Sunday, March 30, 2014

New Adventures

It is time to try something new.  I have never written much about myself in the past, but this crazy thing called a business is making this a necessity.  Here goes!  Remember, if you stop learning, you stop living.

Terri Bay Needlework Designs officially started in August of 2012, but its roots go further back in time.  In the year 1994 my aunt, Sue Sandi, began a Group Correspondence Course through the Embroiderer's Guild of America in Ukrainian Whitework.  She was very enthused about the class and shared her progress with me frequently.  Sadly about halfway through the course she was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and died very shortly afterward.  As the only other left handed stitcher in the family, I inherited all of her UFO's including her Ukrainian Whitework table runner.  Her work was exquisite and I was terrified to finish it for fear I would ruin it. After a few years of perfecting my whitework stitching I could stand it not longer and began working on it.  I was hooked.  I fell in love with Ukrainian Whitework Embroidery and decided to purchase more patterns.  I searched on the Internet and found next to nothing.  I bought all I could, but what I found didn't fit what I wanted to make, so I started to fiddle with patterns.  I changed a little bit here, a little there and pretty soon I was creating entirely new designs.
I began teaching a few classes here and there, mostly at Nordic Needle's retreat.  When asked where I found patters I could only reply, "In my head".  I was frequently asked if I published my designs.  Finally I decided to try it.  Fast forward to the present, and I am the owner of a fully incorporated design company and my designs are distributed world wide by both Hoffman Distribution and Nordic Needle.  I am teaching more classes each year and loving it.  The best feeling is when someone in a class of mine has an "Ah-Ha" moment.  So nice.

To the future.....I hope to post weekly and will include pictures of new designs, and schedules of my classes.  I am always ready to teach, so feel free to contact me about classes! I hope to get the hang of this blogging thing soon and jazz up my page.

Terri
This is the first design I published.  It is my Diamond Ornament and is done in Whitework and the Mereshka Poltavska technique.