Needle In A Haystack News
 
Events & Reminders
 
 
Hours
 
Tue-Fri 11am - 5pm
Sat 11am - 4pm
First Sun 12 - 4pm
Sun/Mon - Closed
 
Next Open Sunday
 
June 4
July 2
 
We will be closed
Tuesday July 4th
Sorry for it being 2 months since my last newsletter. A variety of things took over my time and as happens many times, the best intentions don't always lead me to get it done :-).
 
One of the many things I'm working on is migrating much of our online catalog to the new catalog system we got moved to last fall. While we have been able to continue using our method for products and used the new back end (the part that adds products to the cart, lets you create a login and checkout) I'm planning to move at least some part of our product listings to it. I don't plan to move the threads because of the shear number in each type of thread. I could do it, but it would do away with the ability to have the one page for say, all of the Soie d'Alger. Eventually they might be able to help me figure out how to modify their code to make it work, but it's a very back burner task. For now I'm planning to move the fabrics, accessories and such to it.
I've started with a few products, like the Just Nan Mouse in a House series as well as few of the other mice and Thursday I added hoops. But it's time consuming task to make sure it all works correctly. So it'll be a work in progress for quite some time.
 
If you end up on the new pages and run into issues let me know. We are still seeing some problems with our older method of adding things and we think it's some transitory problems between the old system and the new. But we're having a devil of time tracking it down since most of time we can't replicate the issues. And I thought I'd left my testing life behind from high-tech :-)
 
 
A Few New Things and Some Sale Things
 
Just Nan Summer Mouse in HouseIn addition to the Spring Mouse in House, Just Nan released the Summer Mouse in a House in early May. They have sold out of both but we got quite a lot of them so we still have a few left of Spring and Summer. Barnabee in BloomIf you click on the photo you'll go the pages where you can order Summer (and you'll see a Related Product for Spring). We have substituted the Week's fabric for Spring and we're planning to do the same for Summer (although we do have the Week's fabrics for Summer). If you want to be on auto for the remaining 2 charts either drop us an e-mail or if you are ordering one of them, you can indicate that when you order. 
 
Country Stitches 2013 Ltd. Edition kitWhile not new we are running a special on Barnabee in Bloom (regularly $14 on sale for $10). We have also put the 2013 Brenda Gervais Forget Me Not Ltd. Ed. kit on sale (regular $35 on sale for $24.50. You'll see it on the cart page as a Special but the direct link is here.
 
HATS Greeting CardsWhile at Nashville I did pick up most of the samplers from Hands Across the Sea in England as well as her sampler greeting cards ($2.25). I'll be adding the charts and the greeting cards to the online catalog over the next couple of weeks. But if you're looking for a specific chart or greeting card, drop me a note.
 
If you get the Stoney Creek magazine you may have seen the Halloween afghan that is being released over the course of several issues (Halloween Village Collector's series). It uses a 20 count Lugana that Zweigart had discontinued but has brought back. We have received yardage of Lugana 20 count Light Ash Grey from Zweigart. You can order a 2 yard piece and let us know to cut it down for the afghan (1.75yds x the width). You'll find it in our online fabric catalog.
 
 
Jackie du Plessis, Jeannette Douglas and Kathy Rees 2017 Classes
 
Jackie will be coming to teach for us again the first weekend in August - yes, just 2 months from now. She's teaching Tribute, which was one of her 2016 Williamsburg projects, on Friday. Saturday is new piece she is still designing and Sunday will be an older, but very popular design, A Tisket A Tasket. We'll post photos of the Saturday piece when Jackie is done with design.
 
Tribute   ATisket, A Tasket
 
 
Common Thread IIHarmonyJeannette Douglas will be here September 22-24 to teach the companion to Common Thread II which she taught for us in 2010. She is creating a San Francisco version for us and we'll post a photo of it when she's done with the stitching.
 
Kathy Rees will be here October 14 & 15th teaching Harmony, the second in a class series (Serenity was first which she taught for us in 2015).
 
You can sign-up for any of the classes now - a $50 deposit is required to hold your place. You find more detail through our Classes page or you can contact the shop.
 
 
Danji - Laurel Burch Tropical FloralCathe' stitching on LB-130I've been doing a bit of stitching - not as much as I would like, but I think that's true for most of us. I'm working on a Laurel Burch canvas (Tropical Floral - $179) by Danji Designs and at the moment I'm doing the upper background in T-Stitch with Gilt Sylke Twist. I wanted something with a bit of sparkle but the right color blue as I plan to do the shapes in some type of chain stitch to keep their shape. I found Soie d'Alger colors that matched the canvas almost exactly - which is lovely since it's one of my favorite silks to stitch with. I'm doing the outside border in a variety of specialty stitches to give it some depth.
 
Tiny Modernist SF CityscapeTiny Modernist on AidaI've also been working on a shop model for a kit we're going to make up from Tiny Modernist's San Francisco Cityscape. I have finished the Aida version on a light grey (it is a foggy city after all) and am just starting a linen version we're re-keying for some hand-dyed threads. When we get visitors to the shop many would like to take something of a local theme back with them and I think this a cute design.
 
This is our Open Sunday for June and Marissa and I will be here from Noon to 4pm. For July we will be open the first Sunday (July 2nd) but we will be closed on July 4th to spend time with family and friends.
 
Cathe's AmarylisOn a completely unrelated note, a friend gave me an amaryllis a couple of years ago that I left in a pot in the garden and have mostly ignored. Apparently our winter of great rain revived it and came out with 3 blooms about 10 days ago. What lovely late spring surprise.
 
Hopefully I'll find time do a bit more stitching than I have! Now I need to get back to catalog work...
 
Happy Stitching!
 
Cathe
...and Jennifer, Debi, Cymone, Marissa
 
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 Parking at 2433 Mariner Square Loop
 
We have two parking lots for the office complex. One is off Mariner Square Drive on the courtyard side of the building. The other is behind building #2417, which is next to us. There is no dedicated handicapped parking in either lot and the best place to park for a really flat surface is in the back lot and come in the Mariner Square Loop door. Yes, we are at the corner of Mariner Square Loop, Marina Village Parkway and Mariner Square Drive (go figure!). We keep both doors unlocked during store hours. There is no metered parking here to worry about - it's the two lots and plenty of street parking on Mariner Square Drive. Our complex sits directly on top of the Webster Tube so if you have trouble with your GPS finding us we're 1 block from the Target store (and not in the shopping center).
 
Needle In A Haystack
2433 Mariner Square Loop #102 * Alameda, CA 94501
510-522-0404