About threadholders…

A couple of weeks ago, Carolyn responded to a post with a wonderful question:

Can you tell me how and why flosses or threads are attached to mother-of-pearl rings or floss cards or wooden thread holders like a hornbook or heart with holes around the outside edge to keep the colors separate? I mean, are the threads wound around a stick, i.e., 18 inches long and then cut into appropriate lengths for stitching before being looped onto or into the rings and floss minders? Or are the flosses and threads purchased in such lengths from the shops? I see all of the lovely little threads and needle cases and accessories all over the net and it looks like the lengths are about 18 inches or so. I hope this is not a silly question and that your answer will benefit many others.

Before answering the question, let me elaborate on what Carolyn’s asking about. Instructions for any needlework “smalls”, such as When I am Sewing from The Drawn Thread, often include the attachment of rings for managing flosses. Similarly, threads can be managed with cards or wooden items with holes punched in them, like these thread pallettes or this hornbook.

There are only two reasons I’m aware of for using such items.

• The first reason is purely for decoration. These are pretty! You don’t actually have to use them!
• The second is, of course, for function. I suspect if your threadholder only has a few rings or holes, this might not be realistic, unless you’re working a project that requires only a few thread colors. On the other hand, I’ve received class kits that have included the threads attached to cardstock with holes punched in it, like the one shown here. This is much preferable to kits with loose threads that require sorting!

As for the length of threads to attach to your threadholder, it’s a combination of personal preference and ease of cutting.

• Some threads, such as ThreadworX flosses, come pre-cut in 1 yard (?) lengths. To get to an appropriate stitching length, just cut this length in half.
• Pearl cotton skeins (and some other threads) can be opened up into a single loop that can be cut in two places to get stitching lengths.
• In my classes with Carolyn Mitchell, she calls the distance from the inside of your elbow to the tip of your middle finger (with your hand out flat) your “personal stitching length.” In my case, this is approximately 17 inches, so I’m usually fine with using the 18” lengths from the previous suggestions.
• If you have a different length preference, yes, you can wrap the thread around something appropriately sized such that a single cut would result in the desired length, or find some other way to cut repeatable lengths.
• Of course, if you’re just using the threadholder for decorative or temporary purposes, you can just attach a full skein (as seen in one of the links above).

Physically attaching the thread is fairly straightforward. Simply use a half-hitch knot. Fold the thread length in half, insert the folded end through the ring, put the cut ends through the loop formed by the folded end, and pull tight.

Carolyn, I hope this answers your question. If anyone has anything to add, please do so!

Another shop’s demise

Earlier this year, I received a letter from one of the two local needlework shops. The letter explained that the shop was closing, and detailed the merchandise sale prices during the summer.

It’s always depressing to hear of another shop closing, but this is the first in my area. While this is not my most-frequented shop, it carried a different selection of items than the larger shop in town.

Fortunately, the pair that run the shop, Frame Of Mind, do have another venture: Woolen Thread Designs. Their designs are lovely items, some of which are made entirely of wool felt, and some combine wool felt with cross stitch. They’re a lot of fun. I believe the owners will be continuing their work on the design company, but have decided to retire from the shop.

Next Saturday is closing day.

Today, MIL and I (with E in stroller!) went shopping.

I spent a little over $60, and came home with this:

One of the items that this shop carried that isn’t available anywhere else locally is Anchor floss and some pearl cotton. Since it won’t be available for me to look through there, I thought it best that I take some home with me. Besides, they’re trying to empty out the shop, so I couldn’t refuse to help them.

In case you were wondering, that pile is on the seat of my stitching chair, and consists of 375 different colors of floss (at 14.5 cents each), and 31 balls of pearl cotton, sizes 8 and 12 (at 4 for $1.00).

All and all, a great deal, right?

Then why do I think I’d prefer that the shop stay in business instead of practically giving their inventory away? :-(

New stash from seminar

No, I didn't go to this year's EGA seminar, even though it was in Pittsburgh this year (<6 hours away).   I did experience a bit of it virtually, on the phone with MIL as she walked through the Merchandise Mart last Wednesday evening.  Thanks, Mom!  (Of course, she managed to buy part of my Christmas present when I expressed interest in something, so it benefited both of us!)

And she brought me some stash!  At some point in the week, she came across an opportunity to pick up (for free!) EGA Designer Series Book 3, a compilation of projects from old editions of NeedleArts, the EGA magazine.  This 90 page book contains complete instructions for these 10 projects, all shown on the back cover:

•  A Crewel Design by Audrey Francini (crewel, surface embroidery)
  
• New Year's Eve Bag by Kay Stanis (goldwork)
• Pink Ice Brooch by Carolyn Sherman (beading on a felt ground)
• Genny's Name Tag by Genny Morrow (counted canvas)
• Butterfly Kiss by Dorothy Lesher (line-drawn canvas)
• Tiny Topiary by Gail Sirna (counted canvas)
• Schwalm Embroidery Heart by Donna Strader (Schwalm)
• Bird on a Branch: A Name Tag by Margaret Kinsey (silk and metal on silk ground)
• Princess Lace Heart & Flower by Roberta Chase (princess lace)
• L'Atomiseur by Tony Minieri (counted canvas)

I'm particularly fond of the first two projects.

 

On her way out of Pittsburgh, MIL stopped at Beehive NeedleArts.  She called me from the shop, asking if she could pick up any threads for me.  I tried to think of threads that I hear about, but can't find locally.  (What would you pick?)  I ended up mentioning J.L.Walsh Silk & Wool.  Well, apparently the shop didn't carry this, but did have the Silk Perle from J.L.Walsh.  I am now the proud owner of six skeins of this lovely thread.

This thread is interesting.  As it comes out of the skein, it's about the size of pearl cotton #5.  Upon closer inspection, though, the thread seems strandable.  The full strand breaks down into two bundles, each apparently made up of four strands about the size of floss.  I'll try experimenting with this soon.

Thanks Mom!

Organizing metallics

This past weekend, I took advantage of a good sale at Joann Fabrics and picked up a box, originally designed for holding Sulky machine embroidery threads. One of the members in my ANG chapter had shown how she used this to hold her Kreinik metallic threads. Thanks, Mary Lou!

Once I got to putting all of my Kreiniks in the box though, I realized I had a problem. Ummm... I ran out of room.

The only solution was to head back to Joann's and pick up another box! I showed the result to MIL, who hadn't seen these boxes at the store near her, and she stopped by my store to buy the last one on her way home!

To give an idea of size, these two boxes are spread out between the arms of my stitching chair. At a rough guess (since I'm too lazy to measure and I just took them upstairs), the boxes are about 15" across, 17" high, and <2" deep.

***UPDATE: To answer one question about the boxes: these hold 108 spools. As for mine, neither is completely full, and I have a few random non-metallic spools (Silk Bella, Londonderry Linen, etc) in the second one.***

(This makes two posts in two days - but I'm not expecting this to be the norm anytime soon!)

I won!

This evening was our local EGA chapter's holiday party. Instead of doing a potluck dinner, for the last several years we've opted to go out to a nice restaurant and just enjoy each others' company. Tonight's dinner was at a locally-owned Italian restaurant. The food (capellini pomodoro for me) was delicious and the conversation quite varied and fun.

The highlight of the evening was the opportunity drawing. MIL, in her capacity as chairperson for "Ways and Means" (a.k.a. chapter fundraising), had put together a lovely holiday basket. Not expecting anything, since I never win these things, I donated my $5 for 6 tickets. Our waiter drew a ticket, and I was very pleasantly surprised! I can no longer say I never win! :-)

I brought the basket home, and Sophie seemed to approve (either that or she thought it smelled like Grandma).

So, what was in it, you ask? What better than stitching stash & chocolate? Specifically, several types of chocolate truffles and other such goodies, plus:

• a "floss stick" to keep floss colors together for a project
• a kit for a perforated paper snowman ornament
• Christmas Keepsakes, a Leisure Arts book
• A Potpourri of Pillows, a hardanger book by Janice Love
• Gloriana angel chart by Just Nan
• the chart for a small rustic Christmas sampler
• instructions for a small angel doll ornament
• a painted canvas for a Scottish nutcracker ornament
• a kit for a Joan Thomasson Santa, complete with painted canvas, stitch guide, and all threads!

At this rate, I'm going to have to list a few more things on eBay if I'm really trying to reduce my stash! Not that I'm complaining... :-)

Satin stitches & stash enhancement

I haven't been posting over the last several days because there didn't seem to be much entertainment or educational value in a bunch of posts titled "Satin stitches", "More satin stitches", "Yet another day of satin stitches", and so on. At last though, I'm done with the satin stitches on the border of My Way.

According to the instructions, these were to be done in #5 pearl cotton, which would have worked up fairly quickly. I didn't really like the coarser look of the pearl cotton, though, so I used 5 strands of floss in a shade darker than the eyelets and basketweave. Of course, using floss meant laying each stitch. I love the play of light off of carefully laid threads, especially when viewed at an angle.

While it takes a bit longer, I really don't mind laying threads. I get into a rhythm, and it's pretty relaxing. There's no race, anyway - except to get the borders done before the class! Now, I've just got a bit of herringbone stitch to do outside of the satin stitches. I am waiting to see how the colors are going to play in the rest of the piece before deciding what to threads to use for the decorative stitching on top of the basketweave squares.

In answer to Cyn's question: I've only been able to find one picture of Carolyn Mitchell's My Way online. It was in a pdf of one chapter's newsletter, but I was able to save the image and repost it here. This version is a bit more washed out than other stitched pieces I've seen, but part of the challenge of this piece is picking your own color schemes.

Last week I mentioned something about starting on Luan Callery's Summer Dream. This didn't get too far, yet. I've managed to get the design on the fabric and mount and lace the fabric to the stretcher bars, but have yet to start stitching.

On to the second part of this post's title - did I say something about stash enhancement? Ah, yes. I managed to get into a little bit of trouble during Gay Ann's sale week. I have absolutely no idea when I'll get around to stitching these pieces, but I picked up the Almost Whitework Sampler, English Cottage Garden, and the Drawn Thread Sampler . I managed to save some pictures of these pieces before they disappeared from Gay Ann's website. I'm now waiting for the instructions to show up in the mail!




Speaking of Gay Ann Rogers, Colleen asked a question about the colors I used in Strawberry Girl. Colleen, I used the greens called for in the pattern, namely the DMC 500 series. I did change the red of the strawberries to a darker red (from a bright pink), and substituted threads from my stash for the Anchor browns in the hair and yellow in the flowers. I hope this helps you make your decisions for stitching yours!

Louisville 2008: a cruise, the closing banquet, and stash enhancement

Ok. I'm inexcusably late with my last post about Louisville, but to hide exactly how late (for future readers) and to help with the flow of the blog, I'm antedating this post. :-)

Wednesday of seminar week gave us a break from the longer classes. Some folks went on tours and some die-hards took a single-day class, but I slept in a bit and then went to the merchandise event. I spent most of the day there, helping with my chapter's sale table and figuring out where to spend some stash money. (More on the stash accumulation later!) The picture shows the beginning of the crowds at the event. There were many more people in the room as the day progressed.

Around mid-afternoon, MIL and I walked the half-block over to EGA headquarters. There, we spent quite a bit of time admiring the National Tapestry (which I had been fortunate enough to put a few stitches in when it was being worked). We viewed the National Exhibit, admiring some pieces and puzzling over others, wondering where a needle might actually have been used. Upstairs we enjoyed some of the permanent pieces of the collection, including a wonderful crewel bench embroidered by the master, Audrey Francini. The Tenessee Valley Region also had an exhibit upstairs which had some beautiful pieces.

Wednesday evening was spent on a riverboat cruise. We boarded the Belle of Louisville at 7PM. Dinner (including, of course, incredible fried chicken) was enjoyable despite the lack of air circulation on the second deck. After dinner, most of us escaped the heat by heading up to the upper deck to enjoy the breeze and to watch twilight descend on the Ohio River. Eventually, the boat turned around and headed back to the city. Louisville is beautiful from the river at night! Though my camera doesn't capture night scenes well, the overall impression comes through with a few pictures.






As classes drew to a close on Friday, we all prepared to say goodbye. The ballroom was decorated beautifully for the closing banquet. The banquet was opened with the "Call to the Post" (call to dinner?) performed by the official bugler of Churchill Downs, and then he (the bugler) shared some of his experiences in that post. He closed his speech by playing "My Old Kentucky Home". Though it had absolutely nothing to do with embroidery, it was wonderful to get a taste of Louisville culture through this enjoyable speech.

Now, on to the stash! I was very pleased with the favor from the closing banquet: a beautiful pair of stork scissors with a leather case. I've been stitching for over 15 years, yet never had stork scissors until now!





Between the bookstore, EGA headquarters, and the merchandise event, I picked up several books:

• Ruskin Lace & Linen Work by Elizabeth Prickett. This has been on my wish list for a long time.
• SuZy's Lite Stitches by Suzy Murphy. I'm hoping this will help with some of the painted canvases I struggle with.
• The Art of Teaching Embroidery by Sandy Rogers. I've enjoyed teaching a few projects to my guild chapters, so thought I'd read up on it to see how I can improve.
• Elegance from the Past, which contains instructions to reproduce a pulled-thread piece from EGA's collection.
• The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir. While this novel is not about stitching, this fit in well with the Tudor-Style purse class I was taking.

At the merchandise event, I purchased several small things: a few packs of needles, a collection of various sizes of gold spangles, a pair of extremely sharp scissors from Japan, some new hand lotion, a Brussels lace kit from somebody's stash, and a pair of burling irons (which are wonderful, very fine tweezers - perfect for removing dog hair from projects - believe me - I've tried them already!) I also made one larger purchase: the kit for Joan Thomasson's Czarist Treasures, including the design drawn on congress cloth.

I made a few trips to the seminar boutique over the course of the week. I think Stitcher's Workshop brought their entire shop to Louisville! I combined a search for "new to me" threads with gathering threads for a geometric canvas class scheduled for November.

I really enjoyed my first national seminar! Thanks to all of the EGA volunteers for pulling together a fabulous time.

SBQ: The Essentials

Don't look now, but I'm actually answering an SBQ for the first time in a very long time...

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Terri and is:

What items do you consider essential to your needlework that you keep in your stitching bag?

Let's see. In the caddy on the arm of my stitching chair, I can find:

• A variety of needles stuck in the pincushion; everything from 28 to 22 tapestry needles to #10 crewel needles (great for beading or for ending threads) to long beading needles.
• A tekobari (Japanese laying tool) in a wooden case.
• Two pairs of good scissors, one Gingher and one Dovo (because I like them both and I need to be able to find scissors easily!).
• One pair of serrated-edge scissors for cutting metallics (so I don't ruin my good scissors)
• Hemostats, which are wonderful for pulling needles through the back of tight canvas stitches for ending off threads. These are rarely needed for linen work.
• A pen
• A pencil
• A telescoping magnet, which is necessary for tracking down errant needles or scissors that fell off the arm of the chair.

In my main stitching bag, I can also find more packs of needles and clean cosmetic sponges (great for dampening unruly/kinked threads). Also, I take my Elan lap stand with me to all stitching events, since a pinched nerve in my neck means I can only stitch "in hand" for very short periods of time.

Great question!

Recent stash acquisitions

Ever since I saw Elisabeth's review of the new Alison Cole book All That Glitters, I've been hoping my LNS would get it in. Much to my surprise, the owner did have one copy in last week, and three of us in the Thursday night group signed up to get the three additional copies coming in. They showed up this week. This book has wonderful photos of some really amazing embroidery, in addition to decent illustrations and instructions for those techniques specific to goldwork and stumpwork. While I won't be starting anything like these projects anytime soon, it's fun to read through and be awed by the work!

Yesterday I took the day off from work. MIL and I went to a not-so-LNS about two hours away. A Stitcher's Garden has a different selection than some of our more local shops, tending more toward samplers, including lots of hand-dyed linen. Between thumbing through these and a good sampling of the new stuff from the Nashville market, we both left the store with some fun new purchases!

I purchased:

• A Very Good Year by Prairie Moon. I probably won't stitch this as shown, but I really liked the three medallions!
• Seasons of the Trees by Rosewood Manor. I already have the chart for And a Forest Grew, and couldn't resist this companion.
• AlphaBlu by Courtney Collection, with 36ct Golden Harvest linen from R&R Reproductions. This will go really well with the framed Celtic Banner from MLI hanging in my dining room. I'm thinking that Vikki Clayton's Kodiakery will work well with this fabric, and I just happen to have a spool of it!
• Small pieces (around 7" x 9") of 40 ct Daily Grind and Creme Brulee from R&R. These will work for future exchange pieces.

I'm hoping to post again tomorrow, but if I don't get around to it, I hope everyone (who celebrates it) has a very happy and blessed Easter!

More Winds & new storage

The lady is progressing a bit slowly this week. One of her scarves is done on the left side, and the part in progress on the right is meant to be part of a scarf also.

This scarf is done in Hungarian stitch, but the colors are changing along the length, too. The shading technique used here is called "hardside shading", and only a single color of thread is used in the needle at any one time (as opposed to blending threads in the needle). In this technique, when you reach the line marking the color change, the stitch is supposed to be compensated.

The trouble is, it's really tough to keep the pattern of the stitch in such a skinny area, especially with all the compensating stitches. I going to frog (rip-it!) a bit and not compensate in the middle of a stitch length. I may still do, for example, the first stitch (over 2) with one color, then the remaining two stitches of the pattern (over 4, then over 2) with another color, but I don't think I like splitting a given stitch length. The pattern of the stitches should show up better if I don't compensate the stitch lengths, and I'll enjoy stitching it more. Does that make sense? I'll try to take a before and after picture to explain when I rip it out tomorrow.

On another note, I bought a new floss cabinet today! For the first time ever, I visited the local "Christmas Tree Shops". It's an odd name for a discount store, but it's appropriate at least for one season out of the year! This store opened over a year ago, and I had heard that some good deals could be had there. I didn't know what to really expect. It was sort of like "Target meets the dollar store". A friend said it was like a flea market - there was quite a bit of junk, but you could find really good stuff if you looked!

I picked up a few things, but the real reason I went was for a cabinet I saw in an ad. I couldn't find the cabinet advertised, but I did find a great 7-drawer lingerie chest - a.k.a. FLOSS CABINET! It was marked down from $130 to $100, and it was completely solid wood, and came fully assembled (except for the feet). I had brought a couple of Floss Away bags with me, and this worked perfectly!

When I got home, I made a few drawer dividers out of cardboard, and transferred my DMC collection to the cabinet. It took 3 of the seven drawers, but the bags fit perfectly, just as I hoped! I'm headed back tomorrow to buy another cabinet!

Check out the perfect fit:

Camelot...

The latest Jim Wurth ornament arrived on my doorstep this afternoon. I eagerly opened it to see what was next in the Dodecagon series, and immediately started singing (much to DH's dismay):

Camelot (da da dum dum dum)
Camelot (da da dum dum dum)
In short there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily ever-aftering
Than here in Ca-me-lot!

(with apologies to Lerner & Loewe)

Yes, the next ornament is named Camelot. Appropriately enough for February, one of the main colors in this piece is pink.
Between my determination to keep up with this series and a need to set To the Acorn aside for a bit after 3 straight weeks, I've started it already.* I'll try to frequently post my progress on this piece, so stay tuned.

* This is an exception to my WIP-loss challenge, remember?

SBQ: Holiday Gifts

It's time for a Stitching Blogger's Question!

This week's SBQ is:

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

Yes, I did! In fact, I unwrapped the same book twice! There was a little lapse in communication on this one. :-) I received the book "In Praise of the Needlewoman" by Gail Sirna . This book is a result of Gail's research into paintings that feature people (yes, mostly women) doing some sort of needlework. The definition of needlework here is rather loose: it includes embroidery, needlepoint, bobbin lace, knitting, crochet, weaving, tatting, etc. Each painting includes a facing page with text describing the painting and the needlework apparently being done. It's a gorgeous book, and I plan on enjoying it for years to come. I could see this being a coffee table book if I had a coffee table! It will probably find a home near my stitching chair and get pulled out when I'm just a bit too tired to stitch. For more information about this book, a full book review can be seen here.

I also received two gift certificates to my LNS. I'll have to think about how I want to use them!

Caving in to the sales

Yes, I caved. At the sale at one of my local shops, I didn't find much that caught my eye, so I actually left an LNS sale having spent less than $10. I picked up The Counting Book Sampler from Little by Little.

However, I was not so restrained online, with the sale at Stitching Bits and Bobs. I treated myself to one of the newest Long Dog patterns, Scarlet Ribands, and one of their older patterns, Sonne Spotte, which now interests me more than it did before, mostly because of the vibrancy of the colors. A few other pieces also found their way into my cart, including John Foster from Historic Stitches (and I blame Joanie for that one, with her great pics of it!). I know sometimes this shop will wait on items not in stock, so I'm not looking for these to show up any time soon, but it will be a nice surprise when these show up in the mailbox!

To top it off, I received the instructions for another EGA GCC in the mail today. Now I have two waiting to be started. (I knew I should have made those an exemption to my challenge!) After I finish Czarina, I may go through my UFOs to find those that have the least left to stitch, and FINISH them! I have a long way to go on the challenge, and that's the only way I'll get through it anytime soon.

A new ornament

The kit for the next ornament in Jim Wurth's dodecagon series arrived in yesterday's mail. Here are the supplies for Czarina:I did start this today (recall that this series is exempt from my challenge), and made some decent progress. I'll post progress pics tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm having a hard time staying away from some LNS sales. The last thing I need is more stash, but I've had a cart open at Bits and Bobs for several days, since they have most of their stock at 20-25% off. There are five charts in my cart now. (Why do I do this!?!?!?) The sale is going on through the weekend. I'll wait at least until after Friday to check out, because one of my local shops is having a 20% off sale on Friday. If they have any of these charts, I'd rather spend the money locally. Stay tuned, and I'll share what I eventually purchase, if anything. (Who am I kidding?) :-P

Enabling...

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know Gay Ann Rogers as the designer of the mystery sampler I'm stitching. But did you know that Gay Ann is currently holding a sale she calls "E-Merchandise Week"? To see what she has for sale, visit her blog, and look at the September and October (2007) entries.

My apologies for not posting about the sale earlier this week. You only have a few days left to decide and send an email to Gay Ann. She'll then send you the total amount, including shipping. Here's the catch: all checks must be postmarked by Monday 10/22. If you're interested in anything, don't delay!

What did I buy? Given the number of projects I have in my stash, I had no business buying anything! But why would that stop me? I have been coveting the 4 seasonal girls (Acorn, Strawberry, Flower, and Snowflake) ever since I saw them made into a lampshade(!) on ANG's website, so I picked them up. (Hint - Gay Ann gives you a price break if you buy all four!) I also purchased Diamond Roundabout and a kit called 'Ruskin Garden Square', of which she only had 1 kit, so the blog post disappeared quickly.

Now, for my disclaimer: I have absolutely no financial interest in the success of this sale. I do, however, want designers like Gay Ann to be successful, so they continue providing us with wonderful things to stitch! :-)

What happens in Vegas...

What's a stitcher to do when arriving in Las Vegas for the first time? Visit the LNS (Stitcher's Paradise) at the first opportunity, of course! My first (and only) opportunity was Wednesday afternoon when I arrived.

(If you want to hear the saga of how I found the LNS, read on. If you only want to hear about the LNS, go to the red stars ******** below.)

I rented a car, since I would have paid almost as much by taking a cab. Unfortunately, my directions were from the airport, not from the offsite car rental place! I asked for directions from a guy at the garage, but quickly lost track after the second turn. Good thing that my printout from Google maps was detailed enough that I didn't get too lost. I missed the highway completely, but found my way onto Dean Martin Drive. Unfortunately, it's not at all obvious how to turn left off of Dean Martin Drive onto one of the main streets. (They have all these side routes that act as exits off of DMD to the main streets, but they're not marked as such, so I kept driving under the streets I wanted to be on!) Anyway, I eventually turned left onto a street, any street!

From there, I kept going for a few miles until I hit Rainbow Blvd, on which (somewhere) was my destination. Hoping I wasn't too far north, I headed north, realizing that my headache was due to a lack of food, and a visit to a restroom was in order, too! I finally found one of the run-of-the-mill, found everywhere, fast-food joints, and pulled in. Not exactly what everyone goes to Vegas for, but I didn't care at that point! While I was there, I asked the manager which direction I needed to travel to get to Sahara (Rd? Blvd?). Sure enough, I was too far north! After a burger, etc., I headed back the way I came, and found the correct plaza.

********
A name like Stitcher's Paradise sets some pretty big expectations! This shop did a pretty good job of living up to them: a huge wall of threads, with extra carousels and drawers of more threads, four large shelving units of fabrics, a good selection of painted canvases, and shelves and carousels of charts from the hottest designers. There was a small table up front where stitchers could gather, and another room in back that looked like it was for classes and storage of less-frequently requested items. (Unfortunately, this great shop does not have a website.)

The owner, Gina, was working with a customer when I came in, so I poked around a bit. I found some threads for the ornament canvas for my cousin's little girl, then visited the book racks. I looked through the higher-count linens; there were at least a dozen colors in 40 ct, and more of 34-36 ct! Gina helped me refine my thread selections, then she cut linen for me and helped me find a "Las Vegas" canvas.

Here's what came home with me:

• Las Vegas angel canvas from Painted Pony Designs
• Glory scissors from Gingher (I've been looking for these!)
• A fat half of R&R Flax Fields linen in 36 ct (tentatively for Mouline Rouge)
• A book full of pictures and histories of samplers titled Pioneer Memorial Museum Samplers. This was put together by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the Swan Samplers Stitchers Guild.
• A nail file with a scene of the LV strip on one side and Stitcher's Paradise information on the other (because I needed a nail file!)
• Two cards of Mandarin Floss from Rainbow Gallery. This floss is made from bamboo, and is wonderful to work with!
• 1 skein of Vineyard Silk Shimmer, which is twisted like a pearl cotton, but has two strands of blending filament worked through it.
• 1 pack of Mill Hill beads (not in picture)
• A "Project Pak" box, which is a really neat little box that has four separate compartments for beads, needles, or other small stuff.
  

The rest of the trip was filled with more typical Vegas stuff: dinner at a Mexican restaurant; convention on Thursday followed by sightseeing on the strip (including the water show at the Bellagio and the live lions in the MGM Grand), dinner at a Japanese restaurant, and losing a bit of money on the slots. Friday morning I stopped by a bakery in Paris (the Paris hotel, that is) and enjoyed a croissant before heading off to the airport. All in all, a fun trip, though I really wish I had time for a massage at the spa!

$40.28 and 373 skeins later...

You may have heard that Walmart will soon no longer be carrying DMC. The news has been going around on the needlework boards. So, I ventured out to my local store to see what (if any) DMC they had for 10¢ a skein.

Now, I rarely go into Walmart. (Actually I haven't been there at all since DH saw the Walmart Movie and told me about it, but we figured that in this case, they're not making any money on selling me floss at 10¢ a skein. We agreed that this could be an exception to the no Walmart policy!) As a result, I wasn't even sure where the craft section was, but I found it easily enough. And I found the DMC - on hard-to-turn, very noisy when they did turn, carousels. Each bin had a nice big 24¢ label on it. Hmm....

I picked up a skein and walked over to the cutting table. The lady there didn't know anything about the floss being on sale or being discontinued, but she scanned it and read off the price - 10¢! Good enough for me.

Heading back over to the carousels, I pulled one of each available color (actually 2 of black, white, and B5200), ignoring all those in the wrong bins. Many, many minutes later (did I mention those carousels are a pain?), I had a basket nearly full of floss, and headed up to the checkout area.

Luckily, the store manager was one aisle over from my line, and I drew his attention to my basket, asking him if he wanted to open up another register because I was going to take a while! He thanked me for asking, and pointed me over to the customer service desk. The clerk and I quickly worked out a system. I'd line up a handful of UPC labels, hand them to her, and she scanned the handful with the handheld scanner. It worked out well, though I was afraid the poor girl was going to develop a hand cramp by the end of the pile!

The end result? 373 skeins:These will be waiting for to be organized somehow when I get home from Las Vegas on Friday. I'm headed out there for a conference on Thursday, but will be sure to stop by the local needlework shop, Stitcher's Paradise, while I'm there! I'll share any new stash pics over the weekend! :-)