Happy Dancin'

I'm happy dancing. Not that I actually accomplished much, it was more of an acquisition than an accomplishment. Last year, an acquaintance wrote to me about finding a Bee Skep Tassel Topper from Just Nan. She hadn't been able to find one in some time and I had one. I had been planning to stitch Barnabee's Quest but hadn't gotten around to it (it had already been a couple of years). Anyway, I agreed to sell her mine. A couple of months later, for my birthday, I got the embellishment packs for all three parts and was ready to start stitching. That's when I found out that the Tassel Toppers were no longer available. I searched so many stores. I searched eBay. I just couldn't find one. Anyway - fast forward to this past week. European Cross Stitch sent out a newsletter and mentioned that they had just one of a 'Tassel Topper'. What were the chances that is was the one that I was looking for? IT WAS! So, I ordered as quickly as possible and crossed my fingers. I tried not to get too excited because I've ordered before only to find out that whichever shop it was didn't really have them in stock. But now -- I got an email confirming that it is on its way!!!!! I am so excited!!

On to accomplishments (which pale in comparison to my acquisition) --

I finally have the beads for Mirabilia's Giggles in the Snow. So now it says Snow Angel. I still have to add all the scattered beads.

I also mounted my Scream Girls from Just Nan in its WhimZi frame. I like the pouff of orange hair on the ghost on the frame.

Goals for this week:

Finish stitching Daniel name tree

Beading on Snow Angel

find backing fabric for both name trees

Find Mirabilia Designs and Just Nan cross stitch designs on my website.

Flurry book cover

I finally finished the "Flurry" cross stitch freebie from Kreinik as a little notebook cover. I found these cute notebooks at the supermarket. The pink cover of one of the notebooks reminded me of the colors in the Flurry design so I decided to put it on the cover.

This is one of the few pieces I've stitched on Aida. I'm not really a fabric snob - but I definitely disliked the feeling of the needle going through this Aida. Although - its still not as bad as the feel of the needle going through some canvas. I need to stitch another of these little guys but I think I'll use Damask aida or maybe some hand-dyed aida with a different feel to it.

Unfortunately - no good pics of the finished cover. I'll try to get some more tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Christmas Biscornu

As part of my Christmas ornament stitching, I started on Just Nan's Christmas Biscornu design. The embellishment pack for this design has a whole lot of beads - certainly more than I expected. This will be quite sparkly. I still have some smyrnas to do and all of the beading on the trees side - then I'll start on the Snowflakes side. It stitches up pretty quickly. We have this design and Just Nan's other new Christmas designs available at Needlearts Gallery.

A quick note about the Mirabilia design, Seaside Kingdom. Silkweaver has, in the past, dyed an opalescent fabric just for this design - sand colored on the bottom and sky colored on the top. I understand from Tracy at Silkweaver that they will have more of this fabric soon - so if you've been waiting for it, keep an eye out on their site. The Seaside Kingdom design has been discontinued but we still have a couple of charts available. We don't have this design on the Mirabilia page of the site since we can't order more, but you can send us your request if you are looking for this chart and we'll be happy to help while we still have some.

Its finally cooling off here and feels more like fall. And its rainy too. Tomorrow will be a good day to make a nice soup and some hearty bread. I love sweater weather!

Gimme a 'D'!

Here's the D and the A and the N. Now I just need the I and the E and the L. This is my 'Daniel' name tree from Mary McLenon of M Designs. Even though its stitched over one, it stitches up very quickly. I'll finish this into an ornament/gift tag.



On the shop front, this has been an absolutely wonderful week for new releases and new additions to the store. Some adorable new designs from The Gathering Place - Michael's Tree House and Night Creatures. More great additions - we will be carrying a selection of Heaven and Earth Designs. We hope to keep expanding the number and variety of designs from HAED that we offer.


We have also decided to become a part of the Hoffman Distributing online merchant mall. This means that you will have the ability to order any chart offered by Hoffman Distributing through our site. While Hoffman offers a vast catalog with great variety and pictures, they do not present the additional information for designs such as recommended fabric and stitch counts. We will continue to update our site with this information for our most popular designers. We are really excited to be able to offer this service! Look for the Hoffman mall sometime this month.

Scream Girls

Here's a cute Halloween ornament that stitched up real quickly. Scream Girls WhimZi design from Just Nan. The WhimZi frame is Scarey Hairy. I just need to get some fusible web to get it mounted according to the directions.


You can get both of these from our online shop.

This stitched up really quickly. I'm planning to start Lady Scarlet's Secret Garden - just because its cute. I doubt I would actually use it - but its cute.

Happy stitching!

Poor Planning

Poor planning on my part. Actually, no planning on my part. I simply assumed that since I have a ridiculous amount of Mill Hill beads, I would have the beads I needed to finish this. Unfortunately, I was wrong. So, right now it says "SNOW" instead of "SNOW ANGEL" since the ANGEL part is written entirely in the beads that I don't have. On the positive side, the rest of the stitching is done. The beads should arrive this week.

Here's a pic -

Then, I was going through a pile of WIPs. I found one of my folders marked "cherub" from sometime in 2005. Inside I had a collection of freebie Mirabilia cherub charts and one started cherub. Of course, its going to take some time to figure out which cherub I started. I don't know what I was thinking. Now I have something to do this weekend ;-)

We have a couple more of the Giggles in Snow charts in the shop. Be sure to stop by our Mirabilia page if you are looking for this design.

Have a great weekend everyone!

More snow-stitching

I've been stitching and finishing up Giggles in the Snow. I've been bringing it along to stitch in the car while waiting for school to get out - the sunlight makes it so wonderfully easy to see everything. (If I'm ever going to stitch on black Belfast, it should be midafternoon in the car!) Unfortunately, somehow in its travels this week and last weekend, it has gotten pretty badly creased. Bummer!

My younger boy has continued to ask for a knitted afghan for Christmas. I've had the Great American Aran Afghan book and the yarn for a while. I think I'll pick a few of those squares. I love the square that has an aran sweater on it. I'll use patterns from my favorite sweaters for the other squares. Not sure what I'll make for my older boy. Still thinking about that one.

We're still waiting for the leaves to change. It was 89F today and we haven't had rain for a while now. I hope the rain doesn't all come when the leaves do start to change. Its sad in those years when a couple of rain/wind storms knock down all the leaves in just a a day or two after they change.

Our apples are just getting ripe and so are our pair of pears (all we got this year). DH and the kids have great plans for apple pies, applesauce, apple dumplings and who knows what else. This is the first year we'll actually get some nice apples. I wish we knew what we did differently so we could do it again.

Off I go to finish the snow!

When is Fall coming?

Well, its supposed to be 85F here today, and it was yesterday as well. It had been cooler, in the 60s and 70s, for about a week. I know we usually get an Indian Summer, but generally that is after the leaves have turned, and usually after they have even fallen. So far, our leaves haven't really turned at all. I hope they don't just all turn yellow and fall off the trees overnight like they did last year (some sort of fungus or illness). Except for pumpkins in all the fields around here, it still looks like and feels like Summer.

No stitching pics today. I'm working on finishing up the Giggles in the Snow boy from Mirabilia. Its hard to show progress when you're stitching snow on white fabric. I should be done stitching this weekend and then a big finish-a-thon.

Items to finish:
Chris name tree - ornament
Kreinik freebie snowman - mirror case
Trick or Treat band - wrap for basket
Sweetheart Tree Rosebuds and Hardanger - not sure yet
Thistles kit from Victoria Sampler - not sure - maybe a needlebook?

Christmas stitching still to do:
Daniel's tree ornament
Golfing Chick from Valerie Pfeiffer
Another Kreinik freebie snowman (the recipients are sisters)
Brooke's Books Cherry on Top

And now my son would like me to knit a nice warm, soft afghan. I'll have to think about that one.

And there's some Christmas sewing to be done as well. Time to give the sewing machine some exercise.

Have a great weekend!

It feels like Autumn!

Its gorgeous out! Its about 65 F, not a cloud in the sky, a nice breeze and nice and dry. Just beautiful. Now that the nights are getting cooler, the leaves will start to turn as well. And, of course, fair season is in full swing. The Big E - (for non-New Englanders - that's the huge state fair for all of the New England states at once) starts this weekend. It sure feels like Fall. And best of all - both kids will be back in school today!!!!

We always have folks call to visit in the second of half of September that we only see once a year - due to our convenient location near the Big E. I suppose if we didn't live near it, we wouldn't see some of these people at all. This year, the littlest ones who stop by are going to help plant daffodil bulbs. Kind of keeping with agricultural theme of a trip to a state fair. I hope to get about 400 bulbs in the ground over the next few weeks. Can't wait to see them in the Spring.

On the stitching front, I'm working on Giggles in the Snow from Mirabilia Designs again. I still have the snow to complete and some more backstitching on the boy. I wish Nora would create some more boy designs. She does such a beautiful job on them, but she has only had a few and those - Giggles in the Snow and Seaside Kingdom - have been discontinued. Speaking of which, we do have a few more of the discontinued designs from Mirabilia Designs but, due to the limited quantity, they are not on our site. If you are interested in these, please feel free to send an email or fill in the request form on our site. So here's my little boy Snow Angel:

Cooling off

Its cool and rainy today. Yesterday was hot and rainy and Saturday was just wave after wave of thunderstorms. The good thing about being cool and rainy is that I can turn on the oven and we can have a more substantial dinner than usual. Some roast beast and potatoes will be a nice change from salads, burgers and sandwiches.

Rainy weather also means that I can get a little more progress done. And, when the little one starts school this week, I get even more done!!!!

I was able to finish my trick or treat band. Now I just need to line the back with my Halloween fabric so no stitches can be snagged by any canes sticking out from the basket, a little velcro on each end to secure the band and it will be done. Next - onto another name tree ornament, some more time on Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll and Giggles in the Snow, and then a big finishing marathon. Here's my Trick or Treat from Cross Eyed Cricket stitched on linen banding:

Each letter is really cute - a tree, a candy apple and caramel apple, a haunted house, Indian corn, a spider, a broom. Really neat!


Just a little shop note - the newest ornaments from The Sweetheart Tree will be up on the site this week. These are for days 5, 6, 7 and 8 from the Twelve Days of Christmas series. Really cute.

Halloween and Fairy Idyll

Just a quick note - for those of you who were unaware, Wichelt Imports, a major supplier for the cross stitch industry experienced major flooding in the floods that hit the mid-West last month. We wish the folks at Wichelt and the surrounding areas the best during their recovery.

Just a little stitching in the last week. Stitching time should improve now that the kids are in school and everyone has a regular schedule once again.

Here's a quick update on my Halloween stitching. This is the Trick-or-Treat banner from The Cricket Collection. I picked out a nice autumn fabric for the backing and I have the perfect basket to be dressed up with the finished band.

I did finally get some stitching done on Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll. The rabbit statue's head is done. I'll keep this piece out to work on whenever I have a few minutes waiting for the school bus or other stitching time that is likely to be interrupted at a moment's notice. That won't be easy since its so large, but I can't really work on holiday stitching for kids projects if they might walk in any minute!

I hope to finish off the Trick or Treat banner this week and then get to work on some smalls. I also have pile of pieces to finish off and I've been reading lots of blogs this week seeking finishing ideas. Its amazing how much talent is out there - and, thanks to blogs, we get to see so much more than we would have before the "blogger movement".

Back to School sale

So, Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend as we begin our transition into fall - soccer, baseball, juggling schedules, homework, football games, harvesting and all the other great things about Fall! Don't forget to make time for stitching - you owe it to yourself (I keep telling myself that). And stitching now could really lessen the stress at the holidays. (I keep telling myself that also.)

Our Back to School sale will begin tomorrow and continue through the holiday weekend. Please be aware that Wichelt Imports, a major supplier for the cross stitch industry, experienced major flooding as a result of the storms that came across the mid-West last week. They have delayed shipping orders until they are able to recover from their floods. So, in some cases, orders may take a little longer than usual to ship - but we will keep you updated on the situation.

No pics today - but this is even better. I learned about this designer on the Mirabilia Bulletin board. A Mon Ami Pierre is a French designer with wonderful designs. Cute fairies and wonderful alphabets! The site is in French but with some translations. We won't be able to carry all of their designs, but we are hoping to carry some. In the meantime, they do accept Paypal via their site.

End of Summer already

Boy did Summer fly by! Back to school next week. Running from store to store to get the "perfect" school supplies. It was bad enough to have to shop for the "perfect" school clothes, but now apparently, basic school supplies aren't so basic anymore either. I'll pull my hair out if the kids get to school and the teacher says they can't use what we bought (which is what happened last year).

On the stitching front, I finally got to work on Mirabilia Designs' Fairy Idyll (and still am). That bunny's ears didn't seem quite so long when I looked at the picture. But they really are long. I'll post an update pic when I get a little further along. I forget how much I enjoy stitching this design.

Also regarding Mirabilia Designs - we have finally been able to get a bunch more of the Mirabilia Designs cross stitch charts listed on the online store. They have always been available through us by phone or email - but its so much easier when they are online . We also still have a few of each of the discontinued charts but we did not put them online. Be sure to drop us an email if you are looking any of these designs.

I did do a little work on my Halloween cross stitch project during the week. Here's a quick pic. This will be cute wrapped around a basket of candy for the big night.

Remember our Back to School sale will be over Labor Day weekend. 10-15% off nearly everything. Be sure to stop by - Needlearts Gallery

New Halloween designs!

Look at these cute Halloween designs from The Cricket Collection. These will be available at the end of the month (just in time for the Back to School sale).

Our Back to School sale will be over Labor Day weekend. 15% off nearly everything. Be sure to stop by!

A Halloween Start and an UFO

In my Christmas planning panic (an annual event), I managed to skip Halloween and Thanksgiving. So, I started a little Halloween project. From the Cricket Collection, this is Trick-or-Treat. The chart also has three bears dressed up for Halloween. Hopefully, I'll finish this in a week or so.

Then.....since its just about back to school time, I've been organizing and planning and figuring and such. Of course, this includes planning stitching time in between soccer, baseball, PTO and shop time. For the last 9 months (rather embarrassing) I have had a particular goal on my stitching list and have made absolutely no progress on it. Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll has been a UFO for some time now. My goal has been to get to the rabbit. I really love this design, but I've always known that I really don't have anywhere to put it once I finish it. Anyway, my Christmas present to me (rather early I admit) is to spend 12 hours on a weekend in August stitching on Fairy Idyll. I desperately want to get to the rabbit!

My next motivation is Indian Summer Reflections. I really love this design and I love stitching it. So, I've decided that there will be no more stitching on ISR until I have finished stitching the Daniel name tree from M Designs, the golfing chick from Valerie Pfeiffer, Be Thankful from Shepherd's Bush. Then I have to do the ornament finishing for these and a few others.

For shop news, keep an eye out for our Back to School sale. I know that lots of us are awaiting the start of school to keep moving on some projects. The Back to School sale will be at the end of August and beginning of September - so be sure to keep an eye out.

New Just Nans

See the new Just Nan designs. This year's Christmas Ornament is a Christmas Biscornu. There are options for silk or DMC and the chart includes finishing instructions. The embellishments include lots of gold and silver crystal beads as well as garnet flowers and Swarovski crystal buttons. The new Just Nan designs will ship after the third week in August.

Stay tuned for more new Just Nan additions in the next few days.

We heard from lots of new customers for our Christmas in July sale. Its always great to meet new customers. We will have our Back to School sale over Labor Day weekend. Be sure to make a note of it and stop by!

New Crescent Colours

Just a reminder - tomorrow is the last day of our Christmas in July (and August) sale. Be sure to stop by and get your Christmas stitching projects kitted up.

We have also added Crescent Colours hand-dyed cotton floss to our offerings. Crescent Colours are available in a wide range of colors and there are an increasing array of designs using these beautiful threads. We will soon be adding the Crescent Colours silk as well.

Here is an update on the Rosebuds and Hardanger from The Sweetheart Tree. This was a great little piece to stitch. There was more than enough floss to complete the project (possibly even a second piece). There are just enough of the crystal paillettes for one piece, however, additional paillettes can be purchased separately.

We hope to hear from you at our Christmas in July sale!

Christmas in July

First, here's Rosebuds and Hardanger - a Teenie Tweenie from The Sweetheart Tree before the hardanger part is complete. I actually kind of like it this way. Maybe with a large heart charm in the center. But this time I'll just finish up the hardanger.

Just a reminder that our Christmas in July sale begins tomorrow and continues through August 5. There will be more than 300 products on sale - a bunch of stuff that says 'Christmas' or looks like Christmas or just made me think of Christmas - or in some cases, just made me think of winter. Be sure to check it out.

And, of course, Harry Potter was great. I sure will miss the summer tradition of waiting for and then devouring a new Harry Potter book each year. Here's hoping that a new great tradition begins next year.

Summer Stitching

Its absolutely beautiful here - not too hot, not too rainy, pretty much just perfect. Of course, not much stitching going on because we're outside as much as possible.

Lots of new Halloween designs are coming out now. A few cute ones have been released from Glendon place already, as well as Xs and Ohs. Then comes a bit of Thanksgiving stitching followed by a whole lot of Christmas stitching and finishing. Of course, there were some really great Autumn and Halloween designs available before as well. I will be stitching some of the Britty Kitty autumn designs from Brittercup Designs.

So far I've finished one of the name trees from M Designs. I still have two to stitch and then I'll finish them as ornament/gift tags. I have stitched two of the Merry Moe and Flurry freebie series from Kreinik. I think I'll finish those into CD wallets - kind of in the style of Just Nan's Christmas Wallet.

Hopefully, this weekend will be a nice quiet one. I am (im)patiently awaiting the arrival of my Harry Potter book. I've planned for some quiet reading time for weeks - but the book isn't here yet - so now its stitching time. This weekend I should finish the Teenie Tweenie kit from Sweetheart Tree. Its been quick stitching and fun. Then I will work more on my Indian Summer Reflections from Chatelaine. I've been dying to get to those Gazebos - that's why I chose the design in the first place. Here's my progress so far on the second corner.

Have a great week. Just a note - our Christmas in July sale will be Christmas in July and August sale this year. It will start on July 28 and continue through August 4. 20% off anything to do with Christmas - and we use the term pretty loosely.:-)

Surprise! Sale!!

We've spent the last few weeks organizing, re-organizing (and in some cases disorganizing). Our alphabetizing and color sorting skills have been sharpened. And the great outcome of all this sorting and organizing is that we need to have a sale. A Big sale! A Surprise sale. Of course, since you're already reading this, it won't be a surprise to you.

The sale will last two days. On July 4 and July 5, all items will be 20% off with a few exceptions. Rainbow Gallery threads and fibers will be excluded from the sale. All limited edition items from Just Nan will be excluded. Other than those exceptions, everything storewide will be on sale. Please keep in mind that shipping orders may take slightly longer than usual due increased orders during the sale.

During breaks from organizing and little league games, I was able to start a new project. This is Rosebuds & Hardanger, a Teenie Kit from The Sweetheart Tree. So far, mine is rose vines and no hardanger. The design stitches up quickly and the kit included everything you need - Light Mocha Belfast linen, floss, DMC perle, Magnifica beads, crystal paillettes, needles and chart all packaged in a plastic box. A nice quick stitch design.