Susan Ache’s Little Quaker Christmas

Who or what has been your greatest creative inspiration?

Inspiration comes from everywhere for me.  I have often said that my best vacations are on islands and I am sure it’s because I am drawn to those washed out soft vintage colors.  I collect coffee table books of places and things I love and often refer to them when coming up with color plans for anything I do.  I have been known to take fabric in for color matches at my local paint store.  I love to collect paint chips, and give me a couple of hours at the hardware store and I have bundles of “future” color projects all stacked up.

@yardgrl60

@yardgrl60

One of my favorite places to go is the farmers market, the colors of fruits and vegetables get me every single time.  I know the most vendors don’t plan their color placement of cartons of fruits and vegetables, but sometime the colors side by side will stop me in my tracks.  I also take random pictures just of a color and what it is next to so that I can remember that it was a cool combination that I probably would not have thought of had I not been in that spot.  And, never underestimate the power of social media.  Just one picture can stop me in my tracks and it doesn’t even have to be fabric or stitching related.  Pretty pictures of anything can be inspirations for everything.

What first drew you to the practice of cross stitch?
Cross Stitch has been a part of my life for about a million years.  I started when it Aida cloth was just about the only fabric offered……that lasted for years.  At some point, cross stitch just took a back seat and then years ago I was re-introduced to it using linen, over dyed floss and not using a hoop.  Since it had been so long between, it was like learning a craft from the very beginning.  Not using a hoop allows me to actually stitch faster since I am using more of a sewing technique.

My very first Quaker Sampler was “Mary Wigham” I feel in love with those motifs and couldn’t stop thinking of them and how I would love to make one to match my house.  I think that was the first time I went off the grid for changing colors in all things cross stitch.  My thinking was, I spend so much time stitching these, I certainly want to be able to use them in my personal space.  From that moment on, I was hooked on Quaker Samplers and going rebel with my color choices.

@yardgrl60

Susan Ache of @yardgrl60

When did you first discover Aurifil threads and what do you love most about them?
I remember the exact moment I saw Aurifil threads, it was for sewing.  My friend said that I would use this and never go back to anything else, that was a ton of years ago and I haven’t ever gone back to anything else.  And, then one day, I saw for the first time, embroidery floss on a spool, say what??!?!?!  Are you kidding me, it was the greatest invention EVER.  No more big wadded pile of floss to have to dig through and I hadn’t at that time even tried the floss.  I just was hooked on the idea of the spools.  So, I found a great little online shop right out of Georgia, her name is Jean and it is Pumpkinvine Corner.  She carries all of the colors and I went through and made a $50.00 order and got a personal thank you and she shipped just as fast as I hit the pay button.  She is my forever go to floss enabler….not only for service but for having all of the colors….one stop shopping!  The moment I tried my new colors, I was hooked, there wasn’t any shredding, pilling, or that weird tangling that usually happens with floss.  I have never looked back, the only supplements I add now are silk threads and if Aurifil made those, I would never buy another brand again.

Then, there was the Alex touring Florida.  Oh man, that was like going to meet a Rock Star.  I looked to see what the closest speaking engagement to my house was and it happened to be in the town my aunt lived, so I grabbed my mother for the long drive, so she could visit and I could meet Alex.  If there is one thing that every needleworker should do is go and see Alex and his presentation.  I learned more about threads in one day than I have ever known in my lifetime.  And, the samples he had were tremendous….to see how the different threads worked on different textures of fabric was just incredible to me.  I noticed right then and there that there wasn’t one sample with cross stitch.  I felt at that moment that cross stitchers were being cheated out of how cool it is to work with these threads.  By this time I had used exclusively Aurifil in all of my projects and was posting on Instagram and getting questions about them all the time.  I made a little project bag of all of the threads suitable for cross stitch and sent it to Alex to be used in his presentations.  To this day, I still don’t think people realize how many colors and flosses are available to use in cross stitch projects.  I could go on and on about the flosses and how wonderful they are, but the most important advice I could give is for people to buy some of their favorite colors either in the wool, 12 wt or the embroidery and just start stitching.

Have you worked with other techniques of which you’re particularly fond? 
I consider cross stitch my nighttime sport, and quilting is my daytime sport, and when I really feel like doing something different, I will pull out the light box and trace some embroidery.  I need to concentrate more on that tho, and it isn’t as relaxing to me while watching tv as cross stitch only because I have to be more aware of my stitching lines.  And, even with embroidery, I love a fun sampler, it’s the whole idea of changing patterns.

@yardgrl60

@yardgrl60

@yardgrl60 – from Susan’s book, “Start with Strips” — Martingale

What excites you most about this collection? 
This collection is what I think of when I think of Christmas and stitching.  I love having ranges of colors while I stitch so that I can make choices.  All of these colors are so very pretty by themselves but, as a group they certainly give you a holiday feeling.  Auditioning colors was the best part and in the end, I do what I love to do and that is go to my fabrics and start a matching process of colors.  Narrowing down the colors was the hardest and I think that the end result does say Merry Christmas and that’s really what I wanted this collection to say and make people happy with one box for any kind of holiday stitching.