I'm BAAAACK

It's been a week since I posted and it feels like a year! We went to visit my mom for several days and have an early Thanksgiving. We had a nice visit, but I'm glad to be home. I'm such a homebody. I like sleeping in my own bed, drinking my own coffee, watching my zillion TV shows WITHOUT commericals. (I love my DVR.) PLUS, while I was away, I got another wholesale order from Nordic Needle, so I have three dozen sets of counting pins to make! And I have an order for fobs and stitch markers to coordinate with a line of knitting bags my LNS is carrying now. And to those of you who have been Christmas shopping at TJBDesigns, I thank you.

But the main reason I'm glad to be home is that I have so much stitching left to do in a short 5 weeks. I'm still stitching ornies and I have to finish about 26 of them! That's the really tedious part. I'll be in a cord twisting tizzy. Thank goodness I have the old electric hair braider to make it go faster. I can't believe I used to used a pencil to twist cord. That's like watching TV without a remote!

Anyway, I have finished a couple more ornies, including the pink angel I showed you only a start of.

I'll try to keep up with the blog a little better, but don't hold me to it...at least for the next few weeks. I really need to catch up on my blog reading too.

Tweet

Great Hardanger tutorial

Hardanger has what I call a huge "Oh, Wow"! factor. It's one of my favorite forms of needlework, probably because it's logical and symmetrical. Yes, I'm very left-brained. LOL. I love to teach it, but teaching someone how to read the diagrams is the most important part since there are so many filling stitches that no one can actually memorize all of them. And, as I'm fond of telling anyone I teach, "I'm not going home with you".

I get the Nordic Needle email newsletter every Monday morning. Recently Roz posted a great tutorial on hardanger. Since this is one of my needlework favorites I'm always thrilled when I can convince someone that it isn't as hard as it looks. The link provided is for this specific archived newsletter, so if you don't get the newsletter regularly be sure to sign up for it and check the rest of the archives. There is some wonderful stuff there.

Happy Stitching!

Tweet

I'm in the latest Nordic Needle catalog!!

Woohoo! In fact, this is a GREAT BIG WOOHOO! I got the lastest Nordic Needle mail order catalog and my beaded scissor fobs were right there on page 17! I am so excited.

And to add to the craziness, the scissor fob I listed Tuesday on Etsy wasn't there when I checked the site late yesterday afternoon. I panicked, thinking I had done all that work and neglected to "Save" it. Well, lo and behold, it sold already! How's that for timing?

And Thursday, I completed a custom order of tassels for a lovely lady in Barcelona, Spain. It's amazing that someone thinks my little tassels are pretty enough for decorating.

Now, for the stitching update. It dawned on me that Mother's Day is coming quickly. I have been stitching a sampler on 40 count silk gauze for my mom for the last several Mother's Days. So today I pulled out a cute one from Threads Through Time. It's called "The Bee Hive Sampler". Hopefully, it won't take more than a week to stitch. Of course, then I have to risk cutting off my fingers on the mitre saw making a frame that will be about 2" x3"!

So "Grace Mason" will have to go on hold for just a little while. And I really hate that because I don't like to have more than one project going at a time. But allowances must be made for deadline stitching. And I think being late for Mother's Day would be reaaally bad.

Tweet

Nordic Needle is selling my scissor fobs!

I am so excited! Nordic Needle, for those of you who don't know, is big in the needlework industry and the mecca of hardanger. They have a retail side which includes world-wide mail order, on-line http://www.nordicneedle.com/, and a brick-and-mortar shop in Fargo, ND. I was lucky enough to visit the shop when my amazing husband surprised me with a trip for our 25th anniversary! BTW, we went to the Badlands, and Mt. Rushmore, and Crazy Horse museum too since we were in the area. ROFL. But, I digress...

NN is also a wholesale distributor of needlework supplies of all kinds (cross stitch, needlepoint, hardanger, Brazilian embroidery, punch needle, ...) to retail needlework shops all over the world. In February they chose to distribute my scissor fobs with tassels. I was beside myself. Tuesday, my friend and avid supporter, Donna, owner of Angelwing Needlearts (my LNS), called to tell me my fobs were pictured in "Needlework Retailer" magazine. It's an industry magazine to introduce new products to shops. The description was so complimentary I want to hire their copywriter. Then I checked the web site and there they are, up close and personal.
http://www.nordicneedle.com/PROD/000-00-00/7144.html

I can't tell you how gratifying it is to have such a highly respected company in my industry appreciate my work. It's humbling and motivating. Can you see me doing the HAPPY DANCE?

So, I guess I better get to work now.

Tweet