Am I alone in feeling that some designers don't give a dam about the accuracy of their charts?Yesterday I was stitching a small, 35 X 35 stitch design for the top of a Nantucket Basket. The design is almost symmetrical so the first thing that hits you in the face is a 'free floating' symbol in one of the quadrants! Besides white and gold blending filament there are only two other overdyed threads, Hydrangea and Creamed Spinach. The instructions for the backstitched initials are....*2* strands of *Coventry Gardens* and 1 strand of blending filament. ????????????? Turn to the page with the stitch diagrams for the letters and it says......use *1* strand of Hydrangea with 1 strand of Gold blending filament!
To me this is just sloppy work and we deserve and should demand better! When I tried to submit my list of corrections on the designer's comment page I was told it exceeded the limit of 256 characters! Maybe this is why this particular designer is unaware that she continues to produce substandard charts! Which is too bad as her designs are lovely otherwise!
Inexcusable on such a small design! I find that the people who do the Thomas Kinkade designs are the worst for this - but they ARE very good at trying to deal with complaints. I won`t be doing another anyway, though, as I find them a bit too garish.
Well, they have finally started the destruction of the upstairs. Tearing everything on the 2nd floor back to the studs, which they will seal (to prevent the smoke smell from coming back out). Then they have to put up new drywall, new bathroom fixtures (2 bathrooms), redo the roof. Eventually they will repaint the entire house, and I have got to pick colors and buy paint for them, or they'll do it all in plain white.
Sounds like this is where the nice bit starts - going back to a nice "New" house before too long. How long DO thery expect it to take? I bet the Insurance Company will be snapping at their heels - they won`t want to be paying out for rent for longer than they can avoid!
On 1/4/06 8:51 AM, in article snipped-for-privacy@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, " snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote: (SNIP)
4 months sounds about right - how much roof do they have to rebuild? What colors are you thinking about for the house? Do keep an eye on what the builders are doing - daily is about right.
Well, this moves that chart to the bottom of my Want to Do pile. I love the design, but wonder whether it is worth the time and energy to work through all the chart problems. Thanks Caryn Dawne
The computer has become an important tool for most designers but I think instead of using it to improve charts many are self publishing and some are sacrificing quality for the sake of quantity. This designer has a great web site but I don't see any space devoted to chart corrections. As a well know needlework teacher one would think clearly written, accurate instructions would have top priority.
symmetrical so the first thing that hits you in the face is a 'free
symbol in one of the quadrants! Besides white and gold
there are only two other overdyed threads, Hydrangea
instructions for the backstitched initials
Gardens* and 1 strand of blending
with the stitch diagrams for
Hydrangea with 1 strand
I agree with this 100%. Unfortunately I also understand how it can happen. I can't speak for any other designers, but I know that my charts are proofed several times before they are printed. And mistakes still creep through. One of the biggest culprits is the computer -- cut-and-paste makes it so easy to create mistakes and not even realize it. Not an excuse, perhaps just an explanation. It just means designers need to proof extra hard, usually with several different proofers.
On really large charts of converted art I think they need super-proofers to catch the mistakes. Those have a lot of symbols to go through!
As for the "the limit of 256 characters", maybe you could send each mistake as a separate e-mail. Bet that would get the designer's attention!!!! You were right to try writing to her. Mistakes need to be corrected. I'd urge you to keep trying. I'm pretty sure she'd answer if she knew her reputation and business were being hurt by this. Business is slow enough right now that no designer can afford to ignore something like this. You might start with how much you like her designs just to soften the blow
Perhaps if the model stitchers stitched from the for sale chart they might pick up some of the errors surely. Sort of like road testing???? It can hardly hurt her reputation if no one knows who she is?? Ruby
Isn`t that the whole point of model stitchers? The "For Sale" chart is the one produced AFTER they`ve stitched it and any alterations are made, surely.
I don't think it always works that way; probably when a designer is in a rush to get a chart published, prior to a show or some other deadline
I Do REALLY appreciate those designers who have the guts and honesty to list on their website the errors in their charts.
To my mind, this is great. For example I like Elizabeth Designs. Elizabeth Foster lists all corrections on her website, and I have found that MLI also does that. I am not denigrating, in any way, the other designers, but these two just jumped to mind.
"Mavia Beaulieu" wrote in message news:ojyuf.39547$OU5.18513@clgrps13...
Well, it may seem that way to most. :) As a designer, self-publisher and stitcher myself, I understand both sides of this issue. As a stitcher, there is NOTHING more frustrating than trying to stitch from a graph with mistakes. Heck, this is supposed to be a relaxing hobby, right? :) As a designer, it is VERY frustrating to find out later of mistakes in leaflets after printing, when one has gone over and over them. You look at them so hard and so many times, things get missed. Though, this still is no excuse! I can only speak for myself here, but I am NEVER in a hurry to publish designs. Heck, I have them completely finished at least 2 to 3 months before release. This enables me to have time to go over and over the rough drafts before taking them to print.
Though, there ARE other situations that causes mistakes. This just happened to me and I can tell you that I am SO upset about the situation and now trying to work on fixing the problem. I am telling you this story so you know that not all mistakes are because of the designer. Anyway, I took a rough draft of a leaflet to my printer company. They offset print (much better quality), but do not make metal plates (permanent copy) of the original. They digitize the original and print from that. Like photographing the original to print. I realized I had some mistakes on the copy I gave them before they started the print. I gave them the new correct copy and told them to discard the first one I gave them (they keep all my originals on file in case I need reruns. If I do, I can just call them to say which one to reprint). I needed a second print run on that particular leaflet. They pulled the original, said they still had it and the printing began. This happend in early 2005. WELL, it was just brought to my attention that there were mistakes in my leaflet. I keep a copy on file of every one of my leaflets printed. I KNEW I didn't have any mistakes in that leaflet. So, I pulled a leaflet from the first run and one from the second to compare them. OH MY! That is when I found out my printer company discarded the WRONG original and reprinted them with the wrong graph!!!!! ARGH! I brought this up with my printer company and I got attitude and could not beleive it. I have used them quite often and never had a problem with them. I trusted them. But after how they treated me, I will never go back. So, even though this was my printer company's fault, I have to take the blame. See, my mistake was TRUSTING them. Heck, this was a print rerun so I didn't think I needed to look that close at them again! Guess I should have and now I am embarrased by it all!!! One works so hard to make sure there are NO mistakes, but then this happens.
Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble on, but wanted to explain another way mistakes in charts can happen. I have posted the corrections on my website under the details of that particular design. Yes, I know I need to make a 'correction' page. I will work on this after a big show in February I am exhibiting at, Nashville. This particular design is a Mid-Size Leaflet, commercially printed on both sides and size of leaflet is 8-1/2" X 11", folded in half. So, I have printed the correct graph on 24lb paper and inserted this in every leaflet I have in my inventory now. For any of you who may have the second print run, the design I am talking about is "Friendly Stitchers". So, if you have the wrong graph, go to my website, go to my catalog and click on the image of that design for the corrections. Thanks so much and hope all forgive!!! ;(
Beige for the living room (not much more exciting than white! lol), the den was moss green, and I want that again. The kids have to pick colors for their rooms, but I believe the youngest wants lavender. Foyer was ivory and forest green, I might do that again.
Dude is stopping by the house every couple days, it's just hard for us to get over there when our work locations and the rental are nowhere near it. Living out in the rural part of the county has it's benefits and it's problems, this would be one of the "problems."
He is seeing progress tho, last visit they had a good portion of the old drywall down. It also seems one of the workers decided to "rescue" some of the books I'd written off as too smokey because they were stacked neatly by the door! I hope he/she enjoys them, smokey smell, soot and all.
Janlynn had (and might still have) a program where they paid stitchers to do Quality Control stitching. They'd send you the kit, give you a deadline, and you'd stitch it up, listing any mistakes you found so they could fix them before the kits hit the stores. This was after their original model stitchers had their turn with the charts.
I did it for them for a bit, but found stitching things I had no interest in was just tedious and took the joy out of stitching for me.
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