I had purchased three sets of their ready-to-stitch acrylic coasters,  and then set upon stitching, confident that the coasters would provide an inexpensive finishing touch for what I hoped would be special Christmas gifts.

Unfortunately, I only glanced at the coasters prior to finishing the project .  The acrylic, which one would expect to by crystal-clear, was not. Most of the coasters shared the same flaw, along one edge of the hexagon. This edge was rough and opaque, with a wave-like, almost finger-print like pattern near this defect. As if the acrylic had dripped?

Then there were scuffs on the top surface of a few. And when something is supposed to be crystal clear, any blemish becomes very noticeable.

Looking at the shrink wrap, it could be that the coasters could possibly have been damaged during the shrink-wrap process (at the factory, or at Herrschner’s?). The shrink wrap was sealed with heat (or so it appeared), and it could be that whatever the source of the heat was, that it melted an edge of the coasters.

Whatever the cause, as I was under the wire for gifts, I managed to put together a set by salvaging what I could from all three.

I would return them, of course, but I suppose that I could use the remaining coasters to mix paints. Not their intended purpose, but I have no idea what happend to the receipt or the shipping box.

I still like the idea of coasters, they had such potential. But in the future, I will spend the extra money and go for a Sudberry House product. Or, with a few pieces of glass, some copper foil, and cork, just encase the stitchery myself.

I should also mention that the coasters were not secured in the box–they were accompanied by a wadded up piece of brown packing paper. But the cardboard box was thick, and although the packing seemed rather careless, I believe the coasters were defective from the beginning, and not damaged in transit.

Recent order from Amazon France

This was my second experience in ordering from the French version of Amazon, and it was just as pleasant. I ordered La bible des lettres au point de croix : 844 alphabets et suites de chiffres, tome 1, de 1 à 55 points de haut by Valérie Lejeune, an author who has renewed my interest in cross stitch by compiling vintage French designs, letters, and motifs from rare vintage French sources.

“Cross Stitch Letters Bible” is a thick, chunky book, 711 pages hot of the presses and full wonderful alphabets, and a pleasant surprise is that this edition includes multilingual versions of the authors introduction.

From the same order is Broderie et dentelle sur carton perforé by Véronique Maillard. There is a revival of the art of creating with perforated paper underway in France, unfortunately the paper used to create these lace-like projects is of a higher holes-per-inch count than is readily available in the US, although there is at least one vendor who will ship to the US. I will post  more information on the subject shortly.

If you already have an account with Amazon.com, you can log into Amazon.fr and should find all of your shipping information carried over. The layout and navigation is nearly identical, and translating French into English is easy with the help of Google. I have never used the “one click” ordering feature, I recommend disabling that if you have it on, just to avoid accidentally purchasing a book if you are not yet ready.

You can also find some answers to shipping questions for Amazon.fr in English here.

As for the cost, when I checked out this time there was an option to use Amazon’s currency translation tool, something that I did not notice when I first ordered back in April. The currency of Amazon.fr is Euros, you can use Yahoo’s tool to get a rough idea of the cost. At the time of this posting, the Cross Stitch Letters Bible cost 29,45 EU, translated by Yahoo here.

Next time I place an order, I’ll try to take some screen shots to illustrate the process, although you may find this link on ordering a product from Amazon France to UK addresses to be useful in the meantime.

I hope you found this post to be interesting. Cross stitch is such a rewarding and often inexpensive pasttime, and the right alphabet can give your project just the right personal touch. While ordering from Amazon France is a bit expensive, I have found that when these books are available in the US, the price is often higher. I recommend finding a few books or teaming up with some friends to place your order to save on costs.