The No Name Chicken from CanvasWorks has always been a popular needlepoint canvas in the shop. We’ve seen it walk out the door almost as soon as it arrived on numerous occasions.
One of our employees, Linda, is an excellent stitcher and completed the piece. She left it in the shop for us to admire for a little while. Notice the feathers — after stitching-n-ripping other choices, she finally went with her own personal inspiration and created a stitch that makes this piece really stand out:

One of our employees Joyce does exquisite Japanese Embroidery work. She brought some pieces in to share with us and I had to take pictures. The detail and beauty of these pieces is breathtaking — enjoy!

Ah, needlepoint brick covers.

I’ve enjoyed looking at brick covers ever since I was a kid, watching my mom stitch them for our house. Brick covers can be a great project since most of them don’t use many complicated stitches and can be a great “mindless” project to work on during the hot summer months.

I stitched the Susan Roberts fire truck brick above for my then-4-yr-old stepson. He had been obsessed with fire trucks as long as I had known him. However, just before I finished stitching the piece, he came to me and announced that he had moved on from fire trucks & was now interested in Batman (sob!)

I finished the brick anyways & think it turned out awesome!

The only word of wisdom I have for brick cover stitchers is this - choose your thread carefully. Think wools rather than silks. After all, this piece will literally be kicked around or pushed (if it finds its way to a bookcase rather than on the floor) and you want the thread to hold up to the abuse.

These shell brick covers are outstanding & really stand out on either a bookcase as a bookend or on the floor as a doorstop!

Well, we’re back from the Columbus tradeshow! We had a great time & found plenty of exciting canvas designs to bring back to the shop.

The new orders will start to arrive in the following weeks, so be sure to keep an eye on the website and stop by the store to see our newest arrivals!

We had some needlepoint cummerbunds come back from the finisher and they look fantastic. One was stitched by an employee, Barbara Edwards, while the other was completed by a customer.

The canvas designs are by Elizabeth Turner and turned out well:

Penguin Cummerbund

One of our customers Charlene was planning a trip to Africa. We found this travel ornament by Painted Pony and it fit inside one of our new needlepoint stitchable journals perfectly!

She did a great job on the stitching — the colors are fantastic — and plans to write down memoirs of her travels in Africa in this ideal journal. It’s completely personal and just for her — great job, Charlene!

…Speaking of travels, we are off to the tradeshow in Columbus tomorrow! The shop is still open, but some of us will be shopping for new things to bring back to the store.  Stay tuned from updates from the booths & new canvases as they arrive!