Shop stitching, RUSH job 12

I don't know why needlepoint canvas designers insist on giving Santa a red/pink nose.  I understand the ruddy cheeks, but a red nose?  Makes him look like a rummy.  I stitched my Santa face au natural and I think it looks great.  I also completed the nobuko on his Santa's suit and my double French knots on the trim on his suit.  I also tossed in the black metallic gold rush 18 on the doll's shoes.  No way am I tackling black patent!

I have to chuckle because I have been ducking stitching Santa's moustache.  I don't know why.  Maybe next week?  Who knows?

Old friends with a few new ones sprinkled in

At the September Dallas show, I ordered some Christmas stockings from Alexa Designs.  These were just reorders of oldies but goodies stockings.  I got a phone call last week from Jeanine--she had just located my order under something and wondered if I still wanted them.  Since I'm famous for the archeology of locating papers on my table, I understood her predicament immediately and told her to send them on.

A customer asked me to order several travel rounds from Silver Needle, so I added these to the order.

While I'm on my Christmas stocking marathon, I'm not allowing myself to think about what I will blog-stitch next.  However, these are quite appealing.

And another reminder that Needle Nicely will be open this Saturday for Small Business Saturday.  As an enticement, NN is offering 20% off all regularly priced, in-stock merchandise.  Come see me!

Shop stitching, RUSH job 11

The band on Santa's cap is  2-ply kit kin/whisper in a double wrapped French knot.  His hair and beard are 3-ply kit kin/whisper in the long/short split stitch.  The pompom on his cap is done in 2-ply kit kin/whisper in turkey work.  I usually wait until an item is back from the finisher before I do any trimming of turkey work.

More small canvases

Last week a customer came in and ordered a belt canvas designed by Elizabeth Turner.  To spread the shipping costs over several canvases, I looked through the other offerings of Elizabeth Turner.  I came across several pages of college canvases like this Florida one that I ordered.  They are beauties and only about 5"x5".

Another customer came in and asked me to order some of Labors of Love's mermaid canvases so she could select one for her granddaughter.  I ordered 4 so I could have some in the shop.  She surprised me and bought all four canvases.  So I did a reorder for shop inventory that also included several gator canvases.  This first is Imelda Gator.

And this is a selection of the mermaid canvases I reordered.

What fun these will be to stitch!

EDIT:  I forgot to mention that Needle Nicely, which is usually not open on Saturdays, will be open for American Express's Small Business Saturday, November 28.  I will be offering 20% off all in store merchandise not already on sale.  Come see me!

Shop stitching, RUSH job 10

As usually happens while working on a large project, I developed that dreaded stitching enemy:  boredom.  To reawaken my interest, I did something I seldom do.  I moved around, and cherry-picked areas to stitch.  That's why Santa's mittens are so gorgeously purple.  I stitched them in the giant diagonal mosaic.  There were to be gold dots, but when I stitched them, they looked awful.  So I did some same color purple French knots out of the #5 DMC perle cotton I had used for the mittens.  They look nice and puffy like real mittens.  Then I did the pink and gold checkerboard package in the foreground in a combination of Scotch stitch and continental.  Next was that shiny green package stitched in high luster Balger.  I also started the white of the house in a row of continental and slanted gobelin.

Feeling excited again, I completed the last of the snowflakes on the tree.  Then I started the fire in the fireplace using silk lame braid in a combination of diagonal mosaic and continental stitch.  I also stitched Santa's cap, using petite very velvet in the nobuko stitch.  As usual when stitching velvet, I have to give myself time to rub the velvet fiber.

New colors of Walker bags

This week Needle Nicely received  new inventory in Walker bags.  They have added new color combinations.  I'm still trying to pick my favorite.  These are the 18x18 triple zipper with handle.

Then the smaller triple zipper, again with handles:

And one last addition to "the" wall is these canvases designed by Melissa Shirley.  They are 5x5.

Climbing walls, again Part II

The last section of wall has our pet area:  first dog canvases, and then cat designs.

That covers the right-hand wall as you walk into the shop (that is the side that business consultants say is the preferred side for buyers when they come into a shop.  Let's hope so!).  

The other wall starts just inside the front door on its left.  We put four large 

Melissa Shirley canvases because they fit the area so nicely.  Ironically (or perhaps fortuituously), a customer came in after we got the canvases up and bought, of course, the top canvas.  She apologized, but I thanked her and told her that selling them was the purpose for putting canvases on the walls.  After she left the shop, we filled the empty space with another Melissa Shirley canvas--YES!

Above the bookcase we put the Joy Juarez rhino canvas and Melissa Shirley's macaw canvas.

Geometric canvases are what we selected for the next area which is quite large

The next area is close to the Christmas ornament area.  First, we placed three Florida canvases.  After them, we put the clock canvases that came with buttons.  The other clock canvases we put on a hanger and hung them with miscellaneous canvases.

It's a satisfying feeling of accomplishment to stand back and admire the walls.  Now, I hope people will come buy canvases from them and leave us with holes to be filled with other canvases--that's the name of the game!  

Climbing walls, again

Since I no longer climb to hang canvases, I have been looking at empty spots and the same old canvases all summer.  Thank goodness Macy is back and more than happy to jump on the ladder to hang different canvases.  On the main wall of the shop, we decided to do a multitude of "smalls".  These are canvases approximately 5"x5".  Usually they are grouped together in a basket about 12" x 30".  Customers seem to avoid these canvases like the plague.  Hence, our decision to feature them.
We made mini-groups and splattered them along the wall.

We started with elephants, then moved on to oriental designs.  Next are various chairs with a few butterflies tucked in.  I have to laugh looking into the tassel mirror's reflection.  It shows the opposite wall with the pillows on the shelf and my hands holding my camera aloft.  You can barely see the top of my grey head!

After the chairs, comes flowers followed by more butterflies.

The next section has several sports canvases.  They are followed in quick succession by turtles, palm trees, and remnants of Trubey's teapots.  Then we have some brightly colored abstracts.

We move on to the shell section, closely followed by the sailboats and surfboards.  Near the bottom we have tucked in some buildings and lighthouses.

The last section of the wall has canvases
I'm having technical problems down-loading photographs.  I'm going to try publishing and then coming back to add more photographs.  We'll see if it works.  It didn't, so I'm doing a second blog entry on Saturday to complete the walls.