Second Week of Winners

I think I am going to miss doing these weekly drawings. It was sad when I was finished drawing names because there were still a lot of names in the jar and no more prizes to be distributed. Well, there are more prizes, but I am saving some for next Saturday and the Saturday after that. So, here are the winners and their prizes. If you do not live local, I will be mailing out your prize. Congratulations!

Kathy-Spring Seasonal Bitty Buttons & Fiber pack by Cathy Jean
Vicki, Gentle Art Special Edition Perle Cotton
Arlene-Fall Seasonal Bitty Buttons by Cathy Jean
Jane-Seasons Changing Bellpull by Rosewood Manor
Carol-Summer Seasonal Bitty Buttons & Fiber pack by Cathy Jean
Jamee-Gentle Art Spring Bag
Marilyn-Lilly Flower Sachet Sac by Fern Ridge Collections
Patricia-Chessie & Me Blackbird Houses (Norden Crafts)
Pam-Gentle Art Backyard Blooms
Paula-Lizzie Kate Sampling Christmas Quick-iT and Calculator
Phyllis-Chessie & Me Blackbird Houses (Norden Crafts)
Kay-Monogrammed Cosmetic Bag by JBW Designs
Beverly (Yes, again!)-Seaside Stitches Accessories by Jeannette Douglas Designs

A huge thank you to all that have come out during the week and/or sent me an order. You are all the reason why I love my job!

Cathy

and the winners are.....

Ok, my stitchy friends, today was the first doorprize drawing of the month! This is my Anniversary month....actually my one-year anniversary is tomorrow. Yea! Can you believe Inspired Needle is a year old? To help celebrate, I contacted a bunch of my vendors and asked them to provide some prizes. Many have complied and now I can share with my customers. Here you see the jar of drawing slips. Each time a sale was made this past week, the customer's name was written on a slip and placed in the jar. Internet orders, phone orders, walk in orders....it didn't matter. I will mail your prize if you live out of town.

Here is the group of prizes for the drawing this week. We have three thread packs from The Gentle Art. One is "Autumn", one is "Harvest" and the other is unnamed but contains both Sampler Threads and Simply Wool fibers. Then there is a wool kit from SamSarah, a "Dear Santa" kit with pouch, chart, beads and buttons from JBW, two Cathy Jean charts called "Wintertime" and "Fall" with fiber accessory packs and "Birthday Bellpulls 1" from The Victoria Sampler charted for September, October, November and December bellpulls all with accessory packs.


And the winners are.....
Autumn thread pack - Amy A
Harvest thread pack - Jenny
Sampler Thread/Wool Thread pack - Barb
Sam Sarah wool kit - Jill
Dear Santa kit - Debbie
Wintertime - Lori
Fall - Beverly
Birthday Bellpulls - Pam


The jar has been emptied and now all sales from next week Tuesday through Saturday will be placed inside. Those customers will have a chance to win a door prize next week! I have more goodies to win. Charts and kits from Jeannette Douglas, Fern Ridge, The Gentle Art, JBW, Lizzie*Kate, Victoria Sampler, Cathy Jean, Norden Crafts.....stay tuned for next week's winners!

Good luck!

Has It Really Been That Long?

Sheesh, I can't believe it has been almost a month since I posted! I always have good intentions but then time has a knack for getting away from me.

Lots going on. The Online Needlework Show has come and gone and now the "trial" Needlework Retail Show will be here in a few days. I have also been busy at the shop getting things ready for my anniversary celebration. Yes, Inspired Needle will be 1 year old on November 8th! I can't believe it! What started out as a pipe-dream has developed into full-blown reality. It is so wonderful to wake up every morning and WANT to go to work. I have such fun setting up displays and putting things together at the shop. I try to guess what the customer will like and sometimes I hit it on the head and others, well, we won't talk about them! LOL

Well, the twins have turned seven. They really are growing up. We went to PA two weekends ago to celebrate their birthday. We had fun at the local pumpkin farm, which really isn't a farm but a nursery which does it up big for fall. They have lots of blow-up amusements for the kids like a slide, crawl-through maze, obstacle course, mountain climbing wall, corn maze, etc. We went last year too, and the kids enjoyed themselves. Not a bad price either. I think for $13 the kids could go on all the rides they wanted.

I did get some stitching done too, believe it or not. Check out my Cherie. You will notice that she has quite the full coat of wool since you saw her last! .
I also completed all the cherries so now Cherie will have something to nibble on until I finish the greenery

And this one is Chessie & Me's Pumpkin Stack. I decided to finish it as a pin keep but thought it looked cute enough without the pins.

Last, but not least, I am almost finished with Jeannette Douglas' First Chapter of My Stitching Album, Mosaic Muse. That one is a killer because it takes so long to stitch a Mosaic stitch compared to a cross stitch. I love the result and this will probably be one of my favorite chapters. I'll wait to update you with a picture and post one when the chapter is complete.

Thanks for checking back!

Cathy

I'm Thankful For....

Electricity! I know it's not quite Thanksgiving, but I feel I ought to send my praises heavenward. Last evening was Open Stitch Night at the shop and I'm usually there until 9 or 10pm, depending on how much we get to talking! My cell phone rang about 9pm and it was my DH telling me the power was off at home, probably due to the high winds we were having in the Chicagoland area. Well, I ended up not leaving the shop until almost 10:15pm and sure enough, the power was still off when I got home. But it was weird. Some lights worked, some did not. I thought I'd have to get out of the van to open the garage door, but the opener worked. So, I trudged up the stairs (elevator, not working) and stepped into a mostly-dark house. My DH had made some salmon on the grill and some green beans on the stove. Forget about heating it up in the microwave, so I just warmed up a bowl of soup in a pot on the stove. Can't browse the net since the router didn't have power. By candlelight, I brushed my teeth, washed my face (brrr, cold) and jumped into bed.

I woke several times during the night wondering if the power was back on, but the clock radio on my nightstand remained dark. I was semi-conscious around 4am when I thought I saw a light shining from the living room, so I thought all was well with the world.

When I awoke this morning, there was still no power! I must have been dreaming about the light last night. I shuffled to the kitchen as is my usual routine and stopped dead in my tracks. NO coffee!! Whhhaaaaaa! But wait, there was a working outlet over by the stove because thank-the-Lord the refrigerator had power. I was able to brew my java and my world was restored. Now onto the daunting task of a bath. I pulled out the largest pot I could find and filled it with water and set it on the stove to boil. Two potfuls and I was ready for the tub. Sheesh, this is a lot of work! Breakfast was challenging, too, since I still couldn't use the microwave for my bacon.

I did get through the morning - had to flat-iron the hair in the kitchen (eeeewwwwww) and when the power is restored, I'll have to do a good job of vacuuming. Am I spoiled or what? We have it so easy, yet we complain all the while. I slept in a comfortable bed, I had wonderful smelling candles for light and I took a warm bath this morning. Yes, I had to expend a bit of energy to make some of it happen, but it wasn't all that difficult. The little things I don't think about every day, I certainly don't want to take for granted. I have it so easy compared to my ancestors! I am so grateful for electricity and how it makes light my tasks every single day!

Have a great power-filled day today!
Cathy

A weekend in St. Charles

Missouri, that is, for all you Chicagoland folks. St. Charles, MO is where the Fall Needlecraft market was held. I was excited to attend as this was the location of the very first Needlecraft market I ever attended. Last year, I was green, haven't not yet opened my retail needlework store. This year, I can say I'm "less green". LOL I still have a lot to learn, but it's getting better. We all make good decisions and then, well, there's some bad decisions mixed in there, too.

My cohort, Debbie, and I headed out for St. Charles last Friday morning. We had scheduled some classes for Friday afternoon, which meant we had to drive, allow time for lunch and arrive at our hotel by 1pm. We left early enough from Chicago and arrived with time to spare. We decided to make a stop off at the local needlework store. Some things never change, do they? After browsing for a bit, we asked for a recommendation for lunch. Lewis & Clark's was a few blocks away, so off we went. Cute place with a balcony on the top floor for those willing to brave the cool breeze. We weren't. Debbie ordered a chicken salad sandwich and I had a grilled chicken breast atop a bed of greens and steamed vegetables. Sad to say, lunch was lackluster. Somehow "bed of greens" to me does not mean iceburg lettuce!!! That's what I got. :( Anyway, we wished we could have hung out more in the historic district of St. Charles, but we had classes awaiting! Here is a view looking down the street. Very quaint town with lots of nice shops!

The class I attended was to help in running a business so there's no fun pictures to post, but Debbie took a felting class with Judy Bielec of Mosey N Me. Here is the cute scissor fob that she made. Heck, that is no "little" scissor fob.....maybe she could attach it to a full-sized pair of dressmaker shears!
(For size perspective, the witch is leaning up against a medium-sized pumpkin)
Watch this space for more posts regarding my trip to St. Charles.

Until later,
Cathy

Cherries, anyone?

Last weekend, I woke up to a spooky kind of morning. This was the view from my kitchen balcony.
It felt very fall-ish and I wondered if I should be watching for things flying through the air?!

I also had the opportunity to take a class with Barbara Jackson of Tristan Brooks Designs. I wasn't able to attend her basket class on Saturday, but I really wanted to take her crewel class, Cherries for Cherie, and I was so fortunate the class was on Sunday, when I could attend. Barbara is a crewel master and she certainly doesn't design the old-school crewel that our mothers used to stitch. Take a look at some of these beauties.

These two photos on the left are Barbara's new teaching pieces. The class piece that we were taught is below:
("Cherries for Cherie" above is Barbara's, not mine!) I'd love to show you what I accomplished in class but I was a bit rushed this afternoon and I left my stitching bag at the shop. I will have to post a pic next time for you all. I'll try to actually work on this piece some time soon before I forget all that I've learned. Be on the lookout for Barbara's crewel designs to show up in the shop....I can't resist!

A group of us met at the shop this afternoon to work on Jeannette Douglas' "My Stitching Album". I showed you the Mosaic Muse chapter last time and here is another progress pic. I really like this stitch but it does move pretty slowly. What do you think so far?

Thanks for reading, my friends! Until next time....

Have you tried Mirai?

Have you ever heard of it? I didn't either until this summer. Someone from my Village Office was going door to door of the businesses of Lemont, informing us of the Farmer's Market and inquiring if we'd like to set up a booth. One of the "perks" of this particular Farmer's Market was that a vendor would be there selling Mirai pronounced ME-rye) corn. One of my first trips over to the Farmer's Market, I purchased 6 ears of the bi-color corn. The flavor of this sweet corn was awesome. It was some of the first pick of the crop this season and the ears were not very large. Even so, they were sweet, juicy and a reminder of summer's past.
Just this past Tuesday, I purchased a dozen ears of corn, this time 6 bicolor and 6 sweet yellow. The kernals were huge! No mushy spots, no bare spots....just pure, kernal-y bliss!
I was wondering if you could eat the corn raw as it is so sweet. I happened to check out the website and found that they recommend eating the corn either way; cooked or raw! The corn was first introduced in Japan in 1995 as a super-sweet corn. The Japanese named it Mirai, meaning "taste of the future". Try an ear of Mirai instead of a plum some evening. Yummy! The Farmer's Market will be in the Historic Downtown part of Lemont through October every Tuesday from 8a to 1p. Get there early for the best picks!

On a stitchy note, I did several bands of My Stitching Album's Mosaic Muse over the Labor Day weekend. A couple members of my Jeannette Douglas monthly stitch group complained how difficult this chapter was to stitch. I can see how they would think it was tedious, but for me, it was fun! I love the mosiac stitch and I just love how it forms little bumps on the linen. Here's my progress so far. I am going to push myself to do a little bit every night.

Tomorrow at the shop I'm hosting an open house for the Waterfall Glen Chapter EGA. Some members will be there to promote EGA and all types of embroidery. They will have stitched pieces for show and can talk to interested parties about what EGA is and how it benefits them personally. I, myself, have been a member over 10 years. I don't think I would have expanded my stitching horizons had it not been for EGA. I hope to update you all with some pics from the big event in the next couple of days!

Have a good evening! Thanks for reading!