Thank you so much to my wonderful US customers for your recent orders; parcels are winging their way to you and hopefully – keeping all fingers and toes crossed – they should arrive in the US before August 29th. The Royal Mail target for international tracked mail is 5-7 working days, so we should be ok unless there’s some kind of international air disaster, but let’s try not to think about that.
I had intended to suspend all further US orders from Wednesday, but I’ve decided to bring that forward to today. The dates are causing me too much anxiety, and all I can think about is what if international post gets delayed and you all get hit with an $80 charge. It’s unlikely, but I’d prefer to play this as safe as I can, so today is my last day for posting to you. I’m sorry if you’ve missed out; do contact me if you have any questions.
In the meantime, US customers can still support me by taking my online classes – the White House machine isn’t tariffing digital products (yet!)
On to happier things. When I can, I’m continuing to work on this long cloth, Tabula Rasa.
It’s about 6″ wide and several feet long. Part autobiography, part therapy, part self portrait. Lots of sheer and semi-sheer layers, with stitching beneath and on top of the surface.
It’s rare for me to make something I like, or something I feel proud of, but this is it, happening right here. It’s a joyous feeling.
It’s also rare for me to use a limited colour palette in such a sustained way, but I’m finding that I like that too.
Progress is slow, because there are Many Other Things I need to attend to right now (more on that later) (and it’s nowhere near as exciting or intriguing as I’m making it sound!) But a few quiet moments on this cloth in between the general busyness is proving to be very calming and grounding.
I’m so sad to be losing my lovely US community. I hope the day we can reconnect through tangible thread is not too far away.
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Hi Karen.. It is sad for your US customers and as a Canadian I know the anxiety felt
thanks so much Diana, yes it is very sad, and for me too. Just hoping everything arrives before 29th now 🤞🏻
Karen, you haven’t lost us – specially as I’ve only recently found you and already my sewing has changed. I’ve been making the small pieces with random bits of cloth and even smaller snippets. They bring me enormous joy!
I’m heart broken about the situation here in the US – when I add them up I see so many of my purchases have been from tiny, independent businesses around the world. Now, I have to abandon them because of the whims of…no I will not give in to a rant!
My daughter escaped and now lives in Scarborough – when I visit her, I’ll be placing lots of orders in the hope that I can still support my favourite vendors in a small way.
I look forward to your blog posts and videos. When this is over, I will be back!
Jakki
thank you so much, Jakki, that brought a much-needed smile to my sad face 🙂 If you have friends or family in the UK you can still buy threads etc but give their UK address at the checkout. The package can then be sent to them and they can forward it on to you as a gift, or you can collect it when you visit. So far, international packages marked ‘gift’ (up to $100, I think) are exempt from tariffs, so that’s one way round the current obstruction. I’m so glad a bit of quiet stitching is bringing you some pleasure and peace. Hang in there 🙂
By the way, I grew up in Bridlington, about 18 miles south of Scarborough, so I know it well. A lovely beach!
I hope so too. I’ve signed up for an online class a few months ago but still haven’t started. I appreciate your skills and your willingness to share them.
thanks so much Michele. I hope you enjoy the course when you get to it.
That is beautiful Karen!!
thanks so much Laura 🤍
Hi Karen: I am delighted that you are finding joy in your long cloth. You bring us all so much joy and inspiration in our stitching, it is so lovely that you have found a source of joy for yourself. Thanks so much for sharing! Rebecca
thanks so much Rebecca. I should add that I also find lots of joy in daily stitching! It’s unusual for me to have this much attachment to a piece of work, I guess.
Another beautiful piece of work, Karen. So sad that one person can make such a difference to so many over the world with their actions. I am a great believer in karma tho ….so I think all us stitchers should just keep stitching and wait for the mighty to fall.
thanks so much Fiona. I’m with you on the karma. Keep calm and carry on stitching is good advice 🙂
Karen,
Wow, that\’s really sad if this is true \”It\’s rare for me to make something I like, or something I feel proud of\”.
I’m very hard on myself, June – so many of us are. I’m trying to be kinder to myself, and this piece is restoring the faith.
When a tax was introduced into Australia on all personal overseas purchases, the prophets of doom and gloom (who happened to sell their imported goods at a horrific price) said it would kill those personal purchases and increase local sales of imported goods. They were wrong! We bought, and still buy, from overseas because its cheaper for us, in spite of the horrific postal charges and we can get things not for sale locally. I suspect that give it a few months and your US customers will be so used to all imported goods having some sort of tax on them that they won’t notice how much yours have gone up, and they will be back!
thanks so much for this, Caroline. I hope you’re right! The problem with shipping to US right now isn’t so much the 10% tariff – that would add $3-4 to the average order – but the flat $80 fee they’re talking about adding on top of the tariff. We will have to wait and see how things look when the dust settles, I guess.