New Things & News
 DMC
announced in September that they are releasing 35 new colors in
November. We are taking pre-orders for open stock ($31.50) or the
limited edition tin ($30) with all 35 colors and a couple of designs.
You'll find them both the online catalog. If you want just a few of colors you can find them in the DMC Floss page.
 It's time for the annual Just Nan Gingerbread mouse. Mrs. Santa Mouse will be winging her way to us in about a week to join Santa Mouse from 2016. You'll find Mrs. Santa Mouse in the online catalog with her fabric and a list of the threads you'll need. You can still order the 2013-2016 Gingerbread  mice as well, which you'll find in Related Items on that order page.
Also released is the Christmas Mouse In A House, 4th in this series. You'll find the chart and fabrics in the online catalog along with a list of the threads you'll need. Frosty Mouse in a House will be released in early 2018.
One of the new items at Destination Dallas were scroll rod tension tighteners from K's Creations. You can purchase them
singly or as a pair and they come with the tool to tighten them to the
rod and to crank them to get the scroll frame tight. While you can get
scroll frames somewhat tight with just your hands, this tool really
helps you get it a lot tighter. It will work on most rods as it adjusts
to the diameter of the rod (one of the tools in the set is for this
purpose), so you do not have to use their brand of rods. A great tool
for the tool box!
 I'm always on the look out for new designers and in October I ordered a bunch of designs from Satsuma Street.
Turns out that Jody is originally from the Bay Area (it's a small
world). Jody has sold her designs for a long time on Etsy and I was
happy when she sent me a catalog.  Cymone
and Marissa had purchased charts from her on Etsy so they were happy to
see them come to the shop. I love the contemporary and whimsical
designs she creates. And her use of color just plain makes me happy. I'm
working on Sorry We're Dead, given I'm a murder mystery fan and my
husband loves The Walking Dead. These are not in the online catalog but
if you find something on the Satsuma Street Etsy site we'll be happy to
send it to you. I picked up quite a few of them have to re-order
already!
  Part 4 of Brenda's summer series - Summer Schoolhouse - Lessons in Abecedarian
arrived this month. This is the final release and has 2 extra projects -
strawberry pincushion and hornbook. We have the hornbooks and trim
($11). We also have the Stitch Dots Needle Nannies for each part (5 in
total). You'll find the series and supplies on the order page. The Stitch Dots & Hornbook are listed as Related Items or you can find the Stitch Dots page here.
EZ Stitch Update
American Dream Products ended up being sold to Embroidery Central (an online store) in early October. They will continue to manufacturer the EZ Stitch scroll frames and Velcro. It'll probably be November or December before production is ramped up.
Yarn Tree is creating their own line of scroll frame products that will be compatible with EZ Stitch.
They have packaged up their version of the Velcro, which we have now
and we expect the rods, bars and knobs in the next few weeks.
So
if you did not get all of the components you need before ADP closed,
don't panic - more options are coming. Both have agreed to put the 28in
rods that ADP only made for us into their production mix, so I'm
thrilled with that news.
I also discovered that K's Creations Mini Tri-knobs work on the EZ Stitch rods. We have purchased them and added them to the online catalog.
If you tend to strip the brass core out of your wood knobs, these are a
great solution to that problem. Be sure the select the Mini Tri-Knobs
if you want them for the EZ Stitch scroll rods (their bolt size is smaller).
Other News
 If you enjoy hearing about general needlework topics, check out Fiber Talk,
a weekly podcast. This week's podcast features Mary Corbet and they
discuss embroidery fabrics among other things. Mary mentions that Alba Maxima is her favorite embroidery fabric and that the same base fabric is available in another color. It is called Old White
(an off white vs. bright white). We are awaiting a shipment as the
fabric is currently being milled. The new mill run will be 55in wide as
opposed to the previous 72in mill run (which is sold out). It is what
Trish is using for her casket classes, which is one of the reasons it is
being milled again. You can find both in the online catalog.
Donna at By The Bay Needleart will be releasing a companion piece to Serenity Harbor called Harbor Haven,
which will start probably in early 2018. Donna was in the hospital for a
time and is home now so her original release date has been pushed back.
It will be a monthly Stitch-along like Serenity Harbor and we will do a
silk conversion for it as well. It looks like it has some of the same
colors so we'll coordinate with what I chose for Serenity Harbor and
share the colors where appropriate. When I get all the details worked
out I'll post an order page. But if you want to participate and get the
charts through us, just drop me an e-mail.
I hope you've got something that just seeing it makes you smile and for me that's Zebras (Latin Hippotigris
- a word I love to say out loud!). One of my customers also likes them
and gave me some extra bits to add to my desk. The Zebra is from the
Zebra Pen company (we use their highlighters a lot) and the frame,
glasses and ribbon are from Patti. It makes me smile every time I see it
(thanks Patti). For other Zebra fun, check out the John Oliver segment
from Last Week Tonight on the Dancing Zebras from Bolivia. It makes me laugh every time I see it - and we all need a more laughs don't we :-)
My
other fun thing this week is from our local dinner (think 1940's) -
it's their Halloween cake. I particularly liked the way a bit of missing
icing makes it look more like a face.
 
We
had a fabulous time with Kathy Rees the middle of the month for her
annual trek to us for a weekend class. All the students made good
progress on Harmony, the 2nd in the series (Serenity was first). She'll
be back in September 2018 for the 3rd - Tranquility. I'll post the class
dates as soon as we've got that work out.
I did manage to stitch
on my Harmony project a bit but I'm still having to take it easy with
my right wrist. I discovered that trying to pull Frosty Rays through
canvas is not a good thing to do a lot of when my wrist is already
overworked. So I think I'll be doing some less wrist stressful stitching
for awhile (and doing it in small increments of time). This weekend I'm
off to Mesa, AZ to visit my dear friend Jean at The Attic and see one
of my other dear friends Jackie du Plessis. I'm taking a couple of
Jackie's classes (one can never learn too much from Jackie). I'm looking
forward to great weekend away with good friends.
This
edition of the newsletter is being sent through our new provider,
Campaigner, which bought out MailerMailer earlier this year. If you run
into any problems viewing the newsletter either in your e-mail or
online, do let us know. As with all new systems, there will be some
kinks to work out.
I hope that you are able to find some time to relax and stitch. Don't let the Halloween Goblins get you!
Happy Stitching!
Cathe ...and Jennifer, Debi, Cymone, Marissa
cathe@needlestack.com | 
