Subversive guest PDF + Dragon Scissors
And a tribute to dooce, a friend who made the world a better place
I want to start by acknowledging the passing of my old internet friend, Heather B. Armstrong aka dooce. She wrote so openly about her experiences with depression and touched a huge amount of people, as I’m sure you know either personally or by all the press in the past couple of days.
It’s always a shame to me when the world piles so much praise and love on someone who could have really used it when she was still alive last week, last year. She had a tsunami of trolls who’d leave hateful comments that grew in number as she found success and I sensed that they bothered her a great deal. It’s tragic that someone who opened her heart to help others had it trampled upon by random hateful internet strangers almost constantly. And so many people told her she was “doing it wrong”—anything, everything—that it moved me to design this kit (if you’re a paid subscriber, it’s this month’s free PDF pattern at the end of this newsletter).
Thinking about her sent me on a trip through the gifts she gave me, she was a champion of my work for so long and sent so many of her readers my way. She asked me to stitch the cover of her book; I stitched her logo and a masthead for her site (which was so fun as I was such a fan); when I started Kitty Wigs, not only did she write the Foreword for my book but she also put our wigs on her well-loved dog, Chuck (and used the photos in his annual calendar). I remember seeing the post (at top, with the pieces I’d stitched for her) in the middle of the night and gasping out loud with sheer delight to see them hanging on her wall. She surprised me, made me feel seen and I was floored by her kindness so many times. I wish she could see the huge outpouring of love for her happening right now.
I hope Heather has found peace somewhere, with Chuck in his blue kitty wig.
Now, on to the newsletter.
New PDF from Guest Contributor Fwass
StitchcraftbyFwass is back with a new PDF pattern about sarcasm (sarcasm? what’s that?) and I love it. If you haven’t met her, please read our intro in the blog.
Did someone say Dragon Scissors?
I just KNOW you don’t have enough embroidery scissors for all of your different moods. I gasped when I saw these unusual Dragon Scissors and scooped up 20 pairs. Only $9.99, like almost all of our embroidery scissors. They’re stainless steel and about 4.5” long. I wish I could tell you they ROAR when used, but you can still pretend (*rooooaaaaaarrrr*).
Flying off the virtual shelves this week are…
Stitchery Tape: IYKYK: This combo has a 60’ roll plus three boards for mounting.
Thread Lube: Yes, I renamed it. Smooth sailing, even with metallic floss.
Bohin Water Erase Pen: Why count and re-count when you can mark your place?
Lastly, paid subscribers will see a link at the end of this news to download the free PDF for this month, You’re Doing It Wrong. A tribute to dooce. A way to reclaim the hate and embrace it for all its ridiculousness. This is a great exercise in intentionally messing up your stitching, it’s surprisingly fun to give yourself permission to fuck it all up. You think I’m doing it wrong? Just WATCH ME!
Thank you for being here and for reading to the end! Here’s a little voice message for you just because I can (thanks to substack)!
I hope you’ll hang with me as I figure out all the bells and whistles around here. ;) POLLS! There will be POLLS!
xoxo, Julie
p.s. the new Stitch, Plz journals are almost here & will ship next week!
Did you see this reel that Fred made? They’re so dang cool.
Wait! There’s more! ;)