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Saturday 4 January 2020

The People Chose Lizzie*Kate


This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  Each month I ask for suggestions for themes and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  This is what they have chosen:

January - Lizzie*Kate
February - Penguins
March - Coffee

I put the poll up to decide the February theme and Penguins and Coffee were vying for first place.  On decision-day Penguins was in the lead so I made that the choice, but then Coffee fought back so I decided that would be the choice for March and save me from doing a poll over Christmas!

But back to January and Lizzie*Kate.  

"Who is this elusive Lizzie*Kate? Lizzie*Kate is a cross stitch design business that began in 1996. The creator, Linda, was bored with her job and looking for a new creative outlet. She decided to combine her favorite hobby of stitchery with her past job experience (pre-children) in graphic design. Linda was 40 years old (yikes!) and ripe for a new challenge! In about 6 months, she drew 20 designs, stitched and finished them. As she was readying to exhibit at the annual Charlotte Market in August, she had to pull together all the details to start a new business.

One important job was naming her new company! On a whim, she decided to combine the nicknames for her daughters' middle names - Sarah Elizabeth "Lizzie" and Alison Kathleen "Kate" - and Lizzie*Kate was born! She did a rough sketch of how the logo might look, and never had time to revise it. Thanks to kind stitchers around the world, the Lizzie*Kate logo is now well known!"

From the Lizzie*Kate website

I was aware of Lizzie*Kate designs but they didn't really appeal to me when I started stitching.  In fact I don't think I ever actually "bought" one of her charts.  The first time I laid hands on one was a Travelling Chart back in the early days of my blog.

Travelling Charts were very popular back then, each person stitched it and passed it on to the next person in line.  Maybe I should start one again?

This one came from Cucki in South Africa and I wanted a quirky look to it, so I coloured the aida with fabric pens and swapped all the colours:


The second design was another Travelling Pattern, from Kate's Floss Box this time:


A nice simple design until I changed the border to satin stitch and had problems counting!

The next three were all gifts:



For these two seasonal designs I decided I did not want to stitch the hills so used my trusty felt-tipped pens to colour the fabric in again.


I did buy the other two seasons but haven't stitched them yet!


Two of the Samplings
(prizes again)



and finally this one which was a gift again!


In my stash I have the Holly & Hearts Sampler (a gift again) and the other two seasonal houses.


So from my original feelings of "meh" about these designs you can see I actually rather like them and enjoy stitching them!  Thanks to all the bloggers who kept sending them my way.  As Lizzie*Kate herself would say "Life is better with stitching friends".


Now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Lizzie*Kate, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog. Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog. I look forward to seeing what you all post.


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Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll. Any thing, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll. Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Cats, or Blue, or Holidays, or Warmth etc. Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.


Looking forward to reading them all!







16 comments:

Christine said...

That's quite a lot of L*Ks
How about "Funny" as a theme (or "Subversive" quite a lot of my favourite little designs would probably fit in either)

Linda said...

Love all of your Lizzie Kate pieces Jo. She is one of my favorite designers.

Linda

diamondc said...

Jo: What a sweet tribute to Lizzie Kate designs.
Thank-you for the explanation of how she started.
How about showers or flowers for April, April showers bring May floers.
Have a wonderful week.

Catherine

Vickie said...

I really like LK patterns. I have stitched half the patterns you have shown here. :)

Pamela said...

I received "love is best" as a traveling pattern and passed it along when I finished! It's the only L-K I have stitched.

Barb said...

I have not been a Lizzie Kate stitcher but looking at all your designs makes me think I should take a closer look at her things.

Rachel said...

Thinking about it, there are quite a few LK designs which advise on being friends or giving love, and you've stitched some lovely ones. That aida you coloured in is definitely unique and something I would never thought of doing. What a great idea!
Thanks for hosting. :)

Mary said...

YOu are so creative to color the aida with the fabric pens!! I love how that turned out! Such great stitches but the LK ones are my favorites.

jocondine said...

Great fan of LK charts, hope I'll add one in my stitching basket soon. Hope that your seasonal houses will be in your 20 in 20. For new themes, I'd like hexagon, diamond (shapes or volumes). xxx

Susan said...

I have stitched three L*K patterns and I think I have a few in my stash. Most of mine are Christmas as I don't have a theme for my decorating and I like the whimsy of her designs.

Katie said...

All linked up. Love all the LKs you have stitched. What a neat idea to paint the fabric. Love how it turned out.

Julie said...

I have a very precious finished ornament sent to me from dear Gaynor of 'Friends are Like Angels'
LK designs are always so popular and stitch up quickly too. They make a great first stitch for a beginner.

Bethan said...

I had never heard of Lizzie Kate until I started blogging...I am very tempted to get a pattern or two. I love the idea of a travelling cross-stitch! x

Tiffstitch said...

That's such a cool idea on the fabric markers, I would never have though of that. Hmm, and DD just got some for Christmas too. I'll need to file this info away for later. Lovely finishes, every one!

Clare-Aimetu said...

Lots of lovely Lizzie Kate stitching Jo, I've joined you this month .... not sure about next but who knows ;-)

Leonore Winterer said...

Lovely stitching :) That Hollies & Hearts Sampler is on my 'someday' list.