Many quilting and machine embroidery enthusiasts are aware of the Rose of Sharon project Elizabeth Phillips and her business partner and friend Sharon Pederson created to help raise funds for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). The Rose of Sharon project continues to be a successful way of raising money to help AAQI. Many quilters have made beautiful Rose of Sharon quilts and other items as a result of the products to came out from this project, And, this project continues with the existing products stiill available for purchase and Kenny Kreations coming this Fall.
- Electric Quilt provided the Rose of Sharon design shapes on their site and created a contest where more than 850 Rose of Sharon quilt block designs were submitted from 11 different countries. Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims selected the final top 12 designs for Pederson's "Roses of Rememberance" quilt. EQ still provides free EQ downloads of many of the blocks that were submitted.
- Nine Patch Media Store also created a Rose of Sharon quilting DVD,
- Island Batik created beautiful fabric to make the blocks,
- Martingale & Company published an amazing Rose of Sharon Block Book and a beautiful collection of greeting cards,
- AccuQuilt create dies for the Rose of Sharon designs, and
- OESD created a Rose of Sharon machine embroidery (ME) CD.
These Rose of Sharon products are often talked about together as a single collection of products, and as a result often time thought to be compatible with each other. Since many of the AccuQuilt applique dieshave corresponding embroidery machine designs, it is also frequently thought that the AccuQuilt Rose of Sharon die and the OESD Rose of Sharon embroidery machine design set go together as well. Unfortunately, that is not true. As such, I have been investigating to understand what the problems are and if there was a solution that could be applied. Thus, this post is intended to heighten awareness on the incompatibility of these two products, as well as sharing insights on what I've learned while working with Elizabeth Philips, as well as representatives from AccuQuilt and OESD/Bernina.
I also want to thank Judy Danz (jdqltr's Sewabout Quilting) for sharing insights from her experience in working with these products, as well as many others that have also shared their perspective with me. I have also personally stitched out some of these designs with and without AccuQuilt pre-cuts and I have concluded that the OESD Rose of Sharon machine embroidery designs are not compatible with the AccuQuilt Rose of Sharon die. Quilting and machine embroidering enthusiasts should not purchase these two products with the intention of using them together as they will not result in good quality machine embroidered applique'!
To clarify, the AccuQuilt Rose of Sharon die does make beautiful applique' cuts that you can do manual hand or machine applique' sewing. Or, you can digitize your own ME design to use although you MUST have licensee approval from Sharon Pederson and Elizabeth Philips to ensure a portion of the proceeds of these products benefits the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative program and to ensure there is no conflicts with the existing digitizing right they have already contracted out.
It is hard to say exactly what happened that these products are not compatible. Many of the products released in Rose of Sharon Project were released at different times, but the OESD ME designs and the GO! Die were both released at Fall Market 2010. Packaging and PR materials do not reference that these products are compatible, but many view the compatibility is implied by the "Rose of Sharon" name and license, thus they purchase the two products with the intent of using them together. What happens when using them together is that their sizes are off, so the machine embroidery stitching does not line up with the AccuQuilt die cut.
In theory, the OESD Rose of Sharon ME designs should work fine if you follow a manual cut of your applique' design. But you need to print out the design from your software. To clarify, if you print out the shapes from the PDF that comes with the designs, your applique' shape may not work well with the actual ME stitch out (PDF files may not be accurate). But even when I stitched out one of these OESD designs without any applique fabric, I still found a slight difference in the placement line vs the blanket stitch out. And, personally, I was disappointed in the poor quality of the blanket stitch for the designs I stitched out.
Sadly, SewCalGal can not recommend the OESD Rose of Sharon machine embroidery collection even for use with manual cutting of fabric. From my perspective this design collection was not up to par of the normal quality of OESD designs. I'd actually favor a movement by OESD to pull this design collection from the shelf, re-digitize & test it with the AccuQuilt die and then re-launch as a new product, giving a 100% trade-in credit for those that purchased the current version.
I would also like to see that the websites for AccuQuilt, OESD, Nine Patch Media store, as well as those that sell these products, be updated to reflect that the OESD Rose of Sharon ME designs and the AccuQuilt Rose of Sharon dies are not compatible, to prohibit others from making the mistake of purchasing both products with the intention of using them together.
What I have learned is that Sharon Pederson has licensed Kenny Kreations to release a new Rose of Sharon machine embroidery design set in Fall 2011. This collection will be fully tested and compatible with the AccuQuilt die, and will also use a satin stitch vs OESD's blanket stitch. SewCalGal hopes to be able to share more insights with you on the Rose of Sharon ME designs, from Kenny Kreations, later this year.
9 comments:
I didn't know that about portions of the proceeds going to Alzheimers....that is awesome.
I love the Rose of Sharon...
Love the satin stitch change. This is a beautiful quilt that always calls to me.
Excellent information! I hope everyone is given 100% trade in credit too....I think it would speak volumes.
Smiles,
Kelly
This is definitely an eye opening post and one I think the quilting business community needs to take notice of.
Why does every single company have to remake the wheel? Why can't companies find a common ground and realize that compatibility = marketability? Why can't they realize that the more connected a group of companies are, the more exponential their growth and reach?!
A case in point is the AccuQuilt hexagon dies and the Marti Mitchell hexagon templates. Personally I love both, but I'd REALLY love it if I could quickly cut the SAME SIZE hexagons for Marti Mitchell's templates with the AccuQuilt. That way I could cut quickly, but still mark the line up holes with the MM Template.
As for this issue of the Rose of Sharon blocks, am I getting it right that a quilter cannot design her own embroidery design over the blocks (with her own software, one her own computer, on her own time, with her own fabrics and materials) without getting permission first?
If what I understand is correct, it seriously turns me off from the whole franchise by itself.
If OSED can't come up with a viable embroidery product to go with these, there should be NO restrictions on someone else coming up with their own designs.
It's like saying there can only be 1, and only 1 Double Wedding Ring Template set, and only 1 embroidery design that can be stitched over it.
Besides that, all these blocks were donated by people from all over the world. Who's to say that only these two women get ultimate control over everything that will ever happen with them?
That is like me suggesting that every person wanting to use a free motion design from the project must ask for my permission first! RIDICULOUS!
Sorry for the rant, but copyright and businesses not seeing their true potential really makes me see red. I'm all for supporting the AAQI, but not at the expense of creativity, and not under the threat of lawsuits of someone doesn't follow these rules.
Leah - your copyright question as to what you can do with the die... you can do anything you want for personal use only. You cannot sell any embroidery or ROS block patterns which use the the designs, or sell anything you make from the designs. This is normal and customary for copyright.
In our quilting world, for personal use only is always the rule. Selling items made from the designs, some designers allow it in all cases except for mass productions, some allow "X" number of items to be made and sold, and some allow none except for personal use. The limitations of the copyright are almost always spelled out in the copyright notice in the book or in the pattern.
As far as the donated blocks, I was not part of the contest, but what I was told is that every participant agreed to give up all rights to any block entered to Sharon Pederson to use to raise money for AAQI. Interesting note, Accuquilt says that a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the ROS die will go to AAQI, no clue how much, probably no much which is typical. OESD simply says they “are proud supporters of the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.” To say that and be truthful all you need is a $10 donation to AAQI!!! No clue if any portion of the sale of the design set are given to AAQI but I do think they gave more than $10. But I also think if OESD was donating a part of the proceeds of the sale, it would be announced all over the packaging.
Still, with all the copyright issues, it is a huge turnoff. You know Sharon Pederson, OESD, Accuquilt and now Kenny Kreations are all making money on the Rose of Sharon products. But those of us who teach and who are creative to come up with projects that would promote the sale of the ROS products (ie the front line soldiers in the trenches) are not to make a dime. Just a bit of my rant too.
BTW - I should also point out that all the licensed dies sold by Accuquilt have the same restrictions as the Rose of Sharon die. You can not develop any projects, free or for money, and make them available beyond personal use without the permission of the license holder.
I think part of the problem is that we quilters kinda look at this tool as one equivalent to a rotary cutter and ruler, and trying to enforce copyright is like someone coming into our sewing rooms and trying to copyright what we cut. So many non-licensed dies can be used in patterns and designs... and so many of the templates available for the quilting industry in general promotes the use of their tools in your patterns.
Personally, I will in the future stay away from any licensed dies unless they are used with the license holders patterns or book (which is what my software class did). Too bad, my Rose of Sharon software class sold over 50 books and dies for this project. Just won't go there in the future.
I feel a rant coming on too - thank goodness Leah and Judy said it so eloquently. This whole situation is a big disappointment. All it takes is everyone to understand that compatibility benefits all financially. Doesn't make sense to me to do it the way it has been done. What's that children's song? "The more we get together. . . the happier we'll be."
Last year at the Houston show I bought OESD's software for the Rose of Sharon. This year since I found out about the Accuquilt die's for that quilt I was going to purchase the die's, but now there is no point. Thanks for all the info.
Hi I believe that if you own Designers Gallery's Embroidery Works, you can do machine embroidery on all of accuquilts applique shapes. They have put the shapes into the program.I saw a video on you tube about it and its also on Designers Gallery's website. Just a little FYI if your interested. Thanks Michele
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