Arrivals from Nashville

Lots of boxes have been arriving here this week - full of items ordered at Nashville.

The biscornu kits from The Sweetheart Tree have arrived. I can't tell you how cute these are. Sparkly and detailed - really nice. I can't wait to see the other designs that Sandie selects for the rest of the biscornu series - and even more, I can't wait to see the other needlework goodies that she creates for each series. I am personally hoping for the Blackberry design, the Holly design, and the Shamrock design. Sandie has already shown us the Catnip kitty fob which was adorable. Wait til you see that one. She has also mentioned Cherry Blossom and American Star.

My Easter project this year will be Scatter Eggs from Shepherd's Bush. This is stitched on 20 count Cork linen so it should be a quick stitch and it has adorable buttons from Just Another Button Company. I'm just going off to the fabric store tomorrow to find a nice coordinating fabric for a pillow finish.

Up on the website this weekend - new designs from JBW Designs. Here's French Country Amour.



There's a great picture of a beautiful scissor fob done with this design on the JBW Designs website.

I'd love to show you some of my stitching - but there isn't a lot to show. :-(

A Dragon and a Moose

How's that for a title? The Dragon is from Xs and Ohs and the Moose is from Stitchworks. First the moose.

The moose is Malcolm the Moose. These are a series of designs on 4" x 6" cards from Stitchworks. These aren't new, but I saw them at the Nashville Show again and then I noticed a few of these in a local school. They are adorable all stitched up. There are monthly designs as well as occupational and sports designs. Each design either uses buttons (which are absolutely adorable) or Mill Hill treasures. Here's a pic of the Surfer Moose for June. The buttons are the cute little inner-tube and the fish. We'll be getting these up on the site this weekend.



Then, the dragon. Here is another design that isn't new but really struck me when I saw a stitched model. It was really stunning stitched on black linen. You can't tell from the cover picture very well how beautiful this design really is.
See all those yellow speckles on the dragon? They aren't really yellow speckles in real life - that's just the was the camera picked up all the sparkle. Yep - that's all sparkle. The design uses 19 spools of #4 Kreinik braid but its all worth it because the final piece as really stunning.

As the days get longer and there is more light available at the end of my day, I'll be stitching this dragon for my son. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Lastly, on the shop front - we will be carrying hand-dyed fabric from Picture This Plus. I'm sure many of you have seen these fabrics - they are really incredible. While we have loved the hand-dyed fabrics we've carried in the past, we just couldn't handle the backorder times (sometimes 3 months or more!) Picture This Plus produces fantastic fabrics with wonderful service. We probably won't have all of the fabrics that PTP creates on the website, but we'll be happy to order any that strike your fancy.

Have a great weekend! Remember - get the most out of these last few weeks of winter (wishful thinking?) Spring is coming!

More new products

Here is an update with some more new products. These are from Twisted Oaks Designs. First, Honor Thy Needle Etui. The finished model for this was really exquisite. The chartpack comes with the graph, excellent finishing instructions, die cut matboard and wood beads.

We have also added the designs in the French Monogram Collection to the website. In all, this collection includes an eyeglass case, a bookmark, a biscornu, a needlebook, a scissor fob, a bourse bag, and an album cover.

We have also added Coq au Pins and Merry Noel. Both of these designs are from the Chicken series and they're awfully cute. Be sure to stop by and see them!

Stop back tomorrow for another update.

Back from Nashville

We're back from Nashville and we had a great time. It's great to be able to faces with names and voices and to meet lots of new people!

Here are a few highlights from the show. I'll do a few more posts on special things from the Nashville show during this week. You can see all of the new items as we put them up on the site on our What's New page. For now, here are a few special things.
- You can click on the pic to go to Needlearts Gallery and see a much bigger pic.

Barnabee's Bride - Bella Bee from Just Nan. This is a new enameled box from Just Nan (remember Lady Scarlet's Secret Garden). This is really adorable. The kit includes the box, which is decorated with crystals and even has a little magnet to hold your needle, the graph and instructions for the needleroll which fits neatly inside the box, finishing instructions, opalescent white Belfast linen, fusible interfacing, overdyed silk, overdyed wool, snap, the little beads and the mother-of-pearl flower, Swarovski sequin, and Gold Bee. You'll need to supply your floss, perle cotton, and kreinik braid. This is definitely one of those times where a picture just can't do justice to the actual item. This is a limited edition and we will only be getting a few - so be sure to order early if you don't want to be disappointed.

Nan's been incredibly busy. She also released a wonderful biscornu design, When Barnabee Met Bella. The details on this piece are really wonderful. Lady Scarlet even makes an appearance! You can't really see all of the sparkles and embellishments in these pictures, but, trust me, this piece is exquisite!

Then, in addition to these beautiful pieces, Nan is beginning a new series called "Over the Top". These are little tins whose bottom portions have been decorated on the exterior with art paper. There will be a series of four tins released during the year. These are also a limited edition series. The top is all ready for you to complete with your stitching. The first one is "Hop", a great Spring or Easter design. The kits include the tin, the graph for the design, a die cut chipboard circle for mounting the stitching to the lid, fleece, fusible interfacing, coordinating ribbon, embellishments and finishing instructions. You'll need to supply the linen, floss and twisted cord.

Then, as if that weren't enough - there are limited edition kits to create little projects that will fit inside the tin. This limited edition series is called "In the Tin" because they fit "in the tin" - how clever. Each of the project in this series will coordinate with a tin and each will be a different little needlework "goody". The first is "Hop" - a little needlebook fob. The front shows a little bunny in flowers and the back is a pretty little viola. The kit includes the graph and instructions, finishing instructions, embellishments and snap, wool and fusible interfacting. You'll need to supply the linen, floss and twisted cord. This will fit nicely in the tin with a 2 1/2" pair of scissors (which are not included, but we'll be happy to recommend a pair for you).

Click on the pic to go to Needlearts Gallery and see a much bigger pic!
Another highlight of the show was the Sweetheart Tree releases. Sandie has started a new biscornu series. The designs for these pieces will coordinate with the most popular of her scissor fobs. The first releases are Rhodes Butterfly biscornu and Cherry Blossoms biscornu. These are kits that include everything you'll need except for the stuffing. Then look for a Catnip Kitty biscornu kit and a Baby Shamrocks biscornu kit this Spring. Add, to add even more excitement, Sandie plans to continue designing coordinating needlework tools - releasing coordinating needlebooks, scissor cases and finally Bourse bags to hold the collection of needlework tools. Definitely looking forward to each of those.

Another Sweetheart Tree highlight is the Sparkling Forget-Me-Not Sampler. This is another limited edition sampler kit and is just as beautiful as can be.

Stop by our website often to see the new additions. February is always a big month for new releases, both for Nashville exhibitors and many other designers.

Frogging

So - is frogging a skill or just a necessary evil?
That pretty much sums up my afternoon and pretty well takes care of most of my progress for the whole past weekend.

Sniff. Sniff.

ISR part 4 still - Again!

I know this looks suspiciously like the photo in my last post - but its not! First, I did actually get some stitching done on this. But, as for the photo, I finally found out what some of those buttons on my camera are for - at least sort of. My camera is at about four years old. It usually just takes pictures of the kids as they zoom from one activity to another. It has lots of settings that I've never used - and I vaguely remember thinking "I'll never use that" as I was reading the manual (4 years ago). I always knew that my photos of my stitching were awful but I always had a scanner to fall back on for the really important pics. But when I look at some of the beautiful pics in stitcher's blogs, I started to think that I need to sign up for remedial photography classes.

It turns out that the remedial photography class doesn't start until April. I thought I should have a clue about my own camera before I go to this class and started trying out all the various buttons and dials - and lo and behold - some of them actually do wonders for my pics.

For the last two days I have chased around my kids and various squirrels taking their pictures. Today, we're having a bit of an ice storm so I can't wait for the sun to come out afterwards so I can take a picture of the sun hitting the ice on the trees. I don't think I have ever looked forward to an ice storm before.

Of course, the other positive aspect of an ice storm is some uninterrupted stitching time!

Have a great weekend everyone. Start cleaning out some space in your stash area - the Nashville Needlework Show is next weekend and the designers have already been showing off some wonderful new designs and products!