Hello Friends
If you enjoy going to the movies, there's a new flick not to be missed. Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, takes a look at Nelson Mandela's life as he campaigned for the 1995 Rugby World Cup in an effort to unite all South Africans after the fall of apartheid.
The movie's name comes from a poem written by William Ernest Henley and was a source of inspiration for Mr Mandela during his prison years. Here it is ...
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Awesome man, awesome movie!
Anne
December 16, 2009
December 12, 2009
12 Days of Christmas Sale
Dear Friends
Yay! It's sale time! Join us for our 12 days of Christmas Promotion from 12 to 24 December 2009. Take 30% off all designs and projects, excluding items listed in our Quick Gifts category. The discounted price is reflected automatically in our secure online shopping cart.
Every order placed qualifies for our exclusive Christmas Sampler Santa in two sizes, now available as a direct download with your purchase.
And there's more .... !!! Spend $10 or more and you will receive our Christmas Bonus Set for free.
The Christmas Bonus Set will be emailed to you within 24 to 48 hours of your order.
Lots of fun, lots of savings!!
Happy shopping and Happy Holidays
Hugs
Anne
Yay! It's sale time! Join us for our 12 days of Christmas Promotion from 12 to 24 December 2009. Take 30% off all designs and projects, excluding items listed in our Quick Gifts category. The discounted price is reflected automatically in our secure online shopping cart.
Every order placed qualifies for our exclusive Christmas Sampler Santa in two sizes, now available as a direct download with your purchase.
And there's more .... !!! Spend $10 or more and you will receive our Christmas Bonus Set for free.
The Christmas Bonus Set will be emailed to you within 24 to 48 hours of your order.
Lots of fun, lots of savings!!
Happy shopping and Happy Holidays
Hugs
Anne
December 10, 2009
Spot the Difference
Hello friends
A quick quiz for you all tonight - it's called "Spot the Difference". This is how it works - look at the photo comparison below and tell me if they look the same or not...
Have fun playing!
Anne
A quick quiz for you all tonight - it's called "Spot the Difference". This is how it works - look at the photo comparison below and tell me if they look the same or not...
Have fun playing!
Anne
November 23, 2009
What's in a Name?
Hello all
This weekend I was asked why my website is called The Purple Hat. The name was inspired by an email I received years ago. I loved it so much that I decided to embrace the "purple hat" philosophy ...
Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.
Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.
Age 15: She looks at herself as the "Ugly Sister"-"Mom, I can't go to school looking like this!"
Age 20: She looks at herself and sees, "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but decides she's going out anyway.
Age 30: She looks at herself and sees, "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but decides she doesn't have time to fix it so she's going out anyway.
At 40: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but says, "At least I'm clean," and goes out anyway.
Age 50: She looks at herself, sees "I am", and goes wherever she wants to go.
Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the world.
Age 70: She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and enjoys life.
Age 80: Doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.
Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier.
Hugs, Anne
This weekend I was asked why my website is called The Purple Hat. The name was inspired by an email I received years ago. I loved it so much that I decided to embrace the "purple hat" philosophy ...
Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.
Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.
Age 15: She looks at herself as the "Ugly Sister"-"Mom, I can't go to school looking like this!"
Age 20: She looks at herself and sees, "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but decides she's going out anyway.
Age 30: She looks at herself and sees, "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but decides she doesn't have time to fix it so she's going out anyway.
At 40: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but says, "At least I'm clean," and goes out anyway.
Age 50: She looks at herself, sees "I am", and goes wherever she wants to go.
Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the world.
Age 70: She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and enjoys life.
Age 80: Doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.
Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier.
Hugs, Anne
November 22, 2009
Latest Designs
Dear Friends
We've been busy busy busy! Since our last blog post we've added a quite a few new sets:
We've been busy busy busy! Since our last blog post we've added a quite a few new sets:
- Quick Gift Allsorts Bags 5x7 and 6x10
- Quick Gift Cube Tissue Box Cover 5x7
- Quick Gift Coffee Clutch 5x7
- Funky Food Christmas Cookies
- Baby Max Starter Set 5x7
- Color Me Christmas 5x7 and 6x10
You can find the links to all of these new sets from our What's New page at http://www.purplehat.co.za/DesignCatalog/whatsnew.html
Many thanks to all our wonderful customers who email suggestions and project photos. Your enthusiasm keeps me inspired! The other day I was thrilled to receive an email from Elizabeth Burke who wrote "I don't think anyone can outdo you in the in-the-hoop projects". Wow, that's high praise indeed, considering how many talented digitisers there are and a compliment I will happily accept.
Unfortunately there's also a downside to this wonderful business. Sadly my copyright offender is up to mischief again. I noticed she's sneaking back some designs of mine. I was hoping to post the digitising analysis images to our Newsletter Group this weekend but Yahoo seems to be playing up, so the evidence will have to wait a day or so. Will this woman ever stop??
Anyway, the sun's shining and we're going to have a great day!
Hugs, Anne
October 15, 2009
Fungus Scarymungus
My boys are very excited about Halloween. It's not a big deal here in South Africa - you may have one or two kiddos knocking on the door hoping for candy. I think the appeal for Robert and Matthew is the boyish fascination with bugs, monsters and all that spooky stuff.
With this in mind, the guys helped me design our latest in-the-hoop project - Fungus Scarymungus. He's actually not that scary at all. Fungus has a big wacky grin and googly eyes. He loves cuddles and is looking for a new best friend.
Fungus is available at a special intro price until 31 Oct '09.
Hugs,
Anne
With this in mind, the guys helped me design our latest in-the-hoop project - Fungus Scarymungus. He's actually not that scary at all. Fungus has a big wacky grin and googly eyes. He loves cuddles and is looking for a new best friend.
Fungus is available at a special intro price until 31 Oct '09.
Hugs,
Anne
October 10, 2009
The Copyright Thing
I was recently asked by a member of the 2011 Festival Committee for SAQG to provide some input on copyright and specifically how it relates to the issue of machine embroidery designs used for quilts. So here goes ..
Quilters are familiar with copyright laws and understand that a copyrighted quilt design may not be reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner. What you produce must be something uniquely yours.
Furthermore acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.
So without going into an extensive discussion, there are already very clear rules in place relating to the design, production, sale and display of quilts and quilting designs.
Machine embroidery designs are subject to similar stringent copyright legislation. Each digitiser will have their own set of terms and conditions but generally speaking the following applies to all purchased or free machine embroidery designs:
"All designs are licensed for the original customer use only. You cannot sell, trade, copy, loan, transfer or in any way duplicate the design software (digitized design file) in any part or whole without violating copyright law. "
What does that mean?
With embroidery designs, you are purchasing a license to use the designs subject to certain limitations specified by the seller. Just like purchasing a licence to use Microsoft Windows on your computer.
You can make a back-up copy of the embroidery designs purchased as a safe-guard in the event of computer failure, but you are not allowed to distribute copies of the designs to a friend, neighbour or embroidery club member, without violating the licence agreement. Such actions are liable for prosecution.
Furthermore the purchaser may not duplicate any part of the design software, i.e. the digitised design. So you may not dissect the design with your embroidery software and use portions on its own or combined with other digitised files and call this your new creation.
Why? Because every keystroke or digitised stitch in the original design is subject to copyright legislation and forms part of the digitiser's original artistic work.
Then there's the issue of proper use of the purchased designs. For example, may the designs be used on a quilt entered into a competition? In this instance, I would suggest that written permission is obtained from the digitiser. As I mentioned before, acknowledging the source is nice but does not mean you have their permission.
Most digitisers aren't too concerned if you change the colors recommended for the purchased designs or even the size of the overall design (again, check with the digitiser first), but what are the legal options available to the creative quilter eager to produce something new and exciting with machine embroidery design elements?
If the Guild stipulates that the machine embroidery designs must be unique, there are two options that immediately spring to mind
1. Learn how to digitise and create your own designs, or
2. Have the designs digitised for you by a professional
In both instances you will have to ensure that the artwork used for the designs is either your own or licensed for digitising purposes.
Just one last issue that has come to my attention recently - the business of registering copyrights. Copyright protection is in effect the moment the artistic work is created and formal registration is not always a requirement for protecting the artist's rights.
Furthermore if a quilter or digitiser registers a copyright it does not automatically prove that the material is theirs. You have to be the rightful owner of the original work in order to enjoy the benefits of copyright protection. If someone has claimed to hold the rights to materials which aren't theirs, they could be charged with copyright fraud which is a criminal offence.
Just my ten cents on the subject ... rather follow the rules and be confident that your quilt isn't disqualified or worse if you haven't paid attention to copyright laws.
Hugs,
Anne
Quilters are familiar with copyright laws and understand that a copyrighted quilt design may not be reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner. What you produce must be something uniquely yours.
Furthermore acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.
So without going into an extensive discussion, there are already very clear rules in place relating to the design, production, sale and display of quilts and quilting designs.
Machine embroidery designs are subject to similar stringent copyright legislation. Each digitiser will have their own set of terms and conditions but generally speaking the following applies to all purchased or free machine embroidery designs:
"All designs are licensed for the original customer use only. You cannot sell, trade, copy, loan, transfer or in any way duplicate the design software (digitized design file) in any part or whole without violating copyright law. "
What does that mean?
With embroidery designs, you are purchasing a license to use the designs subject to certain limitations specified by the seller. Just like purchasing a licence to use Microsoft Windows on your computer.
You can make a back-up copy of the embroidery designs purchased as a safe-guard in the event of computer failure, but you are not allowed to distribute copies of the designs to a friend, neighbour or embroidery club member, without violating the licence agreement. Such actions are liable for prosecution.
Furthermore the purchaser may not duplicate any part of the design software, i.e. the digitised design. So you may not dissect the design with your embroidery software and use portions on its own or combined with other digitised files and call this your new creation.
Why? Because every keystroke or digitised stitch in the original design is subject to copyright legislation and forms part of the digitiser's original artistic work.
Then there's the issue of proper use of the purchased designs. For example, may the designs be used on a quilt entered into a competition? In this instance, I would suggest that written permission is obtained from the digitiser. As I mentioned before, acknowledging the source is nice but does not mean you have their permission.
Most digitisers aren't too concerned if you change the colors recommended for the purchased designs or even the size of the overall design (again, check with the digitiser first), but what are the legal options available to the creative quilter eager to produce something new and exciting with machine embroidery design elements?
If the Guild stipulates that the machine embroidery designs must be unique, there are two options that immediately spring to mind
1. Learn how to digitise and create your own designs, or
2. Have the designs digitised for you by a professional
In both instances you will have to ensure that the artwork used for the designs is either your own or licensed for digitising purposes.
Just one last issue that has come to my attention recently - the business of registering copyrights. Copyright protection is in effect the moment the artistic work is created and formal registration is not always a requirement for protecting the artist's rights.
Furthermore if a quilter or digitiser registers a copyright it does not automatically prove that the material is theirs. You have to be the rightful owner of the original work in order to enjoy the benefits of copyright protection. If someone has claimed to hold the rights to materials which aren't theirs, they could be charged with copyright fraud which is a criminal offence.
Just my ten cents on the subject ... rather follow the rules and be confident that your quilt isn't disqualified or worse if you haven't paid attention to copyright laws.
Hugs,
Anne
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