Needle Delights Originals

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. I finished a big project just before midnight and look forward to showing you soon. In the meantime, Tis the season for a sale! As we approach the new year, to thank you for a fabulous 2017, I'm offering an After Christmas Sale. To bring in 2018, all kits in stock are 18% off until January 1, 2018. Enter the Coupon Code "2018NDO" in the checkout section of the website's Catalog. Orders will be shipped in the order they are placed. Click here to get to the Catalog To shopowners: email me if you'd like to place an order for charts at 20% off until January 1st.

It has been a busy fall. I finished up this year's teaching in October, went to Shipshewana for my annual quilting retreat in November, and started a remodel of my master bathroom which also included replacing the flooring and painting the master bedroom. It has been quite disruptive to say the least but I know I will be thrilled with the end result and am hoping it might be done by Christmas.  My brother is a contractor and is doing the work for me. He lives three hours away so he brings a helper and comes down for four or five days every other week and stays at my house while I go stay somewhere else! I've been living mostly out of my suitcase for about six weeks now. Staying away from home for big chunks of time has allowed me to get quite a bit of stitching done. I'm working on new designs to release at the Nashville market - I wish I could show you some but it's a bit early for that! I'm most excited about the larger design I'm currently designing an

It's the first day of Autumn - yippee!! Although my air conditioning is still blasting, there's the promise of cooler weather coming soon. I wait for it every year with great anticipation. This is one of my favorite times of the year - football season has started and baseball season is winding down. I'm hoping the Cubs repeat in the World Series!! The holidays approach and I have finished two new "Holiday Delights" for Halloween and Christmas. I had been thinking about these designs for a long time and I'm pleased with how they turned out. Since 99.9% of my designs are "just geometrics", it was quite interesting to do Witch Hats - I had to draw something "real", not something I typically do. The trees were easier! Using Leaf Stitch for a tree makes it quite simple and you know how much I like stars if you know me at all! These will be released on September 26th - pick them up at your local needlework shop or here. Both Holiday Del

  I haven't blogged in months! It feels like only weeks as time flies so quickly. I've been traveling and teaching and generally, keeping too busy. I've created a new design to teach through Shining Needle Society. This is Amethyst Garden and finishes about 7.5x7.5. I put it into a Sudberry box - what an easy way to finish a piece of needlepoint. As much as I love my framer, it was nice to skip the trip for this time. It's also easy to take this piece out and pop in another, making it a great option to display a holiday design. I created some holiday colorways for just this purpose and will show them lower in this post. Here's the finished piece in the box! In addition to the Garden design, a bonus design finishing at 4x4 is included with the class. I used components of the Garden to create this "Bluebonnet Star" which will fit in a 4x4 box. The center diamond shape of this is the perfect size for an ornament - I need to stitch one! Here

I'm back from Nashville - had a great time at market. It's always fun to see everybody - it's like a family reunion! I love seeing all the new things, putting my hands on new threads, and most important, visiting with the shopowners who carry my designs. As a former shopowner, I know how hard they work at market - before, during, and after! Tomorrow's Heirlooms, the shop who offered my Elements patterns first, framed all of the Four Elements together in the same frame. They graciously offered to let me use it in in my display and gave me permission to share it - I love the way it came out! Now that market is finished, I'm doing the last of the mailing of my Mystery kits and preparing to teach several classes in person over the next couple of months as well as the online class. One of my goals this year is to update/revise my website. It is showing its age and needs some work. In the meantime, I am going to immediately change the way I send out my newsletters.

I 've got everything ready to go for the Nashville market - that is, I'll be ready to go after stuffing a thousand or so charts into plastic bags when they get here from the printer today or tomorrow! That's the glamorous life of a designer, heehee! Here's what the shopowners will be able to purchase - if you're lucky enough to have a local needlework shop, ask them to pick these up for you. If you don't have a LNS, you may pre-order from me . All the titles are up on the website. Here's everything even though I've previously given some sneak peeks. Spring Meadow  is a stand-alone pattern. Design size is 8x8. Threads used are Gloriana Silk Floss 040 Highland Meadow (2 sk), Princess Perle 040 Highland Meadow, Vineyard Classic Silk C-093, 203, ThreadworX Floss 1009, and Rainbow Gallery Neon Rays N123, Neon Rays + NP37, Splendor S871, Mandarin M869, and Silk Lame SL92.   The Elements - Fire Third of the four Elements, Fire finishes at 5.25x5

The deadline for registration for my Mystery Class has passed but I'm taking registrations for one more day (Tuesday) before placing the final orders for thread and canvas. If you've missed it or can't find the info, here's the link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46618682/SNS%20Razzmatazz%20Mystery%202017.pdf Here's one last sneak peek of my original colorway (Appalachia) and a peek of the Bermuda Reef colorway .    Details about Nashville releases is coming later this week. Kathy

As the deadline registration for Razzmatazz (my online Mystery class) quickly approaches, I'm starting the countdown to the Nashville market - it's only three weeks away and there's still so much to do. I've finished stitching Spring Meadow and am now working on writing the instructions - the fun is over. I loved creating this design; I started in the middle of the canvas with an interesting combination of plaited rays and worked my way out to the border. I took some of the threads from the Highland Meadow colorway of my Serenity design and this is what I came up with. Every time I taught Serenity last year and saw my student's pieces, I wanted to use these threads and colors! It finishes at 8x8 and the colors reminded me of a spring meadow - fresh and soft. I love lavender and teal and they look great together. Stay tuned for more peeks of what will be new at market - Kathy

Registration is officially underway for my 2017 Mystery class. You can read all about it  here. There is a peek above and below. I really enjoyed creating this piece - I challenged myself in several ways to make it more interesting for me to design, stitch, and stay amused! I'm happy to report it is completely finished and I'm now working on something new to release at the Nashville market in March!   Use a color of canvas other than white or eggshell  Leave canvas threads empty to let the color show through  Use a number of straight stitches (instead of diagonal)  Throw in a few beads  Make a more symmetrical design than the last two Mystery projects (Starstruck & Curios)     Here are the colorways I created - the original registration announcement only shows five options but I've done two more because the Prickly Pear and Kelsch colorways from Curios were requested. My original design is based on the Appalachia Watercolour and stitched on Leventeen Bl