I thought I would share the picture of my Halloween window at the shop! I didn’t decorate my house this year, instead I used all of my energies to do up the windows, as more people get to enjoy it rather than just myself and the cats!

Looks like Mooch and Earl are in for a great Halloween…

and AlleyCat too!

Hope yours is too…I will be home tonight stitching and watching Game 4 of The World Series.

I hope that the cats will forgive me! I don’t know how I did it, but I forgot that yesterday was Black Cat Day…OMG how could I have done that?

I am surprised that it was yesterday, black cat day that is… as shelters and the humane society usually don’t let you adopt black cats at this time of the year. You know too close to Halloween… do you know that black cats are the hardest to adopt? and they usually wait the longest waiting to find their furever home. My “sistah” in black cats, Meredith and I swore to each other that we will always have a black cat just for that reason…

In honor of black cats, I am sharing this brand new canvas by Tapestry Fair called “on the Nile” which make a compendium with Bastet and the others that are in their line. It is NOT available till the January market, but I was able to get one now. Pretty lucky, yes?!

It was sent to Tony Minieri for the master to work his magic and I will be starting it with him when he comes to the shop to teach in a three short weeks. I see lots of beads in my future, don’t you?

I have been living, dreaming, sleeping and breathing thread and bead orders getting ready for Tony…and I can’t wait till he’s there! So much fun, laughs and good times while learning lots of fab, fab, fabulous stitches. He enriches your stitching knowledge so much!

AlleyCat being AlleyCat…

Lately I haven’t shown much of what I’ve been stitching… as most of my year has been spent working on OPP’s! What is that you say?

Other people’s projects…

This is a canvas by Pepperberry Designs and is in the November/December issue of Needlepoint Now.

I love working on her designs and I think that I have run out of fingers counting how many Pepperberry’s that I have stitched!

I didn’t seem to have taken quite as many pictures of my progress this time around. Well after all it is a small canvas! I used Twinkles and beads and sequins and had so much stitching this as I watched it come to life.

The stitch guide will be in the Needlepoint Now magazine for you to follow along!

and now my stitching time is now mine, mine, mine! as I started not 1, but 2 canvases last week…one with Brenda Hart and one with Laura Taylor. What was I thinking? and another new one with Tony Minieri in 3 weeks. OMG, I am outta control!

and my stitching assistants are hard at work as usual…

it is 60 days and counting to you know… Just saying! My BFF can give you the exact days to the Christmas at any time of the year!

These were some of the darling new designs from Strictly Christmas…

and what about this one? Santa holding a sock monkey… too cute!

and if your grandson loves pirates, these 2 stockings are perfect!

I really like the Santa pirate…and in case you don’t recognize the artist, these are by Rebecca Woods.

and this fabulous piece is by Share’s Ones Ideas.

I do have more new Christmas that debuted in Dallas and Halloween too… but you will just need to come back another day!

Tomorrow after work, I am going to start shopping for a new lap-top, a new Mac. This baby has been good to me for 5 years now, but I need one at the shop for stitch guides and charting and one at home. I get tired of bringing it back and forth and then I worry that something might happen.

AlleyCat, most normal kitties get inside the bag… well that’s right, I forgot you’re not most kitties!

Goeblins and Gouhls and Ghosts… oh my! Even though it is too late to have your Halloween stitching finsihed for this year, it is fun to stitch in the season and have it ready for next year.

This was a new canvas by Elizabeth Turner Collection introduced in Dallas!

We had a crazy weekend in the shop of classes with Brenda Hart and Laura Taylor… and this WAS the part of the magnet display before classes started. The girls had so much fun shopping for magnets as some of them were buying 10, 11, 12 each. Seriously! Just like potato chips, you can’t have just one…and most of these that you see here went home with a stitcher. I guess I will be doing another big magnet order before Tony Minieri gets here next month!

I am sure that many of you have seen this one by now, since Melissa Shirley previewed it on Facebook!

But have you seen these by Brenda Stofft? Love, love, love these! Did I say love?

and all of these wonderful designs by Nenah Stone! This was her first market and I think that she was quite the hit. She will be at the TNNA Winter Market in San Diego and I really want to book a trunk show with her at the shop!

I do still have more new to share with you…but time is all I need. Mostly Needlepoint is approaching 1000 blog entries. Well 984 to be exact! and when we get there, we will need to do some celebrating!

AlleyCat is missing showing off her pretty face…I think that this is a great color on her, don’t you?

A new thread by Rainbow Gallery Capri…a matte type thread that is used off the card as is. I have not had the opportunity to stitch with this as of yet…but as soon as I do, you will be the first to hear about it.

New colors of Twinkle. Now I did just use this thread on my newest project for Needlepoint Now which will mail in 2-3 weeks. I do enjoy stitching with this thread and there are some great new colors!

Designer rings of the current color line of Twinkle!

Overdye Baroque Silk called Treasures from The Pure Palette!

New colors of Gloriana!

Isn’t this impressive seeing all these threads together?

Gloriana is also reintroducing one of their threads from way back…which is a cashmere/silk blend. But where did I put those samples?

Look at all these threads! The large one on the right is Silk Lamé Braid… all 192 colors.

me and my kids!

probably won’t see you will next week as we have Brenda Hart AND Laura Taylor teaching here this weekend…now it can’t get much better than that!

of course this one is my favorite! and this would be such a fun one to stitch…

Balloon Races wasn’t new at this market, but is a great canvas! It makes me think of the annual balloon festival that Albuquerque is so well known for.

each and every one os fabulous in its own right… from patriotic to Christmas to florals and more!

and now I am going to give the shop… Needle Nook of La Jolla … a shameless plug and say that we are having Ewe and Eye’s trunk show right now! These specific canvases that you see may not be loaded on the website as of this moment, but you can always give us a call 800.685.1711 or e-mail ndlpoint@needlenook.com

just saying….

There is so much to say what is great about going to market! is it the new canvases? the new threads? laying tools? books? going out to dinner with the gang? socializing? well it’s all of that and more!

These are the new designs by Laurel Burch that Danji brought to life on canvas for our stitching pleasure. Of course I have to start with Fat Cats!

This one is Angel Cat…

Love Horses…

and these two too!

Actually it is a short 3 months to the next market here in San Diego….

I think that this might have been my shortest time I’ve ever spent at seminar… ever! Actually this was first day (since we are working backwards!) and of course I headed down to the shop very first thing in the morning to check it all out.

This was the stitching area very first thing in the morning! I have never seen it this full before! Maybe it was the central location, maybe it was the sunshine, who knows? BTW this is the only time we would see sun!

Then it was onto the silent auction! The hours were extended from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning…what a great idea!

I ran into Tony and Suzanne, visiting with the 2 sisters that take from them quite often. One lives in Los Angeles and the other in Switzerland

Tony looked very dapper in his shorts! and he was kind enough to pose for his adoring fans, but this is NOT one of my better pictures!

By now the stitching area was really filling up. But no stitching for me, as I was headed out to do a little sightseeing.

Natasha’s Needlepoint on Pawley’s Island was my first stop!

Such a great shop with a warm, welcoming feeling! A group of ladies were stitching away and having a grand ole time. Natasha gave me a big Southern welcome!

Taking in the local sights…

Expo! on Wednesday night!

That’s it! I will call this my mini seminar…

Stay tuned for lots of new stuff from Dallas!

This was my selected class at ANG Seminar in Myrtle Beach; Empire of the Sun by Toni Gerdes. I was thrilled that I got my first choice!

We worked on a panel at a time, learning new stitches and some new tips and tricks. A few of the girls at the shop always ask me “so why do you take classes so often?” To learn, I answer! and secondly, it is being with everyone. It is the journey for me, not necessarily the destination.

I think that this was my favorite! Pattern couching using 2 colors of silk.

Toni was lending a little helping hand to my seatmate. I was thrilled to be in class with Dinny and she has been a stitching mentor for me for a very long time. And a great person to hang out with!

On Thursday during seminar, the Life Patron Luncheon is held! A great lunch, a wonderful gift of a hand made scissors block made with local woods and then a speaker, talking about samplers of years gone by stitched by very young girls of the “low country.”

Thursday evening was nothing exciting, since at that point I had decided I was leaving earlier than originally planned…so I was packing and planning. I am sad that I left early, but glad that I did and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of the Carolinians (is that a word?)