Remnants of past inventory

There is a box of "stuff" near my chair at "the" table where I have been balancing items like magazines to be read during lunch and items I need to rewrite or in general do something with.  That latter does not mean ignore, but that seems to be what has been happening.  I just discovered a Facebook page for selling cross stitch materials (Cross Stitch Buy and Sell).  So I decided this afternoon to empty the box and sort its contents into categories.  

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, approximately 33% of Needle Nicely's sales in Blowing Rock were cross-stitch related.  When we eliminated cross-stitch because it didn't justify its space in our Vero Beach shop (too labor-intensive, space-taking to pay for its floor space), I kept a copy of some cross stitch books, primarily those dealing with alphabets or borders or classical designs.  These include booklets designed by Gloria & Pat; Graphique Needle Arts; Rose Ann Hobbs; and others.

In the boxes, I also discovered charts of several figures representative  (nearby in Boone) of

Appalachian State University.  

This is "Yosef", symbolizing "yourself", and is the mascot of the Appalachian Mountaineers.  He usually appears with a  flint-lock (I think) rifle at all sporting events.  

And a doorstop utilizing a logo of the university circa 1980.

A Floral Gift

Thursday, a customer came in with a gift for Needle Nicely.

It was to thank us for locating a replacement Trubey Christmas stocking canvas.  She had stitched the stocking about 20 years ago and given it finished to one of her daughters.  Recently her daughter's house burned down and the stocking was lost.  Since it was a Trubey design, it was reasonably easy for us to locate a photograph and have a similar, but not identical, canvas painted.

But what a pleasant surprise to receive such a thoughtful gift.  Thank you!

Shop Customer Stitching

I will differentiate this project from my home customer stitching (the Jalapeno Santa stocking) by referring to it as my "Customer Stitching", while this will become my "Shop Customer Stitching".

This canvas is a doorstop designed by Village Needlecraft on 18mesh canvas.

  I am stitching the bottom basket area in the woven stitch using DMC perle #5.

Because this is 18mesh, even doing a pattern stitch, I'm going to be doing woven stitch for a looong time.  I'll try to vary it by throwing in a flower or leaf, but the basket is my life!

I don't usually show canvases that our in-house painter does for customers, but I must show this one.  It is so unusual and magnificent.  This will be made into  man's wallet.  It will be a gift from our customer to her father-in-law.  We had to paint it on congress cloth to be able to reproduce the signature of the Secretary of the Treasury so that it would be readable.

Can't wait to see it stitched!

Jalapeno Santa

This is going to be excrutiating to watch happen.  I am stitching this at home and Wednesday I will show the customer's canvas that I am stitching in the shop.  My projects have been tucked away for another day!

Mish-Mash

Macy has been determined to clean up various areas of the back room that contain:  recent price lists; items she removed from "the sales floor area"; unfinished canvases from past classes I have taken (thankfully, I was sensible enough to fasten the fibers to the back of the frame); and just general things I thought were of interest and dumped there.

Here's the table today:

Those white rectangles are the reflections of the overhead lights on the glass on top of the table. Notice that I am not showing what is under the table.  One step at a time!

Macy and I also had to redo the cording for two rugs that are already at the finisher (we had sent some, but the finisher called and said they were too short).  We also crossed our fingers and twisted the cording for a rug that needs to be refinished.

The Paternayan yarn colors are 500, 100, and 715.  Cross your fingers that we did it right this time.  My finisher uses 3x the perimeter for the length of strands to be twisted.  I had previously done 2.5x.

Stitching for Customers

My business plan is intent on depriving me of stitching time.  Recently, I've been selling items on Facebook's NNSE (needlepoint nation stash exchange) and the care and feeding of the entries is time consuming.  I'm allowed to have listed 25 items at a time.  They stay listed for one month, being reduced after 2 weeks and further reduction after 3 weeks. Their lifetime is one month, then they are removed.  The sold items stay listed until payment is received.  Then the process begins to list more items.

I also do Needle Nicely's daily bookkeeping and report filing.  My accountant takes my figures for the yearly tax returns.  I enter the weekly sales each weekend.  And one weekend a month I balance the checkbook.

All this is an attempt to gain your sympathy as to why I have managed to stitch so little this week.

You can barely see my progress.  The outer rows are basketweave.  Then there is a slanted gobelin over 2 threads.  It's going to be gorgeous when it has been stitched--and the deadline is the end of August.  Cross your fingers for me.

Edit:  Anne's comment reminds me to re-post the original photo of the Christmas stocking I am in the process of stitching for a customer.

Blowin' in the Wind

The past week or 10 days have been quite breezy in Vero Beach.  Someone told me last week to expect a windstorm--well, it was windy; but definitely not a windstorm.  Since we are on the ocean, people often forget that breezes can be intense.  You forget that you had the door of that slider open, and you open the front door.  Every door in the house will slam emphatically, and create a tremendous thunderclap that threatens your hearing.  That's when you need needlepoint brick doorstops.

I noticed two doorstops today that people tend to ignore.  The first is a lion designed by Jane Nichols.  She includes the stitch guide.  It's stitched in persian wool and the brick stands upright when finished.

Years ago, I taught this house doorstop to other shopowners at a TNNA market.  It was a design by Sally Luedke of Canvas Connection.  I say "was" because she discontinued the design about 2 years after I taught the class.  I still have canvas and fiber kits left over from that class.

This is the front door side of the doorstop.

And this is the back of the house.

And one side of the house.  I always like looking at the stitches I selected for the foliage.  That was fun!

Croakie, IV Finished

Managed to finish the stitching on the croakie shop model today while watching the golf tournament in Mexico City.  I had intended to stitch 15 inches, but someone was in the shop yesterday who had had several finished at 12".  I stopped at 13 1/2".  I guess I keep thinking about tall people!  So, Monday off it will go to the finisher.  Can't wait to see the finished product!

 This is a design by Devon Nicholson done as an offshoot of the recent women's march.  She has done it in several color combinations.  The others are lavender & mauve; and pinks.

This floral reminds me of Victorian pieces with its dark background.  Melissa Shirley designed it.

 I love the symmetry of this design.  I've wiped the designer's name out of my memory--I'm guessing Ruth Sshmuff.

 This is such a clean-cut design.  Especially attractive are the designs within shapes.  I apologize because I am blanking tonight on designers--I think this is from Ewe and Eye.  I'll check tomorrow and enter any corrections.