We have received several new colors of Gloriana 12-strand silk, in luscious colors like Pineapple and Aubergine. You'll find them in our online catalog, along with photos. The page is in numeric order, so you'll find the new colors at the bottom of the list.
We've added more thread photos to our online catalog. You'll now find photos of Fibers to Dye For and Au ver a Soie Soie 100/3. We're missing a few of the FTDF colors and should have those up in the next couple of weeks. It'll be a while before we get all of the Soie 100/3 photographed, but stay tuned. We hope you'll enjoy seeing what color a name or number goes with!
Thread Gatherer has released 5 new overdyed Silk 'n Colors, 4 solid Silk 'n Colors and 2 new Silk Ribbons in 4mm. The 4 new solid colors introduce a new blue range to her line. We have photos of all but the new solid colors in the online catalog and all are available for purchase now.
| Type | Color |
|---|---|
| Silk 'n Colors | 264 Momma's Lullaby |
| Silk 'n Colors | 265 Pomegranate Slushi |
| Silk 'n Colors | 266 November Morning |
| Silk 'n Colors | 267 Cobblestone Lane |
| Silk 'n Colors | 268 Washed-Out Grape |
| Silk 'n Colors | 1063 Union Blue |
| Silk 'n Colors | 1064 Thundercloud |
| Silk 'n Colors | 1065 Independence Rain |
| Silk 'n Colors | 1066 Civil War Tears |
| Silk Ribbon 4mm | 264 Momma's Lullaby |
| Silk Ribbon 4mm | 265 Pomegranate Slushy |
Over the past few days there's been a flurry of postings about DMC France filing for bankruptcy. This is only for 2 divisions of the parent company and does not affect the portion of the company responsible for thread and fabric for the craft markets. You can find a press release here regarding the filing and sorting out some of the information. So don't panic - DMC thread will continue to be made and supplies are not impacted by this action in France.
It always takes a while for us to add new items to the online catalog but we have finally added the rest of Giulia Punti Antichi's beads and thimbles as well as the new Victoria Sampler designs released last month, which were S is for Stitcher and Where Stitchers Gather. Both have accessory packs available for them, and are listed in the online catalog as well.
We are taking sign-ups now for the new 2008 Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers Club. There will be 6 designs released during the year (one every 2 months) and you can sign up for just the booklet for each design or you can include fabric and/or thread as well. The designs are done with hand-dyed cotton floss and we'll also be matching those colors to silk so you can stitch the designs in either cotton or floss. We will be substituting the new Weeks Dye Works hand-dyed linen, which is also a 30 count linen and comes in some wonderful colors that will work great for these designs. You can sign-up by calling the shop or by using our convenient Loose Feathers Sign-Up Page - where you can specify what you want with your booklet.
The shop is 10 years old March 27th and it's time for our "Egg"cellent Anniversary sale, which will run from Thursday March 27th through Sunday March 30th. We put discounts in plastic Easter Eggs and you pick an egg when you check out. Inside will be your discount - from 10% to 30% off fabric and threads. We'll be giving Double Rewards points for the rest of our regularly priced merchandise during the sale. The sale and double rewards points are limited to in-stock items only and excludes items on hold. Points will be earned on the usual items we give points on (see our Rewards page for more details).
Mail order customers will have an egg drawn for them when we pull your order and that will be the discount for appropriate items from that order. Orders placed between March 27th and March 30th will get have an "Egg"cellent egg pulled for them. The discount will be applied when we ship the order so it will not show up in your shopping cart. Be sure to include your Stitching Has Its Rewards card number!
Stop by and visit us during the sale, either in person or on-line!
We get all the new colors of Soy Luster as Linda at Dream House Ventures/The Pure Pallette releases them. The new March 2008 colors are:
Shade, Old Denim, Pretty In Pink, Sweeter Than Wine, Merlot, Foam, Metolius River, River Wild, Summer Sky, Wet, Feather, Phosphor, Acid Green, Limeade, Putting Green, Shade Tree, Sage, Desert Floor, Hot Chocolate, Straw, Ashes of Roses, Antique Velvet, Cabbage Rose, Desire, Claret and Brick. Several are colors to fill in existing families but some are new families as well. We don't yet have photos of the new colors but they have been added to our online catalog for ordering.
We received our first shipment of 12 of Barnabee's Bride kits today. We have 5 left from this shipment and we'll be getting another shipment in June of 18 kits. If we run out of our current batch we'll put you on the list for June. We also received the new When Barnabee met Bella Biscornu chart. Both can be ordered through our online catalog.
We received a few spools of the new Gilt Sylke Twist in our Access Commodities order recently and they've flown out the door. There are 8 colors in this new thread, we received 4 of them initially. Supplies will be limited for the time being as this thread is made by a small firm in England for Access Commodities, not by a large manufacturing company. We will be sent more spools of the colors as they are available but we expect it to be limited quantities for the next couple of months. I have added it to our online catalog so you can pre-order what you want and we'll send them as we get them. Given Access has been trying to get them to make this thread for more than a dozen years, I'm just happy they've finally made it and we can even get any of it!
I spoke today with Natalie, a stitching acquaintance of mine, who has been using this thread to experiment with for Access. She said she'd been able to stitch with 30 and 34 count Legacy Linen as well as Congress Cloth and 18 Mesh canvas. The stiffer the fabric the easier it is to work with and a hoop, Q-Snap or stretcher bars would be helpful. Natalie has done chain stitch, Smyrna cross, cross-stitch, satin stitch, eyelets and even French knots with it (using 2 hands). It's a flexible and quite durable thread to work with. Depending on the fabric you can use a #24 Tapestry or #24 Chenille, although Natalie reported that the Japanese #10 needles Access distributes works great because of the unusual shape of the eye, which opens the fabric much more than a tapestry or chenille does. You want to use a waste knot and run the thread under 3-4 stitches then back again under 1 or 2 to lock it. You can use the loop method to start but you will have a slight bump there. She also recommended using a separate cutting tool for this thread. It is a 1/2% gold on a silver plated copper core so use something dedicated to this and not your good scissors. You could use serrated scissors, beading snips or even nail clippers (which is what Natalie uses). I appreciated Natalie sharing her stitching experience with this thread with me. I'm hoping to have some time to work with it myself soon.
This is one of the threads being used on the Plimoth Plantation's jacket project and you can follow their stitching progress on The Embroiderer's Story blog.
We 
have added our selection of designs from The Cat's Whiskers to the online catalog. New from Nashville is the Garden Chair (pictured left) and Queen's Chest (pictured right). We also have thread packs available for each of these designs and they are in the online catalog as well (the links will bring them up in addition to the chart). These are both amazing pieces!
We've added project pages for the new releases of Hannah Horsfall and Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. The pages include what you need for the chart, fabric and threads. We also have project pages for several other popular designs and you can find those as well as our searchable designer catalog here.
One of the many great things to happen at the Nashville show was the opportunity to meet Giulia Punti Antichi from Italy. We've been carrying Giulia's designs for a number of years and it was treat to meet her in person and get to visit with her. She brought with lots of new goodies, which we brought home with us!
A new series of needlework smalls were inspired by the local artisans who make Maiolica beads. Giulia has designed two Biscornu, a pincushion and a scissors fob. Each has a hand-made bead to go with the design. These are named simply - D1, D2, D3 & D4 and you'll find them in our online catalog.
Giulia designed two different caskets for the 2007 
Designing Ladies series and we have both along with the hand-made Italian pins and waxer. Night Before Christmas is a lovely casket in red and has a set of Christmas pins along with a Green pine waxer. You'll find them in our online catalog.
The Mary Queen of Scots Casket has a set of Thistle pins and waxer available and are orderable via the online catalog as well.
Released a couple of years ago, Giulia has updated her My Tuscany Shaker Box to fix the divided Shaker carriers available from Orleans Carpentry. We also have picked up the Sunflower and Grape pins made for the design. The chart and the pins are available via the online catalog or in the store. We also picked up her new Adam & Eve Etui!
We carry many of Giulia's designs and you'll find them all in our online catalog. If you have visited her website and seen something we don't have, just let us know and we can order it.
As part of their Stitch Every Day series started in 2005, JABC is releasing a new button pack with a free chart every month and the 2008 theme is teapots! We have added them to our online catalog along with a photo. You can stitch them on any fabric you choose and they make great quick gifts. We are on auto with JABC for the new button packs so we'll add them as they come in - or let us know if you'd like to sign up for an auto for them. Enjoy!
We brought back the new Sampler Thread regular colors (first row) and Limited Edition colors (second row) from Nashville and they are available through the online catalog and in the store. Just look for the New February 2008 tag next to the color name. The colors are:
Jasmine |
Bluebell |
Daisy |
Mint Jubilee |
 Sweet Petunia |
Camoflage |
Stormy Skies |
Rustic Cottage |
Summer Fields |
