Holiday Greetings Friends,

Well, the boxes are slowly getting unpacked and it's beginning to look more like home.  We still have a ways to go, but there is light ahead in that long tunnel of boxes.   Thanks to all for hanging in here with me and being patient with orders and drawing prize deliveries.  I am grateful to have such wonderful stitching friends.

Christmas is just a day away and I am not going to Minnesota this year.  With all the hubbub of the move and the need to look ahead to the market in February, I was feeling on the fence anyway.  I fly on passes since my husband used to work for the airlines and the lack of availability of flights made the decision for me.  So, I will be at home for our first Christmas in Arizona.

Since most rooms are in disarray, we will not be having a tree this year, but will hang the stockings on the fireplace and have a fire instead.  On Christmas Eve we usually have a nice dinner, watch a Christmas movie and drive around to look at the lights in the neighborhood.  Then we unwrap presents.  Our new home is our present this year, but since we can't wrap that. :) ..there will be a couple of books and DVD's by the fire place too.  I plan to stitch as much as I can over the holidays and enjoy time with family here.  My aunt and uncle are here for the winter, so Christmas day we will be having dinner with them.  It won't be the same without the company of my four sisters, but we decided to SKYPE during the holidays and that will be fun.

I am wishing all of you a wonderful time with family and friends, peaceful cozy nights and lots of stitching time during the holidays.  Merry Christmas to all of you and I will see you in the New Year!

Blessings,

Gloria

Moving On & Online Needlework Show Draw

Good Afternoon All,

Moving is just not fun!!  Here we are amidst boxes sky high and in all the wrong rooms.  We did not have a pleasant experience with our moving company and needless to say our review will not be favorable.  We have been here about three weeks and it's been a real mess.
We have been buried under boxes and trying to find the stuff we need to live day to day without much success.  I did get some of the company boxes unpacked and was able to mail out shop orders last week.  It doesn't help at all when you have two knees that just won't let you work as fast as you would like. 

Anyway, I was finally able to get all the email addresses into the random numbers generator (including those sent to my email address) and so we have three winners of the Online Needlework Show drawing.  They are:

1st: conniebobyk@gmail.com
2nd: fancyfiddler@aol.com
3rd: diana.h@comcast.net

If you three will contact me with your snail mail addresses, I can get your prize out to you this week.   So sorry this took so long, but as I said...moving is a real...  Well...you know what I mean.

On to future projects:

 




I am working on two new sets of pendants.  They will be sampler pendants and here is a sneak peak at one of the pendants.









I think they will be a fun stitch.  There are two different patterns with four pendants in each.  They will be released at the Nashville Trade Show in February.  I hope they will be well received.  I had fun designing these petite treasures.


I am still working on the reproduction sampler and hope to have it finished soon.  I think the hardest part of reproducing a sampler is getting the colors right.  I am sure many of you have had experience choosing replacement fibers for a project you want to do.  Well, picture this process with attempts to match the colors from the back of a sampler a few hundred years old!!  Then when you think you have the colors just right, you start to stitch and the colors can still not look the way you would like them too.  So any reproduction you stitch is the designer's best guess at matching colors.  The whole thing usually comes out fine in the end, but it is a bit of a challenge as you are doing it.

Thanks for your patience as we get settled into our new home.  Hopefully we will be able to get a Christmas Tree up in our new home before the actual festivities.  Hope those of you who are stitching gifts for Christmas will have everything finished by Christmas Eve.  I will be lucky to get Christmas Cards out this year.  It won't be the same this year for my family.  This will be the first Christmas without my dad.  I am sure we will have many memories to think and talk about, but it will be a bit tough the first time around.  

May your Thanksgiving be a blessed time with loved ones and drive safe.

Until Next Time...stitch to your hearts delight.

Gloria 

October Online Needlework Show Starts Today

Hello Friends,

Well, it's that time again.  The October Online Needlework Show starts later today and Milady's Needle is again participating.  For this show I decided to focus on Christmas, so my entire ornament collection is listed in the show.  Oldies but goodies are listed as well as the latest designs.  Browse and make a list to give to your local needlework store so that they will order them during the show.







Here is my first design.
 It was a joy to stitch.

One of my favorites is Christmas Elegance. 
I love the look of one color.

There will be a drawing again for this show.  By now you know the drill...tell me what's on your wish list and I will send you one or two of your favorites.  There will be three winners.  However, you must either leave me your email address in your post or have your email address visible in your account settings so that I can contact you if you win.  In April, I was unable to get a hold of one of the winners, because I couldn't find an email.  Don't miss out simply because I don't have a way to get a hold of you. 

Although we are on the road this weekend...the move to Arizona is finally happening...I will be checking in on the blog to see what's up.  I arrive in Arizona on the 24th and the show ends on the 25th so be patient while I open boxes of product to fill orders and announce the winners of the drawing.

Thank-you all for hanging in with Milady's Needle while we have been on sabbatical this year.  We are looking forward to our return to markets starting February at Nashville.  Look for a new reproduction sampler or two, more pendants, pin cushions and whatever else comes out of the design closet. 

Till Next Time...Enjoy a stitch or two.

Gloria

     

Missing the Baltimore Market

Hello All,

I am so missing the Baltimore Market!!  Although it is over now, I am sure that everyone that attended had a grand time!!!  Wish I could have been there to catch up with all of the many great shop owners who attend the markets, but I am currently on the road to Arizona for the first part of the move.  I would have loved to see all my designer friends and get a closer look at all their new designs.  Of course I would have loved to have had my own new designs completed and ready for market too, but that's how life works out sometimes.



I hope that all of you are having a good stitching summer.  I would love to start posting more of your Milady's Needle Designs finishes, so please send your photos to me at the address in my profile.  I love to see the creative abilities that I know all of you have.  The changes made to make a design your own are very fun to see and sometimes I get ideas for finishing just by seeing what others are doing with my designs.



I am still working on the new reproduction, although right this minute things have slowed due to the incredible amount of packing I have been doing.  When I get further along, I will post another picture.

Well, I just wanted to let you know I am still alive and kicking.

Until Next Time,

Gloria

New Reproduction In The Works

Hello Friends,

Well, it's been awhile since last I posted.  If you read my personal blog at www.samplermakerssamplerspot.blogspot.com ; you can see what is keeping me busy thesee days.  We have found a new home and Milady's Needle will be moving to Goodyear, Arizona.  We hope to be all settled by the end of September. 

In the meantime, I want to let all of you know that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.  I couldn't attend the Nashville Needlework Market because of family illness which I previously posted about in Februray.  I won't be at the Baltimore Needlework Show because we will be in the midst of a move.  So, the next market I will be attending will be in the new year.  So, Milady's Needle is basically on a sabatical.  If I can I will try to get the new reproduction out before the end of the year.  At any rate, Milady's Needle will be back in the swing of things by the new year. 




I am working on a reproduction from my collection of antique samplers.  This one is called Anne Smith Blockley.

Here is a sneak peak of the reproduction:











Interestingly, there are two dates on the sampler.  One is located up in numbers section near the alphabet and indicates the date July 5 1823.  The other date is located in the signature line near the bottom of the sampler along with Ann's name with the date of 1834.  So, what does this mean?  Let have some guesses from all of you.  Is the date near the alphabet when she started the sampler and the date near her signature when she completed the sampler?  If so, that would mean that Ann worked on her sampler for 11 years.  Given the simplicity of the sampler, this seems unlikely.  Is the date near the alphabet her birthdate and the date near her signature the year she stitched the sampler?  Is the date  near the alphabet of family significance?  Take a look at the picture of the antique and consider what the significance of this might be.
 







Here is a peak at the antique.















So post your guess about the two dates and lets see what we can discover!!

I hope you are enjoying your summer and that you are getting lots of stitching done.

Until the next time,

Gloria 

Drawing Results

Hello All,

Thank-you so much for your kind comments about Milady's Needle Designs.  I really do appreciate knowing that you like the designs that I have published.  Your feedback helps me to know whether I am on the right track with what I am offering the stitcher.  Thanks to all who went to their local needlework shop and ordered during the Online Needlework Show.

It was great to see so many people signed up for the drawing!!  I put the names or email addresses into the Random Number Generator and the drawing was held today.  The winners of the current drawing are:

1st: helenomalley@sympatico.ca

2nd: rbusch43@frontier.com

3rd: tcsean@aol.com

Congratulations!!  The next step is to email me with your full name and address so that I can send you you one of  your favorite patterns.  Please let me hear from you this week so that I can get your pattern mailed before I leave for Arizona on the 30th. 
 
Until Next Time,

Gloria

Online Needlework Show Has Begun

Hello All,

It's that time of year again...the Spring Online Needlework Show is here! If you have already checked into the show you have seen the new designs.  I intended to post prior to the show opening, but I ran out of time before I left early this morning for Minnesota.  Not to worry though... I am back in town to fill orders from the show next week. 

Anyway...I wanted to post pictures of the new designs for all of you to see up a bit closer.  The first design is called in Search of Bliss.  The verse reminds us that there really is no place like home. 

The second design is a reproduction of a sampler by the sister of Maragaret Brown whose sampler was reproduced and released last year.  Sarah Brown's Sampler is pictured below first as the reproduction (designed using the colors from the back of the sampler) and then as the adaptation (designed using the softer faded colors from the front of the sampler.

Sarah H. Brown Reproduction

Sarah H. Brown Adaptation

If you compare Magaret's sampler to Sarah's sampler you will see some differences in the colors used in the large flowers in the vase, the bird motifs other either side of the sampler instead of the Quaker Stars and the number and shapes of the leaves.  The borders on these two samplers are so lovely and I really enjoyed stitching both Margaret's and Sarah's samplers.

Now...the Needlework Show Drawing:

Please add your comments to this post so that I can enter you in the Online Needlework Show Drawing.  I will pick two winners and they will receive a design from their wishlist.  In your comment be sure to post your wish list so that I know which designs from Milady's Needle are you favorites.  Don't forget to put your email address somewhere in your post so I know how to get a hold of you to let you know if you have won. 

Be sure to contact your local needlework store for the latest designs from Milady's Needle

Till We Stitch Again,

Gloria