Who is Jeanette Ardern?
Hi, and welcome to my website. I am Jeanette Ardern, born in Toronto, Ontario and after many moves around the country (Edmonton, Winnipeg, Thornhill, Montreal, Aurora, Midland, London, Barrie) I've ended up in Kamloops, B.C. I just love the dry mountain air and sunshine, feels like I have lived here forever. |
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I became a cross stitch designer through a series of events. I didn't just decide one day. I have always been interested in needlecraft and had done just about all of them: crewel, crochet, knitting, machine sewing, quilting, needlepoint, the list goes on. The one stitch I had not done was cross stitch until in late 1984.
On a trip to England, routed through Amsterdam's Schipol Airport, I stopped in a neat shop selling needlecrafts. I spotted a Lanarte kit of a street scene of Amsterdam that looked really nice. When I got home I started working on the kit, which is about 9" by 15" on 32 count Belfast Linen. I had never done cross stitch before but the instructions were clear, and it didn't take long to get used to working on linen. Eventually, I finished the project and it now hangs in my living room.
After just one project I was hooked: an accountant by profession and a cross-stitcher by hobby. I bought some more Lanarte kits, but my local needlecraft shop didn't have a large selection, and the prices were quite high for Lanarte kits. In 1990, I decided to give designing a whirl, mostly to satisfy my own desires and interests. I began with a series of tall ships from photographs, and inspired by a love of architectural styling, followed with a series of English country cottages.
While I was working full time as an accountant, I seemed to spend more and more of my spare time creating new designs, and the ideas for pictures kept coming. I used to borrow a portable computer from work to do the designs, and the range of picture kept growing. Some of my friends were also cross stitchers, and they started asking if they could have my patterns. They told me that they too were disappointed with the selection of cross stitch in London and suggested there was a market for my patterns . I won't go into all the details, but at the same time as I was being encouraged to do more cross stitching, my accounting job was no longer holding my interest, and layoffs were looming on the horizon. I took the plunge and opened the doors in 1990. Through rough, tough, lean and mean, I am still here designing. Hope you enjoy what you see....Jeanette
To reach me, e-mail to: jeanette@jeanettearderndesigns.com
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