Or even your not so local Needlepoint shop! Please! As if you don’t sooner or later we won’t be here. What are you going to do then?

I spend a lot of time on Facebook in Needlepoint Nation and I’m so tired of reading “I bought it on Amazon” or “you can find it on Amazon” why don’t we think that way about our shops? Well we need to!

I don’t want to hear that I don’t have a local needlepoint shop as many shops have a great online presence. We spend $1000’s to keep our websites up to date, adding, deleting and tweaking. Yes it is impossible to have every canvas in stock at all times, along with every thread, stretcher bar, Evertite and so on… but speaking for the Needle Nook of La Jolla, we have a huge inventory! We are happy to order if we don’t have it and I ship worldwide EVERY DAY!  We place orders for books, canvases, threads and more EVERY DAY! so that we have product to ship to you.

I love Amazon as much as you do and I order from them frequently, but needlepoint I order from a needlepoint shop, PERIOD! Are you going to find someone at Amazon who will spend an hour with you on the phone going over threads? Are you going to have someone pick out the perfect needle, the correct this or that for you?

Carolyn Hedge Baird’s newest book “Stitchpirations” I have shipped around 30 books and I have more on order. When I turned in my 4th order on Saturday, Carolyn emailed me back saying “you’ve got to be kidding me” and I said no!

So please support your local shop or even your not so local shop. We need you and you need us!

Now I will step down from my soapbox and go and stitch with AlleyCat!

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone! Wether they be 2-legged or 4-legged kids or even somewhere in between, hope it was a great one! I worked for a few hours at the shop this morning. Brenda Hart has been teaching this weekend and I wanted to prepare lunch for the ladies as a Mother’s Day treat! Where were we going to order lunch that wouldn’t take forever? Thanks to Hillary who brought in the most delicious croissants!

I finished my ornament last week in remembrance of my trip to Japan. Canvas by Kathy Schenkel. It was just a year ago that we left on a trip of a lifetime! And 2 years ago was my trip to London with Needlepoint Now.

I haven’t been stitching much this last week, but we’re going to rectify that this week! Not sure what I’m going to work on, but I’m picking up that needle!

Notice the orchid with the silver sticks…well a month or so ago, it sprouted a baby orchid plant from one of the nodules. I have had that happen before, but never develop a bud! And the baby bud “bloomed” and just in time for Mother’s Day!

I really don’t have anything else too exciting to share with you..and a lot of it has to do with getting pictures transfered from my phone. Maybe I just need to break down and buy an IPhone as I hear that the pictures automatically transfer to your laptop for you! And that’s a decision for another day.

Here’s AlleyCat in all her glory who must join me while I’m my stitching. Love it as she keeps my lap nice and warm!

I’ve been getting back into the old time swing of things as I make time almost every night to stitch at least an hour or two! It makes AlleyCat very happy as she parks herself on my lap and snoozes away. She doesn’t ever bother my threads, but her shedding…well that’s a different story!

I liken her to “Pigpen” in the Peanuts comic strip as she is always shedding and her fur just surrounds her in the air. Just hope that I am not working with white threads and if then, I usually do banish her from my lap as the white threads don’t stay white!

I’m working on this canvas by Thorn Alexander of my favorite bubbly! Stitch selection by Susan Portra and she had me extend the gold border to all 4 sides! It has been properly padded with #3 pearl cotton and then satin stitch over that with 1/8” Kreinik ribbon. It’s the first time I’ve used the 1/8” ribbon and the only way it’s getting through the canvas is by pulling the needle with a pair of pliers! As I say “no pain, no gain!” Usually Kreinik is spooled with 10meters, but this is only 5, of which I didn’t expect that!

I still have plenty more in the working pile, such as my Tokyo ornament, the Perfume Bottles with a Susan Portra stitch guide, a special ornament for a dear friend and so much more…but who’s counting? How about you, are you able to move anything to the finished pile?

 My orchids are doing mahvelously! Note this one that has the silver branches… well it has sprouted a new little plant from the bloom stem and not only that there is a bud in the middle of that little plant. I will be anxious to see it when it flowers!

AlleyCat is waiting for me to settle in for a night of stitching. Almost time little one, almost time.

A dear friend of mine had to say goodbye to her dear Ollie today. He left us all too soon as he lost his battle with cancer. My heart aches for her and her family as he crossed the Rainbow Bridge. He will be waiting for you…

Ollie was a very special poodle and I quickly fell in love when I dog sat a few years back. He became my poodle blanket when I would lay on the couch to watch tv. Found out after the fact that they weren’t supposed to get on the couch, but I loved every minute of it. You’ll be missed…

Is it the baseball that puts me in my zen? Or am I just trying to make up for lost time? Seriously for about a 2 month span, I barely picked up a needle!

I am really enjoying working on this canvas by Thorn Alexander! Stitches by Susan Portra and so far I’ve been following her suggestions, with no changes. I am sure you’re wondering why those black lines are drawn in on the green? Or maybe not!? We’re extending the heavier gold border all around. I’m having an issue with 1 of the stitches not working, but Susan will be in the shop next weekend, so I’m sure we’ll figure it out!

Do you remember my New Years resolution? Well I completed it by 50%! I finished 1 of the ornaments when I threw down the gauntlet saying for every new canvas started, I would finish something!

This was not part of my challenge, but does this count? This is a Charley Harper canvas and was a class taught by Meredith Willett at the winter TNNA in Las Vegas. Working on that nest was really a step out of the comfort zone… stitch it so it looks messy?! Seriously? I need to add the worm and the eyes which the latter is done with a 12ss Swarovski crystal. Meredith told us that a 12ss covers 4 canvas threads on 18 mesh canvas.

This was last night before AlleyCat hunkered down on my lap for her catnap. Time for me to settle in for a long day of stitching and baseball!

I don’t really have any Easter stitching to share with you, so it’s an orchid or two! Some of these are new additions and some are reblooming! They absolutely love this window and many are always shooting up new bloom spikes!

I do buy some of my orchids at our local florist Adelaide’s in La Jolla, but many come from Trader Joe’s…but shhhh don’t tell Adelaide’s! But for $10 how can you say no? I keep a few at the shop and it’s always like having fresh flowers!

So what are your plans for today? Mine is stitching and watching baseball and more baseball and stitching. I really need to head to my storage unit to dig out “stuff” for the next window displays at the shop…but do I want to do it today? After all it is a holiday? Only time will tell…

Do you recognize that butt? Well it belongs to AlleyCat? She loves sleeping on my lap when I’m stitching, but never bothers my threads!

Believe it or not, I’ve been stitching! I remember telling my sistah Meredith Willett years ago if I couldn’t get in at least 2-3 hours, I didn’t even bother trying to stitch. She told me “don’t be crazy! Even an hour a day, you can accomplish a lot!” Well I’ve been trying to practice what she preaches and slowly making headway on my Veuve Clicquot by Thorn Alexander.

I’m also practicing taking pictures with my iPad, then cropping and adjusting them for the blog. Yes I have my laptop back, but somewhere along the way in the Mac world I must’ve fallen asleep and missed so much to the point that I need to go back to weekly Mac classes as I’m lost! So here I am on my IPad and seeing that I have a way to go with my pictures. But practice will make purr~fect sooner or later.

I was on the hunt for just the right magnet, remembering that we had these new chatter buddies from the Meredith Collection and this works…what do you think?

I’ve got the 2 smaller inner borders done along with the some of the wording. Moving onto the background and will bead the larger letters which will consume most of my day along with a baseball game or two. Thought too that I might work in my storage unit for a few hours straightening up and pulling out the next window display for the shop…or maybe not?! We’ll see how the mood strikes me!

Since I’ve been doing the blog from the iPad the last few times, I need to take more pictures with this contraption! It’s a little awkward doing so, but I’m trying…really I am!

This is AlleyCat and I stitching the other night. She positions herself on my lap under the canvas and will sleep there for a few hours, or until I disturb her! I really try hard not to, as she will not be pleased and then she sasses me! It’s usually when I absolutely have to go to the bathroom is when I disturb her slumber!

I’m working on a canvas by Thorn Alexander which is a new artist. It’s all about Veuve Clicquot, my favorite champagne! I’ve been stitching the smaller letters and next will be beading the larger letters. I will need to remember to take a picture of the entire canvas for you.

So you ask why I am stitching in “the ditch” or in “the well?” It’s not my first choice mounting the canvas that way, but taking it with Susan Portra, that is her preference. Her reasoning is #1 with the bars on top, it keeps your hands off your work and #2 when you turn your canvas over to end your threads, it keeps the stitches from being rubbed against the table! Plus I will be doing a fair amount of beading coming up and I do like the bars that way when beading!

Getting caught up at the shop! Yeah! I need to get more thread orders placed which will be my focus the next few days. I liken it to painting the San Francisco bridge, as  when you’re ordered all the thread lines, it’s time to start all over!

Its 7 days and counting to first pitch… can’t wait!

AlleyCat of course here to say Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Actually we both do!

Did you miss us? Well we sure missed you! So in the never ending saga of my new computer…I had it long enough to print some much needed stitch guides and do a blog! Then I realized during the migration of info from the external hard drive to the new computer that all of my pictures didn’t make the transfer. So I gave it to my crack IT guy at the shop and he was going to work his magic…adding no hurry really!

I don’t know if I told you a while back that I hung up my hat for Needlepoint Now. Elizabeth and I had this talk when I went back to the shop that one day I would no longer be able to do the magazine work. Well it was over 2 1/2 years later and I called her one day and said that this was it! It was too daunting to work a long day at the shop and then come home and work on guides. It was really a blessing in disguise especially since my computer acted up. I will still do new product reviews, but that’s it!

So back to my computer…my IT guy called me and said well we found about 3-400 pictures and I commented that maybe add a zero to that total. Come to find out there’s around 22,000 pictures! Wow! We wound up installing a new hard drive in the old computer, so I can leave one at the shop and the other at home. I will probably pick it up next week, but in the mean time I thought I would try the blog on my iPad. It works, but I don’t have many pictures…so all you get is me under the quilt and AlleyCat on top!

Blue Bonnett was great! It gave me a little breather before the Getaway, which was a smashing success! Thanks to my amazing team members… they are really my San Diego family and couldn’t have done it without them!

Now I’m enjoying a weekend off and spent the day doing some much needed housework! I will finish up tomorrow with the vacuuming, which AlleyCat hates of course…but for now it’s a little wine time and I’m baking a piece of salmon which is the extent of my cooking!

Did you miss me? did you wonder if I had fallen off the face off the earth? well I can tell you that being withoiut my Mac is sorta kinda like something I haven’t experienced in a very long time.

A funny thing happened on the way to… I needed to have a little work done on my car, nothing serious, just the time for maintenance based on my mileage! Well I thought I would bring my laptop, blog and work on some other things for the shop. Sounded like a good idea, right? Why waste the time, which is somethinhg that I don’t like doing.

Well my computer kept shutting off, and it kept shutting off, so I figured why fight it and I didn’t try to revive it. I got to work and it was fine, excpet for no internet…same thing when I got home, so whynot reboot it? well it would never come back on and based on my work schedule and when the Apple store had an opening at the Genius bar, it would be at least a week or more. So my time came and the verdict was that I would need to reinstall the software…and notice I said “I” as it was too old for Apple to do it. So basically my computer crashed, but I did have everything backed up on my hand dandy external hard drive, so not to worry! An 8 year old laptop, you served me well, so its was time for a change.

Came back from market and went shopping the next night for a new Mac! So between lots of interruptions of being sick, working, not feeling well and being locked  out of my new computer…I am finally up and running! The best thing so far about merging from the external hard drive is it seems to remember all of my passwords and settings. I am going to have an issue with pictures, but that is something for another day and am guessing that I will need to uninstall the printer and install a new one…not going to reinstall an 8 year old printer!

So no pictures right now. AlleyCat and I are good and am ready to leave her again for a few days as its time for Blue Bonnet stitching retreat…and then its my big Getaway retreat at the shop, so I will see you when I see you. The Olympics are here and soon it will be baseball season. I hope you missed me as much as we missed you!

If you’ve been reading my blog for any time now, you know that I love, love, love Mooch. Did I say love? Every so often I find a special one, one that makes me laugh out-loud, is poignant or just purr~fect…well those get framed to hang on my walls where I can enjoy them always! This makes me think that really is nothing wrong with taking a nap, right?

There were or should I say are a few things on my resolutions list. First and foremost was getting my stitching closet somewhat organized. Refreshing my memory of what I have. Now the shop was closed for a few extra days, so I did have time to work on it and was able to complete the task! I said nothing about getting threads organized, just projects and I was thrilled!

I picked out 2 pieces to be working on now as I promised myself for every new piece that I start, I want to finish something. I have 2 classes coming up this month, so there’s 2 pieces, right? Notice that I picked small things. Home Sweet Home will be a shop model as it was the finishing that I saw that made me track this canvas down.

The Tokyo ornament will be a remembrance of my Japan trip. Kathy Schenkel was kind enough to paint the Tokyo for me, so I would think that it’s in her line now?! Actually both of these canvases are from Kathy Schenkel!

Best thing about stitching? Well it’s all the proper supurr~vision that I get! She’s a good girl and doesn’t mess with my threads! I have used a Grip-It stand for years and it sort of just fell apart on me, so I’ve been using this Lowrey from the shop. Can I tell you how much I don’t like it? I’ve been scouring eBay looking for another Grip-It and hopefully I bought the right one!