Lugana available and stitching through dinner

25 count and 28 count Lugana are available on our website today - Including the Vintage Country colors Cream and Mocha. We sell fabric by the half-width - which means half the width of the fabric as it comes off the bolt. Generally linen, lugana, jobelan and many others are available 27" wide. If you need a piece that is wider than 27", we'll do what we can to accomodate your LARGE project. Just drop us an email.

This week we will also be adding Chatelaine Designs to the website. Martina Weber designs absolutely beautiful, detailed designs using a great variety of fibers, beads and stitches.

I am currently working on Indian Summer Reflections designed by Martina of Chatelaine Designs. The colors are fantastic and the detail is incredible - all the way down to a tiny spider on a web. Right now I am working through part 4. There is a serious amount of Marlitt involved here as well as some Petite braid and silk. So, kind of like eating your veggies first and leaving the best part for last, I have decided to tough it out through all of the Marlitt (the veggies), then on to the Petite braid (the meat) and save the silk for last (dessert!). But I really do love this design! Stay tuned for pics and stop by the shop - Needlearts Gallery

Spring is coming!

Well, it IS the middle/end of January, so I suppose it should be cold. But the temp was still a bit shocking this morning - just below zero. Just a couple of weeks ago it was 70 degrees. So, given how cold it is today, adding some new Spring and Easter releases to the website felt even better than usual.

Glendon Place has release a series of Egg designs - Glendon Place designs. These are really cute. Also, we really like the recommended fabric for these - Vintage Country Cashel linens. We have also finally been able to add all of the Cashel linen colors to the website - check them out - including the Vintage Country colors.

For those of you stitch faster than I do (that would be lots and lots of people) there are some great winter WhimZi designs from Just Nan and some great winter themed WhimZi frames - a Pearl Frame with a snowflake and two Navy frames - one with mittens and one with a snowman. Nan has also released a Snow Bonnets design, a cute companion to Snow Faces - all little snowmen and snowwomen.

We are still doing our best to get our products up on the site as fast as possible. With Nashville coming up quickly, there will be a huge flurry or new releases in the next weeks so we're trying to get as caught up as humanly possible before then. We still have nearly all of the designs that we had on our old site so please feel free to email or call with any requests that you have that haven't made it back to the site.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post some stitching progress pics next time.

Little Happy Dance

After my frustration with snow-stitching, I decided to do a nice small project. I needed a sense of accomplishment. This is from Victoria Sampler's Beyond Cross Stitch collection and is Level Six #9 Spider Web Flower - Thistles. It was a real quick and easy stitch. I will save all of the diagrams and instructions from this kit because they were really great instructions - they go into my reference notebook for the future. I didn't love the colors shown on the cover of the kit, but, as it turns out, the colors in the kit are purple/lavender and green, not pink and green as shown on the cover.
Not sure how I'm going to finish this. Maybe a nice card. Maybe not.


I think I need a "finishing week"!

To celebrate this little piece, all Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch kits (and maybe a few others) will be on sale from 1/21/07 to 1/28/07. Also, there are a few more spots left in our "$10 coupon to the first 25 customers to register" promotion (you can see that in a previous post).



Happy Winter!

Stitching Snow on a White Background

Ya know - Its hard to feel a sense of accomplishment when stitching snow on a white background. After a couple more hours of stitching on Giggles in the Snow - its hard to see any difference at all. Very frustrating.

And - it finally snowed. So much for finishing before the snow fell. Of course, its the middle of January - there should be FEET of snow on the ground. Instead, the daffodils are a couple of inches tall and there are still BUGS around. Hmmmm. This can't be good.

I think I'm totally justified in moving on to another piece for a while. Don't you?

Merry Christmas to Me - Yazzii Organizer

Merry Christmas to Me! I got a Yazzii Carry-All Organizer for Christmas and I've finally had a chance to really play with it. The bag is 5" deep when it is laying down and it zips closed from both sides. There are two "pages" inside and each page has zippered plastic or vinyl pockets of differing sizes on each side of the page. Some pockets are just the right size for small scissors, my Tacky Bob, a pin keep, a needlebook, spools of metallic thread, cards of specialty threads, packs of beads and more. Then the top of the case has a large zippered pocket - large enough to hold charts or magazines and more. The whole case is deep enough to hold a small set of Q Snaps too!

I need organizers like this all over my house!

(Updated with a picture of my organizer - I still haven't filled all of the pockets!)

Here's the picture from Yazzii of their Carry-All (they also make a few others). I'll post a pic of my fully loaded Carry-All in the next couple days.

This almost makes up for not getting Chatelaine's Persian Iris Garden for Christmas (but Valentine's Day is coming!)

Some Christmas stitching done and new products added

In keeping with my New Year's Stitching resolutions (it is still January after all) I have finished one piece of Christmas stitching. This is the 'Chris' tree ornament from M Designs. If you turn the ornament on its side, you can see that each side of the tree is made of the name 'Chris'. I stitched my ornament on a Silkweaver solo with Caron Waterlilies.

Mary McLenon (such a sweetheart) of M Designs designs these. You can go to her website and request specific names and she will send you the chart for your name ornament. She also has designed and released a number of word trees to shops such as 'Peace', 'Joy', and 'Love'. Of course, she also has many other beautiful designs. For the next 10 days, M Designs charts will be on sale through our website, NeedleartsGallery.com. Visit us soon for 15% off M Designs charts. Many of her designs are already up on the site and we'll be adding more each day.

Since the winter has been (and still is) so warm, I still have a chance of finishing Mirabilia's Giggles in the Snow before the snow flies. That will be my next focus followed by one of the new Just Nan designs.

Its a New Year!

Happy New Year! Time for new beginnings, resolutions and a whole basket of new projects!
Our new website is finally up and running - come visit us Needlearts Gallery - We will send a $10 coupon to the first 25 customers who register on our new site.

We have already added a pretty good selection of supplies and tools and we will continue to add designs daily over the next few months. Of course, we will add new designs as they are released!

As usual, the holidays were hectic but fun. And, as usual, I couldn't accomplish half of what I had hoped to accomplish. But I did finish knitting a nice mohair wrap for my mother just in time for Christmas (the afternoon of Christmas Eve).

My stitching resolutions for this year are:

1. 1. Alternate Christmas stitching with non-Christmas stitching throughout the year
2. 2. Expand my stitching horizons - no new Mirabilia's until I complete a piece by a new-to-me designer
3. Try three new finishing techniques
4. Organize that stash!

Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year!