Raise the Roof Designs: Purveyors of Needlework Oddities

Hailed by critics as "sick," "demented," "in serious need of psychotherapy," and most recently "shameless," Raise the Roof Designs is quickly becoming a household name. We hope in the future to be a name in several households.

Sue Rainer and Theresa Venette believe that needlework can be more than the same ol' pumpkin, snowman, and flower over and over again. We're working hard to bring you something different. We hope our sense of humor shows through in all that we create. These designs are available to stitchers through Shakespeare's Peddler, but check with your local shop first; we're distributed by Hoffman Distributing, Wichelt Imports, Norden Crafts and The Nordic Needle. If you have questions, comments, ideas or suggestions for Raise the Roof Designs, contact us at raisetheroofdesigns@yahoo.com. We'd love to hear from you!

UPDATED 9/18/08

We're back from market (St. Charles, Missouri), and had an awesome time! We sold an amazing amount of merchandise, but because it's a new market, we only wrote half as many invoices as we normally would at Nashville. So, we do have a limited supply left of our limited edition kits (see below.) We only made 500 of each kit. If you are a shop owner, and would like to purchase these, contact us at raisetheroofdesigns@yahoo.com. We are requiring shops to buy a minimum of three of any kit you want (but you don't have to get all of the kits.) You can also get our new graphs from us as well, just for now. Our distributors don't have them yet. All of these sales must be pre-paid by credit card, debit card or Paypal. We've had problems with people writing us bad checks, and then kind of disappearing, so we need to make sure we get paid for our work/product. Thanks!

But here they are! Everyone loved them. If you don't have a local source for these, contact Theresa at xspeddler@yahoo.com, and she can send you these for your stash. Suggested retail prices are shown.

Bubba's Bail Bonds & Repo Service chart finishes the Wrong Side of the Tracks series. Sue did a really clever thing to make the chain link fence (kind of weaving in and out -- looks like a real fence!) We DO have plans for a similar quirky series next year...news will follow as we get it designed.

Franken Ort LTD. ED. KIT comes with flip-top ort jar, hand-dyed Lakeside Linens in Lime Zest, and Weeks Dye Works. Use this for your leftover snips of floss, or mints, gum or toenails. $24.00 suggested retail.

Frank-N-Stein LTD. ED. KIT comes with the new (designed-for-us) JABCo stein button, Aida or evenweave fabric, and Weeks Dye Works. To make the neat border, I used this website to finish the piece as a pin keep: focusonfinishing.wordpress.com/. Then I bought extra long silk pins at my local craft store. I dug out Mill Hill and miscellaneous beads in my stash that were Halloween-colored and dumped them in a bowl, so I could see them. Then I just picked up a pin, picked up beads in a pattern (no particular order), filled each pin 1/2 to 2/3 full, and then hit the end of the pin with a little hot glue before plunging it into the sides of the pin keep (just to keep them in place). For the hanger, I used floral wire and threaded two green star buttons on it, then made a twist. I curled the ends of the wire into a few circles on the back, then used my hot glue gun again to secure the hanger to the piece. Easy-schmeasy. $20.00 suggested retail.

Halloween Silhouette LTD. ED. KIT comes with hand-dyed Picture This Plus LINEN OR AIDA in Kermit (green), Flash (shown), or Whimsey (light purple), Weeks Dye Works and JABCo bat buttons. Frame is by Family Tree Frame Company (Crescent Colours). $24.00 suggested retail.

Needlework Accessories for Dummies LTD. ED. KIT comes with black Aida or linen, hand-printed needle magnet (not shown), perforated paper, tin case and five JABCo star buttons. (Not included: scissors, which are Dovo Teflon Embroidery Scissors, DMC floss, glass head pins -- got these at Hobby Lobby -- and finishing supplies.) Again, I used the Focus on Finishing blog to finish these accessories with my hot glue gun. Fun project for dummies -- which one is my fob again?... Oh yeah, the one that says "Fob." DUH! $26.00 suggested retail.

Snow Daddy chart -- deemed too "edgy" by Just Cross Stitch Magazine for their annual ornament issue, this guy was censored by the press, and we're stoked to be able to offer him to you as a little graph. He's stitched in Kreiniks and has got a one karat nose and 24 karat bling! His little charm is by Mill Hill. He'd be really cute with a real feather sticking out of his hat as embellishment!

We have recently discontinued some of our older charts, so it's kind of a "while supplies last" situation (we will not be printing any more of these once our supply is gone). You can see pictures and information about these charts here on this list. If your local shop doesn't have these in stock, they can continue to order all of these through Norden Crafts and Hoffman Distributing while stock is available. Or you can contact Shakespeare's Peddler at www.shakespearespeddler.com, and Theresa can help you out.

The designs on this web site are copyrights of Sue Rainer and Theresa Venette -- you may make one copy/enlargement of a chart you purchase to use as a stitching aid, but you may not make copies for friends or enemies. Any other reproduction of this chart, via computer, copier, fax machine, trained monkeys or monks sworn to a life of silence is prohibited by law, unless authorized in writing by Raise the Roof Designs. No foolin'!