Dear Friends:

Here is the important information that we have all been waiting for:

THE RETREAT BROCHURE AND REGISTRATION FORM WILL BE POSTED ON OUR WEB SITE ON MONDAY, MARCH 29, AROUND 3:00 pm--in the afternoon. We are very excited and hope that you will be as well. We have such fun plans already well in the works and the teachers are very very excited. We all got together last month and had such a great time sharing ideas and getting revved up. So...heads up watch the web site on Monday and be ready to go. We want to see you here in September. When you see the brochure on the website, you need to copy off the registration form, fill it out and fax it back to us. Seriously, I don't think there will be time for you to mail it back to us.

We are hoping for no glitches like last time, so keep your fingers crossed. Hooray!!!!

In the meantime--we have been busy here at the shop. Retreat preparations are in full swing and we are happily anticipating warm weather when we can go out in the backyard behind the shop and work on more projects. We are not going out there today since there is a full-blown blizzard happening outside our windows today. Oh well, we'll take them when we get them this year. Teri has been busy with her new tall shoes. She bought new shoes recently and when she brought them in we thought they were quite tall. Sometimes we all worry that she will fall off of them. They are very cute, but after about 14 minutes, she is sort of hobbling. Each day we ask if they are more comfortable and she always says the same thing--no, not at all. She always perseveres in everything she does, so I'm sure you will see her in September still breaking them in. I think they are a little like Dutch wooden shoes because I can always here her coming from anywhere in the shop. It is handy.

I know this is a little late, but we have 3 darling new patterns stitched for this Spring season. Teri found them in Nashville and has been working on them ever since, and now we have them finished and back. First of all is Briar Rabbit from La-D-Da. This is such a darling little piece with a sweet bunny and alphabet as well as a tulip border. And don't you think that Jill did such a wonderful job framing it with its perfect mat. I love it because it isn't Eastery at all and would work all year round. Darling!

Then there is this sweet pillow by Sam Sarah--Hip Hop Hare. I love this piece as a pillow and I think that the colours and backing fabrics are just so pretty. I think that Teri did a great joy figuring out colours and threads for it as well.

And finally, we both fell in love with Uber Egg by Bent Creek. Our friend, Judy stitched it on the big Jute fabric for a wall hanging and it is fabulous. We have it hanging up over our center display and it is so adorable you can't keep your eyes off of it. So if you are still in the mood--there is plenty to choose from.

Well that was to get you in the mood for the beginning of Spring and the start of Easter week. Have a fun and safe holiday next week, don't forget to take a peek at the Retreat Brochure and I'll write sometime next week.
Until then,
fondly, Tina

Last days of February, 2010

Hi friends,

I'm back from Nashville and we had a great time! Mostly, I am not a very good traveler. I love being other places...I just don't necessarily enjoy getting there. I think I would like a good road trip, but living in Utah, we just never take the time to go by car unless it is Las Vegas or California. Then my Peter was dreadfully car sick as a child so that put paid to long car trips. So Teri has to put up with my crankiness on airplanes. I don't like going through security, and I don't really want to sit by anyone on the plane. I always try to get a window seat and then I just watch the maintenance crew outside the window and ignore everything else. Of course this time, we watched them loading luggage in Phoenix and saw that one of our suitcases --filled with kits and models--didn't make it on. Oh joy! Teri wanted to tell someone, but I restrained her. Lucky us--it didn't make it to Nashville until 2:00 the next morning...but at least it made it. Did I mention... Oh well, the rest of the trip was great. I love the most getting to the hotel and all our friends are waiting for us. We were so busy talking and laughing and going to little parties that it was after midnight when we faced setting up our room. So...waiting for an errant suitcase wasn't such a big deal. And, really, who needs to sleep anyway. Then, the time we are there is very busy and how fast it all goes by so now we are home missing everyone else.

NASHVILLE NEWS:

Well, here goes the first chapter in Fabulous Finds from the Market:

Now, don't think that I am omitting our own designs. We have them up on the home page of our website as well as the link to all the new things. I'm not going to put the pictures here so just go onto the link for new things to see them. We were very busy the whole time, but on the first day we were really too busy for Teri to go out shopping for the shop, and she was rather anxious. About 4:00 in the afternoon of Saturday, I noticed that she was helping customers with her purse over her shoulder. I guess she was ready to get out of our room. Sunday, she rarely returned to me. I think she was afraid I was going to make her stay and work. When she does make a very brief appearance during the day she always pretends to be out of breath to make me think she has been working hard, but I know that there is a lot of visiting as she goes along.

Now, just to entice you, we have a new group of patriotic things--My Land, a darling sampler with the words to My Country Tis of Thee around the border, and the Liberty pin cushion and fob are very old looking and wonderful. I think they look like they came out of a sewing box from the Civil War era. Our new Blue Snowman might just be my favorite, and Lucky Sheep is a sweet offering for St. Patrick's Day. My friend, Pat from R & R, stitched it in 3 hours on Sunday morning. Let Your Light Shine is fun and quick on 10 count fabric--very cheerful. And don't forget to look at the 2 new 9-pane pillows--Snow Blows and Spring Blooms. These come as leaflets or full kits, whichever you yearn for.

Now for some very fun things from other friends:

Barb and Alma from Blackbird Designs were darling as always and brought fantastic things for stitching and enjoying. Honeysuckle Manor is a wonderful new big book brimming with beautiful projects. Two of the samplers are reproduced from antique ones and then it is full of smaller, wonderful projects to tempt us. How on earth to choose what to begin with. There are several patterns in this book to go along with their darling wooden pin cushion bases which they have hand made. Very sweet. They also have 2 additional new books. Snow Garden and Valentine Rose are the first two patterns in a series of 12 called Anniversaries of the Heart. They would be wonderful as individual pieces, but they also suggest stitching them together on one large piece of fabric. At market, Pat showed us the piece that she is stitching them on and it is quite lovely. Teri is finding out all the particulars so that you can do it this way as well. (Did I mention that there is space to be left on the fabric for bonus patterns to be completed near the end of the year. How exciting!) Oh, I almost forgot--they also have 2 adorable little bird pin cushion patterns--Bluebird and Bird in Hand.

Carriage House released their new Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow at Nashville and it is fantastic.

This also has 12 squares--like their other Hawk Runs--but it is laid out in a vertical piece. It is in rich fall colours and each little square is more darling than the last. The whole thing is topped with pumpkins and birds. How can you resist the witch flying, the little cemetery, the splendid Tom turkey, or the trip to grandma's house? We definitely have to stitch this one.

The Workbasket always has great designs, but this year Teri was so so excited about their new Memory Keeper. She came back to our room thrilled with this beautiful envelope stitched with various Quaker motifs, alphabets, and sayings. It is to keep your treasured papers--love letters--in and is very cleverly constructed. I know that you will love it.

Our room is always right next to Charland and Sydney, and our hours together are just too short. We spend every minute together, and are still never ready to leave at the end of the weekend. We dragged them back into old Franklin with us for a stolen hour of shopping before our plane home on Monday. We had been waiting all weekend to go to a cupcake store there and ended up with the last few cupcakes for the day. Hence we were labeled cupcake stealers by others.

Leaving them each time is truly my soul's sadness. They, too, had lovely new things for the market. I could spend hours just looking at the silver charms and anticipating the beauties that they will bring to the Retreat. Her new Quaker Heart Needle Case is just fantastic. The silk threads and ribbons are in quiet shades of rose and greens and complement perfectly the sampler lining fabrics. It all folds out in sections and then comes back together again to form a simple and lovely heart. It runs $75.00 for the kit, but it is filled with everything wonderful to finish this project.

Another fun implement case to stitch and cherish is new from Little House. Needle and Thread

comes with the pattern and threads to make a darling scissor fob which Teri stitched on the way home from market. It also comes with the pattern and threads to stitch a little sampler to wrap around a little premade pillow and pin cushion. When completed it provides a place to tuck your scissors and rest your pins. The fabric is a sweet ,very old fashioned deep blue floral and dot that also looks like it came from a long ago time. The whole set runs $36.00 and is as sweet as pie.

Now I want to mention a few fabulous books and charts that we brought back and are getting ready to stitch. Teri has already chosen threads and fabrics for Little by Little's Bee Story. This darling little sampler has a bee skep and bees in a meadow with words and unending charm. And their Quaker Faith in a very odd little sampler with alphabets and numbers and Quaker motifs. I just love it and want to stitch it as a wedding sampler for myself. I know that is a little after the fact, but I love it so much.

We also love the samplers from Shakespeare's Peddler. Their new Love the Spring is quite wonderful with a sweet saying that seems like it came right from Shakespeare himself. We also love her Jenny Bean samplers. The newest one--Humble Servant Sampler--is very beautiful. It is worked in grayed, soft hues and is just sweet. I know Teri will want to be stitching this one. It has bees on it of course.

O gosh, there is just still so much more. I am going to have to tell you more things later this week. But this is a good start leaving still so much to relate in a few days. I am facing the end of the Olympics with mixed emotions. I have spent quite a bit of time watching and I seem to get drawn into every event--well, except hockey. But the good thing is that I have stitched like crazy. But I am ready for them to be over so that my household can go to bed at a decent time and get back to a more productive life. I hope that you have gotten lots of stitching done as well, and if you need a wonderful new project, just let us know. Have a safe and blessed week.
ever fondly, Tina