I have always loved to read, I have always loved to teach, and I have always loved stitching. I studied foreign languages at Rice University, where two of the most important things I discovered were historical romance novels and crewel embroidery. I went on to teach in secondary school. Some of my stitching from that period still exists: picture avocado and brown owls and orange flower carts.
Eventually, I married my long-suffering husband Larry, who is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He did not know what he was getting into, I promise! We share a love of teaching and reading. He leaves the stitching to me and I leave the geostatistics to him. (Don't tell him, but I got the better end of the deal!) Along came children and I stayed home from teaching school for awhile. During that time, I took needlepoint classes and started what turned out to be an addiction to collecting painted canvases. Sometimes I even stitch them!
I started teaching needlework in a long-defunct local shop in the early 1980s with the idea of making a little money to support my habit. My first national seminar was in 1983, where I took classes from Scott Payne and Louise Meier. I was blown away... wow! someone would pay you to travel and teach needlework! How cool is that! So I decided that was what I wanted to do with my life.
I worked on developing those skills by taking classes, teaching for my chapter, taking more classes, volunteering, eventually teaching for other chapters and even traveling to teach a bit. I got my EGA certification in canvaswork in 1991. I began teaching first at EGA regionals, then at nationals! Boy, was I excited!
ANG asked Barbara Richardson and me to teach the very first of their CyberWorkshops in 1999. We didn't know if anyone would sign up! I have always been a techno-geek, and I loved the idea of teaching on the computer. It didn't seem like something I'd want to do all the time, though, because I really enjoy getting out and interacting with the stitchers in my classes. Still, it turned out to be a great success, with 100 people in that first class.
However, in the middle of that class, disaster struck. I was hit by a car and ended up spending weeks in the hospital and months in a wheelchair. I had my laptop out even in the hospital, however, because it's such a good way to entertain yourself!
One of the unexpected pleasures of this experience was discovering that stitchers are even more loving and caring that I had realized. While I was recovering, my online friends and students got together and made me a quilt after my accident! Take the time to follow the link in the preceding sentence and look at the individual blocks, as well as the whole quit. It's just fabulous. I look at it and am still amazed.
I didn't know if I'd ever be able to walk again, so I got the idea of teaching private cyberclasses. I hooked up with Jennifer Taylor of Needle Artworks and started a whole new teaching venue online. I think teaching classes online is great because you can take them at your leisure, in your jammies, when you have time. And I can teach them wherever I am by hooking up on my laptop. You see, I did, thanks to some wonderful physical therapists, resume traveling and teaching in person, but teaching online has become one of the most entertaining parts of my business. I love the friends I've made online through teaching! Email is a wonderful medium and I'm always excited when a new group of stitchers, who might not be able to take a class in person, start emailing and asking questions and sending jpegs of their projects.
Last year, I started my own Web site as well. This has been yet another adventure for me. I have my teaching schedule on there, all of my portfolio, all of my charted designs, information about my cyberclasses (which are still taught via Needle Artworks), free patterns, a stitch-of-the-month, and new things all the time. My webmaster is the Web Goddess herself, Pat Timpanaro of Neon Flamingo Designs.
My newest addition to the Web site is a bibliography section which is currently an ongoing project. It now includes my bibliographies of Mary Queen of Scots, of books on color and design and of stitch books. I love books and I love to read, and just about the only thing I don't like is horror novels. This is really odd because Stephen King and I were hit by cars on the very same day, almost the same time. I heard about his accident over the radio in the emergency room. I was afraid I'd wake up after surgery writing horror novels and Stephen would wake up doing needlepoint. My husband thought this was a great idea (you may find this surprising but Stephen King makes more money than I do!), but sadly, I woke up the same needlepointer I always was, just more careful crossing streets.
I still live in Austin, Texas, where I was born and raised. There are lots of needleworkers in Austin, and I owe a lot of my inspiration to the support of my local EGA and ANG stitching friends. When I get stuck on a deadline, they are always here to help me make kits. My children are grown-up now. My daughter is a librarian for the Dallas Public Library, and is in charge of romance novels, among other things! My son is a programmer for Edge of Reality, an Austin-based video game company. Both of them are avid readers and both of them inherited their dad's straight hair, sharp intelligence, wit and patience with needlework stuff everywhere!
I think that stitchers are, by nature, collectors. It's a collection addiction as well as a process addiction. I collect books, painted canvases, threads, more books, depression glass, Santas, more books, unfinished projects, teapots, more books... you get the picture. You've all heard the expression, "You can never be too rich or too thin." I leave you with my personal motto "You can never have too many books or too many projects."
This article first published in Ruth Kern Books' newsletter.
