Seguin Designs Counted Cross stitch Patterns & Kits

I started my business accidentally in Bath Maine in 1986.

I had decided to make a pincushion with a blueberry design in counted cross stitch, which I had recently taken up. Unable to find a pattern, I decided to design one on graph paper. After a couple of attempts (see below), I came up with one that I liked. Feeling inspired, I then designed a sailboat pattern.

I added instructions to the patterns with a typewriter, had a few copies printed, and packaged them in sandwich bags with folded hanging tops with a logo that I designed. At that point, I decided that I had a product that might sell!

My first attempt at a blueberry pincushion pattern.

The final pattern

Samples in hand, I visited a few nearby needlework shops; several area retailers were supportive of my venture, including the Evelyn Baxter at the Cross Stitch Hide-a-Way at the Corliss Street Baptist Church in Bath, Nancy Ashley at Threadneedle Street in Bath, and the Brunswick Needlework Center.

I wasn’t much of a salesperson, and remember apologetically saying to a shop owner that mine was a ‘fly by night’ business!

Despite my awkward sales presentation, each shop bought some,
and thus launched a business that has endured for 40 years!

My logo has changed over the years

I changed my business name to Seguin Designs when I purchased the former Seguin Post in Georgetown.

Note the Marden's label above. Marden's is a surplus and salvage chain in Maine. They had purchased leftover patterns from a retailer who had closed. I knew I had really 'made it' when my products ended up at Marden's!

---------------------

Maine has a lot (about 67) of lighthouses, so I decided to start designing them, starting with Portland Head Light, as well as other Maine motifs, for today's total of 84 patterns.

30 years ago, my friend Deb Greenwich and I traveled up the Maine coast stopping at each retail shop we could find. Happily, Deb was a better salesperson than me, and I eventually had about 40 wholesale customers.

The personal computer was a boon to my business. My first computer was a Macintosh LC with 2MB of RAM and a 40 MB hard drive with Microsoft Works for bookkeeping. Eventually I discovered a program called Stitch Crafts, which was great for designing the patterns.

With the advent of the internet in the 1990s, a new dimension was added,
and I was able to expand to retail sales online first with Paypal, and later with Etsy.

I found local and national vendors willing to supply a tiny manufacturer.
Those that I still work with include Brunswick Instant Printing, Atlantic Coastal Printing,
DMC/Charlescraft, Advanced Store Products, Spartan Industries, and Walgreens

Technical support is furnished by Maine Hosting solutions, GoDaddy,
MYOB Account Edge, Paypal, and Etsy.

This spool contains over a mile of DMC floss!

DMC CharlesCraft aida cloth on 60" by 50 yard roles
Note the patterns on shelves to the left.

----------------------

In addition to retail customers, wholesale customers remain an important part of my business. Retailers offered suggestions on packaging (including photos was an important tip) and new designs, and they generously advertised my products in the local papers; the Brunswick Times Record and the Coastal Journal. Here are some ads from the early days:

In 2000 I opened a gallery on Route 127 in Georgetown, Maine. I ran the gallery for several years.

Established in Maine in 1986