What's New @ Needle In A Haystack

Heart's Content Sale

The season for tradeshows is not far away so we're starting some end-of-year inventory reduction sales. We have quite a few kits and some older charts from The Heart's Content and all but the current designs are on sale for 30% off. Visit our Heart's Content Sale page for details.

More Great Gift Ideas!

We have received some very pretty glass laying tools that were originally shawl pins. We asked the glass maker to taper the points more so they could be used as laying tools and we're very happy with how they turned out. The larger tools have a more solid top decoration and are a little heavier. The smaller tools have a smaller top decoration and are about an inch shorter.

The glass needles are made for sewing up things like knitted garments but we thought they were too fun to pass up!

These are very limited items since each is hand-made and we don't expect to get more before the holidays (we had to wait several months as it was). If you select a color and are willing to take another if it's gone be sure to let us know.

Large Glass Laying Tool Blue - $40.00 Quantity:	Large Glass Laying Tool Lavender - $40.00 Quantity:
Large Glass Laying Tool Red - $40.00 Quantity:	Large Glass Laying Tool Tan - $40.00 Quantity:
Small Glass Laying Tool Brown - $24.00 Quantity:	Small Glass Laying Tool Butterscotch - $24.00 Quantity:
Small Glass Laying Tool Green - $24.00 Quantity:	Small Glass Laying Tool Pink/Coral - $24.00 Quantity:
Small Glass Laying Tool Purple - $24.00 Quantity:	Glass Needles various - $12.00/ea Quantity:

New Kelmscott Designs Scissors & Needleminder

We have 3 new items from Kelmscott Designs that I think you'll love. The scissors or the Crown Needleminder will make great gift items for yourself or a stitching friend - the Holidays are almost upon us!

Elizabeth I Scissors 2.5" - $13.50 Quantity:	Angel Scissors 3.75" - $13.50 Quantity:
Crown Needleminder $10.50 Quantity:

Quaker Seasons of Friendship Sampler

If you've looked at the Society of Soie Surfine blog you'll find photos of some of the samples I've stitched with the new Society hand-dyed Soie Surfine. Several people have asked about the chart many of the designs came from. It's from Crown & Thistle and is called Quaker Seasons of Friendship. You can order the chart here or by giving the shop a call.

It's a large sampler but I like it because it has so many great motifs in it - great for small project, creating your own little sampler design, or you can stitch the entire design!

Quaker Seasons of Friendship $20.00 Quantity:

Announcing the Society of Soie Surfine

Earlier this summer I got a real treat from Anne at Gloriana Threads. She'd accidentally dyed some Au ver á Soie Soie Surfine and I was the happy recipient of this fortuitous mistake. I started stitching on a piece of 45 count Lakeside Linens with it (some of you have seen my tiny pieces) and a love story was born...

Fast forward to today and I'm really pleased to announce the formation of the Society of Soie Surfine. We are a cooperative of five needlework shops dedicated to the finest in counted-thread supplies. And by finest I do mean very fine count linens and the finest of threads. We all love working on and selling high-count linens and have searched for a thread that works well on 40 and 45 count linen. And we've found it in Au ver á Soie's Soie Surfine. Soie Surfine is a 130/2 twisted silk thread that stitches like a dream - as smooth as...silk!

We have arranged with Gloriana Threads to hand-dye Soie Surfine exclusive for our Society of Soie Surfine Member Shops and as a stitcher you can become a Society Subscriber by purchasing a subscription to the Society. Our hand-dyed Soie Surfine threads are limited editions and available only through the Society - no one else will have them.

Our first subscription (Series #1) is just now starting and will last for 6 months. We will be featuring 5 thread colors and 1 fabric during the six months. Our first thread color is called Carmine Rose and is a lovely Red/Rose tone-on-tone color. It comes in a 100 yd twisted skein packaged in a crystal clear bag you can put on a ring to organize your subscription threads.

The fabric will be a custom color dyed for us by Lakeside Linens and will be available in 40 or 45 count during the series. It is coordinated to go with the 5 thread colors we have picked for this series. The fabric will be approximately 18x12 in size, enough for some fine design use. Additional yardage can be ordered by Subscribers during Series #1 after we have released the fabric.

While we do not currently have any designs that call for this limited edition thread and fabric, we are investigating having a design created for it and will let Subscribers know how that comes along. But we know everyone has lovely designs that call out for some special thread and fabric so we're sure our Series #1 subscription will find great designs to be paired with.

Series #1 subscriptions are $18 (from the 4 US member shops) for each of 6 months ($108 total) and entitle Society Subscribers to 1 skein each of the 5 thread colors and one piece of 40 or 45 count fabric (approx. 18x12). So there'll be 5 months of thread and one month with a fabric (we won't be sending both in the same month). Subscriptions are limited so sign-up now to ensure your receipt of these unique threads and fabric. You can sign-up through us by calling the shop or through the on-line catalog. Be sure to specify which count fabric you want as part of your Subscription.

Society Member shops are: Needle In A Haystack, Acorns and Threads, Attic Needlework, Stitchville USA and Traditional Stitches (Canada).

Interesting NPR story on 30,000 year old flax fibers

A friend forwarded a link to me for an NPR story from this week. Archeologists found some very old textiles recently - flax fibers dating back 30,000 years. We knew that the linens in our stash would age well...

Blackbird Designs Tis Halloween - Update

Our shipment of the booklets has arrived as well as the Week's Dye Works floss used. We have the Crescent Colours and Sampler Threads colors on order and those should be in within 10 days. We have substituted Week's Dye Works linen for the R&R the pattern calls for it. It is also on order and should be here soon. We have added a page where you can order all the supplies for the booklet if you want to do all 13 stocking. You can order it via our online catalog or give us a call if you want to place a phone order, or you just want specific stocking materials.

Mary Frances Knits Smalls

The work of our newest staff person, Mary Frances Wogec, is featured on the cover of the new Piecework magazine. Mary Fran knitted a tiny tablecloth with one strand of Soie d'Alger on 000000 knitting needles! The photos here show her working on starting a new small with a strand of Soie Surfine (130/2). It's amazing work.

	You can order the September/October issue here.  $6.99 Quantity:

Just Nan - New Arrivals

Our shipment of the latest Over The Top Tin - Spooky arrived yesterday along with Counting Bats and the Pumpkin Jack Charm Garden Pin and Pumpkin Tapestry Needle Slide - a great way to store your needles and pins. You can sign-up for the Over The Top 2009 Tin Club by visiting our online catalog. The new items can be ordered below.

Pumpkin Jack Charm Garden Pin	Pumpkin Tapestry Needle Slide
Counting Bats & Embellishments
Add Just Nan items to your cart!

Back Issues of Piecework's Annual Knitting Issue Available

In cleaning up our magazine area today we found we still have a handful of the 2nd and 3rd annual Knitting issues from Piecework. We understand the issue sold out from Interweave so if you're looking for one or both of these come get them while we still have them.

Update - 10/1/09 - we only have one copy left of the Jan/Feb 2009 issue. Please call us to order it or see if it's been sold.

Blackbird Designs Tis Halloween

Our shipment of the new Blackbird Designs Tis Halloween booklet is on its way to us and should be here in a few days. The booklet features 13 Halloween stockings, stitch on 30 count linen. The booklet is $26 and can be ordered below or by giving us a call.

The stockings call for R&R linen but we will be able to find suitable colors in Week's Dye Works linen. Two of the colors we know are pretty close (Week's Straw for R&R 18th Century Brown and Week's Cappuccino for R&R Cafe Kona) but we're waiting for the new color Tiger's Eye to come since we're pretty sure that will work for the R&R Witche's Brew (kind of an orange/brown). If you're interested in the fabric just let us know. You can always do them on another count for even more options in color and size. I've seen one of the Christmas stockings done on 40 count and it was amazing! So you could even have a very tiny Halloween stocking, great for candy corn!

Tis Halloween Booklet $26.00 Quantity:

Just Cross Stitch 2009 Ornament Issue

We are taking pre-orders for the 2009 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue, which is usually released in September. This is probably the most anticipated magazine issue each year, full of fun holiday stitching projects from a wide range of counted-thread designers.

Put your name on the list now and we'll send you a copy (or more) as soon as it gets to us.

Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special 2009 $6.99
Quantity:   

Stitch 'n Zip Trunkshow Arrived

Through the middle of September we're featuring pretty much the entire line of Stitch 'n Zip needlepoint kits. These are great kits for making gifts and are available in Eyeglass, Credit Card/Coin Purse, Purse, Scissors Case and Spec Case. They are silk screen printed canvas in a pre-finished format so all you have to do is Stitch then zip it up when you're done. If you want to make it a nicer presentation you can finish off the inside with some fabric and tack it down. We've seen it done with Dupioni Silk as well as nice quilting fabrics. Kits come with pre-finished item, threads, needle and instructions. We also have blanks for some of the sizes if you want to create your own design.

We have added all the Stitch 'n Zip kits to our online catalog so you can see what they look like and order them either through catalog or by calling us. If you go to our Needlepoint Designers page you can look them up by description (e.g. Tennis), by type (e.g. eyeglass) or by code if you happen to know it (e.g. SZ369).

During the trunkshow if you purchase any of the Stitch 'n Zip kits you'll received double Rewards points.

New Kelmscott Designs Products

We're catching up with what's new from Kelmscott Designs and in our order today we received the new needleminder Buzz and the new Flower Pot scissors. Both are available in the store or you can order them online here.

Buzz Needleminder $10.50	Flower Pot Scissors $12.50

Cross Stitch Letter Bible

There is a great new alphabet book on the market from Valérie Lejeune. Her wonderful Les Lettres books have been out of print for some time so this is a welcome addition to the alphabet library. It's a huge book (711 pages) and weighs enough to press sandwiches. We have a couple in stock and expect to get more shortly. It's $52.00, a great price for such a weighty tome.

Cross Stitch Letters Bible $52
Quantity: