Of course by this point, over-dyed threads are pretty much standard fare with companies like The Gentle Art, Weeks Dye Works, Crescent Colors and Olde Willow Stitchery leading the way. The Thread Gatherer makes beautiful over-dyed silks, and there are all kinds of other fiber and silk companies...too many to choose from (almost!) It's unusual now to see a chart that uses "just" DMC, although I am working on several projects right now in DMC floss, and have to say I'm enjoying it!
Hand-dyed fabrics have also become more the norm than anything else. I can have several months go by without selling any white linen, but I sell hand-dyed and unusual-colored linens every day. There seems to be a lot of turn-over in the hand-dyed linen part of the industry (what a lot of WORK it is!) Lakeside Linens and R&R Reproductions continue to do well, and Picture This Plus has really been gaining a following. Zweigart also got into the hand-dyed linen business this last year. Wichelt Imports has hand-dyed Jobelans, too.
Embellishments have also become very important in the last ten years -- Just Another Button Company is an industry leader, but there are some wonderful charm and button companies, too, like Charland Designs, Just Nan (beautiful embellishments!), Homespun Elegance (and their brass folk-style charms), and By Jupiter. It's hard to find a chart that doesn't use some kind of charm these days. Some pieces, I think, are MADE by the embellishments; in other words, without the charms, they're kind of OK...with the embellishments...wow!
There are a lot of new designers popping up, too. It's nice to see that some of them are still doing samplers. Long Dog and the other French and English Designers have all been very popular for the last two years. There are some nice new US Designers, too, like Wild-Heart and Four Oakes Designs. Reproductions aren't quite as abundant as they used to be; many new (and "old") designers are making sampler pieces out of their imaginations that are every bit as wonderful as reproductions.
Whimsical, folk and primitive style pieces continue to be popular from many different designers. Stitchers still do enjoy quick-to-finish pieces, but I see a shift toward the more unusual, as far as what stitchers want to buy. They're looking for more than another pumpkin, another flower, another Christmas tree. Anything weird, wacky, or really unusual sells well. Blackbird Designs has a very popular folk style, as does Little House Designs and La D Da, and a lot of the smaller/newer designers have sold well, too. It seems like there used to be popular motifs each year (geese, for example, pansies one year, angels, sheep, sheep and more sheep, bee skeps, pumpkins and American flags, most recently). I haven't seen serious trends toward one popular motif or symbol lately. If it's unusual, people tend to like it.
Christmas isn't too popular, in terms of what stitchers want to buy, anymore. I think everyone has collected so many Christmas charts and kits that they don't have room for more. Christmas designs don't tend to look dated as quickly as other designs, so I think stitchers are more apt to hang onto them for a while. Plus, who has time to stitch around the holidays? I don't! I think everyone got a little 4th of July'ed out, as well. There were so many patriotic designs released in 2001-2003, and I sold a ton of them. Then, I think people hit maximum density on these charts. There are still cute ones that come out, but stitchers are picking and choosing, rather than blindly buying these.
Halloween, however is HUGE! I know some of you don't like Halloween designs at all, but many stitchers can't resist the funny or scary themes or the colors -- green, orange, black, purple, gold...and they're usually fun to stitch. It's now the second-biggest holiday in the United States, behind Christmas, in terms of consumer dollars spent! Spring and Easter have picked up, too. I think stitchers like the pastels and jelly bean colors of springtime pieces. Again, they're fun colors -- pinks, greens, yellow, pale blues, whispy white.
Exclusives and limited editions seem to be gaining momentum. These started to become popular in the late 90's, but many stitchers complained that they weren't able to buy them. The limited editions that are released now are usually for "a limited time," so there is a better chance of finding these kits and charts. They're a good way for a business to promote itself, and they generate a lot of interest from stitchers. I think you'll see more of these in the coming years. I am guessing we may start to see limited edition fabrics and embellishments, too (why not?!)
The industry has been guessing that stitchers will start to use larger count fabrics as they age, but I'm just not seeing that. If anything, I'm selling more 32, 36 and 40 count fabrics than ever. They've also guessed that stitchers will want smaller and smaller projects, but the charts that have been most popular are the large or enormous projects, like last year's Hawk Hollow Run (by Carriage House Samplings), the Long Dog Samplers, other French and English samplers, and multi-chart projects like the Lizzie Kate Stamps, Bent Creek's Snapperville and Heart in Hand's Wool Whimsy Series.
It's amazing to me that umpteen years later, some designers continue to be very popular: Prairie Schooler, Shepherd's Bush, Cross Eyed Cricket, Heart in Hand, Bent Creek, and Lizzie Kate, to name a few. They've independently come up with hundreds of designs (each!) for us to stitch. Isn't that awesome? Hopefully some of the new and wonderful designers we've seen pop up this last year or two will continue to supply us with fun things to stitch for years.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend (to those of you in the U.S.), and to those of you elsewhere, have a wonderful regular weekend! (They're just the best, aren't they?) Happy stitching!
© 2007 Theresa Venette. Articles on this site may be reproduced in needlework group newsletters or other handouts with permission of author and proper attribution. Send questions, comments and suggestions to: xspeddler@yahoo.com