Spring happenings!

These flowers in the snow greeted me when I arrived on Saturday morning at our BYOP stitching weekend on Saturday morning.  I think it was a final farewell to winter!  It was warm inside and we had a wonderful weekend of relaxing stitching.  It was so much fun that I forgot to take any more pictures!  You will just have to join us next time and remind me to stop stitching for a few minutes and snap a few photos.  Several people finished multiple projects and we enjoyed looking at the projects that were brought for show and tell.  I had fun finding projects that had been stashed in my stitching bag for so long that I had forgotten about them.  I have a nice collection of Lizzie Kate's Flora McSample ornaments that need finishing.  Maybe they can be the motivation for a finishing class!

 

Last Saturday we had a visit from Sue Hillis.  She graciously signed charts, posed for pictures and shared her latest designs.  Fans of all ages came to visit!  The little fireman made sure that none of the hot new designs combusted!  The long "Super...Docious" pillow is so new Sue finished stuffing it at the shop.  Sue says the pillow is just the right length to fit across a twin bed.  The colors in both the picture and the pillow are yummy; they lift your spirits!

Happy stitching!

Linda

 

La-D-Da Trunk Show

We just received a wonderful trunk show from La-D-Da that we would like to share with you.  It arrived a little earlier than expected so we will have it for a couple of extra weeks.  We will be enjoying it through the end of April.  My photography skills do not do it justice so I hope you will be able to visit in person!  If you go to our website, www.houseofstitches.com, you can see all of the La-D-Da designs pictured here and many more!  Which ones are destined for your collection?! ?

Happy stitching,
Linda

Nashville 2013

I hope you are ready for some new projects!  I spent last evening and today at the Nashville Needlework Market.  Once again the designers have outdone themselves.  If you would like to see what they have designed for us, go to our website http://www.houseofstitches.com/Results.cfm, click on Catalog and type in the key word nash13.  Keep checking back often as we are adding things as we go along.  My poor husband is chained to the computer this weekend.  I do let him out of the room to have a nice dinner each evening but then it is back to work!  It is always nice to talk with the designers and see their latest creations.  I have lined up a trunk show from La-D-Da for the month of April and Sue Hillis will be visiting us on April 27 with a trunk show of her designs.  Make plans to visit us and have Sue sign your charts!

I need to get back to work.  I have bags and bags of charts and accessories to price so they are ready to sell when the shop opens on Tuesday morning. Our hotel room is a mess with crates of charts, bags of merchandise and piles of invoices and brochures. Hopefully I can get it all sorted out. I also need to go through my show book and make a plan for finishing my shopping tomorrow.  I hope you have fun shopping, too, and remember to keep checking our website as we add more things.

Happy stitching,
Linda

Happy New Year!

Well!  Here we are two months later!  I don't know where the time went but I know it was busy!  I always think things will slow down after the holidays but we go right into inventory which is no small task.  A big thank you goes to the crew here at House of Stitches; they go above and beyond the call of duty to get it done. Another big thank you goes to my husband who adds it all up.  Tedious!  We prefer to count stitches!  One of the hazards of inventory is seeing all of the great designs that we have somehow missed adding to our personal stash.  So, it's off one inventory and onto another one!

I want to share an impressive piece of needlework with you. Sharon, who is a member of the crew here at House of Stitches stitched the Nativity Story Tablerunner by Blackberry Lane Designs for her friend Michele who was visiting from Australia.  While Michele was in the US, they attended Christmas in Williamsburg where they were able to show the completed project to the designer, Marie Driskill.  The size of the project becomes apparent as Michele (left), Marie (center) and Sharon (right) hold up the completed tablerunner.  What a stunning accomplishment!  Well done, Sharon!  Rumor has it Sharon will be visiting the tablerunner in Australia later this year.

2013 is shaping up to be an exciting year.  More details and dates will be coming SOON!

Happy stitching,
Linda

Bell Ringer

 I thought you might like to see the Salvation Army bell ringer that greeted me at the Post Office Saturday. I should have snapped the picture on the way in because she was holding a bell in her mouth and nodding her head to ring it!   Her name is Libby and she's no bigger than a large dog. Too cute!  She seemed to be very successful in collecting donations!  She reminds me of the little pony I had when I was growing up.

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.  Our gathering was smaller than usual but we all did our part to consume the turkey an all the trimmings.  I am pretty sure no one was hungry when they left!  And, just a few hours later we felt obliged to tackle the leftovers! 

 

We continue to receive new designs at the shop.  The latest Shepherd's Bush kits arrived Saturday.  They are all nice but we especially like the little pre-made stockings.  You just do a quick stitch on the attached band and you have a perfect way to present a gift card or other small treasure.  We should have pictures on our website in the next couple of days.  The next update is "in the works". 

 

If you have something that you want to have framed for Christmas, you need to get it to us NOW!  We are framing as fast as we can and we do not want anyone to be disappointed.

 

I need to pay some bills so I'd better stop playing with Blogger!

 

Happy stitching,

Linda 

 

 

 

 



Busy week!

Last week was very exciting at House of Stitches!  On Thursday we had a visit from Pam and Bob Reed from Olde Colonial Designs.  They were on their way to a retreat and realized that we were right on the way.  (It was a popular weekend for stitching retreats!)  We had a nice visit; we usually only get together at needlework markets so this was a fun change. As we gave Pam a tour of the shop she said that we have some of her out of production kits!  Take a look at our website if you have been looking for something in particular.  Look at the size of their trailer!!  One can only imagine how many stitching treasures are waiting inside! 

Our Weekend of Stitches began Friday evening and continued through Sunday afternoon.  We hope it will be the first of many weekend retreats.   Ellen Chester from With My Needle was our fearless teacher.  Our project was "A Lady's Worke Box" and we had enthusiastic stitchers from Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Alabama!  Ellen is a wonderful teacher.  I think everyone learned a new tip or two (at least)!  She is a very knowledgeable needlewoman and she doesn't hesitate to share what she knows.  Her step by step instructions and prepared models made it easy to see how the stitched pieces will be finished.  I spaced out and didn't take pictures of the beautiful Worke Box and all of the wonderful smalls that Ellen designed to go inside. The whole project is just exquisite!  Fortunately Ellen and Barb were more "with it" and you can see more pictures, including pictures of the finished project, at their blogs:
www.withmyneedle-ellen.blogspot.com. and  www.sunflowercross.blogspot.com .
 

You can see all the step by step examples in front of the projector.



Ellen spent much time interacting with us as we stitched.





An important part of any gathering of needlewomen is food!  You can see that my spot at the table in the foreground has no food left at all! 

Monday morning it was back to real world of jobs and obligations but guess what!?  We are already planning next year's Weekend of Stitches.  Ellen will be coming again and we plan on having TWO projects; "Long May She Wave" and "Fruit of the Vine Sampler Huswif". 

Summer Fun!

Summer is winding down-ready or not- and we are trying to squeeze in as much fun as we can!  I recently took my grandchildren to the zoo.  I intended to take lots of pictures of them with the animals.  Well!  Neither the animals or the children were inclined to stand still long enough for photos.  So, I settled for a picture at the entrance of the zoo as we left.  Grace and Jonathan are striking an Olympic pose!  They also had a really good time at the splash pad that is just across the street from the zoo.

Last saturday was our 6th Annual Midwest Stash Exchange fundraiser for Riley Children's Hospital. The weather was beautiful and we raised a nice amount of money for a very good cause. (Donations are still being accepted! I will wait about another week before I send the check.)  Among other things, we had music, shopping, kid's games, and magic! 

If you need a new late summer project, head over to our website, www.houseofstitches.com,  and click on the What's New button.  We just added the latest arrivals.  The designers are giving us many new autumn and Christmas projects!

Happy stitching,
Linda