Dear Friends,
How are you all out there in the world? Well--I hope and surviving this season with dignity and grace. I know that is hard to do when most of the time I feel like I am in 4th grade again and playing a wicked game of dodgeball--only this time with a horror movie virus. I just remember what my brothers told me back in elementary school: keep your eyes open, your head down, and move fast. I wish I had been able to wear a mask when I was ten. I wasn't really the best at dodging a ball, so I am trying to be better at dodging a virus.
The weather is definitely changing, and Teri is lamenting the gradual letting go of her beloved garden. But really...it is almost mid-October and we are still getting tomatoes, the odd cucumber, and even a pepper now and then. That is a pretty good run for a tiny urban garden. Teri has worked very hard nurturing her garden and we have eaten from it all summer long. I only had one thing to do during the growing season and that was to plant my zinnias in the 2 pots on the front step of the shop--(and Teri helped me plant them. ) But growing zinnias is truly a test in patience. They take a surprising amount of water to flourish in small pots on a step in the downtown of a hot Utah summer, and it is amazing how long it takes those lovely green stalks which grow taller and taller every day to actually produce a bloom. At least 2 months. I kept thinking that next year I was going to plant something from the nursery that already had a mass of flowers. But I just kept lugging out my buckets of water twice a day and waiting and hoping. And then one day as we were leaving, I saw a little bud--tight and green--and others all over the tall mass of green. In the next few days, they slowly opened randomly with each blossom a new and serendipitous color unfolding and stretching its baby spikes into a full flower. Honestly, as more and more opened up, I couldn't stop looking at them. It is startling to me that each brave, single bloom is a totally different color from its neighbor, and that is what I love about that plant. It is the wild variety of colors--each as varied within its own hue as though every little leaf is overdyed a thousand times again--that makes them so heartbreakingly lovely. For me, during this odd season of my world, my nation, my family, and myself, it has taught me of the blessings of patience and love and tenacity.
A tiny flower that holds the truths of the universe.
It is definitely going to be Zinnias again next year.
It is Fall and here at the shop we are busy with Halloween,
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Teri changes the patterns on the front window almost daily now with so many people window shopping. It is fun and busy and different. If you haven't tried our new incarnation of "sidewalk sales" you should grab your mask and stop on by. It might just be the highlight of your day.
We have a few very exciting new things for Halloween. If you would like to order any of these things, check with your local needlework store, or email us, or give us a call.
Read on and be inspired...
New from Shepherd's Bush
Scare Ewe
by Shepherd's Bush
Kit: $30.00
Button and chart only: $8.00
Teri's ewe button kits are always so much fun. She and
Dinah work for months coming up with the perfect button to go with Teri's great pattern.
This one is adorable.
The kit comes with everything you will need to make a little ornament/pin cushion.
18 count linen, threads, button, ribbon, beads and backing fabric. And it will work up very quickly. Perhaps it will be the only trick-or-treating we will get to do this year.
A Witching Season
by Shepherd's Bush
Kit: $30.00
This piece was so much fun for me to design and stitch. It is a little spooky and a little joyous just like Halloween. It is stitched on 32 count linen with Weeks overdyed threads and comes with tiny buttons, a darling backing fabric and Lady Dot's hand dyed chenille, I hope you love it.
Witching Season Mini Pin Set: $12
Just Another Button Company let us design the perfect set for this little cushion. Such fun!
SOLD OUT
Thanks for the response, we are excited for this project
Pandemic Pop-Up
Halloween Box
$70.00
Have you ever heard of Pop-Up restaurants? They are little restaurants that open for 2-3 nights and then they are gone. You never know when they will pop up, and they are never around for very long. Doesn't that seem quite intriguing? Well...Teri and I have been thinking about this idea with needlework, and here it is. We will have a very limited number of this little surprise box that you may order to have sent right to your doorstep. But when they are gone, they are gone.
We are hoping to mail them by the end of this coming week and your little box will have fun surprises just for you.
The theme for this, our first Pandemic Pop-up,
will be Halloween. Besides a variety of very fun and special small surprises, you will receive a new Shepherd's Bush Halloween sampler. This piece will be exclusive to this pop-up for a year.
Give us a call and join in Pandemic Pop-Up fun!
New at the Shop
Hilda Boo and Sunflowers Too
by Brenda Gervais
chart: $12.00
We fell in love with this sweet piece. The fabric looks so purple, but it is really a deep gray.
We have it in 32, 36, and 40 count--18 Century Blackbird by R & R
All Hallow's Eve
by Joan Elliott
Chart: $16.00
32 count Linen--Halloween Night $28.50
This stunning Halloween sampler is amazing. Amy stitched it for us in about a month (thanks to covid)
Thank you Amy.. We have stitched it on a gorgeous gray purple, that is an exclusive Zweigart linen dyed for Shepherd's Bush
We have used overdyed threads and have added a spooky green. Teri just picked it up from Jill, our framer, and it is perfect.
We Live in Hope
chart by Blackbird Designs $20.00
Teri stitched this sweet piece because it reminded her of the Mayflower.
New patterns from Autumn Lane
Lunar Witch
chart: $12.00
Potions and spells
Chart: $12.00
Everyone that has come "window shopping", has been delighted with this new company-Autumn Lane. Their Halloween patterns are so spooky and cool. Here are their latest charts.
Haunted Hill Road
by Little Stitch Girl
chart: $12.00
Look how fun this great piece turned out. We stitched it on a soft gray purple and Jill framed it in a fantastic frame.
Find your way to Halloween
by Bent Creek
chart: $
I think Teri is in a purple sort of mood...
That might be scary.
Christmas Blessings
by Chessie and Me
chart: $12.00
Our minds are starting to turn to Christmas. This is a quiet piece--perfect for Christmas stitching
His Eye On The Sparrow
by Heartstrings Samplery
chart: $15.00
This beautiful piece is another Covid finish.
Our dear friend Tammy's daughter, Autumn, finished this gorgeous sampler.
Teri's Garden update
I am always happy when the garden lasts until October. We had a freezing couple of days over Labor Day that the cucumbers and pumpkins did not like at all, but the tomatoes have lasted and we have a salad almost every day. I guess that is the way of life. Teri has grown lunch and dinner for 4 months and I have grown 2 small pots of flowers on the front porch. Oh well, we each have our gifts.
She is holding the sweetest seeds. A friend (Stacy) gave her some a few years ago, and they grow in to a sweet climbing vine with little puffs. Inside the puffs are these seeds, they have hearts on the seeds. So cool. Teri collects them every year and replants them. I love that--gifts that keep on giving.
Here are our pumpkin vines before the freeze, after the freeze we were left with 3 tiny pumpkins, you can see them on our front table
We are determined to blog at least once a month, so hopefully I will write again soon. Be safe and well out there. Don't forget to dodge the balls and...All shall be well.
hugs, 'Tina
