Pelicans everywhere--done, done, done

I stitched the wing of the peach pelican using the patio cashmere stitch.  It's a compact stitch that fits well into a small area.  And the final stitch for this canvas is the serendipity stitch on the pale blue wing.  How appropriate!

Pelicans everywhere, xi

The never-ending pelicans canvas where you can see that I did the criss-cross Hungarian combined with French knots on the green wing; a variation of the mosaic/jacquard on the pink wing to the far left; the mosaic stitch on the pink wing in the center; the diagonal triple Parisian on the periwinkle wing; and the double Hungarian on the lavender wing.  Now to finish the final two wings!

 And getting back to the last Christmas stocking Needle Nicely stitched for a customer--this is the doll's face and hair.  I'm not as artistic as Helen is with stitching faces, but this is definitely an improvement on the painted face!  The hair is the long-short split stitch using 3 colors of DMC floss (1 strand of the darkest, 2 strands of a medium and 3 strands of the lightest color). 

 This photograph shows the same long-short split stitch for the little girl's hair in the same blending combination.  And you can see to the left of the picture, the turkey work pom-pom on Santa's cap.  I usually don't trim this until the stocking is finished, but the grandmother was going to display this on Christmas day. 

A sprinkling of canvases

Postage has gotten so expensive that I've started ordering several canvases for the shop when I special order a canvas for a customer.  It helps spread the cost of shipping over more canvases and also has the added benefit of introducing some fresh merchandise at an "off" time of year (Needle Nicely's season is from mid-January through the end of April).

This is a new design from Elizabeth Turner.  When it arrived, I had my shop calligrapher (doesn't that sound fancy?) do a graph of Vero Beach to be stitched in place of the Miami.  In fact, while writing this I have decided to have Meredith of ET do some belts for Needle Nicely that way.

 This is a different candy belt, again from Elizabeth Turner.

 Crabs are always a popular item, especially in these preppy colors.

 This is one of Pippin's "Dozen" canvases, featuring twelve angels.
It has a great combination of patterns on the gowns.

Another of Pippin's "dozen" designs.  Such fun sweaters.














These beach umbrellas are one of Pippin's "fives" canvases.  They look like such  a delight to stitch.
 











This pair from Associated Talents are small companions to some larger canvases.  Thus you can stitch as much or as little as you want and still have an elegant pillow or two.

Shop stitching

I've been spending my "free" time at the shop doing blocking and hand stitching for projects that my customers want for Christmas presents.  I didn't take a photograph, but last week I blocked the flap of one of Sophia's purses.  The customer planned to hand sew the lining down herself.  Then I blocked, machine lined, and then hand sewed a canvas to two of the Dash and Albert tote bags so the customer could give them to her daughters next week for Christmas.

This is a canvas from Lee's Needle Art. 

 As an added touch, the mother did a canvas with each daughter's monogram so I could applique it to the opposite side of the tote from the pocket canvas.  Of course, it would have been straighter if she had stitched it on a frame, but I think it's a nice addition.

 I don't remember the designer of this frog on a lily pad canvas. 

I'm almost finished the trim on Santa's suit.  I also need to stitch the little girl's hair and the face and hair of her doll (not shown in this photograph).  This is an Alexa design.  The customer will pin the stitched canvas to fabric so it will look like a finished stocking.  Those are lots and lots of French knots!  The pom-pom is going to be turkey work.  I have to have this ready Monday, so off I go to continue stitching.

Treetop angel, finished

Just had to share the gorgeous finishing job that one of Needle Nicely's finishers did on the Dede treetop angel. 

The moire gusset is about 1 1/4 inches wide.   I love the way it was shaped.  Then a twist cording made from DMC perle 5 was handstitched on.

And the back view of the angel. 

Murphy's Law as applied to needlepoint shops

I think everyone knows Murphy's Law which roughly is "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and in the worst possible way at the worst possible time".  In relation to needlepoint shops, its corollarys are:

1.  The minute you have placed a fiber order, someone will walk in wanting 6 ounces of Paternayan or 7
     skeins of DMC perle cotton of colors that you didn't order and that the supplier has told you it is too 
     late to add to your order and of course it doesn't meet their minimum order so you will have to pay a        surcharge to order it.  (Great run-on sentence!)
NOTE:  Trying to get Blogger to indent is a real pain.  I just want everyone to know my pain.

2.  The minute you have closed a box of stitched items to be shipped to a finisher, someone will come in     with a canvas that needs to go to that finisher. 

2A Corollary:  After taping closed a package to a finisher, you will look on the counter and see the     finishing instructions for the enclosed items resting there.  GRRR!     

3.  The day after you have made a rush shipment to a finisher, a customer will come in with another rush item for that finisher.

4.  Of course you haven't paid an invoice from a canvas designer when in walks a customer who just HAS to have a canvas.  You're now behind the 8-ball to pay the invoice and then order the canvas.  Try tap-dancing a little faster while smiling the entire time.  NOT.

Pelicans everywhere, x

Well, finally the stitching on this canvas is down to the wings on the 8 pelicans.  Finally!  My husband who never seems to notice what I'm stitching has become an absolute nudge about when this canvas will be finished.  I finally told him this afternoon that it only seemed like never.

I started stitching the knotted stitch on the pelican to the far left.  It looks too tight and small a stitch considering the other stitches.  I think I'm going to pick it out, though the knotted stitch is even less fun to frog than it is to stitch.  Sigh!

This isn't the clearest picture for which I apologize.  My camera was yammering at me to change the batteries, but I wanted to get the photographs so I could blog.  And who wants a nagging camera, anyway?  The batteries are now being charged for my next great photographic moment!

I did manage to complete the Victorian step stitch on the 3rd pelican from the right.  It's one of my favorite stitch, I think because of the smooth diagonal line of long stitches.  It has such a different look.


On another note, Needle Nicely sold 2 rugs this past week.  One was sold on Small Business Saturday so the purchaser could buy the yarn at 20% off.  The other was a selection by a first-time visitor to Needle Nicely who was on her way to catch a cruise ship in Miami.  I like those detours!

Which would a shopowner prefer to sell?

Dotty, my longtime customer who came to Vero twice last year and now again this year for private assistance with stitching canvases from her various classes throughout the country, asked today what I would rather sell in the shop--canvases, fibers, finishing?

Most shops do finishing as a loss leader.  It is impossible to get a keystone (the usual markup in retail) for finishing.  It's expensive as it is, but if you keystoned no one could afford it.  But shops must provide finishing.  If you don't have a finisher for an item, you can't sell the canvases for that item.  That is the reality of finishing.  Needle Nicely has over 20 finishers for various items.  I really wish I could teach customers how to finish many of the items they stitch.  But my customers would rather be needlepointing than finishing their Christmas ornaments or appliqued items on tote bags or Lee's leather luggage tags...you get the idea.  Sigh!  So I, myself, do the finishing of the appliqued items on tote bags and the lining on purse flaps or the lining on stitch 'n zips or the Lee's leather products.  Reluctantly, but I do it, because if I don't, I can't sell the item; or, if I send it to a distant finisher the cost will be exorbitant.

I love to sell the fibers I stock.  However, the inventory of fibers is finite and selling them means re-ordering.  That's great, except you want a large enough order to justify the shipping cost.  I purchase my DMC perle cotton from a vendor who ships free of charge to get an edge over his competitors.  So I try to add to my perle orders things like stretcher bars, scissors, brass tacks, etc., because the shipping is free.

My favorite category of sale is Canvases!  I've already paid for them and I don't need to reorder except when they are for a shop model.  Needle Nicely has a large canvas inventory and I want to scream at customers:  Buy a canvas, buy 2 canvases, please, please, please!  Yes, I have a design studio, but I'd rather sell you a belt from my French laundry basket of over 400 canvases than paint a special design for you.  And, yes, I have over 150 Christmas stocking canvases in stock--could you please like one of them rather than asking me to order one from a catalog?

Pelicans ix

Small Business Saturday was a wonderful success for Needle Nicely.  In addition to lots of fibers, I sold another rug.  Hooray!  On my way to work, I stopped by the Vero Beach Book Center to help another small business.  I understand the President of the US also took his family to a local DC bookstore. Great minds think alike and all that!

I didn't quite get finished with the bodies of the pelicans.  I'm stitching all of the bodies using the Byzantine #2 variation from Stitches to Go.

This is the last day of Nablopomo 2013.  I'm relieved.  It has been tough trying to think of  things to talk about that I think "the world" would be interested in.  Now I'm back to my usual schedule of blogging on Wednesday and Saturday evenings.  Thanks for reading and please check back with me then.

Ho, ho, ho pillow finished

This week I received the Ho, ho, ho pillow by Associated Talents back from the finisher.  I love the trim I sent, though I'm sure it was a pain for the finisher to hand-stitch it to the edge of the pillow.  I'm not as happy with the color match of the greens in the fabric I sent for backing.  Sometimes you just don't get it quite right!  

Here you can see the trim.  It"s really wiry and shiny. 







Just a reminder that tomorrow is Small Business Saturday.  Needle Nicely is having a one-day 20% off all in-stock fiber sale. 

Sleepy time

The Point of It All has a series of animal faces which can either be made into pillows or pajama bags.  I think the pajama bag idea is nifty and different as a present for children or grandchildren.  The 10mesh  canvas also means the project won't take a lifetime to complete like an 18mesh Christmas stocking.

I'm using a double strand of silk 'n ivory.  I could also have used  Trio, but I only stock a few colors.
The background is being stitched in the nobuko stitch.  The eyes are done in basketweave and continental.  I had originally selected fancy fur for the background but soon realized that the pattern stitch wasn't showing through all the fuzz. 

Have a seat...

Yesterday the UPS driver brought 4 huge boxes and 1 medium-sized box.  One of the huge and the smaller box contained pillows from the finisher--hooray!  Christmas pillows and pillows for gifts. 

The other 3 huge boxes contained three rocking chairs from Sudberry House.  This is the walnut finished one.  I also have one painted white and one with no finish.  It's getting harder to find children's chairs, so I was delighted to have these be available. 

The blocking board

Most finishers automatically block canvases before they begin the finishing process.  If the canvas isn't straight, the finished product will not be attractive.  The belt finisher Needle Nicely uses does not block the belt canvases. so I block them before shipping.  When we moved into this location, I had a handyman put pine boards on the outside of the bathroom door so I could do the blocking there.  I explained what I wanted the boards for, but he didn't understand and had to have picked the board with the most knots available.  Do you know how hard it is to put pushpins through a knot?  My arthritic fingers don't enjoy the process.

Here I'm blocking a canvas to be lined and attached as a pocket to one of the Dash & Albert tote bags.  I have a small steamer I use for the blocking process.  

A little tact helps when visiting out-of-town shops

Last month  I had two couples come into the shop.  They were from out-of-town.  One of the women was a needlepointer.  The others were just accompanying her.  They were from Phoenix.  Bit of background:  The LA Dodgers who had done spring training in Vero Beach from 1948 through 2008 are now spring training in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix.  Vero Beach has survived three hurricanes in the last 10 years and we have also survived the departure of the Dodgers.  But I don't want the husband of a potential customer to remind me of our pain and their gain.  For over 15 minutes--it seemed interminable.  I'm not a tactful person at the best of times and it was all I could do to maintain the Southern mantle of pleasantness when I really wanted to rip his heart out. I'm a business owner in a tourist area.  We get all kinds. But I'd rather they didn't rub salt in my retail wounds.  And all this while his wife wanted me to find an inexpensive "beach" canvas.

Note of interest:  Despite its name, Vero Beach isn't a "beach" community.  Customers don't shop in bathing suits covered by "cover-ups".  The condominiums and houses here aren't decorated in beachy decor. We're not Key West or the Bahamas.  We have second homes, not beach houses.

Trubey and I were season ticket holders for y-e-a-r-s to Dodger spring training games.  Our seats were on the first base line just by home plate--not protected by the screen.  Perfect seats for working on our tans and watching the planes take off and land at the local airport.  Needle Nicely advertised in the program (we had local bartenders doing needlepoint in the stands).  We ate Dodger dogs and ice cream sandwiches and even cotton candy (during love bug season--a really risky enterprise!).  Trubey's son even asked if we did anything but eat at the games--like watch them!  And, yes, we joined our friends every year at a local bar at 4:45pm on the day the Dodger plane left Vero after spring training.  It's a small enough town and the jet was large enough that we could hear when it took off.  We all did a shooter--"Glad you're gone, see you next year! I love you honey, but the season's over!!"  Vero was lucky, because the Dodgers were a class act.  And the locals respected that.  Very few of them interrupted the players at dinner or in their "down" time.  It was and is a nice community. 

But don't come visit and gloat because you are now the recipients of their reflected glory.  Trust me, if they get a better offer, Glendale, AZ,  will be left in the dust just as Vero Beach was.  Without a thought or remorse.  I like to think Vero saw the glory days of the Dodgers. And it was nice while it lasted.

pelicans, viii

Well, they now all have their heads on with eyes looking at everything.  I'm still trying to decide what stitch/es I will use for the wings. 

Oriole ministocking

This is a printed (Giclee?) canvas from In Good Company.  Because it isn't hand-painted,  the cost is significantly lower--like 50%.   I picked this up for a quick stitch reward for myself after I finally finished the belt canvas I was stitching for a customer.  It's off to the finisher and I've moved on.  I'm originally from Maryland where the oriole is the state bird. 

Actually, this is the canvas I am stitching for a shop model.  I selected it because it was a "misprint".  Each canvas comes with an American flag printed on its right-hand corner.  This one came with a bonus flag printed in the center of the design.   Rather than throw it away, I'm stitching it.  I did the cuff in the mosaic stitch using white splendor.  I did the lettering in #8 Balger metallic doubled because I had an opened spool. 

I drew the curlicue in with a blue wonder marker (you can faintly see some blue that is unstitched).  Then I started stitching the background in the diagonal mosaic.  If you look closely, you can spy where I made a counting error.  I decided it wasn't glaring and am just going to leave it since it was confined inside the curlicue.  The leaves are done in the basketweave.

Saving one's bacon, stitching-wise

Necessity is the mother of invention, the old saying goes.  And that's what produced this cuff on a needlepoint stocking that Needle Nicely is stitching for a customer.  She had started it years ago and all the fibers were pulled, but not quite enough of everything.  The cuff was to have been a continuation of the background green (666) Paternayan yarn, but we suspected there wasn't enough green so we started stitching the stocking just below the cuff.  Sure enough, we didn't have enough to do the cuff in basketweave 666.  So Allison, the stitcher, came up with this creative "save the day" idea.

She alternated a single row of continental done in 666 yarn with a slanted gobelin over 2 in white DMC perle 5.  It produces a wonderful effect.  Then, to cover the black line drawn to indicate the cuff, she stitched a row of continental using Balger gold metallic.  This treatment would look good as a background for a stocking.  I'll have to remember it for future use.  (And thank you, Allison for the great save.)  This stocking won't be assembled by Christmas, but it will be stitched and the grandmother can hang it  pinned to fabric in the shape of a stocking. 

On another note, I have to refer everyone to a blog entry I read today (sorry, I still can't do links) for http://www.hugsandstitchesbysuzanne.blogspot.com.  (I don't know why that isn't blue...I'll check)  Her entry for 11/22/13 is a video of a singing turkey that everyone needs to bookmark.  I've already listened to it 3 times and my husband wonders what I'm doing!  (You can also google it at It's turkey day, live it up, but I wanted to give Suzanne credit for finding it--it's wonderful!).

A blogging challenge

Last April, Anna of http://www.Stitchbitch.blogspot.com
announced a stitching challenge featuring a free design from plum street samplers (http://www.plumstreetsamplers.typepad.com.

I stitched the chart on pink congress cloth using 1 strand of DMC embroidery floss.  I really enjoyed it.  I had heard so much about congress cloth that I thought it would be really challenging.  I think part of my ease with the project could be attributed to the wonderful foot-candles Needle Nicely has in the shop which is where I stitched this.  

Here I have mounted the canvas in a box available from Amanda Lawford.  I think the finished product is gorgeous (not being biased, of course).

Mustang needlepoint pillow

I didn't get my driver's license until I was 25 years old.  I took driver's ed in high school but because my oldest brother had totaled the family car when he was in high school (the insurance company refused to pay--and that's another story), my father refused to let any more of his children (he had a total of 9) get a driver's license.  Thanks, Daddy.

I taught cataloging in summer school the summer of 1967 and lived in the summer school faculty dorm.  Upstairs were housed six physical education teachers/coaches working on their master's degrees.  One of the guys, an assistant principal in Wilmington, also moon-lighted as a car salesman.  When he learned I didn't have a car, he proposed to sell me one.  But first I must get my learner's permit.  So, the summer of 1967, after my car arrived, I learned how to drive a car, going from Boone to Linville every afternoon about 4 pm.  The windows were wind-up and as we left Boone,  the windows were open.  As we approached Linville, the sun had dropped behind the mountains.  I had to force myself to take a hand off the wheel to roll up the window.  I also smoked in those days, but it took me forever to be able to smoke and drive.  I still marvel at that.


My new car was a 1967 v-8 289 Ford Mustang, lamentably with no air conditioning, but that wasn't a problem for me since I always lived in the mountains when I drove it.  After Needle Nicely moved to Florida for the winter, I left the mustang in NC because of the salt air.  I owned it for over 25 years and it was a beauty, though the floor board was rather suspect from winter salt when I finally sold it!
EDIT:  After all, it had been owned by a old maid librarian!

I did this pillow from a kit from Studio Two before I sold my car.  It gives you the idea that this is possible with any model car as a commemorative pillow.  Why not?

Small business Saturday by American Express

Last year as the reward for achieving the age of 70, I gave myself the most wonderful birthday present.  Needle Nicely would no longer be open on Saturdays.  After a year, the overall response is positive..  Most of my customers haven't noticed.  And I'm definitely enjoying having Saturdays off. 

However, I'm a strong believer in supporting small, local businesses whenever possible.  I patronize the local book store in Vero Beach rather than the chain one, I use a mom-and-pop frame shop, I prefer restaurants that have only one location--you get the idea.  That's why I decided to open this year on November 30, small business Saturday promoted by American Express.  I have registered Needle Nicely on the Amex website.  Their program is modified this year, but if you register your credit card with them and then spend at least $10 with a small business, you will receive a $10 credit on your Amex statement.  You must register after November 24th and I understand it's only good for one $10 credit.  Still, ten bucks is ten bucks. 

To encourage people to come by and use their Amex cards, I'll be having 20% off all in-stock fibers (and an additional 10% off sale fibers) ONLY on November 30.  The sale will also be good that day for call-in orders but Amex doesn't permit off-site orders to qualify for the $10.  You can also order ahead, but I will only fill the order and charge it to you on the 30th.  And of course you can use mastercard, visa and Discover as well as Amex, but they won't match  the $10 purchase! 

New brooms--and all that comes with them

The best thing that can happen to a needlepoint shop like Needle Nicely is that we can have a "new hire" who is energetic and likes to organize things.  Macy is my new broom, though she is in her second incarnation at Needle Nicely.  She worked for Trubey and me 24 years ago when Needle Nicely was in its second location in Vero Beach.  That was the one that was architecturally splendiferous--it had a vaulted ceiling painted teal and every two years we had electricians come in to change all the fluorescent bulbs because it was cheaper to do it that way.  We had a house painter come in to hang some of our rug canvases on the vertical wall.  And we had a devil of a time getting the canvas down when someone wanted to buy it.  Not to mention the blank space that stared at us until we had the painter come back for another hanging.  We did have an extension ladder, but trust me, with my fear of heights there was no way I was going up there!  And Trubey had always "left the building--perhaps with Elvis!"

Of course, there are always two sides to every story.  If you ask Macy, she'll tell you (and I agree) that I am a kinder, gentler Mary Agnes.  I can now attribute it to the ageing process.  A customer 20 years ago told me I was mellowing because I had met "that man".  I hated to disillusion her by mentioning that I had started taking hormones!  "He" just happened to be a by-product of that event!!

But back to Macy--it's always nice to hear another perspective on how things look or are run. Sometimes establishments (not just retail shops) get stuck in ruts and do things because that's how they've always done it.  And I'm grateful that Macy feels comfortable enough to offer suggestions.  It can only make Needle Nicely a better place. 

Monogram pillow

 This canvas was designed by Patti Mann Designs.  It was stitched on 18mesh using medici yarn for the background and DMC perle cotton for the monogram. 

For the customized cording, we took strands of the perle cotton in the colors used in the stitching.  Then we finished the pillow with a shirred box in off-white moire. 

Pelicans, vii

Well, these puppies (excuse me, pelicans) are taking forever!  Of course, part of the reason for the slowness is Nablopomo 2013 and my wanting to blog every evening.  Not to mention the mental exercise of actually coming up with topics worthy of blogging about.  It's a tough job, but I'm determined to do it.

We can thank the US curling elimination rounds for the 2013 Olympics for my progress on the pelicans today.  I sat watching (and stitching) the US men battle each other for 3 1/2 hours this afternoon.  And I get to do the same this evening when the women are in curling combat.  Oh, delight.  My husband who is quite fair-minded, is lukewarm in his enthusiasm for curling.  So he can watch football next weekend, she says. 

If you look closely, you can see that all of the top knots and bills are completed.  I have also stitched the heads of the two pelicans on the right in basketweave, including their eyes.  The rest of the heads are my goal for the week.  Then we can talk stitches for the bodies. 

Seashell pincushion

There's a company providing a selection of beautiful sea shells paired with a tiny needlepoint canvas.  It's Annie Lee Designs.  There are a limited number of designs, partially due to the small area of needlepoint that will fill the holes in the various shells. 

 This is a sample canvas complete with 2 straight pins with shell tops.  The design area varies with the shell accompanying the canvas.

 This is my finished shop model.  It took me about two hours to stitch and another hour or two to assemble.  You can use either cotton balls or fiber fill to fill the hole in the shell.  Then use Elmer's glue (or something similar) around the edges of the opening and hold the canvas in place with a rubber band until it dries.  Then, voila!  a finished hostess gift or a nice pin cushion to put in your powder room.  I removed the straight pin before my photography, but have to mention that someone stole one of the pins with the shell glued to it.  Excuuuse me!



And, what a treat--this afternoon NBC started televising the elimination rounds for the 2014 US Olympic Curling team.  It was still on when I arrived home after 5pm so I had to delay blogging until I had watched its conclusion.  More tomorrow and Sunday, oh delight, delight!

The mystery machine

After Stuart Stitchery closed about 4 years ago,  Jackie, its owner, brought this interesting-looking machine into Needle Nicely.  She had had it tucked away for years, and said it was a skein twister.  However, it no longer had an instruction book.  Adele and I looked at it from all angles and tried to figure it out.  We finally concluded that it must have something to do with knitting skeins, so we stuck it on a shelf in the back room with the intention of taking it to the knitting shop that had just opened in town.

Fast forward to last week when Macy, the cleaning/organizing whiz back for the winter, wondered what it was and had other uses for its shelf space.  After I explained its history, she volunteered to drop it at the knitting shop.  But first, she examined it in detail, pushing all the buttons, knobs, whatever.  And lo and behold, she figured out how to twist Paternayan skeins.  This should save some wear and tear on our individual wrists.

The metallic button you can see on the top is the "on" switch.

This is the arm on which you hook the yarn for twisting.

 This is the beginning of the twisting process.

And an almost twisted skein.

This is an uncut quarter pound hank of Paternayan persian.

These are the individual skeins bundled together by number and dye lot.  A different dye lot forms another bundle. 

Murphy's law will bite you!!

This past week I finally prevailed on my husband to call a plumber about "the problem" with the toilet in our master bathroom.  He is deaf in one ear and, I suspect, can't hear out of the other.  So I'm the one who heard the periodic geyser.  It was particularly frightening when one was actually using the toilet--that geyser behind you definitely got my blood flowing.  I had visions of the whole thing exploding and flooding that part of the house.  Oy, vey!  But, remember, we are a democracy and so we each have a vote about everything, including hysterical feelings that the house will flood.  I finally managed to prevail.  Sigh.

And while the plumber is here, can he please take care of the water filter attached (or not) to the faucet on the kitchen sink?  As it turned out, what we (my husband and I) thought was the real problem cost us $15. to fix-- a warped "clapper" in the toilet.  We won't think about how much water usage it cost us.  And we won't prorate the share of the plumber's visit.  The real prize was fixing the water filter--it resulted in a new faucet and the final price of the entire visit was $275.  We're not unhappy and don't feel ripped off.  But that also explains why we are not going to call a plumber for a while, when yesterday morning (2 days after "the visit"), one of the stoppers in our dual sinks in the "master suite" refused to come up and we had to fish it out.of the sink opening so it would drain.  Trust me, we aren't calling a plumber until something else goes wrong--and bite your tongue, please don't let that happen for at least 6 months or longer.  We can deal with the lack of that sink stopper--I am now using that sink and my husband has moved to the right.  I don't shave in a sink and don't need a stopper! 

Donation to the 2013 Festival of Trees

Every November the Children's Theatre (part of the live performance Riverside Theater) sponsors a fundraiser "Festival of Trees"  where local businesses decorate Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths which are displayed and then sold in silent auctions.  The past several years Needle Nicely has donated needlepoint pillows.  This year our contribution is a pillow that doesn't have a Christmas theme, but is nevertheless a topic dear to the hearts of many Vero Beachers--

The Dodgers left Vero in 2008 to do their spring training in Glendale, AZ, so this pillow is no longer a truthful representation of Vero Beach.  There are many people who will want to possess this pillow because of the happy memories it calls up.  This summer I stitched a replacement pillow.