrounds. But after 30 minutes or so, it is gone and I can continue with my day.

I'm feeling good as I have already walked over 2 miles this morning. Hopefully I will get the Venetian Masks completed and tested before the next round of storms hit. We lost power for a couple hours last evening, so I feel that I am a little behind.

I've started a new exclusive set for quilt blocks as well. At the moment, I'm not exactly sure how many designs I will include in the set, but it could be around 40 or so. I won't know until I'm finished with the entire thing.