I was seriously thinking about this today-being a cross stitch pattern designer. I have a few programs, but what is blocking my mind is what to design? Mushrooms, Amish or primitives are things that pop in my head. Mushrooms, because of where I live and there is a store in the next town that sells mainly mushroom related things (they are the ‘Mushroom Capital of the World’) and each year the Mushroom festival in September gets a little bigger. Tourists do check out the store. What to do? See…I get stuck. And I live close to Lancaster, PA-Amishland, but I know a few well known designers have Amish designs. I visit so many cross stitcher’s blogs and I notice what you like to do. I don’t want to copy anyone else’s designs (and I wouldn’t but I mean taking their ideas), but I know I can be inspired by century old samplers like they are. Any input would be appreciated. I think I could do this if I put my mind to it!
We are getting a bit of a snow event, not a foot or anything, but maybe an 1 inch with some ice tossed in. I worry about Brian driving around in it.
Tomorrow at midnight I pick my One World-One Heart winners!!!
~By the way~people have really been clicking the links on the left to help feed children to rescuing pets-awesome!
~Update-I’m calling it ‘Toss it Tuesday’. It’s our third week of trying to pare down the amount of unless, dusty junk boxes that are taking up valuable space in the basement. The problem is everything is covered with that cat litter dust. I had asked Brian to switch to something else and it looks like he is back to the dusty stuff! Arrghh! What I do is put a load of laundry in (I only do about 2 a week) and while that’s washing, I start digging through the stuff. I do need to save some of the boxes for eBay (hey I found a ton more!) My guys are great at tossing electronic equipment boxes down there and leaving them after the alloted 3 month time to keep the box is over! I’m not going to talk about magazines and baskets right now, or tins or stuffed animals….
Thanks for your input Jennifer, I’ll check out the various sites for inspiration.
Collages & Creative Goodness 
Here’s an idea – what about visiting stationary sites that do wedding invites and baby announcements? Get a feel for what the current trends are, what the hot designs are, and try to design around that.
One of the things I like to do when i am making a piece for someone is match their theme – weddings, new babies, etc. Sometimes I struggle with finding a wedding piece or a new baby piece that fits the recipient, so I draw inspiration from their invites or announcements. If you designed pieces that would coordinate with current themes, that might be a big seller.
Good luck with Toss It Tuesday – great idea!
What helps me with designing is to think of project designs that I want to stitch myself. Just start small too! Don’t put a lot of heavy expectations on yourself. Give yourself time to grow and improve.