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It all
began in Bath, Maine
In 1986 I decided to make a pincushion with a
blueberry design in counted cross stitch, which
I had recently taken up. I couldn’t find a
pattern, so I decided to design one on graph
paper. After a couple of attempts, I came up
with one that I liked. Feeling inspired, I then
designed a pattern with a sailboat on it. 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.
Samples in hand, I visited a few nearby
needlework shops; one on Foster’s Point Road in
West Bath, one in downtown Brunswick, and one
around the corner from me in the manse at the
Corliss St. Baptist Church (thank you Evelyn
Baxter!) in Bath. I wasn’t much of a
salesperson, and remember apologetically saying
to a shop owner that this was a ‘fly by night’
business! Despite my awkward sales presentation,
each shop bought some, and thus launched a
business that has endured for over 35 years!
Maine has a lot (about 67) of lighthouses, so I
decided to start designing them, as well as
other Maine motifs, for today's total of 81
patterns.
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 developed by a
gentleman in Lincoln, Massachusetts. This
was great for designing and publishing the
patterns. Initially I used my own name for the
business, but when I moved to the former Seguin
Post in Georgetown, Maine, I adopted the
business name ‘Seguin Designs.’
With the advent of the internet in the 1990s, a
new dimension was added, and I was able to
expand to retail sales online. Since starting in
1986, I calculate that I’ve sold over 40,000
patterns and kits.
I'm grateful to everyone who has purchased my
products over the years.
Happy Stitching!
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