Happy Christmas 2021

Advent 2021

Dear Friends,

How are you out there in this crazy December world?  Well?  Busy?  Merry and Bright?  

This is the Season of waiting.  

For the Christian world, it is the time of Advent, when we wait and prepare for Christmas.  That is apparent for those who are in the midst of it--frantic with the getting ready but trying to practice patience and mindfulness as we approach the holiday.  We wait for Santa, we wait for a Holy Child, we wait for a New Year.  We wait for school to end--and then for it to begin again,  We wait for children to come home.  In the West, we are waiting for snow--an abundance of snow--to quench a thirsty Earth with a promise of water for the coming year. We wait for the Solstice to arrive bringing longer days and reminding us that we have turned the corner of Time. We wait for a pandemic to end, while at the same time warily watching for the next variant to nudge us off our axis.  It is definitely a season for patience. Yet, in the rush and hurry, I want to slow down and wait for Joy and Light to surround me, to fill me, to shelter me.  I want to be ready for it--to see it and to reach for it in slight, splintery bits or great, huge clouds--to pull it into my heart and soul and hands and feet and let it sustain and carry me forward--always. 

And this Christmas season, I wish that for you as well.  Keep your eyes and hearts open and watch for the Joy, because it is all around us--patiently waiting.

And speaking of patience, you know the saying:  good things come to those who... 

So here are some very good and lovely things that we have going on in the shop to see us through the end of this year and on to the next  And the really fun thing is that we will keep on adding things all month long, so keep  checking back for more delights.

Merry Ewe 

by Shepherd's Bush 

Kit: $30.00

Button: $8.00

Teri has had this designed since the summer and has been so excited to bring it out. This fun pattern comes as a complete kit, or just the button and the pattern.  It is so happy and festive.  

 

Joy Bag 

by Shepherd's Bush 

Leaflet: $8.00

Berry Bag: $15.00

Button set: $8.90

Pincushion and Fob supplies: $15.30

Teri has so much fun with these great bags. They come in 3 colors, and we finally have all three colors in stock again.  Berry red, Olive Green, and Gray.  We stitch them with # 5 perl cotton and stitch over 2 threads on the bag.  They are an easy and quick project.  Teri just carries all the supplies around in the bag as she stitches it--hmmm, clever. We have the bags, thread, and button sets, as well as the supplies for the pincushion and the fob.  Really, who needs Gucci when you can have a Joy Bag!

Christmas scissors

$12.00 each

Holly, Candy Canes, Trees, and Stars

Boughs of Jolly 

by Shepherd's Bush

Kit: $16.00

A new Christmas 10 count kit is always fun.  These kits are perfect for beginning stitchers or someone that is looking for a quick fun stitch.  It is stitched on 10 count Tula with cotton floss.  A little snowman button is included in the kit.  

Bring us Good Cheer 

by Shepherd's Bush 

Chart $6.00

Button set $4.00

Complete kit $ 25.00

I designed this for last year's Pop up box.  It is a fun ornament and will look great hanging on your tree.  

It is stitched with 32 count vintage grey linen with overdyed cotton threads.  

Believe Bag 

by Shepherd's Bush 

Kit: $24.00

These bags are sewn by a friend of ours, and we are excited to add this Christmas bag to our collection.  We have a limited supply, so they may not always be in stock.  

2021 Stocking

(well sort of)

I really am working hard on this year's stocking even though it will be next year before it is ready,  Hopefully in January.  I know...I am slow and seem to stitch the whole thing 3 times to get the colors just perfect.  It will be a Santa this year and I think he is darling.  (Of course I am a bit prejudiced. ) I hope you will love him as much as I do.  Hoping to have more time over the holiday to get him finished and then really finished the first of the new year.  

Oh well, just one more thing to wait for...

We have a variety of great stocking stuffers for that special stitcher,  A gift certificate is also the perfect gift,  but if you are looking for some fun, stitchy things, look no farther.

  

Stitching Lotions by Cece at Mathair Earth

4 oz.  $12.00

1 oz  $4.00

These are the festive flavors we have in stock:

4 oz flavors

Raw Sugar Mint, Vanilla Noel, Peppermint Vanilla and Cranberry Orange

                                                                            1 oz flavors

                                    Sugar Pie, Vanilla Noel, Peppermint Vanilla, and Holiday Cheer

When we are out, we will be out for this year with the lotions

Christmas Sewing Notebooks 

$4.00 each

Adorable Holiday Sewing Cases 

$5.00

These go so fast because they are darling and different.

Christmas Thread Drops 

by Thread Milk

$20.00

These are so charming, a friend of ours, makes these and they are so cool.  You can thread your overdyed threads onto the round bottle caps and keep a project organized and chic. 

Cozy Christmas Cottage 

by Thread Milk

Chart: $15.00

Lori, from Thread milk, has designed these sweet pillows, perfect for a basket or a dough bowl.  A bit primitive and charming, they will be a great addition to your holiday decorating.  

Hat of Holly 

by Bent Creek

kit $26.00

I think we showed this already, but we just got it back from Jill and I love how she framed it.  It is stitched on the new 20 count  linen, and it is just great.  

Embroidery Ornaments 

$7.50 each

These are finally available again.  Teri loves these sweet ornaments.  They are preprinted in color,  

and all you do is embroider and finish.    

Stitching Journals

Orange or Blue covers

$13.00

These are great so you can keep track of every project you start and finish.  There are places for supplies used and even a spot for a picture.  Sadly, I could only fill in the start date.

2022 Book of Days 

by Needlework Press

$14.00

Fall on the Farm

by Little House Needleworks

New 9 part series.  

each chart $7.00

Fabric and threads are extra and will depend on what you choose.  

We just love Diane's series, and have been anxiously awaiting a new one.  Here it is:  Fall on the Farm starts this month and will run for 9 months.  Here's how it works. You give us a call to sign up, and then every month, we will send you the next pattern.  The first month, we send you just the pattern  

or a complete kit with fabric, threads and buttons, or any part you would like.  The pattern calls for 30 count linen, which we have, but we also have any count you might like, from 14 count aida to linens in 28, 30, 32, 36, and 40 count.  We will be adding a button each month as well.  This will be so much fun to stitch.  

 If you want to wait until January, we can do that too, you will receive the first 2 months.  

Give us a call and sign up now.   Soooo exciting!

Wishing you all the Joy and Peace of the season.  Merry Christmas..

 Tina and Teri

                                                   

Cool October nights

Early Autumn Blessings

Dear Friends

How lovely for me to spend this afternoon writing to all of you.  Where I am, it is one of those days which seems a blessing to me.  The weather is both expected and serendipitous today.  It is such a nod at the season we have just had.  Brilliant sunshine and more hot than warm. It is as though my little corner of the world is hanging on to Summer and willing it to stay with us just a bit longer.  Yet I know that in a few hours when the sun lowers and disappears into the Salt Lake, it will be chilly and I will light candles and grab a sweater if I choose to linger on the patio stitching or FaceTiming the kids.  And soon even the days will let go of their welcome warmth, and Autumn's briskness will creep in.  Hopefully bringing with it some rain to quench the thirst of this parched corner of the earth.

Teri's garden has had a wonderful run this year.  Here it is--early October--and we are still enjoying tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and basil and parsley.  It will be hard to face not grabbing a quick lunch or dinner out of the backyard.  She just has such a green thumb and the patience to spend hours tenderly caring for gardens.  I was not blessed with either the talent nor the patience to garden.  My one thing I do each year is to plant zinnias in the pots by the front door at work.  Last year it was so much fun to watch them grow and see the varying colored blooms as they appeared and lasted.  I even shared seeds with Bob to plant in his pots at home and with Teri to add color to her garden to attract pollinators.  Both of them had the most beautiful Zinnias which have kept their blooms for months.  My 2 tiny pots had long and lovely green stems and leaves--and precisely 1 bloom between them.  Seriously!  Bob said that I had crowded them, which is probably true, but honestly it did work last year. Oh well, the growing season is almost over, so I just have to get over it and move on.  

Everyone at the shop is well and busy as Fall arrives.  Like you, we are all doing our best to stay out of the way of this current wave of the pandemic.  Sometimes it seems like we are living in a continuous loop, but I think that we are all learning to adjust and regroup as we try to continue our lives in some sort of normal.  Everyone still has to wear a mask to come inside the shop, and some days I make it all the way home without even noticing that it is still on.  Once winter hits, and people start wearing hats, we might begin to forget what each other looks like.  Oh well, that's what photographs are for. 

We seem to now be in an odd stage of this virus.  Each person having their own specific thoughts on how to navigate and survive.  But hopefully, in the passion and distress of finding ourselves almost 20 months into this strange circumstance, we can remind ourselves that we really are in this together--like it or not.  And my mother's constant mantra for myself and my siblings returns to me all the time:  Just be nice!

I guess that is my wish for our weary, discouraged world as we hopefully enter the last stretch of this long and bitter journey.  After all, it can't last forever......can it?

New from Shepherd's Bush 

We are excited to show you some new things that we have ready for Autumn stitching.  

  

A Witch's Garden Pin Cushion

kit:  $30

This sweet little pin cushion was such a lot of fun to design and stitch.  It is worked on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha with Weeks overdyed cotton threads.  It has a wonderful dusty purple backing fabric, little hand dyed buttons, and Lady Dot chenille (hand dyed for this kit).  I hope it will be fun to work on as Halloween approaches.

Halloween Needle Case

kit:  $30.00

I love this little needle case that Teri has been working on.  It is so darling and has just the right combination of spooky and autumn.  It is stitched on 32 count Shale by PTP ( a very dusty grey/purple) and includes Weeks cotton floss, buttons, grey wool, silk ribbon and Lady Dot chenille-hand dyed for this.

(Supplies for this kit are very limited because that is the world we are living in right now)

Fear Not

kit: $30.00 

This lovely little piece was part of our Pop Up series last year.  It is fun and filled with the joy of Autumn, but still with a tiny hint of Halloween.  It is stitched on 32 count French Country Mocha and includes Weeks overdyed cotton floss and buttons.  

Thoughts of Halloween

pattern:  $6

button:  $6

entire kit: $43.00

I really like this series that Teri adds to now and then.  This one is perfect for October and highlights a fabulous Halloween Moon button.  We worked ours on 32 count purple linen with a fantastic palette of overdyed cotton floss.  

Scary 

Chart $8.00

Gray bag: $15.00

Perl cotton thread set $19.55

Orange scissors: $8.50

Shepherd's Bush Halloween scissor fobs 

$10.00

I spent our summer outing to the lake working on these fobs.  They were fun to do and turned out quite sweet.  We have a big variety that are all great, so we will choose the perfect one for you.  My trip only lasted so long, so these are limited.

A small new group of bee designs by Shepherd's Bush 

These designs came out during the summer, and we thought we would share them with you,  I don't think they were on our last blog... when was that???  Busy Notes was on the blog so I did not include it here. 

Bee Home

10 count kit:  $16

This is a little kit that came out at the end of the summer.  It is adorable and perfect for Bee and Home lovers alike.  It is a 10 count fabric so it will be quick and easy to finish.  

Stitch

pattern:  $8

Olive Plaid Bag: $15

Perle cotton set available

x

Teri has had so much fun working on this bag.  You use perle cotton 5 and stitch it over 2 threads, and it takes hardly any time at all.  Well...it didn't take me any time at all.  She said it was a blast to do and she loves that the bag fits a whole project--book and all,  The bags also come in grey and berry red, and I know she is working on a pattern for Halloween (grey) and Christmas (berry).

She worked the pin cushion and fob by stitching parts of the pattern on a smaller count linen.  32?

What a darling set.

Bee scissors $12.00 each 

Sweet bee scissors to add right in.

Mad for Plaid bags 

$15.00

                                         

New at the shop

New wooden thread pallets 

by Under the Garden Moon

$12.00 each

We have a friend, Amy, who does lovely patterns of quilting, wool work, and embroidery. Her newest venture are these beautiful wooden threads drops and pallets with various engraved designs.  They are very pretty and smooth, and perfect for storing threads.  

New Wooden Thread Drops

by Under the Garden Moon 

each set of 6 is $25.00

Autumn Rules chart 

by Primrose Cottage

$12.00

kit also available

This is a darling new company, and their charts are so much fun.  The best thing is the entire graph in in one chart.  Amy just sent back Autumn Rules--she stitched it so fast.  Thanks Amy.  We have tweaked the colors into overdyed cottons and added buttons.  It is such a fun Autumnal piece.  

Here are a few of their other designs.

Pumpkin Kisses

 chart: $6.50

 Happy Halloween

chart: $6.50

Halloween Kisses

 chart: $6.50

This is Halloween 

chart: $12.00

Witchy Way

chart: $6.50

Christmas Letters

chart: $12.00

 

Pilgrims pillow by Mani di Donni

partial kit $   ( threads are not included)

This sweet pattern comes with the pins, and the fabric to stitch and to finish the pincushion.  

Statehood charts $5.00 each

by Thread Milk 

Can you tell which states are which?  

It would be so fun to have a bowl of the places you have been.

Here is another new company, and her state patterns are very sweet.  So far she has 13 states available and more are on  the way.  

Milk Cap Thread Drops $15.00

These are so adorable a pack n a ring to hold your threads.  

Halloween fobs by My Big Toe

limited quantity

$12.50

Garden update by Teri

My garden has been so fun this year.  We have made 2 batches of bread and butter pickles and have eaten tomatoes so many different ways.  I love just dashing outside to pick some peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers and whipping up a salad.  Last week Reeta picked a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes to take home and it did not look like she had picked any.  I am always sad when the weather turns and I have to put my garden to bed.  I am trying garlic, I think you plant it in the fall... we shall see. 

The grapes we planted a few years ago have taken over and the birds feast on the sweet clumps of grapes. I want to try grape jelly, but I'm not sure how to do that--or if I am up to the mess.  Our Mom was a huge canner, every September she canned grape juice, peaches, tomatoes many ways, pickles, and anything she could. Where is she when I need her?????

My little Zinnia patch

so many cherry tomatoes...