We encourage you to support your local shop. If you are not fortunate enough to have one or prefer to shop by mail, we're happy to help you find the supplies you need. We accept online, phone, fax, mail or e-mail orders, whether you live close by or far away. International orders are accepted as well. At the time you place your order, please let us know of any deadlines you have. We do our best to ship in a timely fashion but it's critical for us to know of your specific deadlines when you place your order.

Payment methods accepted are cash, check, American Express, Discover, Mastercard and VISA. For mail order requests if you are paying by credit card we also need CCV code printed on your card. This is the 3 digit number printed in the signature area after the last four digits of your card number, or if you have an AmEx card, the 4 digits printed on the front above the last 4 digits. This Credit Card Verification number means that you had the card in your possesion at the time of the order since those numbers never print anywhere so they cannot be obtained from a stolen receipt. The credit card processing companies are now asking us to get these as well as do address verification (we need your street number and zip for this) to help cut down on fraud.

On-Line Shopping

We have added a shopping cart to our web site which are available through our Online Catalog page. You can check out using a credit card (which you can now give us securely over the net) or even just tell us to use the information we have on file. While our entire inventory isn't likely to show up in the on-line catalog it will make the most common things available this way.

We also have a partnership with Hoffman Distributing and participate in their Merchant Mall. You can order any charts they distribute through the mall and we'll take care of the rest. This is a separate cart system than our main one so if you're placing thread or fabric orders through our main cart and also charts through the Merchant Mall, just make a note on one of the orders to combine them. We'll usually catch it anyway but it's always good to note.

To use the shopping cart you'll usually find either an button next to the item or if it's a long list after the list (see the screen shot below) so you can place items in your cart. Most things they are displayed together and you can either add them one at a time (each item will have its own Add button) or it may allow you to select several items and add them all at once (there'll be one Add button for an entire list).

Our fabric and embellishments are a searchable database so you can make a selection vs. having to look at the entire list. Click on the downward facing triangle to be shown the list and then click on the one you want. In the screen shot below we are looking for Aida type fabrics (AidaWeave) in 11 count that are White. Click on Perform Search when you are done. You can be as specific or as general as you need to be.

Your search results will return something like the following and then you can select what you need.

For lists with just a Quantity pull-down list (see the above screen shot) you must select a size BEFORE you click on the Add button. If you click Add without selecting a size/quantity you'll get an error message telling you to select a quantity. For fabrics you can tell us if you want your fabric serged or your canvas taped.

Many of the lists (mostly threads) have items in a list with one or more columns and an area to enter the quantity for a given size. You can enter a quantity in any of the columns so that if you want the same item in more than one size you can do so by entering a quantity in both columns (see the first item in the example below).

When you're ready to put this in your cart, press the button at the bottom of the list.

The shopping cart is currently set up so that you don't see the items in the cart every time you add something. I personally find this really annoying if I'm adding a number of items such as threads. You can view your cart at any time by selecting the button, usually at the bottom of a page. After you've added an item you'll see a brief message telling you the item was added then you'll go back to the page you were just on. If there isn't a Clear Form button at the bottom of a list you'll have to REFRESH the page in your browser to clear everything in that list.

The first time you view the cart you'll be asked for your destination country, zip code and shipping preference. This helps with the shipping calculations as you add items to the cart. When you go to checkout you'll also be asked for sales tax information. All of this information helps the shopping cart do the estimates but these are just estimates the cart will show you. Nothing is charged until your order is ready to be shipped so the actual shipping cost will be added at that time. We currently have to estimate the weight of individual items for the shopping cart so it's not 100% accurate. Again, your card won't be charged until the order is ready and all of that is done by us at the shop vs. on-line. So if you want to add to an order you've placed and it's not gone out yet, you can make a note of that in the comments field on the checkout form.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this please contact Cathe. This is a work in progress so if you find any problems, please do let us know right away.

Shipping & Costs

We generally ship items via the U.S. Postal Service (either First Class or Priority Mail), unless you request that we ship via another method. If the item is large or has to be insured, we may send it via UPS instead (we only ship via Federal Express by special request). We generally charge what it costs us to ship the items but there may be exceptions where we need to do some special kind of packing. All overseas shipments are sent via the U.S. Postal Service, usually as AirMail or Global Priority. If you need your order by a specific date, please let us know that at the time you place the order so that we can determine the best shipping method.

Catalog Requests

We do not produce a printed catalog and have no plans to do so. If you would like more specific information on a particular item or to see if we can obtain something, please contact us.