Super-Quick Check-In

Nashville is this weekend -- no, I'm not going.  Can I tell you how much I am glad not to be going?  I will totally miss seeing all of my industry buddies, but with the tornado here two weeks ago, and some changes going on at Southern Pines Animal Shelter, and two kittens to foster, I've been running myself ragged helping out hither and thither.

I do have one release for this weekend.  More is on the way.  Rather than release it all at once, I'm going to do so slowly.  It's much less stress on me.  And in that theme, let me present my new piece, "Let There Be Peace."

It's stitched on 32 count Natural Belfast linen with a limited edition pack of The Gentle Art Sampler Threads that will be available at market this weekend (or by order, if there are packs left.)  I used a few specialty stitches, but the entire thing can be stitched in regular cross stitch, too.  I think it's a nice sentiment.

I had to put down two kittens in the last week and a half -- terrible stomach bug, and trust me, you do not want to know the details.  Poor dearies.  I've still got two, though, and they are doing well -- getting big and fat, shiny black coats, scampering feet and beautiful little whiskered faces.  Will post pictures soon.

Just a few tid-bits

I have worked in the past with this nice gentleman who sells antique samplers.  He has his own place on the web now at www.chris-yeo.com/.  Above is one of the samplers up for sale.  If you contact him, tell him I sent you!

One of my New Year's Resolutions that is now in its second (third?) year is to get the shop organized and cleaned out.  My friend Jennifer has been helping me with that, and things are looking great.  Yesterday I was cleaning through some old photo files on my desktop.  I found a few gems to share...for me, they are reminders of things to be thankful for during a week here in Hattiesburg when so many people lost so much.

Several years ago, my mom and dad footed the bill for a trip to Disney World with my family and my sister's family.  Mom loves posed and pretty pictures.  I take those, too, but I always love the chance to let people be goofy.  I told the boys (Graham, Henry, Harrison) to give me some fish faces.  Harrison is mimicking Nemo's dad there in the middle.

What is it about Thanksgiving?  It's such a great day -- the only thing that needs to be done is meal preparation (which I think is one of the easiest meals to put together for such a large group).  Then eat and enjoy.  Every year, Steve's family comes down from up north to celebrate.  I make everything from scratch (pies, cranberry sauce, the whole nine yards.)  We sip on Whiskey Sours and eat veggies and homemade dill dip while the food cooks.  We watch the Macy's parade, take a nap at some point, spend some time outside.  There's such a feeling of happiness sitting down to that table with people we love.  We all go around and say what we're thankful for.

I found this picture of Lucky, Dusty and Ned, the first little group of kittens we took in back in March of 2011.  We're probably got about 100 fosters in under our belt already.  February is a lull -- no kittens now, but soon.  I keep pictures of my fosters near me and wonder how they're all doing.  These little guys were so sweet, and we were continually amazed by them...how quickly they developed, how much they learned, how fast they grew.  This was the batch we learned on, and I won't forget them.

I will be in and out of the shop this week.  A group of us from the shelter is organizing pet food distribution to a lower-income part of town that was particularly hard-hit.  We also want to go door to door to check on pets.  If there are pets missing, we'll take reports.  Many helping hands are making lighter work of a very big task.  It will be a long time until the city is put back together.

Whoop, I have to go -- just got a call that a dog needs to be rescued.  Wish us all luck here in Hattiesburg!

Don't worry, we are all right

Last night, Hattiesburg was struck by an F4 tornado.  This picture was taken just a few blocks or so from my shop (my shop is located outside the frame to the right -- Lowes is about two blocks down the street from me.  You can see Lowes' sign behind one of the wires.)  No one was killed, and all of the injured so far are "walking wounded," meaning there were no grave injuries.

I finally just made it into the shop to make sure the roof/windows were secure, and the store is in perfect shape.  Harrison did make it to work today at the animal shelter, and all of the animals and the shelter structures are fine, although that was a narrow miss, too.

Much of town is a disaster -- several hundred homes are destroyed, six buildings on USM's campus suffered significant damage, and several of those will need to be razed, our Red Cross building was destroyed, and numerous other businesses/churches have damage ranging from minor to complete.

We were at home when the storm struck -- we have a weather radio and had listened to storm watches, then warnings, and then a tornado sighting.  None of those warnings are strange -- we get them all of the time.  The tornado started on US 589, which is the front of our neighborhood and ripped its way through town.  We experienced a sudden pressure change and strong winds; we lost several large tree limbs and a section of our fence and ended up with an 8-foot long piece of twisted metal gutter from a house in our yard.  Nobody in our neighborhood has gutters, so the storm must have dropped it there from somewhere else.

Many volunteers have converged on town and are helping with the clean up and recovery.  We do have local shelters for people who have been displaced or who are without power.  Thank you everyone for your e-mails and concern.  I will be in the office as usual this week, I hope.  If you'd like to help an organization close to my heart, Southern Pines Animal Shelter is currently taking in all stray animals and waiving surrender fees to help animals that have been displaced by the storm.  The shelter is also having to do rescue work in finding trapped and lost animals.  Click on this link to go to the SPAS web site.  There is a donate button that makes it easy to give a few dollars.  It all helps!

We are definitely counting our blessings, and one of mine is having wonderful friends like y'all!

New Lakeside Linens are here

This doesn't happen very often, so I'm really excited when I get A new color from Lakeside Linens.  But lo and behold...Pat has sent me THREE!  The new colors are Spring Thyme (left), Flagstone (middle), and Cedar Plank (right).  Available in 28, 32 and 36 count for $26.00/quarter (18 by 27 inches) or $52.00 for a half (27 by 36 inches).  They also come in 40 count for $28.00 per quarter/$56.00 per half.

Also, make sure to visit my new eBay store.  I have used eBay for over ten years now to clear out excess/old inventory, but now I'm listing things as "Buy It Now" to make shopping easier for you.  Lots of one-of-a-kind items, old things, new things, fancy things....  Bid on a few, buy a few.  You never know what you're going to find.  (Above is Backyard Blooms Sampler Threads DISCONTINUED limited edition thread set...up for auction now at my eBay store.)

I just received a big ole box of charts from The Scarlet Letter.  I am working on getting those added to my web site, but above you'll see the newest in the line: The Manifesto.  IT IS AMAZING!  How can you not love the heck out of this one?  Anyone brave enough to try it?  Chart is $42.00 and available now.

This weekend I hope to finish up charting my new reproduction sampler, so my model stitcher can get started.  I'm also working on designing a new sampler that will use a limited edition threads set available soon from The Gentle Art... "Let There Be Peace on Earth."

Queen Stitches are fun!

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to stitch more...a lot more.  After 17 years in the business, 2012 left me feeling pretty burned out, and a few times I felt like packing it in.  But, I am a thinker, and so I thought...I still love needlework.  How could I continue doing what I love?  I'm in the process of re-configuring how I operate my business to make certain aspects of it easier, I'm down-sizing in other areas (I don't want to travel much anymore), and I want to focus more on what I love...reproducing and designing samplers and running the store.

I started the Elizabeth Hudson Sampler (by The Scarlet Letter) a while back...maybe two years ago?  It is a BIG one.  I'm stitching it on 36 count hand-dyed linen in the Au Ver a Soie silks.  There is a TON of over-one (all of that verse).  And some Queen Stitches.  Which I happen to love.  In the picture above, lower right corner, you can see one of my Queen Stitch strawberries.  How fun is that?  I just really enjoy them.

I'm pretty pleased with the progress I'm making so far -- the colors are cheery and bright, and when this one is done, it will be a STUNNER.  And all that red....love it!

Here's what the original sampler looks like -- and yes, I've got the charts at the shop if you want to order one (they're $18.00).  At the bottom, Elizabeth stitched family names...I plan on stitching in my family names to make the sampler really mine.

Just this week, we said good-bye to our last foster kitten of 2012, Magi.  We called her "Little Boopie," "Cookie," and "Sugar Foot."  We took her in to help her get used to humans.  She adjusted really well and is now over at the Southern Pines Animal Shelter's Adoption Center waiting for her new home.  We do miss her -- she'll be a lovely pet for someone, and it was fun to host her for a few weeks.

In the meantime, our cats are LOVING all of the extra attention at home.  So much purring.  So happy happy.  This year, I have promised my family only three fosters (at most) at a time.  I am working with the shelter on a new fostering program to help shift the burden onto other volunteers.  I can't foster them all!

Here's my November's Angel (Raise the Roof Designs).  She was actually really fun to stitch, and I love the golds/browns/dark chocolate.  Just two more angels left to do -- December and January!  I'll have to put a picture up soon of all of these angels in a grouping -- they look so CUTE all together!!!

I hope you are well and happy -- are you getting time to stitch?

New year, new news

Has it been a month since I last posted (Yes, I can hear you saying.  It has.)  Well, hey, if I wasn't so full of Christmas cookies and egg nog (still), I'd wade through the piles of wrapping paper, and ... oh, I don't have the energy.  Sorry for the long delay, and it is good to be back writing.

We are down to, can you believe it, ONE LONELY FOSTER KITTEN.  I counted this week and discovered that we fostered/saved 56 kittens this year (six did not survive, but they did get a lot of love and are sorely missed.)  So, 50 cats got to celebrate Christmas this year, because we opened our home.  I'm not wanting to toot my own horn, but ... TOOT TOOT!!!  We love fostering.

This one lonely foster kitten is Magi, who we call "Boopie," "Sweetie," "Honey," and sometimes "Cookie."  She was surrendered by a community member who found her wandering around in the cold.  She was so nervous of humans, that when you picked her up, she shook like a chihuahua; she didn't try to get away, but she was terrified.  We took her home, picked off the fleas, gave her a bath, and she spent the first week hiding under a bed.  Now she has the run of the house.  What a darling dear.

Super Cat was adopted this last week.  We had him for FOUR months, which could be some kind of record.  He will be a tiny guy -- at four months, he still only weighs about two pounds.  He was adopted by a college-age woman who just lost her elderly (blind) cat at a ripe old age.  She also adopted another cat from the shelter, so "Soup" will have company.  She was accepting of Super Cat's vision deficiencies (especially since she has expertise in this area.)  We are so happy that this little friend of ours found his way to a real home, and out of the way of tough old 'possums.

Jack and his sister Pumpkin (see previous posts) were also adopted.  And Jack was adopted with a fellow shelter-mate, Doe.  Salem, Wolfgang, they were adopted, too.  It was a great year for saving kittens.  This coming year, I will be doing less fostering.  I am currently working with the shelter to organize a better foster care system, so I won't feel like I have to take in so many...but I will take in three at a time.

Here's a new sampler to start the new year.  Some of you collected the parts and pieces to this last year for free by placing orders through me.  But now I'm releasing this pattern to the shops.  It's Elizabeth Milner's Sampler from 1848, and it's a beauty.

My good buddy, Jennifer (see "Jen's Stitching Projects" blog link to the left) finished this sampler lickety-split last year, and she brought it to the shop, so I could share photos with you.  Isn't she an amazing stitcher?

You may notice that old Elizabeth had problems with hitting the brakes...some of her lines continue on outside of her border, which she stitched last.  Jennifer said she had trouble with the verse that says a woman should just shut up and make sandwiches already (essentially), but I told her that it should serve as a reminder to her about how far we've come.  And WHOO can resist cute little owls hiding underneath a big bouquet of flowers...see if you can find 'em.  The charts are printing this week and will retail for $12.00.  You can order them through me, or through your favorite-est needlework shop.

Gift break!  (It was a coffee mug -- this picture was taken at mom and dad's in South Carolina -- I went for a quick visit for New Year's.)

One of the fun things about Christmas this year is that we had someone new to celebrate with -- Christiana!  We have taken to calling her "Cha Cha," and she spent Christmas eve with us watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and then she came back over Christmas afternoon for cookies and such.

What-ta-great-family.  We actually all got up at 6 a.m. on Christmas and went (on Harrison's day off) to the animal shelter to scoop poop and feed everybody, so the staff who had to work could get to their Christmas celebrating earlier.  Instead of a crew of three, the seven of us got about 150 animals or so taken care of in a couple of hours, and we got to see the sun rise.  We came back, showered, opened gifts...then took naps.  Well-deserved naps.

Zero the Amazing was most-enamored with the tree this year.  I took this picture of him as we set up the tree.  He wanted to be the first ornament, I guess.  Climbing through all of those branches made his fur very soft, but we found clumps of him here and there.

I will mention, too, that I'm in the process of reproducing another sampler.  I thought THIS TIME it would be fun to do a surprise.  I own a fantastic sampler (along the lines of some of my bigger ones like Ann Grant, Jane Philpott, Sarah Woodham, etc.) that you HAVE NOT SEEN BEFORE.  I'm 20,000 stitches charted so far, and will soon be sending this to my model stitcher/friend, Kathy.

I don't want to give much away, and I am NOT going to post photographs until it's ready.  I think some surprises are good, don't you?  I will tell you that it's got a fantastic red house, a verse in a very unusual U-shaped border and a few peacocks.  As I get closer to release, I will post a supplies list, so shops and stitchers can get ready.

I promise it won't be such a long time before my next post.  Hope y'all are having a very happy new year.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

This past year or so, one of the new things I've been trying is painting.  My friends and I have taken a few classes over at Painting with a Twist, a chain that specializes in making painting a fun experience by encouraging you to bring a friend and a bottle of wine.  I skip the wine -- painting is fun enough.

My friend, Jennifer, is such a good help at the shop all year, and a great personal confidant and supporter.  She loves Santas, and I painted her this canvas as part of her Christmas present this year.  I love the way he turned out, and he was really fun to do.

Lindy at The Silver Needle was bugging me earlier this year to NOT STOP DESIGNING towards the end of the year.  There typically isn't a lot that comes out during December, so I promised her I'd have a few new releases.  The previous blog post showcased "Christmas is Coming."  Here is "Jolly Joy Jingle," another new release for December.  Jennifer stitched this one for me, and she did an awesome and QUICK job.  The fabric is 32 ct. Swamp by Picture This Plus, and the buttons are by Just Another Button Company, of course.

We're down to just four kittens at home right now.  Birdie (above) is a fantastic little cat.  She's happy, intelligent, independent but loving, well-adjusted, and very pretty.  We had her for around a month.  She was easy to have around, and we were pleased to save her life.

Greyfell was Grasshopper's brother (Grasshopper had to be put to sleep over a month ago due to a digestive system malformation).  We just called him "Grey," and he is earnestly loving and always wanting to be held.  He'll make someone a great lap cat.  He's had his surgery and is going over to PetSmart this afternoon to find his new family.

Yes, Halloween seems like eons ago, even though it's only been six weeks or so.  I was tickled to see the above Halloween display on the Shepherd's Bush web site showcasing a Halloween display.  If you look at the top left corner of the display, you'll see two of my designs...Boo Scurry Yum and the old standard...Witchy Washy.  I always love seeing my pieces in other environments.

I've spent the last week or so with the stomach flu/gastroenteritis.  No, it wasn't food poisoning.  And you'd think after a week of eating almost nothing but Saltine Crackers, oatmeal, rice and bananas that I'd be going INSANE for something like ice cream.  But nothing sounds good, still, and I'm hoping to feel much better in the next few days.  The Internet tells me a good bout of what I've got can last ten days.

Hope y'all are enjoying a fantastic Christmas season so far.  I am getting caught up with preparations, and may brave setting up the tree tonight.  I will have a LOT of wide-eyed cats at home.  And while we look at our pretty glass ornaments...they go back in the storage box.