Big News

Teresa Wentzler is releasing a new design and I will have a bunch of them in the shop very soon. She is shipping them out tomorrow. I didn't even ask her how much they were. I just said send them!!!
A picture can be seen here... http://www.twdesignworks.com/TWDW/tdragons.html

Recovered

After a weekend of being sick I am very glad that I can now breathe again and that a box of kleenex may last longer than one day! Man these spring colds are miserable. Dan was outside on Sunday soaking up the sun while I was inside wrapped in an afghan and thinking that I should start a fire! However I am feeling much better now and I actually feel like stitching again.
This is how far I have progressed on my second little purse. Yesterday I started on the next page of Jeannette Douglas' My Stitching Album and I am loving it! This one will go much faster than the last one did. I can only work on it under the magnifier though ...why did I choose black 32 ct fabric? Oh yeah because it looks great and is different!

Progress

I got some good stitching time in this week and finally have some progress to show for my efforts.
This is my Stained Glass Landscape by Kappie Originals. As I was doing this section I realized that for someone who really does not like backstitching all that much, I certainly wasn't thinking when I chose to do this piece. However the backstitching is what makes it and I am loving the result. I was so pleased with the way my little purse turned out that I decided to do one along with the ladies who are taking the class. Not wanting to make another one the same I took Karen's advice (Rosewood Manor) and decided to try something a little different ...the possibilities are endless for this bag...and I am doing this version on 18 ct Victorian Christmas green aida with white anchor thread.

And last but not least I got out the page from Jeannette Douglas' My Stitching album and put in a few lines and the lettering. Another couple of das and this page will be complete. This album is such a great idea and it is fun to do the various stitches and their variations.

If I want to do any stitching in the next few days I had better get at it now because we have company coming this afternoon and more family arriving tomorrow. There will be lots of visiting and eating and searching for chocolate easter eggs.

Rosewood Manor Purse

I am terribly pleased with my finished product!
This is called Ye Olde Sampler Bag designed by Rosewood Manor.

On the stitching front I am still working on the Landscape by Kappie Originals but there is nothing in particular to show. That piece doesn't really look like anything but blobs of colour until the back stitching goes in ... when I finish the page I am working on, I will backstitch it and share the results.

Landscape is back

I have been working on Froth and Bubble this past week but yesterday when I discovered that I had made the same mistake in the third flower that I had made in one of the previous two at the retreat, I decided that it was time to move on to another project.

Moving on meant moving back to my Stained Glass landscape. It was a good decision because I really did not seem to be getting anywhere on Froth and Bubble...of course when you spend as much time undoing your mistakes as actually stitching, you do tend to bog down.

Tomorrow I will get back at Jeannette Douglas's Stitching album. I am enjoying these pages in spite of the black fabric!

The End of an Era

We had a little retreat on the weekend ...more about that later...and hopefully on Dani's blog because I did not take any pictures...too excited I guess. Beatrice has some photos!

Anyway, on Saturday my car was acting up ...badly... and I am sure some people wondered why I sort of shrugged it off and calmly took Dan's car instead instead of ranting and raving about vehicles and their unreliability...well the reason for my nonchalance in the face of a car not responding as it should was simple.



It had already been traded in.



So Good bye little Beetle!

I enjoyed this car for 9 years and it served me well up until the last couple of months when we started unsuccessfully chasing an electrical (maybe) gremlin.



Hello New Jetta! May you live and serve as long and as faithfully! We picked it up today.

On to stitching news... Here is my Rosewood Manor "Ye Olde Sampler Bag" When next you see this piece Debbie will have sewn it into a beautiful little clutch purse. Of course I have to find lining material first and go see Debbie...but I am confident I will find some fabulous fabric and I know Debbie will work her sewing magic!

Also we had our favouite houseguest...oops sorry Dani and Christin...our favourite 4-legged houseguest... for a few days..Here are Paddy and Oliver enjoyng a rare curl-up on the couch. They were sent down soon after this picture was snapped.

The Retreat...18 of us converged on The Timber House and stitched our little fingers to the bone this past weekend. It must have been a wonderful success because everyone wants to come back next year...fully booked ! How cool is that?

I worked on Froth and Bubble but neglected to take a picture so that can wait till my next post...which I promise will be soon.

I am counting on Dani publishing some pictures of our industriousness and well yes we did indulge in a bit of eating as well...not to mention all the laughing...my face was sore more than a couple of times!

Thank You to all the participants!!!

Thank You everyone!!!

Wow! What a weekend! Thank You everyone who came by for the "Nashville Open House". On Saturday and Sunday many loyal customers and some newbies dropped by the shop to see all the fabulous new designs from the Nashville Needlework Market.

You will notice that I have no pictures to show for the event. I forgot to take a picture of the room with all the new patterns and then people started arriving and I was busy, busy, busy. Taking pictures was the last thing on my mind. Fortuantely Dani took some snaps and has posted some on her blog so you can check them out here.

I was thrilled with the response of my customers and am so pleased that we have such a great cross stitch communty here in Brighton.

I want to give a special thanks to my good friends Marie Paule, Dani and Christin without whom I could not have managed. I was busy in the shop and these three looked after customers who were looking and had questions. They generally initiated more and more people into the cult! It was great!

Katie brought a friend from Kingston. Wendy, Marj and Anita came all the way from Whitby, Oshawa and Toronto (respectively). Marsha and Kathy made phone-in orders from Pickering and Arizona (!). Do I have great friends and customers or what???? I picked up a couple of new customers from Brighton and Havelock...there are stitchers everywhere! Isn't it great that there is such a community of stitchers out there? never mind out there...here in little Brighton!

The door prizes went to Adriana from Trenton (93 years young this August and still stitching on 28 count) on Saturday and Janet from Brighton (just started stitching last fall) on Sunday. Both were delighted to be winners!

And I can't say it enough...Thank You Marie Paule...what a great friend and ambassador for cross stitching!!!

I am tired. Tonight we are watching the NASCAR race which we taped this afternoon and generally taking it easy.

Thanks again everyone!