|
August 15, 2000 Our journey is finally launched. Welcome to my newly created website. It is with great pleasure that I present to you several months of long hours of dedication in its creation and design. I'm delighted to now be able to communicate with all of you avid stitchers through the "wonderful world of websites". Isn't that what www means? |
| ||
|
Appearing in these
|
I know you will delight in browsing through my site. It affords me much pride to be the designer behind these pages, as I am overwhelmingly pleased with its results. I truly owe all of the credit for what you will view here to two of my friends. My website creator, Lorene Zant of Zant Web Designs, (we had the pleasure of meeting each other in my one of my linen classes several years ago) who has taken me from my earliest "confuser" stages to my less than advanced "computer" degree, and Steve Seilo of Photodynamix, my passion for detail photographer, who has always captured my designs in their truest image from the beginning of my career nearly twenty years ago. I personally thank you both for the huge role you undertook to present this fabulous site. A sincere satisfaction as they both regarded my design efforts with such true appreciation for the art. You, the beneficiary, can now view my portfolio of needleart designs. As you navigate the various pages here, you'll notice the category "New Designs". My decision to include those most recent designs, not even published at this point, was arrived at with your best interest in mind. Daily we receive calls at The Heart's Content for my new designs, and the updated pages to my catalog. |
| |
|
An overwhelming labor intensive phase of the business, our catalog division finds it impossible to be ahead of that game, so to speak. In that regard, I felt it necessary to at least provide you with a visual of my newest creations, knowing they would not be available for several months. That category will always post a proposed release date. After that date, you will be able to purchase them in your local needlework shops, and I truly encourage you to support your shopowners efforts to exhibit our talents. Also at that date, you will be able to purchase them directly through our retail mail-order department. Certain to eliminate hundreds of phone calls, I know you will appreciate the three-month period from the birth of my ideas, through the various stages of stitching, charting, presentation, photography, final lay-out and graphs, printing, floss and fiber preparation, through the various kit assembly stages. My staff of nine ladies spend endless hours of kit preparation and assembly, and we all take great pride in our final product...........your most complete needleart kit to enjoy for generations, and fill your stitching basket with everything needed to provide a most pleasurable stitching experience. |
| ||
|
My full-color catalog, will continue to provide you with your personal copy of these designs. Annually, we will update its contents with my new designs. Be certain to view this category as well. The present catalog is 125 pages of full color sheets, and is available through this site (click here). |
 |
| |
|
Earlier this month, The Heart's Content, Inc. exhibited at the International Needlework Event in Charlotte, North Carolina. Proudly, my booth exhibited ten new designs, and we are all busy back here at the studio fondling fabrics/fibers and the such, as I collect my notes from the various design/stitching phases of these new creations. A few are off to the charting service (God bless them, as they attempt to decipher an artist's intentions!), and today, the first of the line up found nest on the kitting tables, and will occupy its space for the next several days. Graciously, I admire the dedication of my staff, who so intimately regard each and every phase of this procedure. I am truly blessed to share their dedication with you. |
| ||
|
|
One of my new creations shown at Charlotte incorporates four years of my design efforts. I'm calling it my "Magnum Opus". Its title is "Lily & Laurel", and the design is one of fine floral spectacular and detail. It can be viewed, along with other new designs, in the "products" category. This is Kit #79 and is available now and can be ordered for $99.00. |
| |
|
In each of my newsletters, I will attempt to address a few of the most-requested issues. Of course, I encourage you to continue to contact us via e-mail with any issue you may have regarding my design efforts.............. A few of the series I am in the midst of continuing are "Fruitfuls". The seventh and eighth design in that series, visions of watermelon and peaches, will soon occupy my needle, with great inspirations of exhibiting them in early 2001. Also a series to be continued at that same time perhaps is my "Miniature Silk Samplers". Presently, my needle is threaded with a premier to an entirely new series entitled "English Textiles". This first one is a reproduction of Jobelean, a fabulous Williamsburg textile from the 1800's. It's rich floral hues against a striking navy background. Believe it or not, I'm stitching it over one linen thread (of course, it's my job!) on 40-count-hand dyed cappuccino linen. I figured at my age, it may be the opthamology curse of my stitching days. Many of you stitching students in my classes over the past twenty years can attest to my wonderful gift of perfect eyesight. I've always claimed He has me here on a mission to convert as many of you to "one-over-one" as possible. With my last birthday (I'll never get old, just older), came those funky things at the end of my nose I regard as "cheaters". I feel if the queen has to wear them, they're going to be in great taste. So I chose a black and white checkered pair, in great respect to Mary Englebreit, and drilled a hole in each bow to accommodate a teapot and crown sterling silver charm. It takes the attention away from the real source here. Cool! Thank the stitching Gods for visual aids. Whatever we need to keep our needles threaded! Over the past several months I have pondered in great depths the following announcement. This decision certainly did not come easily nor quickly for me. Next year I will not be teaching nor exhibiting at the consumer events with the intensity I have over the last decade. My calendar in the past included thirty such events annually, and to be more than fair and forthright to you, I truly wanted you to hear it from me, rather than through the stitchers grapevine. I am not by any means, ceasing this from my career, but simply taking the next year to refocus my direction of The Heart's Content, Inc. I truly enjoy my position in the needlework industry immensely, and desire to enable my company the pleasure of producing the multitude of design visions that occupy this left side of my brain. Quite simply, this cannot happen when I leave the studio every other week to pound the pavement once again to reach another exhibit or classroom site. Did I mention "Wonderful World Of Websites"? Certainly this is the premier stage of my new focus. With the time I'll be able to concentrate and direct toward the development of these inspirations, certainly I will enable them to thread your needle with an uninterrupted theme. Another major focus in my decision was to afford the time to more quickly serve the needs of my needlework shopowners, my most important mediators between my creative efforts and your re-creative needles! I encourage you to continue to support your local needlework shops. I want to take this opportunity to thank the thousands of stitchers who I have had the pleasure of meeting in my classrooms over the past twenty years, and look most forward to perhaps meeting some of you again in the year 2002, when I will once again prepare yet another class schedule in a more moderate fashion. Teaching is one of my favorite aspects of this pallet, and I certainly will not eliminate it from my routine. It truly affords me the greatest pleasure, at the end of each class, when a stitchers looks to the front of the classroom and proudly announces that her anxieties of "one-over-one" have been erased, and she has discovered a new avenue to afford this incredible clarity of detail to her stash of patterns in her closet. (I know you all have one of those in your home!) From the bottom of my "one-over-one" heart, I thank you for your generous and unyielding loyalty, and confirm my efforts to yield an even more-abundant harvest of designs in the year ahead. I truly feel that this means of communication will certainly keep us in touch, and it is most definitely your support that has allowed me to arrive to this decision. For this, I am grateful! Thus, I feel it is most important for you stitchers to customize your requests in this fashion via this site or e-mail. It will continue to serve as a wonderful channel of communication, and for a brief period of time, I will not be accruing the annual 200,000 miles to reach you. I encourage you to visit my site monthly to see the updates posted, and to learn of my progress quarterly, as I publish my next newsletter. |
| ||
|
|
Wherever the months ahead may take you, I wish you endless hours of stitching pleasures, and affirm to you, I will be "living" in my studio, pursuing the love of my life! I look forward to my year ahead, and with great anxiety, begin to plan my steps of fulfillment of my dream. Perhaps that chance to publish my book I have been authoring for three years. Wisconsin, my home, is setting the table for the winter months ahead. Ahhhhh! Truly my Season to indulge in my creations. I await the serene peace it affords each year, and am ready to truly enjoy its beauty through the eye of my needle. |
| |
|
I certainly appreciate your visit to my website, and hope you have enjoyed your journey. I hope you will "bookmark" us, and return often to learn of our directions and focus of allowing your needle to stitch my design efforts. Your friend in stitching,
|
| ||
|
Place an Order | About Maureen | Back Home |
| ||
|
4440 Indian Trail Green Bay, WI 54313 (920) 494-9434 |
| ||
