I’m Coming! I’m Coming!

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been AWOL (absent without leave) this week so far. And I apologize for that!

I’ve had a few things come up and an inordinate amount of appointments and the like lately. Normally, I pre-write my articles and have them more or less ready to publish each day, but I’ve gradually fallen so far behind that I have no pre-written articles in the queue, let alone any pictures edited and ready for spontaneous writing.

I’m catching up this week – and to that end, I will be “out” on Friday, too.

I just wanted to check in, though, and let you know what’s going on. My plan is to finish catching up on the writing side of Needle ‘n Thread today through Friday. On Monday, we will pick up with a regular schedule again.

Sweet Marguerite Stitch Along

For those of you following along with Sweet Marguerite, Monday will be our next installment. It’s taking a little longer than I intended, but if you’re not caught up, this should give you some time to catch up if you want to.

If you’re just hearing about the project and would like to know more about it, you can read about it here.

A Fun Day Out – with Quilts!

Earlier this week, I was honored to be the guest speaker at the Konza Prairie Quilters’ Guild in Manhattan, Kansas. That was a lot of fun! It was exciting to see a large, active group of Kansas locals united by an enthusiasm for stitchery, and such a pleasure to meet everyone and chat with them afterwards.

I meant to take my everlasting hexie quilt along with me so that I felt properly “quiltish” – but I forgot it! (Truth is, after seeing the load of quilting talent there, I’m glad I left it behind!)

Of course, I talked all about embroidery, since embroidery and quilting have a long history of togetherness. I had a great time!

Studio Update

Summer vacation is happening in the studio, too, so right now, Christine is gone, which diminishes our Massive workforce by 33.33%.

On the work-side of things in the studio, we’ve managed to accomplish a lot lately. We have needle minders curing – they should be listed in the shop by Friday. If you have them on your wish list, check the shop Friday afternoon! Speaking of hexies, the batch we’ve been working on is hexagon-heavy, since that’s what we receive the most requests for.

We have also been working on restocking last year’s Stitch Snippets kits. Right now, we have a limited supply of Christmas Tree Ornament & Finishing Kits available, and shortly, we will be adding Cotton Quartet, Bee-Jeweled, and Autumn Tree. This will likely be the last time this year we stock those kits, so if you would like one, keep an eye out for them.

Hey, we restocked Leafy Tree, too! Yay! If you’re like me, you’re probably ready for a transition into Autumn – and Leafy Tree is a great kit to do that with!

And we added some more Something Fishy ready-to-stitch towels to the shop as well, for those who still want to indulge in summery, tropical stitching. We’ve stocked a lot of the ready-to-stitch towel sets lately, if you’re keen to get your hands on any of those.

Testing, Testing

On another note! Oh My Gosh! I’m so excited to tell you that I’m test stitching a project. But this is not actually about the project – it’s about what I’m stitching it on. I’m not quite ready to reveal it just yet, but this fall, be aware that Something Very Special is coming to Needle ‘n Thread – something I’ve wanted for a long, long, long time. And I’m going to start sharing parts of it with you soon.

The House

Many of you have asked about my house. For those new to Needle ‘n Thread, the backstory is this: over half of my house was demolished in January. It was not a planned demolition project – I was originally just having the kitchen remodeled and some painting done – but the old part of the house (which makes up most of the house) lost stability during the preparation for the remodeling. It had to be demolished and rebuilt entirely – a rather shocking surprise!

Although we’ve been back in since the beginning of June, the project was officially finished last week when the front landscaping was put back in order. I still have quite a bit of work to do in the backyard. Eventually, I’ll be adding some potted plants around the outside in front of the house and a window box below the large front window on the right, for more color and curb appeal. But that will be down the road yet. I’m happy that my pet tulip tree in the front – it was a new young sapling just six years ago – survived the whole ordeal!

And that closes an adventurous chapter. I hate to ask what’s coming next in the Scheme of Life. But… it is ever thus. And that’s ok! We take it as it comes!

I’ll be caught up by Monday, and I’ll see you then! Thanks for your patience!