You know you’ve hit full stride in a project when you think of what to write in a progress post, but have no new challenges, discoveries, tricks, or lessons-learned to report. All I can do today is show off more gears and cams, with more fillings:
I’m continuing up the left side of the motto, then I’ll do the right side, and finish with the top. I’m having tons of fun selecting fill patterns from Ensamplario Atlantio.
I had hoped that when I released the thing I’d see more things on line that use its designs, but searching does turn up a few projects:
- Ben from Tiny Dream Stitchery is doing a sweet sampler, I really like the layout he’s using. It’s reminiscent of a formal Renaissance garden plan.
- Whispered Stitch is making adorable little needlebooks using motifs from the patterns, and offers a tutorial on their construction.
- And Stitches used the patterns in her rendition of a large group stitch-along project.
- Rebecca of Hugs are Fun did a name sampler, a striking and innovative idea for using the fills.
- Kathy at Unbroken Thread stitched up a spectacular piece, incorporating gold, paillettes, purl, and beads.
- Miriam did a bunch of nifty key fobs, using EnsAtl patterns along with ones from other sources.
- Colorize also has a sampler. She’s picked some of the more complex designs, brave soul!
- Susan at Tuesday Stitchers used a design in a large departure from the usual, as an embellishment stitch done on gingham in a crazy quilt. Very cool!
If you know of any others, please post them in the comments. It gives me immense joy to see the mischief that these designs get up to out there in the wide, wide world.
Sadly, I’ve also found a ton of pirate sites on line, mostly in Russia, who felt it necessary to steal the book and repost it in its entirety. I can’t do anything about them besides despise the lack of integrity and gutter slime ethics that such theft represents.
The ONLY authorized source for the book is right here on this site. It’s free. Link above, and under the Books tab on every page of String. If you have downloaded my book anywhere else, you have found a stolen copy.
String-Or-Nothing 
Go to Facebook and join “Real Stitchers Don’t Steal”. They are a group dedicated to stopping internet piracy of needlework charts. Tell them about your problem. They know who to contact, and there’s enough of us in the group to send enough emails to get the websites that host those pirates to sit up and take notice! Ask people who find your charts on Pinterest to post to the page that, “THIS IS A PIRATED DESIGN, STOLEN FROM THE DESIGNER’S WEBSITE! SHARING THIS VIOLATES US AND INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAWS!” I used to design thread painted needlepoint canvases back in the 1990’s, and was thinking about converting my designs to cross stitch charts when I found out about all those pirate sites in Russia and China and changed my mind. What is sad is that a lot of people here in the US do the same, as well as in England and Europe. We’ve had several cross stitch designers close down their business and STOP designing in the past year because of these pirates – FRUSTRATING!!!!! Only Child now has my design portfolio, she designs cards and sells them on Etsy.
I was part of an undercover investigative group in the ’90s that brought down several U.S. sites that specialized in pirated needlework books and magazines. It’s harder now because international hosts provide haven that laws can’t touch. Our big legacy was that knitting – the craft we were most active in developed a more widespread anti-theft culture, compared to the cross stitch and plastic canvas worlds. Publications in both of those areas were almost wiped out by the activity of pattern thieves. Sad to say I see that happening all over again.
I love this sampler the gears look as if they were fun to do –
If I find too much stolen stuff I write and ask for a takedown. If they don’t I report it to google as a pirated site. It may make no difference but I at least feel a bit better about it
And as for designs being out in the world – one day I will do a whole batch of them on my band sampler – its even on my stitchers bucket list!
I belong to the Real Stitches Don’t Steal page on FB, and piracy is a huge problem. But I don’t understand…if a pattern or a book is posted as free, why is it stealing to post it elsewhere? Is it ok to post the link? Sincere question, not trying to be snarky or anything…:)
Posting a link for folks to view the original on the authors own site is most welcome. But downloading the material and reposting it on another website without permission, that’s removing an owned property from the author’s control (even if he or she is sharing it), and is in fact stealing.
Especially without acknowledgement of the original author. And that goes double for sites that then earn ad revenue from visitors, in essence taking the content from the original author and farming it for revenue with no recompense to the content creator.