Congratulations to the winners of the Sweetheart Sewing Tin!!

Helen & PJ

Sweetheart Sewing Tin

Please contact me with your email address so that we can communicate about your prize.  You can private message me on Facebook, or email me at the address listed in my profile.  If you do not claim the prize another entrant's name will be drawn.  

To those of you who did not win.  All is not lost .  Contact your local needlework shop or any of the online shops where you purchase supplies and ask them to order the kit.  Remember, I will only be taking orders for this kit until the end of October.  The kits will begin shipping to shops starting the first week in December.   After the first of the year they will no longer be available.

Thank-you for your nice comments about Milady's Needle Designs.

All the best,

Gloria

Sweetheart Sewing Tin Retirement & Give Away

Hello All,

I am announcing the retirement of the Sweetheart Sewing Tin Kit.  Those of you familiar with Milady's Needle know that I don't usually retire any of my patterns or kits.  Unfortunately, I will only be able to get the matching wooden needle cases till the end of the year.  So, I am sending a message to all shops who have purchased this kit in the past, so they can stock up before it is gone forever.

In case you don't know what this sweet sewing tin looks like I have attached a photo for you.

Sweet Heart Sewing Tin

The kit comes with the tin, 40 count linen fabric, floss, matching thread card and matching needle case. The pattern and finishing instructions are of course included too.

If you are interested in  purchasing this kit, please let your local needlework shop know.  If you don't have a local shop, email me and I will give you a list of shops who have carried this kit in the past.

Now for the give away...

Make a comment below and you will be entered to win this kit.  Two full kits will be given away in a random drawing.  To give people plenty of time to enter; the drawing will take place next week.

Also, if any of you have stitched this kit, I would love to see pictures of your finished sewing tin.

In the meantime...keep those needles busy!

Gloria

Attic Summer School Postscript

Hello Stitching Friends,

The Attic Needlework Shop held it's annual summer school the last full weekend of August this year.  We had a lot of fun and all the classes were really wonderful.  I am sure that a lot of you have already seen a lot of pictures of the class offerings as well as pictures of the attendees enjoying their time with the teachers and each other.  There seemed to be a lot of social media posts online about summer school.

A lot of great teacher's shared their expertise including Linda Danielson of Sampler's Remembered, Vickie & Meagan Jennett of NeedleWork Press, Tanya Brockmeyer of The Scarlet House, Linda Vinson of Needlemade Designs, and Nancy Mills of Five Times Blessed. 

We also had an attendee who is a wonderful needlework designer and teacher in her own right and that is Nicola Parkman from Hands Across The Sea.  She joined us at the teacher's table and we had a wonderful time looking at her work on her latest reproduction.

  From front around clockwise: 

Nicola, Gloria, Tanya, Linda D, Linda V (standing), 

Meagan, Vickie & Jean Lea.

My project was called  Sampler Memories Snippet Roll.  If you don't know what a snippet roll is...google "snippet rolls" or go to Pinterest and search there.  You will see many beautiful snippet rolls that many people have crafted in their own style.  I chose to cross stitch my design and it is more orderly than most.  That's just my slightly obsessive personality coming out in my art.  Anyway, below there are two pictures of the project.

The sampler reproduction from which this project came is one that has no name or date.  So I was unable to research anything about the maker.  It's a beautiful little piece which was stitched in 2 1/2 weeks by Robert Harris.  There is a second sampler which is definitely related to this one and both are in my collection.  I hope to have both ready for the Nashville Market in 2019.  The one below will definitely be released at the market.

May Health and Peace Attend Your Days

That's all the news for now.  I hope you like the project, which can be taught at your local guild or shop next year after the market.  Let your local shop or your guild workshop chairperson know you are interested in this project so they can contact me to schedule a class.

All the best,

Gloria

Nashville New Release & Milady's Needle Sabatical

Hello Sampler Friends,

Last year was a really busy, hectic year and so I decided at the end of the year that it was time to take a sabbatical.  During 2018 I will be taking a year to make some much needed personal and professional changes so that I can return next year with renewed enthusiasm for my work and renewed energy in my life.  It is a year to take stock and see which direction I want to go next in this life journey.  

So...what does this mean for Milady's Needle???  It simply means that I won't be producing any new designs this year.  I will be filling orders for shops as usual, so all my patterns will still be available at your local needlework shop.  I will be doing Summer School at the Attic Needlework Shop as that is a yearly event that I just can't miss.  So if you plan to attend that, I will see you there with  a new reproduction that is in the works.

All that said..I do have one sampler that was reproduced last year for a class and has not yet been released to the general public.  I have had several requests for this sampler and so the decision was made to release "Ann Emptage 1845" at the Nashville Needlework Market.  While I am not exhibiting this year; the pattern will be available at the market.  For shop owners...you will find this new release in Suite #504 with Needlework Press.  The antique sampler will be there as a model for you to view.  Feel free to re-post this picture on your website or blog to let your customers know about this new release.

Ann Emptage 1845

This sampler is a really beautiful work of art and it is reproduced on Vintage Buttercream Lakeside Linen using Needlepoint Silks.  The pattern includes some history regarding Ann and her family.  I do hope you will stop by the Suite #504 and visit Ann.  

For those of you who want to stitch this beauty be sure to let your local needlework shop know you wish to order this pattern so they can put it on their list.  Most shops bring lists to markets these days as there just isn't enough time to get to every booth.  

As I said...I won't be exhibiting in Nashville this year and I hadn't planned on attending.  I was thinking about how much I would miss being there this year and then something unexpected happened.  Two close friends purchased a needlework shop last year and they are attending their first market as new shop owners.  So, they asked if I would like to come and help them shop.  I of course said I would be delighted!!  So, I will see my colleagues after all and join in the excitement of the market in a different way this year.  I am looking forward to having fun with my friends too.

Until next time...keep those needles busy.

All the best,

Gloria

Halloween at Salty Yarns

Hello Sampler Friends,

I am a sampler lover first; and most of my designs are focused on samplers from my own collection of over 35 samplers.  However, occasionally I do design special pieces for a class at a shop or for a guild.  This next piece is a design for a class at Salty Yarns in Ocean City Maryland this next weekend (October 13-17).

This piece is a Halloween spool scissors keep and is based on a design given to me by my dear friends Barb and Sue from Prairie Moon.  They have retired and are currently pursuing other adventures.  I changed and added quite a few things on this in order for the design to fit on the spool, but I know they will recognize some of the design elements.  So...here is "Witches Harvest".

If you would like to take this class, come join us at Salty Yarns.   There are two other designers joining in the fun at the Ocean City Stitcher's Jamboree, including Sue Hillis and Deborah Merrick-Wilson.  Go to the Salty Yarn website at: www.saltyyarns.com for more information.

Again a big thank-you to Barb and Sue for their gracious offering of the design ideas included in this piece.  All the best to them in their future adventures.

Until next time...keep those needles busy!!

Gloria

Attic Summer School

Hello Sampler Friends and Shop Owners,

Time for an update on Milady's activities in the sampler world!!  At the end of August I taught at the Attic Summer School in Mesa Arizona.  Of course, I am so lucky to have the Attic just across town from me and I do enjoy time spent in Jean's shop!!  If you have not visited,  you need to put this shop on your bucket list.  It's a must see!!

The class I taught was a small sewing case and I must say it's one of my favorite pieces so far.  I enjoyed designing and stitching this piece.  Had to put on my thinking cap for the finishing.  I am learning a lot about finishing as I play with a piece to see what will work.  Below are pictures of "A Lady's Sewing Companion".  

This design is based on a sampler in my collection.  The sampler makers name is Ann Emptage and she stitched her sampler in 1845.  The verse reads:

There we shall meet again

When all our toils are o'er,

And Death, and grief and Pain

And Parting are no more:

We shall with all our brethren rise,

And grasp thee in the flaming skies.

All participants in the seminar received an advance copy of this lovely sampler.  It will be available to all of you sometime next year. 

If you want to take this class you might steer your guild or local needlework shop to my blog to ask for more information.  Love to hear your thoughts on this piece and stay tuned for news of my next class at Salty Yarns.

Keeping You In Stitches,

Gloria

Rabbit Run and Garden Visit Errata

Hello Stitching Friends and Shop Owners,

As many of you know, I was able to find a much more reliable source for the spools enclosed in several of my designs.  Last year both the Rabbit Run and Garden Visit designs had spools from a company that could not give me consistent quality.  I was throwing out about 1/4 of the orders that I was receiving.  Because of this I had new spools custom made by another company who could guarantee that the holes would be in the middle, no large chips out of the wood, no glued together cracks and a consistent size from the top to the bottom of the spool. One thing that did change was the height of the spools.  The new spool is slightly taller than the older spools.

The finishing directions for the new releases at Nashville 2017 were adjusted to reflect the new height.  However, it appears that we missed adjusting the directions for the 2016 designs which include Rabbit Run and Garden Visit.  This will result in the nun's stitch fringe being slightly shorter and may not reach the top and bottom of the spool when mounting the final piece onto the spool.

Anyone purchasing these kits from their local needlework shops after the market in 2016 will not be affected by this change as the spools are from the old company.  But those shops who purchased and received these two designs at the 2017 Nashville Market; and customers who purchased their kits from their local needlework shop after this 2017 market will want to make the following change to their pattern.

On the first page of each of these designs is a section called Nun's Stitch.  On number 5 in these directions you will want to increase the number of threads that you leave for the fringe. The changes are reflected as underlined in red.

5. Once the stitching is complete, count out 5 threads away from the horizontal bottom stitches of the Nun’s Stitch.  Remove the 6th thread on all four sides.  Cut the linen in the channel where the thread has been removed.  Check to see that the linen fits between the top and bottom of the spool.  Trim if needed.   Make a fringe by pulling the threads on the outer side of the horizontal bottom stitches.  The Nun’s Stitch will act as a finished border and keep all the threads in place.

I am sure that all of you know how hard we try to make sure there are no mistakes in patterns before we publish them.  But...sometimes things do slip by our editors and myself.   I appreciate your understanding as we continue to strive to make designs that you will enjoy stitching.

Until next time, keep those needles busy.

Gloria