We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nancy Greenberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nancy below.
Nancy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I have always loved everything cross stitch ever since I was a young girl and testing out all kinds of creative hobbies like knitting, painting, crocheting, and cross stitch. As soon as I had my first stitches on the fabric I knew I had found my calling! From stitching as a hobby to learning how to design my own charts and watching things organically grow from there as I became a published designer and slowly built up my following over many years, I feel deeply that I have landed in the best profession ever – and I have never looked back either. I have been designing for the last 20 years and have no plans to stop any time soon. My only dream is that I can design full time as opposed to my current set-up which includes regular employment in the real estate field. I suppose at the end of the day I just love dealing with people from all walks of life and learning as I go along, but the thought of getting up to cross stitch occupying my entire day/work hours makes me really smile and know that I am on my way to achieving that goal at some point. The biggest obstacle for me with balancing a regular day job and my job as a Designer is finding enough evening and weekend hours to design, stitch my models, refine my charts before publication and balancing social media, email, and the networking that is so important to my continued growth. If only there were more than 24 hours in a day!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
When I first realized that I had a talent for putting cross-stitch design ideas into a design program on my computer and published those first charts I knew I was hooked for life. Cross stitching is such a multi-generational hobby that anyone can do, male or female, and of any age. Being able to sit down with a new design, a blank canvas with the piece of fabric you will be stitching on, and the rainbow of thread colors that you have at the ready sets my eyes twinkling and my heart beating just a little bit faster. It is my happy place, there is no doubt, and I have spoken to and met so many other stitchers who feel the same way…that we belong to one of the best communities out there and that we are there for our fellow stitchers. As social media continues to grow and people become more and more savvy there are now so many opportunities for stitchers to join in with a stitching retreat without ever having to leave their homes. The Pandemic set the ball in motion for new ways to “meet” and share this hobby of cross stitch, and the online options available now are both unique and affordable given that you don’t incur the cost of airfare or hotel, or even meals. What an amazing community I have gotten to know as a cross stitch designer and I know it has brought new friends into my life that will be with me forever.
As I expanded my designing and refined what the “look” of most designs would overall be, I grew in so many ways. Learning color palettes, shading techniques, fabric selection, and different finishing ideas is a naturally evolving part of my job. Will I ever know “everything” about cross stitch designing? Heck no, and for that I am very grateful – who would want to think they knew it all and never gave themselves spaces to grow and learn as we progress through life – that would be boring and cross stitch is anything but boring. I love that stitchers can see one of my designs at a glance and immediately know it is a Pickle Barrel Designs chart because of my designing style using color, stylized print, and a lot of the time, good old-fashioned humor too! There isn’t a minute that goes by where I am not always looking at everything around me and being able to take a picture while on vacation and know that I can translate that row of colorful beach houses in North Carolina into a terrific summer design in the future. Mother Nature provides a lot of design inspiration as do the things that go on all around us each and every day. That’s the thing with cross stitch designing, you never know what might inspire that creative mind so you live life to the fullest every single day so that you don’t miss out on anything!
If I can bring simple joys to people’s lives through my designs, I will know that I have accomplished what I set out to do. I want to share my creative love through my designs while always looking and living life in a dynamic fashion so that I can enjoy the journey as much as the next person. In one sentence…..cross stitch makes me happy and my heart soar!”
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I feel very strongly that there is no wrong way to design cross stitch. Just like ice cream flavors, there is an abundance of different choices out there for a reason and what appeals to one stitcher may not appeal to another. But that is a very good thing because without diversity we would live in a very boring universe! Stitchers and shop owners are always asking how I can continually come up with new design concepts and is it hard to get them translated from my head into the actual design while sitting at my computer. Some designers set out first sketching their concept for a new design but I’m not one of those people – somehow I manage to have the design idea that I can clearly see in my head and translate it into creating the new design. Of course life isn’t always perfect and along the way I have learned and grown, and have had some EPIC design fails along the way. I’m only human! I designed one winter ski lodge series of smaller designs and one of them showed a ski lift sign with a skiier. In my head I knew exactly how it was going to look as one of the 4 designs in this series, but once I got it down into an actual design in my cross stitch program I had to sit back and really absorb what it looked like and is that the actual vision I had for it? Let’s just say the design was replaced by something a whole lot cuter and we refer to the epic fail as “Ski Lift Bob”! In navigating my creative journey I’m more than happy to share my experiences with others to show the human learning experience and even brought the design for Ski Lift Bob to an industry market event so that everyone could experience and see the humor in “Bob” as compared to what the final series of 4 winter themed designs looked like and that it’s ok to fail. Just never give up!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
If I had to decide one a particular goal or a mission driving my creative journey in cross stitch, I would have to say that making people happy and smile really drives me throughout the designing processes, of which there is plenty of steps involved. I have received emails from stitchers across the globe saying that a certain design really resonated with them and then they share their “why”. I have had a stitcher contact me and ask if I could possibly add her wedding date onto a sampler because she wanted to stitch it and frame it for her husband as a gift for their 25th wedding anniversary and the fact they went to a beach Boardwalk when they first me. I have received stories from other stitchers about how they knew instantly that they would be stitching a design of mine for their child’s nursery, for a Christmas gift, for a gift exchange and to celebrate family moments and events. Knowing that in some way I can contribute to these amazing personal moments for people is what truly keeps me inspired to continue designing. I was once in their shoes admiring designers and “feeling” something about their designs and knowing how much enjoyment I would get out of stitching their latest release and to be able to provide that same feeling of contentment and joy to others is an awesome feeling in life.
During the Pandemic so many people turned to new hobbies in order to occupy themselves and I saw the cross stitch industry go through an enormous popularity surge and felt such satisfaction that so many new people were trying out a new hobby because they were literally stuck at home and wanted to do something to occupy all of that new free time. Some stitchers continued on with their newfound hobby and some people decided that once life got back to a new normal, they didn’t have the spare time any longer to stitch. But that’s OK because at least they tried it out and helped explore their own creative journey at the time. I think it caused all of us to slow down from the regular frenetic pace of life we were all experiencing and allowed us to think “what can I do today that will bring me joy?” The answer of course for me is “cross stitch”.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.picklebarreldesigns.com
- Instagram: picklebarreldesigns
- Facebook: Nancy Greenberg
- Other: ETSY: www.ETSY.com/shop/picklebarreldesigns
Image Credits
Photos by Nancy Greenberg 2023