So where do I begin? well in case you haven’t figured out by now, I usually march to the beat of a different drummer, so I am starting from the end of my trip…and then we will work foward!

Soooooooo in my quest to check out every needlepoint shop that I can, I finished up my trip by stopping by Cabbage Row Shoppe Needlepoint in Historic Charleston.

A most charming shop and I would’ve loved to have had a seat and stitched away!

A trip in history about the south, why it is named Cabbage Row, palmettos, Rainbow Row and so much more!

Meet the famous Miss Molly… and why is she famous? Well she is in a book named “The Dogs of Charleston” and also the subject of a Barbra Russell canvas. Meet Madonna…Molly’s human and owner of the shop as she poses for me! We had the most delightful visit.

Rainbow Row and I was fascinated with the selected colors of the homes and these fabulous planter boxes!

and you can see the amount of rain that they were having! Please send some here.

I left a day early from the ANG Seminar as I was just too worried that I might not get out of there…see I flew in and out of Charleston and drove to Myrtle Beach. Between Joaquin threatening and epic rains coming, I headed back home. My sistah Meredith was right about Myrtle Beach… and I will just leave it at that!

I still had a wonderful time, great class, awesome teacher, wonderful new stitches, time with friends and lots of great laughs, isn’t that what needlepoint is all about?

I really did take my laptop with me and had great intentions of blogging while I was gone… but I went from what the speed of an old dial-up like in Dallas to nearly non-existent internet in Myrtle Beach!

we’re having a great time here in Dallas at the cash & carry trade show! Lots of vendors exhibiting…the most ever and even more shops buying.

The theme is Shake, Rattle & Roll and we are getting into the spirit of it all! First the props…

Then the events…The staff here is so amazing! The lady on the left normally cooks our breakfast and “super woman” on the right does it all. And I mean DOES IT ALL and always with a smile.

and the poodle skirts! Carol Eix on the left with her daughter standing next to the poodle pinata. They are the creators of the frame weights and snap trays. I am sure glad that I shopped early as she is pretty much is sold out!

The internet connection here in this hotel is sooooooooooooo very slow, that I am really not able to get my pictures from my camera to the lap top. So I would be sharing new stuff with you if I could only get my pictures imported!

did you see the super blood moon eclipse last night?

As I head to Dallas to see all the wonderful new stuff that is debuting…I have a little sneak peak of just one of the canvases that we will see!

Even though this is a cash and carry show, where you get to take a lot of the goodies back to your shop with you, this one is not back from the painters as of yet, so orders are being taken for it.

Many of you know Debbie, even though actually you really don’t…I am making a whole lot of sense? right? well she is responsible for getting so many of the products that we stitch with to the shops! DMC, Anchor, Painters Threads, stretcher bars, lights, needles, Sandy Gilmore canvases, Trubey, dede, Sharon G, Machelle Summerville, books and wow so much more and some I may have forgotton to mention. So Debbie really does touch all of your lives and she is really a very special lady to many of us… and me too!

Sandra Gilmore designed this canvas just for Debbie and you can read all about in the picture. I know that I have my order in for one! but even more exciting news is as soon as we can get a canvas fresh from the paint table, that Tony Minieri will be creating one of his amazing stitch and thread guides for it…so stay tuned! You will need to order the guide from Tony’s website.

I’ve already ordered mine…how about you?

They know, don’t they? but how do they know? AlleyCat was sleeping on my clothes as I was packing as if to say “don’t go, don’t leave us!”

BTW, Mostly Needlepoint is changing servers…and not by my choice! so Saturday night starting at 9PM PDT for about 12 hours, it will require a temporary shutdown. Keeping fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly!

First before you start stitching, it is most important that you find the correct magnets… they must fit in with the theme of the canvas/and or the colors. I think that these both fit the bill, don’t you?

Then you position the cats and let AlleyCat sleep on your lap even if you are sitting there with shorts on and it’s so hot! Make sure that there’s a good baseball game on and then you stitch, and stitch, and rip out and stitch some more.

From the Shake, Rattle and Roll Series; Ice Cream Soda! by Kate Dickerson for Destination Dallas. Join us for class on Sunday night September 27th and there might still be a few openings yet. Learn how to tame that Neon Rays and deconstruct Flair!

With the mercuy approaching 100 right now in San Diego, I will love to dive into that frosty ice cream soda myself!

Check out my magnets!

Headed to Dallas on Thursday…so not sure if I will be blogging from the show, between working and teaching and shopping, there might not be time. Then I head to ANG Seminar in Myrtle Beach. Hope the cats will forgive me when I get back!

We were working away, stitching and learning and stitching and just having a grand ‘ole day with The Embellishment Squad at A Stitch in Time…when, well some mischief started happening.

See its got something to do with some college basketball stuff and an ongoing rivalry between Meredith’s Kentucky Blue and some other team of Maryellen’s.

Some shoes were being held hostage and tied high from the ceiling…and BTW at this point I was called over to take pictures.

Maryellen who had to wear that Kentucky blue shirt, all of a sudden found her hands tied up with a skein of some kinda thread…gosh I hope that they didn’t use the real expensive stuff!

I laughed so hard, I don’t know how I was even able to take these pictures! Such a fun day, that it should have been deemed immoral or illegal!

Seriously, even though we had so much fun, we still stitched up a storm, worked hard and learned a lot. But needlepoint is all about having fun, right?

I am happy to report that I have completed the end of my “must stitch deadline pieces!” stitch guides are written and actually I can actually stitch something that I want to stitch for myself this weekend…but what piece do I want to pick up?

In the meantime, I am getting to hit the road soon as I head to Destination Dallas and then onto Myrtle Beach for the ANG seminar.

AlleyCat is supurr~vising!

and the worst of times… this week marked the 14th anniversary since 9.11, a day, just like Pearl Harbor that will live in infamy. I am sure that we will always remember exactly where we were and what we were doing.

My vet, the only vet that Sylvester and AlleyCat (and others) had known, lost his battle with cancer. He had a way with AlleyCat…and she actually behaved for him, believe it or not?! If you knew Dr. Fenner, this caricature captures him purr~fectly. R.I.P. and I am sure you are at the Rainbow Bridge playing with all those cats and dogs that you compassionately sent there over the years.

We also saw the year anniversary of losing Beth Robertson…

and Elizabeth (of Needlepoint Now) proposed a toast to Beth with her favorite wine “14 Hands Merlot” after the first day of class with The Embellishment Squad…which got me thinking about better times.

Notice that we were rather busy adding to our stash that day (the open spots on the wall should be the hint)

It is so difficult to capture 4 days of stitching bliss and the best of times in just a few pictures… even though I do have more than just a few!

Tony was working on this beautiful Shorebirds canvas with Cindy.

Tony’s office and he just goes off and creates a stitch! How does he do that?

Explaining something to us…

the 4 teachers that make up The Embellishment Squad…

passing on more of his wealth of stitching!

My background stitch is developing… and BTW this was Meredith’s stitch!

Tony working after hours…he never stops!

and stay tuned as there is some mischief developing…

AlleyCat working hard supurrvising!

Where oh where did it go?

See that’s what I get for blogging late last night….but it was so hot that I couldn’t sleep! I really did blog.

If you notice the navigation bar at the top, you will see Home – About – Stitch, Stitch, Stitch and there it is! what is doing there? and how the heck did it wind up there? I don’t have the time to redo it now, so if you just click on Stitch, Stitch, Stitch you can read it…and I will need to ask my crack webmaster what the heck I did!

Technologoy…gotta love it, gotta not love it so much sometimes!

So now you’ve met The Embellishment Squad…so what’s it all about you say? Well first a little about the shop where the class was held. A Stitch in Time in San Marino, California, which is the home to fabulous needlepoint, knitting and a gift shop called Hodge Podge… and trust me I always manange to do some retail therapy in both!

There were 44 of us in class and here we were all getting settled in!

Katie and Maryellen were checking out the canvases…hmmm, which one can’t I live without?

Still getting settled in and almost ready to start class!

Tony, Meredith, Suzanne and Debbie had a little to say to us and then we all introduced ourselves.

This was my canvas, an Elizabeth Turner Designs and my first section that I selected to start stitching on was her obi, worked in Or Nué…meaning nuance of gold. But this time it is could be nuance of silver! As many teachers as were there, that was the many ways I could do Or Nué…

Here was my first row done, but I need to make myself a needle nest as I forgot that I need to have several needles working…this way I will have a place to hold the needles as I move from color to color.

Check out the great scissors fob that we were given! I can tell that Alison and Meredith took the time to co-ordinate the fob to our canvas…and of course I added the correct magent which is a fan!

It’s was a fabulous class as always…and where do I sign up for the next one?

I think that they might even be touching!

Have a great weekend and I will be working and stitching and working and stitching and… well you get the idea!

Early morning stitch discussions with The Embellishment Squad; Meredith, Tony, Debbie and Suzanne. Meredith had come up with a great stitch idea and Tony was creating it.

You can see lots of laughter going on ALL the time!

I have lots more pictures and stuff to share with you from my stitching weekend, a newly decorated shop window and so much more…but for now, it’s time for work!

I was tagged “the official class photographer” and was honored when they asked me to take some pictures of them together. I just sort of got silly with this shot and they were pretty thrilled with the way it came out…you just need to take a lot of pictures in rapid succession and you will get some good ones!

Left to right Meredith Willett, Tony Minieri, Debbie Steihler and Suzanne Howren. If you ever have a chance to take a class with these brilliant needlepoint artists, run, don’t walk to your closest needlepoint shop!

AlleyCat is a very good supurr~visor!