Fish wreath

Among the needlepoint designs offered by The Studio are two series of canvases painted on 18mesh canvas  and kitted with persian yarn.  They are individual birds or fish and when finished are ornament size.

 Our fish are stitched in a combination of mosaic stitch, basketweave, and continental.  Notice the separate fin that is stitched, backed, and then attached to the body of the fish in the appropriate location for a fin.

 I apologize for the blurriness of this image.  It's a clown fish--I'll try to get a better photo.

This provides a nice conversation piece without a lot of stitching. 

More ornament canvases

Kathy Schenkle has several ornaments on 13mesh canvas.  This heart snowman is one, as is the heart Santa just below.

Vero Beach has loads of golfers, so this is the perfect choice.  

There's a lot of interest in turtles in this area.

Needle case for an executive!

Taking needle cases to another level is this one in pink (it also comes in black).  It looks just like a miniature briefcase with the same type of closure.

Here you can see an inside view with needles on the magnetized lining.  The other side has a "folder" where you can tuck things.  It's large enough to hold a small pair of embroidery scissors.

Needlepoint finishing, step-by-step

Most needlepoint shops have a group of finishers to whom they send items for finishing.  Needle Nicely has approximately 20, though I haven't systematically counted them.  Let's do it now.  I have 5 belt finishers, though the fifth one is suspect since the last belt I sent to them took so long they didn't invoice me for the finishing (say no more).  I have 1 pillow finisher.  I have 1 rug finisher; ditto for bell pull finisher. (We are now up to 8).  Door knob hangers--I have 2, but I have been told that one is quitting in January.  I have 1 Christmas ornament finisher.  I have 1 finisher for needlepoint cuffs.  I have 1 shoe finisher, though I have the information for another I haven't tried yet, but who everyone recommends.  Most shoe finishing is no longer possible, sigh!  I have a flip-flop finisher.  For purse finishing, I have 6 finishers, depending on whether there is leather or shirred fabric, etc., etc. (20 is now our total amount of finishers).   I have lost 1 frame finisher, but still have one I like (another I don't like).  I have a local upholsterer and a local framer I like to recommend.  I, of course--or maybe not so automatically--do blocking and hand sewing.  For instance, I block the flaps for Sophia's purses and then hemstitch the lining down.  I also block, back and then attach the canvases for Pischke's Pockets.  And I block all belts before sending them to whatever finisher the desired style dictates.  I also do the finishing for Voila's key fobs and Creative Needle's jewelry cases. But I try to encourage my customers to do this for themselves.   So our total is now 24.

Things I don't have finishers for:  Trubey has designs for children's wing back chairs.  It has been years since I had a finisher I could rely on/trust to do what I felt was a good job on upholstering these.  Director's chairs, whether adult or for children.  I have the frames, but not a finisher whose work I find acceptable.  

The reality is that finishers are aging out. And because most finishing is done by hand, it is getting more and more expensive.  I just shake my head when customers tell me they are tucking their finished products away to be finished later.  Why?  Finishing is certainly not going to get any cheaper.  And, more importantly, will there be a competent finisher for that item when they do decide to get it finished.  I seriously doubt it. So, go through those items and have finished those you really like.  Give the other stitched canvases to a charity and say a fond farewell.  Get them out of your life.  If they aren't worth the cost of finishing today coupled with your sentimental attachment, they will never be worth the cost of finishing. 

Beautiful pillow finishing

Among the items I received from my pillow finisher today were these two shop models. 

This has a double ruffle with just a hint of the back red ruffle winking outside the plaid taffeta ruffle.  I especially like the cording on the insider of the ruffles beside the needlepoint.

I wish that I could say that I found the fabric and then matched the background silk 'n ivory to it, but that isn't so.  I just blithely picked the background color and then stumbled across the fabric.  Better lucky than smart, I always say!

Some new ornament canvases

I needed to order several canvases from Shelly Tribbey for a customer, so I added some canvases for the shop inventory to spread the shipping cost over more canvases.  Postage or shipping costs have become quite a factor when ordering canvases.  I've started specifying that orders not be split-shipped because of the increased cost in shipping.  It used to be that when designers split-shipped, they absorbed the cost of the 2nd shipment's shipping.  Only a few designers do that today. 

This shirt comes with a hanger and is to be made like a real shirt.

This dress reminiscent of Provence also comes with a hanger.  What a great souvenir of France.

Shelly has 3 tree ornaments in this series that are red and white.
Such great possibilities for pattern stitches.

The financial reality of market going

Most needlepoint shops are really small businesses.  By that I mean, REALLY small businesses.  If you pay attention to these things, most studies consider something under 10 million dollars in revenue to be a small business.  EXCUSE ME--we're talking needlepoint shops.  So, we're really small potatoes. Understand that since our industry is small potatoes  we can't dictate which convention centers we want or which hotels we want, because let's face it, we're an industry primarily of women who aren't big drinkers (at least in public) or big spenders on food, so who in the travel/housing industry really wants us as customers?

A case in point--at the recent cash-and-carry at St Charles, the hotel ran out of romaine lettuce on Saturday evening.  They ran out of the Boston bibb as well at Sunday lunch.  Things were becoming desperate on the salad menu by Sunday night.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you have a hotel full of women (rather than men, duh!), you are going to sell more salads than usual.  No one in the kitchen figured that out.  I'm not upset about it because as a result, I received my Sunday night room service dinner free because they didn't have most of the ingredients.  It was still tasty and made tastier by the cost.  But how stupid from a marketing point of view.

I loved the St Charles show, primarily because I have been a Hilton Honors member for what seems like centuries.  I had enough points to pay for 2 of my nights in the hotel and the reservation clerk was nice enough to make the night I paid for the cheapest of the 3 of the market.  Then, courtesy of Capital One points, I paid for my plane ticket.  So my actual cost was one night in a hotel, meals for 3 days, transport to and from the hotel, and shuttles to and from the airport to my home.  Just a little less than $500 and that's being a skinflint on a budget. But to pay that $500 I have to sell at least $1500 worth of merchandise--$500 to pay for the market expenses, $500 to pay for the merchandise sold and $500 to pay toward replacement merchandise.

That August market was a cash-and-carry which TNNA has said they are going to discontinue in 2015.  The major markets are usually twice a year (January and June) in major convention centers.  That will also change in 2015 when TNNA plans to add a cash-and-carry element to the convention center shows.  Interesting. Can't wait to see how that shakes out.

I've been looking at going to the January San Diego show.  I love San Diego.  There are so many great restaurants on 5th avenue.  There are at least five used book stores about 20 blocks from the convention center where I always have a wonderful time (as a former librarian, I love bookstores).  Not to mention the zoo and the museums in Balboa Park.  Also, the people at the convention center are really good at dealing with convention-goers (they make restaurant reservations, they give directions to wherever, they are there when you need them).  BUT, the hotels are a minimum of $190. a night (no points!), the plane ticket will still be free thanks to Capital One, and I have to pay for my meals.  The market is 3 days plus at least 1 day for classes if you take one, so you fly in one day, 3 days for market and fly out the 5th day (or take the red-eye and arrive home really wasted) for a total of at least 4 or more nights for a cost of $760 plus food plus cabs to and from hotel and restaurants plus shuttle to and from home.  So we're talking at least $1400.

That means I have to sell at least $4200 worth of merchandise to pay for my market.  That's $1400 for the canvases, $1400 for the market stay and $1400 for new merchandise.  Now let me think about whether I need to go to that market when I could check on lots of things on line.  Yes, I like to do a meet and greet and catch up on the latest with everyone--but can Needle Nicely afford it?  Hmmm.  Tune in to find out what I decide.