Merry, merry Christmas!  I have been hoping to post for the last two weeks. Where is the time going? Pat and I have both been down with the flu since Thanksgiving but I think we are finally feeling 100%.  It's really hard to be sick when there is so much to do.....

First, I wanted to share this darling piece from Plum Street and the fabulous finish.  Isn't this just the coolest?

I also wanted you to see Mary's Sampler- also from Plum Street.  Pat finished this as soon as it was out and we sent it to the finisher and told her to do something fun.  Isn't this so great?  If you haven't finished yours yet maybe this will inspire you.

Last night we had our annual Christmas party with our Thursday night group.  Lots of yummy food and we had an ornament exchange.  It was so much fun.  Here is a shot of all the cool ornaments we did.  Every year it is more and more fun.  It's great to see what ornament everyone chooses to stitch and what fun finish they will do.  Great job ladies!

Our clubs are filling up!  There are still spots available so don't panic.  You have time to register.  Here is a shot of all the offerings for 2013 for the Ladies Prim Society.  Now if these don't tempt you nothing will.  LOL

We are hoping to start shipping the first Colonial Gatherings offering January 15th.  Again- we are not full- YET.  Please understand that between the two clubs we have 100's of applicants.  I can not call each of you to tell you we received your paperwork.  You can call here and we are happy to check for you.  Thanks for understanding.

We wish all of you an absolutely fabulous Christmas and holiday season.

I love this time of year. The weather is turning cooler, the leaves are beautiful and there's lots of fun things to stitch for the holidays! I started Thomas from Notforgotten Farm two years ago and I am finally back to it- determined to finish it before Thanksgiving. I saw this one matted and framed at Jill Rensel's several years ago and it did inspire me......

We managed to have a Halloween party here at the shop last Wednesday night. We always have treats and prizes for the best costumes. Here are a few of those who came dressed.......
Sue is Cross stitch fabric- isn't she clever? Jane is pumpkin pie....... she cracks me up!

Mary Lou is Pocahantas and Shannon was Fifty Shades of Grey..... Well done ladies!

WE have lots of fun things to tempt you right now. We have more of the darling acorn fobs that we showed at the retreat- Only $6- perfect little Christmas gift for a stitching friend. WE also have these wonderful acorn needle cases- handmade by our friend Paul. These won't last long so let me know if this is a MUST have for you!

We are ready for Thanksgiving with the new stockings done from Plum Street. Aren't these adorable? A quick stitch too!

We also have these scissor fob kits ready. They come with chart, linen and fabric to use on the back of the fobs. Quick stitches for a gift! How many times have you explained to your family- these scissors are for paper and these are for fabric!

I am so excited about the new offering from Liberty Hill. I don't think Carolyn has offered a Christmas piece in a while. We will have a limited number of these to sell so let me know if you want one......

Hoping to have the last prim out the door in the next few weeks. If you are a member in 2013 and wish to continue you don't need to do a thing. If you wish to drop out for 2014 please let me know by December 15th. If you wish to join- we are expanding the club and the registration form is on the website. Just fill it out and you can email, fax or snail mail it in. No registrations will be taken by phone.

The registration for our new Colonial Gatherings club is on the website too. PLease fill it out and return it. If you wish to join and are a member of the prim just print your name and sign the bottom. Please indicate prim on the form. That way you don't have to repreat the credit card information. This is going to be great!

A lot of you have asked if we have rested since the retreat. NO! Lots of work to do plus my friend goes to New York every fall and brings me back apples..... lots of apples. She brought me 75 pounds this year so I have spent days putting up applesauce for the winter. Almost done- one batch left.

We still have a few of the limited edition kits from Threadwork Primitives available. The colors are terrific and the kit is put together in such a special way. Great job Nan......

My dear friend Mona came for a visit last weekend. I haven't seen her in over a year. It was so great spending some time with her. She says she checks the blog daily and is so sad when I haven't updated so this is for you Mona!

Wow- has it really been three weeks since the retreat?  I am still tired! I  think everyone had a really good time and we have received so many lovely notes and a few gifts ( teachers pets). Here is a box that the lovely ladies from Cape May made for me- Pat received one also.  We were so touched by their kindness- thanks so much Jean, Donna, Sandy and Elena!

People are already asking about the next one- Pat says we aren't doing anymore but we will!  I am already looking at a new hotel for 2015 and we have already asked several teachers to come back!

This was the make it and take it project which started the retreat off.  A simple little pincushion.

I am going to do an entire blog post with pictures of the Evening with Friends. It was a tiny book in which all the teachers contributed a chart. You can pick and choose the ones you want in your book that are appropriate to your life.  Sharon of the Purple Thread put it together.  I know there were a lot of finishing directions so she is going to do a video for the blog so you can watch it as often as you need to for finishing purposes.

I have seen a million pictures on other blogs of the banquet. Here are a few pictures that I loved.

 

We wanted a really special prize for the best costume.  Pat and I donated fabric once a month for a year to the winner.  Everyone really looked great and it was hard to choose a winner. Maxine as Barefoot and Pregnant was over the top!  Congratulations!

Wanted to show this Halloween offering from Liberty Hill.  It's an older one but we have two left if anyone is interested.  Carolyn does such a terrific job on everything she does!

After the retreat we went to DC for three days with Paulette Stewart, Jeannette Douglas, Norma and Sybil.  WE managed to see a lot despite the shut down and the torrential rain!

We hope to ship the last prim for 2013 around mid November.  This one is spectacular so stay tuned! Also- to make things easy for everyone we have decided that for the Ladies Prim in 2014- if you belong in 2013 you don't need to renew.  ONLY if you want to stop- then you need to contact us.

We also talked about a new club offering we are going to have in 2014 at the retreat.  This is called Colonial Gatherings with Paulette Stewart of Plum Street and Tanya Brockmeyer of Scarlet House.  It will be set up like the prim society with a kit offering every 8-10 weeks running from $25 - 40.  This will again have a limited number of spaces available.  Hope to have the registration form on the website by November 1st.  We are very excited about this too!

Lots of wonderful and exciting things coming in 2014........Hope you will stay tuned.

Oh and last but not least.......GO RED SOX!!!!!

Retreats are kind of like Christmas. The anticipation builds and builds till you almost burst......then tada .......it begins. This is the start of our retreat week.....ready or not. I think we are ready.......still a few last minute things to complete and a mountain of stuff to transport to the beach but we are ready. Ready to welcome old friends and new friends to the beach for a fabulous weekend of fun, fellowship, stitching, surprises, and more FUN!

Wanted you to see the fabulous Reverend Squashbottom by Notforgotten Farm. Isn't he incredible?

This is Matilda Hornbuckle......also Notforgotten Farm. Love both of these!

Thursday, October 3rd is a special day for Pat and I. R & R will be 20 years old on that day. We are thrilled about this milestone. We are planning lots of fun giveaways this year so everyone can share in the celebration. Watch this blog for details.......

Please note that our Prim Society is closed for 2013. I know there were a few of you disappointed to have missed out on the terrific projects for this year. We will be posting information for the 2014 club in early November and taking registrations in December 2014, promises to be just as exciting so keep watching for details.

I hope to get lots of pictures at the retreat and will post them next week. We are going on a quick trip to DC with some of the teachers at the close of the retreat but will be back at work by Wednesday........

Bittersweet Autumn is the latest selection for the Ladies Prim Society. Don't you love the colors? Thanks Barb and Alma for this darling pinkeep. Hope you all love it as much as we do.

It takes a village to get these out the door. Look at this mountain of thread cards! Many,many thanks to Sybil for all of her assistance with this months project!

We got this piece from Plum Street back from the framers. Paulette you outdid yourself with this piece. Love it on the Foglifter linen!

Pat finished her October 31st kit from Blackbird and decided to put it in one of the fabulous boxes from Lone Elm. Isn't this incredible? The fabric included in that kit was Exclusive to Blackbird and we will not be selling this as yardage - sorry.

Getting ready for Halloween. There are so many wonderful things to stitch. Lots of tempting projects here.............

The retreat is almost here. We are frantically trying to finish up all the many projects. I am getting excited to see lots of dear friends and to meet many of you coming for the first time. Final letter is on its way.......can't wait to see all of you and to see what costumes you have cooked up for the banquet!

Ah.....the beginning of fall.  My favorite time of year- not only for the weather but the decorations, the food, fall clothes.....love it all!
I had the best of intentions on blogging while at market.  Once we get there and get caught up in the energy and seeing lots of friends- that flies right out the window.  I will offer a few observations even though loads of others have already blogged about the show.

There were many wonderful things at market- one of the best we have attended in years. Here is a peak at some of the linens we took with us..........

We were thrilled to bring models home from Blackbird and Plum street.  If you are coming to visit in the next month or will be at the retreat you will have a chance to ohhh and ahh over these as we did!  Here is the Blackbird display.....Plum Street is in the window but I will try and photograph those next week.

We have the next selection in Every woman's journey that is in the process of shipping. Sharon is always so inventive! We still have openings in this club if you are interested.

I did make a non stitching purchase while in St. Charles. We managed to get to main street the first afternoon- for lunch!  We had some extra time afterwards and decided to check out some of the charming shops.  Ok- first shop and I knew I was in trouble!  Had a pile on the counter in less than 5 minutes.....never good.  They had the most adorable antique baby bed- shoot I thought it was just for display til I poked around and discovered it was for sale.  Now- as adorable as it was it wasn't small.....we drove and the car was full of fabrics and trims which I hoped would be gone going home, but I still had to shop the show and bring back lots of treasures for the shop!  So I passed......of course I could talk of nothing else all weekend. ( I am sure all of our friends were begging Pat to go with me back to the shop to get the bed just so I would shut up about it) We did go back on Sunday and I decided if it was still there it was coming home with me.  Had no idea of how we would fit it in the car, but I really, really wanted that bed. ( I have made crazy purchases before when we have been out of town- huge cement pumpkins, americana flag poles, a huge picket fence! ) We did manage to squeeze the bed in although there was not a breath of room to spare.  Now wasn't this worth all the trouble?   Isn't it precious?  The price was ridiculous too- hard to pass up a bargain!

The next Ladies Prim Society will be shipping in the next two weeks.  Blackbird designed this offering for fall- Bittersweet Autumn- really adorable!  Well worth the wait...... Let me know if you want anything added to your order.  Bags are already piling up!

We are busy as bees getting ready for the retreat. I will be sending out one more letter with final information.  Boxes are piling up at the shop and at the house.  Hope we have room for all these goodies!  This is a lot of work, but also so much fun when it all comes together.  So many people are helping- we couldn't do it without the assistance of many friends....... Can't wait to see the costumes everyone is cooking up for the banquet.

WE should have the next Hollyberry farm piece next week. The fabric is ready and waiting here at the shop. so feel free to call with your orders.

I think I mentioned in the last blog post that we will be continuing with the Ladies Prim Society in 2014.  We will also be announcing another club at the beginning of October.  Very exciting.....stay tuned....

Hope you all are enjoying the cooler weather. It's still baseball season, so we are getting lots of stitching done.  Go Red Sox!

To market, to market...... we are off to the summer needlework market next week in St. Louis. It's been many years since we have gone to the summer market and are we excited! We have loads of linen , trims and charts to take to sell and we are armed with checks, lists and comfortable shoes so we can shop, shop, shop. We have seen many sneak peaks from some of our favorite designers and I know we are in for a treat! If you have requests or wish us to bring something special back for you, email us at dyeingtostitch@aol.com. I can access that from my phone so I will make sure we get everything you want. The shop will be closed August 20-22 so the girls who work with us are not overworked. The shop will reopen regular hours Friday the 23rd.

As many of you know the shop was broken into on August 1st in the early morning hours. This was a very scary thing for us even though we were not there or open. The burglars didn't bother any of our merchandise or models they just overturned most of the office files and trashed them with cleaning fluids. Lots of mess to clean up but we are so thankful that no one was hurt and more damage was not done. Thank you for all the lovely messages you have sent- they meant the world to us.

I decided to change our front display table to bees for the late summer. Threadwork Primitives has three darling bee designs along with several other designers. Check these great patterns out.....

Some new fall patterns we have stitched....
Spooky String by Lizzie Kate.....

Halloween Hornbook- Plum Street...

Trick or Treat- Prairie Schooler

Beggars Night- Threadwork Primitives.  I love,love, love this one.  We have the fabric and trim for this and it is in stock now.  Call if you want me to package this up for you.  We will have this model in our room ( 612) at the show.

 We will be shipping the next Prim Society offering the first week in September. This one is by Blackbird Designs. If you want to add anything to your order please contact me as soon as you can. I do want you to know that I try and mix up who ships first every time I send these kits out. That makes it fair for everyone. It takes me a full week to get these all sent out so please be patient. If you know you need to update your credit card please call me as it slows the entire process down if I have to hunt you down. This kit will be stitched on 32 count so I hope everyone is happy with that. We will be doing the Prim Society next year too and I will be posting further information shortly.

Once again we have the sampler clipboards in stock.Many of you have been patiently waiting and yours are all in the mail. If you wanted one and haven't called- now is the time as they go FAST!

The sampler I have decided to post this time is Elizabeth Pritchard.  I love this pictorial scene. The sheep are done in wool and the colors are warm and vibrant.

Thought you might like to see teenage Abigail.  She is 7 months old now and still has a lot of attitude!  All the dogs are going to board next week but told them they are going to summer camp. Hope they believe me!

I am hoping to send a short blog post from market.  I always think I will have time and then we start talking and time just flies by. I will do my best.  Have a great week...............

Wow- it's HOT! According to the weather channel last week and this week are the hottest weeks of the year. Yes I can attest to that. We came home Saturday night to no air conditioning. It was 85 in the house. We managed to get someone to come and repair it on Sunday ( don't ask what that cost) and it took almost 24 hours for the house to cool to a normal range because of the heat outside. It was a miserable two days for us and the three dogs even with fans. I admit we are spoiled and frankly I do not want to live without air conditioning ever again.

We have some new models in the shop. I finally finished the Numero Uno from Jeannette Douglas. This is such a cool piece and really fun to stitch. It is done mostly with Gentle Art wool. It is very industrial and yet Pottery Barn looking to me. What do you think?

We also had Jeannette's new Christmas piece stitched for the shop. It comes with two color ways but we chose the light one. Isn't this stunning?  Wendy did a fabulous job on this one.

Several of you have asked to see the changes we made to the Stacy Nash Spring at Hollyberry farm. We took out the big cat and added a flock of sheep. This just suited us more. Hope you like it. Pat is over half done with the Summer at Hollyberry farm but she is busy stitching models for the summer show in St. Charles, so it will be a little bit before she can finish.

We have received so many fun things at the shop in the last few weeks. The new sampler from Plum Street- Promised Lamb is really wonderful. Paulette has such a special flair! We also have all the new With thy Needle and Thread,( new Liberty House pictured) the Loose Feathers and the Halloween magazine from JCS. More Clipboards are expected any day. Let me know if you want one as we are selling them like hotcakes.

The winner for the Ladies Prim Society is Linda Crowe. Linda please contact me about what intial you would like stitched for your fob. Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments. It seems to be a very popular club and we are so appreciative of your commitment. Just a note- we give the designers guidelines in pricing and they come up with the kits as far as colors and fabric choices. If the fabric is not your choice you can always change it. We are trying to keep the pricing reasonable thus the choices that have been made.

OK- have you seen the new sampler from Threadwork Primitives? Nan designed this for me and I am so thrilled. I have never been honored like this before.   Nan you are the best!

We will have those in the shop this week along with her new bee needle roll to complete her Bee trilogy.  Let me know if you want any of these sent out.

This Saturday- July 27th is our annual summer frame sale. If you have things ready to frame for Christmas or just projects completed that you would like to have framed- come see us. We will be here from 11am to 5 pm.

The sampler I selected to show this week is one of our boys. George Eisenbrey. He is from the Smithsonian. George was a bad boy and was made to go to a girls school and do a sampler. He was actually a pretty good stitcher. We know that George was a bad boy because his sister kindly left a note with the sampler. Wouldn't you love to know what he did to get in such trouble?

If you are interested in our retreat we have had several openings come up in the last two weeks. Some folks had to cancel for various reasons so if you have been wanting to come we would love to have you. Its going to be such fun!