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New Things & News
Isabella at The Primitive Hare will soon
be shipping us her 4 newest designs along with her new printed
& hand-dyed fabric called Prim Bee (30 count). We also have more of
the Boleyn fabric coming in 30, 35 & 40 count. Her 4 new charts are
Bee
Happy, In God We Trust, Telling the Bees and The Siren. You'll find more
photos and details on the blog and in the online catalog. You can pre-order any of them - we expect the shipment from Italy within the next 2
weeks.
I have created a silk option for Brenda Gervais's new summer series - Summer
Schoolhouse - Lessons in Abecedarian. In the online catalog I listed the mapping so you can check your stash.  The
colors are closer to the photograph of the first design than the actual
cotton threads themselves. For example, the bird looks blue in the
photo but one of the colors is really a green/blue. If you are stitching
with cotton drop us a note and we can tell you other options for the
cottons. One of
the flower colors is more orange in the cotton so I've picked a more
rosey color for the silks. Since we don't know where all of the threads
will be used over
the course of the remaining releases (6 projects in 4 charts) we might
end up with more colors than she originally called for. But that's part
of the fun of
stitching with hand-dyed threads! One last note on this one - the fabric
is darker than in the photo (the joys of photographing stitching). The
threads do work
wonderfully with what Brenda selected so don't panic when you see the
fabric. You'll find the series and supplies on the order
page.
The Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue
should be here next week (assuming the
holiday doesn't delay things too much). The Christmas Ornament issue
will be released in September. Other new magazine issues that have just
arrived this week
are the Jul/Aug issue of both Needlepoint Now and Just Cross Stitch.
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JCS 2017
Halloween Issue
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JCS 2017
Ornament Issue
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Just Cross Stitch
July/August 2017
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Needlepoint Now
July/August 2017
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I have moved the magazines to our new online catalog system so you can see photos of the issues if we have any back issues. You can pre-order issues
of many of the magazines and be put on auto as well.
 I'm
a big fan of Ruth Schmuff's iStitches apps (which are from her CDs)
and she let me know this week that an Android version of each should be
ready in July. There are 4 apps in total (I-IV) and I think they are a
great value. My other go-to stitch reference apps are the Shapes of
Needlepoint (based
on the books) which you'll see in the "customers also bought" section on
the Apple App Store. We don't make any money from these, I just
think they are a great portable reference tool and like to remind people
about them.
 Did you
know that Au Ver a Soie makes metallic threads? We've carried the size 16 in silver and gold for many years, but hardly anyone
knew about them. Friday Mary Corbett did an article on them so if you enjoy reading about threads, be sure to check it out. We are able to get a few colors/sizes here
in the US based on what our distributor (Access Commodities) has
brought
in. Since it was never a popular thread here the choices are limited.
We're exploring bringing in more but we need to evaluate the demand for
it and see what
we can work out with Access & AVAS.  It
is a
very nice metallic whether you're using it for embroidery, cross-stitch,
needlepoint or other counted work. What we can currently obtain
is listed in
the online catalog. Even if you don't do embroidery reading Mary's blog is always a treat. She's an amazingly knowledgeable needlewoman and I always learn
something new from reading her posts.
We have sold out of Just Nan's Spring Mouse in a House and only have a few copies left of  Summer Mouse in a House.
You will find our fabric selections on the
order page as well as the ones the design calls for. Nan has no more
Summer Mouse in a House charts so if you've been thinking about it,
pounce soon! The
Autumn mouse should be coming I think in August.
We have gotten in some more items from American Dream
Products and we have a couple more orders in with them or their
distributors.
We are still not exactly sure what the wind-down time frame is so if you
need components of the EZ Stitch line, order ASAP so
we
have a better chance of getting what you need. They have ceased
production and are just selling their existing inventory so as they run
out, we won't be able
to obtain more. You'll find the EZ Stitch Scroll Frame components in our online catalog on the Scroll &
Slate Frames page.
I have finally gotten back to doing a bit of thread photography. I added photos of Rainbow Gallery's Glisten and Cresta d'Oro
recently. The list is huge, but eventually I'll get more of them done!
 For
some
local "color" I thought I'd share a couple of photos. We're near the
estuary that separates Alameda (an island) from Oakland. So we get a lot
Canadian Geese in our area. The ones nearby seem to have taken to
crossing the streets in the cross walks. So it's not unusual to have to
stop for them. The
other photo is of a lovely Jacaranda tree that I drive by on my way to
the shop. We've got quite a lot of them in Alameda, most of them are
large trees this
one was especially pretty (in front of our usual foggy summer sky). It
was about the size of 2-3 story building.
 I
am
planning to do some stitching on the 4th - I've not done as much the
past couple of weeks. If you're not busy on Sunday, stop by and visit
the shop. Our
upstairs Sunday groups are no longer meeting here so it'll be much
quieter :-)
I hope you find time to stitch and enjoy the holiday.
Happy Stitching!
Cathe
...and Jennifer, Debi, Cymone, Marissa
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