News and Notes from Stitcher’s Treasures

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday, we were busy trying to deal with shooing Vicki out of the shop for some much needed time with her hubby for his birthday and a minor plumbing mishap during our Thursday Night Stitching!

Dorothy and I arrived to our UPS man bringing us presents first thing this morning, and we wanted to let you know that we just got in some really terrific books from the TNNA show, including the popular “Subversive Cross Stitch”, as well as some really pretty Gingher scissors, and the cutest tape measures! We only have a few types of them in the shop right now, but we are happy to check and see if any of the other styles are available and order them for you!

We’ve redone the the shop for Valentine’s Day, and we’ve planned a special chocolate themed event to coincide with the Downtown Business Association’s Second Saturday event for the 14th. We hope you’ll take time to stop by and see us, even if you can’t join us all day for the Stitch-In.

Just a reminder that Vicki travels to Nashville next week for the Cash and Carry show, so if you have heard whispers from a designer, fiber, or fabric company that will be there has something special, call the shop and let her know by Wed so she can add your wishes to her list! Please stay tuned to the blog and watch your email for a newsletter to let you know how we will be handling the Nashville arrivals and their availability in the shop.

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

Whoo hoo! Another finish to share!

Hey Everyone,

Just a quick note today to show you how Connie’s Sammarkand piece turned out. This is another of Alex’s classes, I want to say it has been about 3 years since this one was started, but I’m not certain. If this piece, or Dorothy’s awesome chess board, inspire you and make you want to play with fibers and different stitches, please make sure to give the shop a call and get on the class list for Alex’s next class, which should be in June. He started teaching the one they are doing now over Thanksgiving, but I think that if you started now, you could easily get caught up to where you could learn with the group at the next class. Congratulations to Connie for finishing this beauty, I just love the colors she used!

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

Climbing your Everest!

Ok, so Sharon said I needed to chime in here with this talk of our Everest projects. Lots of people say that I stitch very quickly and while that is true to an extent, there are some tricks that I use to make the most of my stitching time.

One of the most important things that I do is I MAKE stitching one of my priorities each day. I try to stitch for at least an hour each day. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. I never watch TV without stitching. Of course, this makes it hard to want to go to the movies sometimes because I hate to not have something in my hands!

Another technique I use is multiple needles. I keep several needles threaded at a time. I used to only work with six at a time (that is how many are in a package!) but since I discovered bulk needles, I sometimes have up to 30 needles threaded. This only works if you have some way of keeping track of what color is what or if you are working in large blocks of color.

So, anyway, that is my three cents worth (inflation, you know) about my stitching techniques. Please let us know if you have any other suggestions. In a future post, we will discuss two-handed stitching!

Keep Stitching!
Emperess Enabler

Upcoming Classes at Stitcher’s Treasures

Hi Everyone,

Hope you had a great weekend, we were very busy with our clutter diet sale on Saturday. Our staff had time to do a meeting in the afternoon, and we scheduled our classes for the next several months, as well as planning out our All Day Stitch dates through August. We thought you would like a heads up on the schedule so that you can call and reserve your place in any of the classes that interest you. In some cases, the details are still being worked out, but you can call for any of our classes and ask to be placed on the student list.

First is our hardanger class, which is happening this Saturday, January 31st, from 9:30 until noon. We have only 2 more spaces remaining for this class, so please call as soon as possible to reserve a space, and for those of you attending, please be sure to be ready to start at 9:30, as class will be ending promptly at noon as Vicki has another commitment in the afternoon.

Next, we have the All Day Stitch on Valentine’s Day. As with the last few dates, we will be meeting for breakfast at the Golden Egg Omelet House, but the time is changing to 8am instead of 7:30. We get to sleep in a little more now that the shop hours have changed for the winter. Please RSVP and let us know if you are calling ahead to be on the breakfast list or to just reserve a seat to stitch in. We like to be able to let the server know how many of us to expect, so please let us hear from you by the 13th.

In March, we have another All Day Stitch scheduled for March 14th, details are the same as above for February. We also have one of the Victorian House/Flint Cottage classes scheduled on the 21st for those of you that are signed up. If you are interested in this class, please call Vicki for details. She is here usually Tuesday through Saturday, from 10am to 5pm.

April will be bringing us several exciting things! We will have a class with Jill from Danji designs, although we don’t have the date confirmed just yet. She will be teaching one of the Taj Mahal pieces, and yes, you can call and ask to be put on the class list. Nancy has another of the house/cottage classes on the 4th, and we are excited to be hosting a trunk show from All About Stitching. We’ll have more about this playful needlepoint design company in the next few weeks.

Well, we don’t want to overwhelm you with too many details at once, so we’ll save the rest of the schedule for another day. Remember, if you have any questions, or need to get signed up for a class, please let us know by calling us at (760)737-3113, or emailing the shop.

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

Friday’s Progress Update

Hey Everyone,

It’s Friday, so that means time to share our progress with you! We have one finish, by Susan, some of us wanted to share what our “Everest” looks like, and some of us just have regular old progress pictures for you! Let’s start with a finish:

This is Susan’s Blue Sky Sampler. Didn’t it turn out great?

Who wants to scale Everest with me? Here’s Dorothy’s, which is from one of Nordic Needle’s Award Winning Design booklets. I think hers was in the 2000 one.

Here’s Ginia’s, who left us a comment about her Everest in the original post. By the way, if you’d like to tell us what your Everest is, or even let us share pictures of it, feel free to email the shop!

In bringing her Everest to the shop and us taking pictures, we have finally been able to get to what keeps Ginia from tackling this project and finishing it. The problem is that she doesn’t like the colors that the company she hired to chart the piece used to depict the shirts on her boys. The red is charted as pinks, and the black is a faded gray. I understand her point about not wanting to continue this version now that she has grown as a stitcher and sees where it could be done better! Do any of you have a recommendation for a company that could chart this photo for her with better results? Please leave us a comment if you can help.

Here is Vicki’s Everest, the beautiful Nativity by MarBek. Today was only the second time I’ve ever gotten to see her version of this set of charts, and I can tell you pictures don’t do the panels justice. She is done with all but the center panel, and is close to done with it. I have to talk Vicki into telling the story of this piece on the blog one of these days, because she tells it so well, and I think you all would be rooting for her to finish it, like I am now.

The last of the Everest pictures is also the first of the progress pictures for today. I’ve put 34 needles into Queen of Freedom as of the time I took this picture this morning. I had made a goal for myself to try and put in 6 needles a week. You may remember that this is the same approach I took when finishing the Sedona piece for my mother in law. I figure if it worked for that, it should certainly work for a piece I actually like!

Dorothy’s progress on Lizzie Kate’s new Halloween series, Boo Club:

And here is Dorothy’s work on “In My Wildest Dreams”. This is a companion piece to the Crazy Dreams and Perspective Dreams that have been featured as classes here at the shop. The girls have taken to calling this one “Crazy Dreams on Crack”!

This is Hiromi’s Nutcracker canvas:

This is Corliss’ progress on Garden Recipe:

That is all we have time for today! Don’t forget to call, click, or come in tomorrow for our big Clutter Diet sale. Shop early for our best prices and selection!

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

One Day only Clutter Diet sale!

Hey everyone,

Just in case you haven’t gotten the news in your inbox yet, the shop is going on the Clutter Diet for one day only, this Saturday, January 24th. From 8 to 11 am, you will save 25% on anything in stock at the shop. From 11am until 2pm, you save 20%, and from 2pm until 5pm, you save 15%. This only applies to in stock purchases, and we will not be able to honor any other discounts or coupons during this special sale. However, the sale does include our current trunk show by Jody Designs, and we are able to take phone and email orders if you are not local to the shop. If you need more information, just call or email us.

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

TNNA Spotlight: Namaste Bags

Hey Everyone,

Today’s focus from TNNA is the beautiful bags of Namaste Inc. We featured these wonderful bags in a trunk show during last year’s Fashion Week, and ordered just a few bags for in shop from the show. We are happy to order any bag you’d like, in any style that you’d like as a special order. Just call the shop at (760)737-3113, send Vicki an email, or stop by and see us!

First up is the Buddy Case. We ordered some of these in every color, and they should be in the shop soon:

Next is Zuma. I think this is the one I just had Vicki order for me in eggplant. I’ve shown it to you here in peacock and olive:

This is Newport, in Hollywood Pink and Turquoise:

Last, but not least, is Malibu, the one you see many of us from the shop carrying as our everyday purse, shown here in charcoal and saddle:

Be sure to come back and visit us tomorrow for a very special announcement!

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

TNNA-J. Malahy Designs

Hi Everyone,

The first of many designers we met at TNNA over the weekend to share with you is Judy Malahy of J.Malahy Designs. Judy caught our eye with the following canvas set, which can be ordered for you:

Judy is a delightful woman with a great eye for color, and we hope you will enjoy the additions of the following canvases to the shop when they arrive:

There is one other brand new canvas that we ordered from Judy, but you’ll have to wait for it to get to the shop to see! Please join us tomorrow for more from TNNA’s event at the San Diego Convention Center.

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

Needlepoint, cross stitch, and fibers, OH MY!

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days, but we have been knee deep in the TNNA show, looking for all the best and brightest the vendors had to offer for our customers. I’m overwhelmed by all the sights and experiences we’ve had over the last few days, but I’ve gathered enough things to blog about for all of you for the next couple of weeks. Check back with us tomorrow when I’ll start to show off some pictures and share some stories about the various designers we’ll be featuring at the shop over the next several months. In the meantime, why don’t you call, click, or come in and help us make some room for all the cool new things we’ve ordered? If you start stitching your Halloween or Christmas project now, you could have it finished and framed or off to the finisher’s and back in plenty of time for the holiday in 2009!

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures

TNNA’s show is this weekend

Hey Everyone,

My fingers are still a bit ouchie, so I thought a quick post today to let you know TNNA’s San Diego trade show is this weekend, Friday through Monday. If there is something you would like us to keep an eye out for, please try and give us a call this afternoon, or early tomorrow, so we can add your thoughts to our list of items to order. TNNA’s show is primarily needlepoint, but there are some threads and accessories that are great for cross stitchers or needlepointers either one. If memory serves, this is where we found the awesome Namaste bags last year that many of us are now carrying as purses. I’m hoping they are there this year because I’m thinking of talking Vicki into ordering one of those new styles they have in their new color, peacock!

Keep Stitching,
Stitcher’s Treasures