Interview With Jay Patterson

Today I'm introducing Jay Patterson who most of us know as the representative face of Rainbow Gallery and their thread line. Jay, I'm trying to decide just what to ask you about your life in threads. My spies tell me that you are ex-military. How did you move from a military career into working for Rainbow Gallery?

When I was a recruiter in Michigan I had to take people for their physicals. That involved a night at a motel and then 12-15 hours during the next day. I do not suffer boredom well so I started stitching and just loved it. Helped to pass the time. When I had almost 23 years in the Army I was the First Sergeant for the Fargo ND recruiting company. I was in on a Saturday and ordered thread from Rainbow Gallery. I did not want to be there on a Saturday and while I was making the order I told John "You should hire me, I need to retire." He replied that he needed someone as the business was growing. I went for 3 days to LA and was interviewed by him, had dinner with his wife and he hired me.

It just seems an odd path, even though in the area I live (the D.C. suburbs) there are retired military folks in all sorts of second careers. Is there a typical path into the thread business?

There is no common path as the thread industry is very small. It was my hobby and I jumped at the opportunity to work in the needlework field. John is a very wise business man and did not want any of his family (4 children) working for the business.

Or are most of the companies family firms that only rarely take in outsiders?

Most of the companies are family owned, or privately owned. I cannot think of any that has a family member running them. Generally the margin for most is too small to support more that one family member. Kreinik is family owned, having been passed down from the father to the 2 sons. There were problems and Doug bought out his brother so he is sole owner.

What exactly did you do for Rainbow Gallery before you retired? I know you are the author of Jay's Stitching Hints on the RG website [read the hints at this link]

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/stitchinghints.html

I did a little bit of everything. Let me try to remember. I supervised the 17 production workers. I would have the ladies that do the order taking do different jobs as they were not on the phone all the time. I also advised John and collaborated with him on fibers and colors as he is not a needle worker himself. When companies would send us yarn to evaluate, I would stitch a little and let him know my opinion on the yarn. I also did a lot of computer work from maintaining the order files and customer files. Also I ended up doing the price list and it's updates. We were somewhere around 26 pages for the price list when I left. I did ordering of the yarns from the US suppliers and John did the overseas orders for their threads we carried. I also did the buying of whatever we needed to run the business from boxes to coffee. I spent endless hours proof reading and setting up the designs that were sent to us from different designers that we published and also the same for several books, (Father B's and others.) And finally I went to the trade shows. John and I did the 3 main ones and I did the Phoenix one by myself.

Jane B Sampler

I'm also told you are a very good stitcher and teacher. I believe it--after all, Amy Bunger (no stitching slouch herself) charmed you into being one of her Celebrity Chef authors in her Amy's Cookbook for Stitchers series. [see link below to learn more about the Celebrity Chef chapter]

http://www.amybunger.com/celebrity_chapters.html

I am nowhere near the quality of a stitcher that Amy is, or my other heroes Shay Pendry and Susan Portra. I am not even in their class, there are the ones that I learned the most from. My wife even did her Master's Thesis on Needlepoint As an Art and used Susan's designs and stitching extensively. (My wife does not stitch, which is good, would not want her using MY threads.)

LOL

Marathon Sampler

Proof of Jay's stitching prowess illustrates this interview. The sampler with all the circles is called Marathon Sampler and is by Sue Lentz, and the rest of the samplers in the body of this interview are all by Kay Montclare. I've added names to all of them to help you identify the designs. The modern sampler with the individual motifs that heads this article is called Tammy's Treasures and was designed by Jay himself for ANG's Needle Pointers magazine. The instructions to stitch it just using Bravo and Encore appeared, along with tips for stitching with Rainbow Gallery threads, in the September 2002, November 2002 and January 2003 issues of this magazine.

http://www.needlepoint.org/NeedlePointers/all.php

How did you like being an author? Any plans to write a book by yourself about your threaded life?

It was OK writing that chapter and I was humbled by her asking. I have published several designs for Rainbow Gallery and did and did not enjoy that. Most of my designs were published as teaching pieces. I would have rather been stitching someone else's designs rather than doing my own.

No plans for a book, I am rather boring.

http://www.amybunger.com/celebrity_chapters.html

Spanish Sampler

I don't believe that for a second. Anyone interested in seeing Jay's designs for Rainbow Gallery should type "J. R. Patterson" in the RG search box on their website and browse. There are some free downloads among the charts RG sells and a sampler called Charlet's Sampler that I'm sure a lot of folks will want to see.

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/search.cfm

Is there a favorite stitch you constant use that didn't make it into the Celebrity Chef series you'd like to share with Blog's readers?

I really do not have a favorite stitch, but I do like to do couching. I guess if I had to pick one I would would say the Smyrna cross.

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/1999/99-02.php

What sorts of things did you teach before retirement?

I taught what we called the "Fiber Notebook." It was basically how to stitch with Rainbow Gallery fibers. What I wrote as Jay's Tips and Stitching Hints is what I did in my classes. I taught at shops and at guilds. It was fun meeting the people but 3 days to do one class (with the travel) was a bit much. Then right back to work.

Do you have any plans to continue teaching, just to keep your hand in? Or are you tired of all the travel that you did as a teacher and thread person?

No plans right now. I do not stitch as much as I used to as I am deeply interested in Lego right now. Also I have back problems and it hurts to stitch for long periods of time. Once I stopped running (I ran 8 LA Marathons) my back became a real problem. It is really nice not to have to travel much anymore. I have a saying I live by "If you can't do it at home in bed, it is not worth doing." Here are pictures of my Lego Room.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=332688

That would make a good sampler motto! The photographs of your Lego collection are amazing. I am very envious of the huge ocean liner you built.

Have you enjoyed your eBay selling adventures? (Jay is the seller legonut77 on eBay.) I imagine you know almost everyone in the business end of NP which must help you stock your eBay sales. How did this start?

I started by selling my stuff on eBay. I got rid of most of my thread in that I finally realized I did not need 3 or more of every color of every thread on the market. It took me a couple of years with 30-60 lots a day to get rid of it all. I had a lot. A friend that owns a shop asked me to do it for her so I did. I sell on commission for shops that have either closed or want to cut down on their stock. I also did a retirement sale for a shop that closed here in El Paso.

Are there pieces you want to stitch yourself someday?

My favorite are the large Kay Montclare samplers. I have done 11 of them and have a few more to do. I also like the cross stitch pieces from Fine Arts Heritage Society.

Or is stitching something you do only occasionally now that are officially retired?

I still do some, but not much due to my back and interest in Lego.

What are you working on now?

I have a Kay Montclare started and a Serendipity Angel started.

Do you plan to expand the eBay business and make it an eBay store to keep your hand in during retirement? And what are you stitching now?

I have no plans to expand on eBay. I am quite happy helping people get rid of what they no longer want. I have quite a few regular customers and a fairly good feedback rating and it does take a lot of time to list items, keep track of them, and then ship them and send out the checks to the people that I am selling for.

Do you have a favorite piece you've done?

Kay Montclare's Spanish Sampler is by far my most favorite.

Do you keep your work or give it away?

I keep a lot, my walls are covered with it and I give some away here and there.

Do you have your very first piece still?

A small cat with knitting yarn on plastic canvas and half cross on the back. I will never get rid of that.

What sort of stitching do you prefer now that you are retired and not stitching as part of your job?

I have really gotten into counted work and cross stitch for some reason. I am not sure why cross stitch because the greatest joy comes when you change colors and move on to the next 1000 stitches in the new color.

Are you a Christmas nut?

No, just a regular nut.

One of those people who can't pass up an Asian themed design like me? Are you into geometrics, counted thread, animals, realistic designs, abstracts?

If anything, samplers.

I can tell that from all the beautiful large sampler photos you sent me that you'd stitched.

How about a favorite thread?

Splendor, because it stitches so well and without problems associated with most silks. And of course Balger. I also am a fan of Needle Necessities over-dyed floss. Poor Elaine, she is missed.

You above all people have been exposed to every type of thread conceivable. Do you have favorites that you helped bring to us needlepointers?

I did work with John on the Rhapsody, Crystal Rays, Treasure Braid and many of the other metallics.

Do you have one that you never thought would make it big that did?

Splendor. I never thought that we could compete with Au Ver A Soie, Soie d' Alger. Boy was I wrong, that became our biggest selling thread, far out pacing the next three fibers.

Can you tell us a bit about how threads are manufactured, packaged and distributed to shops to delight and charm us stitchers?

As wholesalers of thread, Rainbow Gallery basically repackaged large cheeses or cones of thread. We had machines that would take the yarn from the large packaging and put it on smaller put-ups for the needlworker. A large cone or cheese would have thousands of yards on it and to make it affordable to the needle worker we usually put 10-25 yards on a card. Rainbow does do the same as Kreinik in braiding metallics from Japan and that is our Treasure braid. There are about 5 machines that do this 24/7 as about one yard takes an hour and each machine can do about 6 at one time.

I love Treasure Braid and now you can be sure I will treat it with respect as I know each yard took a machine an hour to braid into something beautiful for me to use.

I've always heard that many threads we use and love come from threads knitters use. That they are repackaged into smaller skeins and sold to us. How much truth is there to this?

As above, it is 100% true. But a needlepointer would not want to buy a whole skein of a yarn for a project that would leave 90 yards unused. Also the shop owner would not want to sell just one and stock the minimum that most be ordered in hundreds of colors. When a bag of 10 skeins of a knitting yarn is wholesaled to a shop, it drives a shop owner crazy when a customer buys one, and then the shop owner does not have enough left to complete a sweater for another customer.

Moroccan Sampler

Knitters have a lot of interesting beaded and sequined yarns available to them. Can you see any of these making the leap into a thread needlepointers will use?

Not really. Our criteria was that the yarn needed to work on 18 count canvas. At some point there can be too much decoration or glitz on a canvas. Also the market would not support lots and lots of crazy types of threads. As needlepointers we buy about 10% for the thread market. The rest is for the knitter. That is who the manufacturers are going to listen to. There is a dwindling number of dyers and thread manufacturers so their resources have to be put to where the sales will be the greatest. For dyeing there is a minimum that is hard to meet as for thread wholesalers, so there is a limit on the number of colors that can be bought for resale.

I don't know how many years you worked with Rainbow Gallery but surely you have been in the business long enough to have seen great change. Even I have watched needlepoint evolve from pre-stitched floral designs that only needed a black or ecru basketweaved background to the explosion of design, color, tools and services we have available to us. What sorts of things have happened as you went about your business, visiting trade shows, teaching at shops, introducing new threads to needlepointers?

English Sampler

What I have seen is a decrease in the number of needlework shops. The smaller ones just cannot make it financially and the bigger ones pick up their customers as the smaller ones disappear. Also the competition became more fierce. At one time there was just DMC and Kreinik. With the introduction of comparable threads from Rainbow Gallery, Caron Collection, Needle Necessities, Access Commadities and Anchor, to just mention a few, all companies needed to be more careful of where their dollars went and what stitchers wanted.

How has needlepoint (and other types of handwork) evolved? Now that we are stitching in the 21st Century, what does the future look like from your perspective?

I really am too far removed at this time to tell what will happen. The internet has had an influence on the industry. It is sad, because the more that is bought through the internet, the more the shop owners are hurt. And in turn the stitchers. As the small shops go out of business a stitcher finds it harder and harder to find a shop to walk into and get one on one advice and attention. I think that this is sad. The shop owner and the guilds have worked hand in hand with the stitcher to teach and supply them with what they need.

What will our grandkids stitch? What threads will they use? Are there more oddities such as peace silk, soy fibers, and bamboo flosses in our future?

As for the threads, I think that they will continue to evolve to satisfy the stitcher. I do not see another batch of teachers such as Amy Bunger, Tony Miniri, Shay Pendray, and Susan Portra coming along in the future. As in all things, some are passed down to the next generation and some are not. It would be sad if stitching became a lost art.

What can we do to tempt kids just out of high school and college to try stitching?

I doubt if anything can be done. My wife is a high school teacher and tells me all the time that the kids are more interested in cell phones, i-pods, and friends than with learning. It is hard to text messages while stitching.

Ain't it the truth?!

By the way, is it a plus or a minus to be male in what is mostly a female-dominated industry? Or is it different on the business side of stitching?

It is a big plus when teaching. The other women take care of me and if a class gets noisy, they control it for me. Makes it nice to not worry about control as one teaches.

Jay, thank you very very much for taking the time to talk to me and share photographs of your stitching. I hope you enjoy every minute of your retirement and that you keep stitching and inspiring the rest of us despite the temptations of all those Legos.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow