Ruffled Tree

Jacqueline Meyers, better known as Jackie, was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. Her mother, Marilynn was born on Long Island, NY and has had careers as a nurse, flight attendant, mother and founder of the antique business, which she still operates to this day with Jackie. Jackie adds, "Mom loves antique paper and postcards."
Her father, Roy Meyers is now retired, but was a Navy pilot, who later flew for Pan Am. Jackie adds, "He is an expert on W.W. I airplanes and writes articles for aviation magazines. My Pop is an artistic genius and a super cartoonist."

Tulip Trio

Jackie's father's mother was a wonderful needlewoman: stitcher, embroiderer, sewer, knitter etc. Jackie says, "The love of the craft must be in the genes. I learned crocheting from my Grandmas on both sides as a kid, but didn't learn stitching until college." While enrolled in a craft class, she was given an assignment to duplicate a postcard in embroidery. Jackie asked a cross stitching friend to teach her how to use a needle. She elaborates, "And so it went. I did more stitching and started designing wedding samplers for friends and patterns just for fun. By that time I was hooked."

Swing Tree

Growing up Jackie was interested in any kind of art or craft project and tried almost everything that came her way at least once! She confesses, "I did the once over on lots of activities: Girl Scouts, ice skating, ballet etc. But no athlete here! When I was a kid Mom was really good at screen-printing, which was fun. I always wanted to take more of that, but it never fit in. At school I painted some, did graphic art and illustration and drew from life."

Rose Welcome

 

Jackie's favorite pursuit turned out to be photography, ultimately receiving her degree in Art/Photography from San Jose State University. Jackie elaborates, "The most fun I had in college was as a teaching assistant in the beginning commercial photography class, for Ben, my favorite professor. Everyone should take photography once in their life; it shows you the world in a new way."

Here's My Heart Tree

Jackie explains how she and Marilynn got involved in business together, "Mom started the antique business when I was a youngster. After I had begun stitching and designing, we went together to a consumer needlework show and Mom got the idea that the two of us could do the show as vendors: she with antique needlework related things and me with my designs. She signed us up for the next year's show and we got to work. We exhibited at stitching consumer shows with a mix of my patterns and needlework related antiques: postcards, prints, laces, etc."

Ribbon Wreath

Their strategy of doing shows gave them valuable exposure, which paid off. Jackie has been a professional needlework designer ever since! Her designs are whimsical, colorful and fun; usually simple, but not always; sometimes contemporary, and then again, sometimes not. She resists stagnation likes to keep all her designing options open. She quips, "That's an Aries thing -- always looking for something new!" Jackie describes many of her designs as doodles -- quick computer sketches that derive their movement from the spontaneity of the drawing. She reveals, "I can almost never sit down and design a specific thing. The best ideas come at the wrong times! For example, one of my favorite Halloween ideas came to me on Christmas Day when I was supposed to be cleaning the house for company." Jackie is best known for her series of stylized Christmas Trees, but, she points out, "They seldom happen in Season!"

Flower Blocks Alphabet

Jackie's work reflects a dynamic graphic style, which derives its inspiration from color. She explains, "I love the way color is sometimes used simply but boldly, as in Georgia O'Keefe's paintings, or as in the light and dark tones of a photograph. I love patterns and also the different styles we see with the antiques: Victorian, Art Nouveau, etc. Sometimes they will inspire a design, or I'll do a mix of the old and the new, as in the design 'A Welcome In Tulips.' It's also fun to do alphabets."

Welcome In Tulips

The biggest change in Jackie's work came from learning to incorporate different threads to enhance a particular motif or in executing the same design in different ways. Because she loves glittery and silk threads, and over one, she has been working more with those. It was Jackie's friend Claudia at Dutch Treat Designs (also a featured Designer on this site) who introduced Jackie to the Caron threads.

Summertime

Jackie raves, "The Caron threads are so great for someone like me who has a short attention span; they keep me interested in what I am stitching. They make a design more exciting to stitch and more fun to look at. Claudia introduced me to Caron, because she uses many of the Watercolours in her own work and she knew I love bright, over dyed threads." Jackie's designs are stitched mostly with Waterlilies and Wildflowers colors, because, "Large sections of one color in a pattern have more life when the threads are changing and it's interesting to see just how it will turn out. Caron threads have allowed me to use fewer colors while achieving a vivid look. I love them!"

Windy Witch

Jackie has just completed 2 new designs that will be ready to release shortly: a new pumpkin pattern, which will be offered in 2 variations with pumpkin and star motifs, perfect for Halloween. Future design ideas include a variety of new themes: a portrayal of a girl reading, landscape scenes of the beach, the sea and a view of a special world in the trees. Also on the back burner is a series featuring a Black Lab (like her own!) spanning different months of the year.

Pumpkin Bumpkins

Besides doodling on the computer, Jackie enjoys painting needlepoint canvases. She wishes she could stitch the kinds of fine detailed illustrations in embroidery that she once had time for. Days are taken up with the day-to-day details of operating the antique and needlework businesses. Jackie and Marilynn also do related sales on Ebay. The rest of Jackie's free time, when she can find any, is spent on her other pleasures: baseball (SF Giants), computer graphics, stitching just for herself, her Black Lab Theresa and just enjoying their beautiful home on the central coast of California in Pismo Beach.

Christmas

Jackie's designs are available to stitchers directly from Marilynn & Jackie's Collectibles and at retail shops. They are available to the trade through Hoffman Distributing. (www.hoffmandis.com) As Jackie does not have a website as of yet, interested stitchers can view her designs on the Hoffman site. She exhibits at the Nashville Needlework Market and some of the CATS events. Jackie adds, "Unfortunately, Marilynn has been unable to do the shows with me since my Pop had a stroke. He is OK, but she doesn't feel comfortable leaving him for days at a time anymore. I run the antique business for her part time."

Bats, and Pumpkins and Stars, Oh My!
Jackie's Newest Design

For more information, contact:

Jacqueline (Jackie) Meyers
Marilynn & Jackie's Collectibles (for Needlework)
Marilynn & Jackie's Antiques & Collectibles (for Antiques)
PO Box 7065 Menlo Park, Ca 94026
Phone: 650-345-5844
Fax: 650-345-5844
E mail: jackiemey@aol.com
Website: COMING SOON!

And be sure to come back for Jackie's Online Class next month!