Needle Delights Originals

to feel a lot like Christmas! I put up my tree this past weekend and actually couldn't fit all my ornaments on it! I finished cleaning out my storage unit and found a box of ornaments I had in the shop that I kept for myself. They really filled up the tree and I had to leave off some things. I may have to get a bigger tree next year! Here's the tree... and just a few of my favorite ornaments.   This cross stitch Santa has legs made of buttons and the pattern was in one of the Just Cross Stitch ornament magazines. I still think he's just darling!   This "Tassel Santa" is needlepointed from a Cheryl Schaffer pattern - even the back is stitched!   This round ornament is the first thing I ever designed and was the beginning of my first set of "Ornaments of the Month". I've thought about releasing them - they do look great on the tree and are simple and quick to stitch! The little Baby's 1st sock was needlepointed when my niece was...

A friend who was in New Hampshire for a wedding wandered into ABC Stitch Therapy and saw this awesome framed Amazing Color. They painted the frame to match the stitching! It's, well, Amazing!

  I finally picked up my Spring Logs yesterday and decided on the border stitch and started stitching it - will show you a picture after I get a little more done. I don't enjoy stitching borders because I find it boring but this is the perfect time for me to have some boring stitching as my brain is fried by the end of the day lately. I'm almost done with the closeout shop stuf and am completely moving out of the storage unit tomorrow.   Have you ever noticed most of my designs don't have borders? Or, if they do, they're a mix of stitches and colors! My dislike of doing the exact same thing over and over led to my style of "no borders" and I'm pretty happy about it... I've received some awesome Color Delights photos lately - I love seeing what people do with these small simple quick to stitch pieces. This is Trish's interpretation of Graphite - She had the piece finished into this gorgeous pillow (I cropped it so you could see the sti...

It has been a while since I wrote - when I was in Santa Fe at the EGA National Seminar a few weeks ago, I met someone who told me they "read my inactive blog". I experienced a slight pang of guilt but then continued on my way hoping I'd post when I returned home. Now I've been home a couple of weeks and am finally taking the time to write and catch up! So much has been happening but not a whole lot of stitching has been going on. I've spent the last couple of weeks getting my office and sewing room organized - I got so frustrated with not knowing where to put everything, I hired a professional organizer. I have to say it was on eof the best decisions I've made this year. She came for a two hour consultation and did new floor plans for the office and sewing room. I then worked for three days to clear out the sewing room and go through the boxes in the office. She brought an assistant for two days (10 hours total) and the three of us accomplished more in two d...

Chart Alert: A couple of charting errors have been discovered in Summer Logs. Click SummerLogCorrections to download them. I squealed with joy when I got the mail today and discovered a package from Caron Collection with a set of the new Watercolours. There are EIGHTEEN different colors! If you're familiar at all with my work, you know I'm greatly inspired and influenced by Caron's Watercolours. I love overdyed threads and just love putting them all together (see the bottom of this post for a sneak peek of my next "Logs"). Here are pictures of the new colors...call your LNS to get yours! I'll be breaking one open tonight to add it to my current design in progress!   Of couse, I've already played some with them and arranged them into "categories", "future design inspiration", "winter", etc. Here are a few of them. My design juices are not just flowing; they're churning!!      These are what I call "Mul...

Pandora's Boxes chart alert: Two threads were left off the Supply List on the back page. They are Sampler Threads Midnight and Pearl Cotton #5 336. The page on the inside includes all of the threads so the conversions are okay. Future printings will be corrected.

I received this updated photo from Jana, who is stitching several of the Color Delights patterns on one piece of canvas. She is changing out some of the threads to make the colors blend around the Rainbow Color Delights in the center. She calls this piece her Color Delights "Mashup" - I think she's doing a fabulous job! Here are her comments about it: It's not the best photo in the world, but here is my progress on the Color Delights "mashup." As you can see, I used Scarlet in the lower right corner, but basically used the colors from purple, although I used Petite Treasure braid and ribbon. This one took quite a bit of time to stitch! In the bottom center, I'm using the Wisteria pattern, but with most colors from Indigo... mostly. The last one, the lower left corner will be Aqua.   Here's another Delightful Combination - Pam from Tomorrow's Heirlooms is stitching all of the Double Delights together on one piece of ...

I'm home from market and still madly trying to catch up. Late last night, I discovered I had neglected to put the instructions for the border in the Summer Logs pattern. I've sent it to all the shops who purchased it - if you need it, just let me know. Will write more this weekend and show you pictures!

is the last of my new releases for Baltimore. This is a larger design (finished design size is 12x16). The instructions are 40 pages and the pattern includes eight different colorways. I really enjoyed stitching this piece, using four different Watercolours along with a variety of other threads (silk, metallic, and cotton - solids and overdyes).   We're off to Baltimore tomorrow - had a great day in DC going to the Smithsonian (Museum of American History) and the DAR Museum. The info people at the Smithsonian sent us there to see quilts but the exhibit was closed so we got a private tour of the museum instead and it was really interesting. I think I could spend weeks and weeks in DC going to all the museums - I loved it. We then drove to Alexandria and went to In Stitches - a fabulous cross stitch and needlepoint shop. I walked in the door and just soaked up all the wonderful displays, patterns, THREADS, models, etc, etc. Of course I bought a pattern (who ever has ...

Here's another of my new releases - I showed you bits and pieces while I was working on it. My mom made it into this fun fringed pillow and I have to admit, I squealed when I saw it for the first time yesterday when I arrived in North Carolina! Now I'm in Virginia for a couple of days, going to the Smithsonian tomorrow and on to Baltimore on Thursday. What a great week!

I'm just about ready for the show next weekend. I'm leaving Monday though to drive up to NC to meet up with my mom who is coming to help me! We're going a few days early to go to the Smithsonian in DC - I haven't been since high school and have always wanted to go back! I'm also looking forward to having time to visit a couple of shops up there - last year was a quick trip as I still had the shop and couldn't be gone so long.   It has been a hectic week with the storm and finishing preparations for market. We were fortunate to have Isaac not hit us directly but we did have some tropical storm force winds and squalls of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. I wore sunglasses for the first time in a week yesterday - it was so nice to see the sun and blue skies again! I went to the framer today and picked up the frames and mats for the pieces I'm releasing next weekend. I still have to stretch them and put the needlework into the frames but that's a chore for ...

I've made a lot of progress this week on the Closeouts (still have a few to mail out!) and now I've moved on to Preparations. I leave for market next Sunday and just finished the instructions for the last pattern and sent it to the printer. Now there's all the administrative details to take care of, my class instructions to prepare, displays to plan, and oh yeah, Hurricane Isaac looks like it's headed this way. That adds a whole new set of To Do items to my already long list. It doesn't look like stitching will be happening any time soon. I'm hoping for just rain, wind, and no loss of electricity! I got a photo from Jana earlier this week with this gem attached! I love what she's doing with the Color Delights. She's made a few color changes to make the colors flow better as a color wheel.

I've been posting Closeouts on my website this week ( www.needledelights.com ) and have created organized chaos in my living room, dining room, and kitchen. Mass amounts of inventory are leaving my house tomorrow! I'm exhausted & happy...the storage unit is getting cleared out. See the little white thing on the rug in the middle of the photo? It's one of the cat toys - the babies are a little disturbed that I'm taking up their running room and one of them abandoned the mouse. This is just one pile of orders waiting to be finalized - guess what I'll be doing this weekend?! I have a kitchen counter and stove somewhere in this photo - good thing I didn't have to cook tonight - Friday is always dinner out with friends! And yet, I did take a few minutes to stitch this week. I'm working on a new Color Delights for Baltimore (I hope) - it'll either be Cardinal or Candy Cane. Here's my progress - it was somewhat dismaying when I realiz...

I went out of town for a few days for my nephew's wedding this past weekend and all of a sudden, it seems like I'm running out of time to prepare for market in Baltimore next month. How did I already lose a week of August?! I'm madly stitching a few small designs in my Double Delights series so I can have the covers printed at the same time as the new releases for September. I have four more to complete for the series of 12 and I like to stay a few months ahead. I did finish one I'm calling Chaqua (cha-kwa) with bold brown and blue colors. I also sent one to a friend to stitch and it's peach and green - no name yet. Here's a sneak peek of the one I'm currently working on. I don't have a name for it yet but I'm sure it will come to me. I like the colors so much I wish it was a bigger design! The overdye is Bravo from Rainbow Gallery. I prefer stitching with Watercolours because of the feel of the thread but there are some great colors in the Bravo, En...

Tangello is the newest release in my Double Delights series, studying combinations of color. Tangerine plus yellow equals Tangello - say it out loud (tan-jello) - it's just fun! On the way to auto shops and distributors tomorrow - look for it in your local shop soon! It's the last day of July so the next installment of the Mystery is being emailed tonight. Only one more month to go and then the entire piece can be revealed. Here's parts 1-7... it may look a little funny because I had to crop out the parts I've stitched (mine is 100% complete!).  If you didn't get in on the Mystery, this design will be published as "Pandora's Boxes" later this year. All the different colorways will be included in the pattern. I'm headed out of town again this weekend for my nephew's wedding - if I'm lucky, another trip to The Needle Bug and Kudzu Blossom Quilt Shop is on the agenda for Friday! I'll also get my monthly visit with my mom. It...

Here's another sneak peek of the piece I've been working on - the stitching is complete and now the fun begins. I have to name it and write the instructions. It will be released in September, which is rapidly approaching. Time really does fly! I'm still working on clearing out the old inventory and posted more on the website yesterday ( www.needledelights.com ). I'm going over to my storage unit this afternoon to get a few more boxes - it's been months since I packed it all up so it's a little like Christmas opening the packages! I'm shipping models and patterns to Fireside Stitchery in Pennsylvania - they will be hosting my Trunk Show during the month of August, including the time when ANG Seminar is in Philadelphia. I understand they'll be offering transportation to their shop for attendees - I wish I could be there but it didn't work with the schedule this year. I am looking forward to going to EGA National in Santa Fe though!

  My "Tropical Bag" is in the latest Needlepoint Now magazine - here's my photo - the photo in the magazine is lots better! There's also a great star design from Michael Boren and Carole Lake. The bag is from Stirling and I used Threadworx Overdyed Vineyard Silk (you know I love it!). I also used one of their Overdyed Merino Wools and Overdyed Kreinik Braid (both the color called "Bradley's Balloons" - it ties all the silk colors together!). It was a fun and quick piece to stitch and the perfect summer purse! I'm on a mission to get the rest of my shop inventory gone. I want to park in my garage again and get rid of my storage unit. I'll be adding stuff to the "Close-Out" section of my website over the next few weeks. First up is the painted needlepoint canvases. I've got a few more to photograph but this is the bulk of them.

It was wonderful to wake up in my own bed this morning! I'd been gone a week and it's always good to come home. It's a rainy, cloudy day so I've been stitching with a cat on my lap this afternoon. Here's a peek at what I'm working on right now - I'm using the threads from the Summer Colorway I did for Rainforest Crunch. This is part of the middle and I'm working on the backgrounds and border now. It's really fun... I stopped at a great needlepoint shop in Montgomery, Alabama on the way home from TN & NC -   The Needle Bug . I walked in, said hello to Leigh, and then basked in the glory of being surrounded with well organized walls and racks of fibers and canvases, and every gadget you can imagine! Of course, I bought threads for future designs... This was my second trip - I went last December when I went to my brother's for Christmas. I get to go back in three weeks as my nephew is getting married and I'll be spending a few days up th...