replace with my subject


Events & Reminders




Hours

Tue-Fri 11am - 5pm

Sat 11am - 4pm

First Sun 12 - 4pm

Sun/Mon - Closed

Next Open Sundays

February 4

March 4

2018 Greetings,


I kept meaning to send a newsletter in January but my post holiday and end-of-year to-do list always takes way more time than I plan for. And we traded a bad cold between us for quite a bit. Fortunately no flu - knock on wood!

We finally settled on Jackie du Plessis's classes for March and have been taking sign-ups for a couple of weeks. We do still have room in her 4 classes so if you are interested, check out the details at the bottom of the newsletter.

This Sunday is our Open Sunday for February and Cymone will be on duty. Come by and enjoy a cup of tea and some shopping.



New Things & News

Frosty Snow Mouse
                                                In A HouseFor those who've been following Just Nan's Mouse In A House series, the last one - Frosty Snow Mouse In A House has arrived. This one uses Belfast Opalescent and Steel Grey for the fabrics and many of the same DMC colors as the previous entries in the series. You'll find Frosty Snow Mouse In A House in our online catalog as well as links to the previous entries in the Related Items links.

Nan has teased us that the next series will feature a cottage - can't wait!

bar

New DMC 2017
                                                colorsWe blew through our first shipment of the DMC tins in December and more are expected sometime in February. I don't think they had any idea how popular they would be so my guess is they didn't produce enough the first go-round. We have notified everyone of the delay that had ordered one from us, but if you are still wanting to get one we're happy to put you on the waiting list.

While we have not been officially notified of this by DMC, we understand they are planning to do a new color card with the 35 new colors on it. It is showing up on DMC USA's website with no release date. DMC doesn't do a great job of keeping retailers informed of new things so it might be awhile before they get around to telling us about this. If you want to be on the interest list for this, drop us an e-mail.

You'll find a way to order the new colors and/or the tin in the online catalog. If you want just a few of colors you can find them in the DMC Floss page.


Product Updates

We still don't have an ETA for when we'll be starting our Au ver a Soie metallics club so if you have asked to be on the interest list don't panic and think we've sold thread without you. My guess is it'll be at least spring before we get the first production runs. If you're not already on the interest list you can e-mail us, or we'll do a announcement on our blog, in the newsletter and on Facebook it is finally read to be released. As with many new ventures, it's not something that can be rushed.


Norden Crafts closed the end of December, as I had mentioned in the previous newsletter. It means that a few of the items we regularly purchased we do not have a source for at the moment. Many products were already available through other distributors but it does mean that those distributors are also seeing an increase in orders. Good for them, but it can mean longer wait times for our orders. So we request that you please be patient over the next few months as all of this settles out. It also hasn't helped that in January several of our vendors have seen the flu go around their staff.

In working with Access Commodities (our supplier for Au ver a Soie threads) we were able to get the Northern Cross brought into the US again. It is now called Studio Line and if you are a follower of Diane's at Little House Needlework you might have a seen a note on this. What used to be called Northern Cross 30 count Natural is now Studio Line Portobello (which is the name for the 30 count natural). We are getting it without the sizing now, which makes it a much nicer fabric to work with. Sometimes the mill sends the sized version, sometimes the un-sized, but we're happy to get it either way! You'll find it in the online catalog.


Access is also our source for Legacy Linen - Alba Maxima, which Mary Corbet uses for many of her embroidery projects. We are expecting another shipment this month as our January shipment sold out once Mary used it for a stitch-along. What you may not know is that Alba Maxima and Old White are the same base fabric, just two different shades of white. Alba Maxima is Bright White and Old White is an Antique White, which Trish @ Thistle Threads uses for many of her needlework Casket related projects (I'm using it for Harmony with Nature). Mary picked Alba Maxima as it went the best with the colors she chose for her Kaleidoscope designs. If you are changing colors the Old White might work as well.

Since Mary Corbet uses a backing on many of her embroidery projects we now carry Southern Belle white quilting cotton. We also sell Kona Cotton in a cream color so depending upon your embroidery fabric one or the other should work as a backing if you need it.



Harbor Haven Is Here


Donna at By The Bay Needleart has released parts 1 & 2 and we expect part 3 in the next few days. I did create another silk conversion for this one and about 60% of the colors are shared with Serenity Harbor. There are several fabric options but it does require a pretty big piece if you're stitching it over 2 fabric threads. If you have threads left over from Serenity Harbor you can purchase just the new silks as a thread pack. You'll find the order page in our online catalog and
you can see more about the entire project on Donna's blog.

Harbor Haven


I've not been stitching that much the past several weeks. I'm still trying to give my wrist a bit of a rest but it's also because I got captured by a new craft - my Cricut machine. I happy to give the blame to Priscilla and Chelsea as their mentions of it made me look at finally taking the plunge. I have made several things with it including lettering for 2 new A-Frame signs we now use outside the shop. Learning a new software tool to do the designing has been fun (it appeals to the geek in me) and creating something fun appeals to the crafter in me. There is a vine border along the outside edge of the black sign that took me an hour to apply since it was cut into 20 separate pieces, 10 per side. I've been having fun doing iron-on vinyl on some bags and I'll show those next time.

Black A
                                                  Frame

We had a good view of the lunar eclipse this week so I got up early Wednesday morning to watch a bit of it. It was crystal clear night so the viewing was great and it was definitely a red moon.


A Flower AlphabetI'm off to Nashville the first weekend of March for our annual cross-stitch wholesale market there. We've already been getting sneak peeks of new designs and I hope to post some of them this next week. There are a ton of new samplers from Nicola at Hands Across the Sea that look very tempting.

And in a related note, I have ordered lots of copies of a new Monogram book from Elisabetta Sforza called A Flower Alphabet, in Italy that should be arriving in mid-February as they shipped to us today. I'll add it to the online in the next few days. Mary Corbet will be doing a review in the next few weeks of it - just the photos of I've seen of it made me want to carry it and Elisabetta has been doing monograms in embroidery as custom work for many, many years.

Lots of fun things to look forward to!

And my last bit of really late news, I created a YouTube channel for the shop on Thursday and moved my stretcher bar videos I'd been hosting privately there. I did fix the volume which for some reason ended up much softer in the final edits I did eons ago than I thought. I will be adding more new short videos there ranging from how-to's to product information. I have tagged them for FlossTube so if you get notifications of new FlossTube tagged videos you might have already seen this. For those of you who don't know what FlossTube is, it's a subset of YouTube videos stitchers tag with that name so it's easier to find needlework related videos. There is a wealth of information there from a wide variety of sources.

Happy Stitching!

Cathe

...and Jennifer, Debi, Cymone, Marissa

cathe@needlestack.com


Jackie du Plessis
March 2018 Classes

Check out our Classes page for full details

Pansy/Forget-me-not
                                            fan

 

Pansy/Forget-Me-Not Fan

Friday March 23 morning

Flights of
                                            Fancy

Flights of Fancy

Friday March 23 afternoon

Photo not yet ready

(Jackie is still designing it!)

 

Fan Showcase

Saturday March 24 all day

Bottle Tray

Bottle Tray

Sunday March 25 all day

YouTube NIAH Channel

Check out our YouTube channel

See our Google
                                                Calendar

Check out our Google Calendar

Visit our Blog

Read more on our blog

Follow me on
                                                Twitter

Follow us on Twitter

Facebook

Visit us on Facebook

It's a
                                              copyright...not your right
                                              to copy!


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, Suite 102
Alameda, CA 94501

510-522-0404 phone * 877-HAYSTAC Toll-Free

haystack@needlestack.com * www.needlestack.com


Hours: Tue - Fri 11am - 5pm; Sat 11am - 4pm, 1st Sunday Noon-4pm

CLOSED Sun-Mon