To market, to market...... we are off to the summer needlework market next week in St. Louis. It's been many years since we have gone to the summer market and are we excited! We have loads of linen , trims and charts to take to sell and we are armed with checks, lists and comfortable shoes so we can shop, shop, shop. We have seen many sneak peaks from some of our favorite designers and I know we are in for a treat! If you have requests or wish us to bring something special back for you, email us at dyeingtostitch@aol.com. I can access that from my phone so I will make sure we get everything you want. The shop will be closed August 20-22 so the girls who work with us are not overworked. The shop will reopen regular hours Friday the 23rd.

As many of you know the shop was broken into on August 1st in the early morning hours. This was a very scary thing for us even though we were not there or open. The burglars didn't bother any of our merchandise or models they just overturned most of the office files and trashed them with cleaning fluids. Lots of mess to clean up but we are so thankful that no one was hurt and more damage was not done. Thank you for all the lovely messages you have sent- they meant the world to us.

I decided to change our front display table to bees for the late summer. Threadwork Primitives has three darling bee designs along with several other designers. Check these great patterns out.....

Some new fall patterns we have stitched....
Spooky String by Lizzie Kate.....

Halloween Hornbook- Plum Street...

Trick or Treat- Prairie Schooler

Beggars Night- Threadwork Primitives.  I love,love, love this one.  We have the fabric and trim for this and it is in stock now.  Call if you want me to package this up for you.  We will have this model in our room ( 612) at the show.

 We will be shipping the next Prim Society offering the first week in September. This one is by Blackbird Designs. If you want to add anything to your order please contact me as soon as you can. I do want you to know that I try and mix up who ships first every time I send these kits out. That makes it fair for everyone. It takes me a full week to get these all sent out so please be patient. If you know you need to update your credit card please call me as it slows the entire process down if I have to hunt you down. This kit will be stitched on 32 count so I hope everyone is happy with that. We will be doing the Prim Society next year too and I will be posting further information shortly.

Once again we have the sampler clipboards in stock.Many of you have been patiently waiting and yours are all in the mail. If you wanted one and haven't called- now is the time as they go FAST!

The sampler I have decided to post this time is Elizabeth Pritchard.  I love this pictorial scene. The sheep are done in wool and the colors are warm and vibrant.

Thought you might like to see teenage Abigail.  She is 7 months old now and still has a lot of attitude!  All the dogs are going to board next week but told them they are going to summer camp. Hope they believe me!

I am hoping to send a short blog post from market.  I always think I will have time and then we start talking and time just flies by. I will do my best.  Have a great week...............

Wow- it's HOT! According to the weather channel last week and this week are the hottest weeks of the year. Yes I can attest to that. We came home Saturday night to no air conditioning. It was 85 in the house. We managed to get someone to come and repair it on Sunday ( don't ask what that cost) and it took almost 24 hours for the house to cool to a normal range because of the heat outside. It was a miserable two days for us and the three dogs even with fans. I admit we are spoiled and frankly I do not want to live without air conditioning ever again.

We have some new models in the shop. I finally finished the Numero Uno from Jeannette Douglas. This is such a cool piece and really fun to stitch. It is done mostly with Gentle Art wool. It is very industrial and yet Pottery Barn looking to me. What do you think?

We also had Jeannette's new Christmas piece stitched for the shop. It comes with two color ways but we chose the light one. Isn't this stunning?  Wendy did a fabulous job on this one.

Several of you have asked to see the changes we made to the Stacy Nash Spring at Hollyberry farm. We took out the big cat and added a flock of sheep. This just suited us more. Hope you like it. Pat is over half done with the Summer at Hollyberry farm but she is busy stitching models for the summer show in St. Charles, so it will be a little bit before she can finish.

We have received so many fun things at the shop in the last few weeks. The new sampler from Plum Street- Promised Lamb is really wonderful. Paulette has such a special flair! We also have all the new With thy Needle and Thread,( new Liberty House pictured) the Loose Feathers and the Halloween magazine from JCS. More Clipboards are expected any day. Let me know if you want one as we are selling them like hotcakes.

The winner for the Ladies Prim Society is Linda Crowe. Linda please contact me about what intial you would like stitched for your fob. Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments. It seems to be a very popular club and we are so appreciative of your commitment. Just a note- we give the designers guidelines in pricing and they come up with the kits as far as colors and fabric choices. If the fabric is not your choice you can always change it. We are trying to keep the pricing reasonable thus the choices that have been made.

OK- have you seen the new sampler from Threadwork Primitives? Nan designed this for me and I am so thrilled. I have never been honored like this before.   Nan you are the best!

We will have those in the shop this week along with her new bee needle roll to complete her Bee trilogy.  Let me know if you want any of these sent out.

This Saturday- July 27th is our annual summer frame sale. If you have things ready to frame for Christmas or just projects completed that you would like to have framed- come see us. We will be here from 11am to 5 pm.

The sampler I selected to show this week is one of our boys. George Eisenbrey. He is from the Smithsonian. George was a bad boy and was made to go to a girls school and do a sampler. He was actually a pretty good stitcher. We know that George was a bad boy because his sister kindly left a note with the sampler. Wouldn't you love to know what he did to get in such trouble?

If you are interested in our retreat we have had several openings come up in the last two weeks. Some folks had to cancel for various reasons so if you have been wanting to come we would love to have you. Its going to be such fun!

I agree with the President- last week was a very tough week. My heart goes out to all those affected by the Boston bombing. As most of you know, my friend and business partner was born and raised in Boston and has an incredible special feeling for that city. I have visited Boston many times and am a HUGE Red Sox fan so I felt an overwhelming sadness about the whole situation. I was obsessed with the media coverage- couldn't stop watching it. The courage and bravery shown by those men and women in Boston was amazing. My prayers and thoughts are with you Boston. BOSTON STRONG!!!

On a lighter note, the prim has shipped. I think most of you should have received it by now. I hope you were pleased. I thought it was just right for spring. Thanks for your patience in getting them all shipped. It is a much bigger job than you think......

Here is a photo of the winner of the tag contest. I will try and post some each time I blog.

We have been so successful with the prim club we are staring another club with the Purple Thread. Sharon is the featured designer in this months issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. This club will be called", Every Womans Journey". We hope to ship a kit every 6-8 weeks keeping the cost to $25-35 each. The registration sheet will be on the website. If you are registered for the prim you can just sign the bottom and put in prim club and I can get your info from your other registration. Here is the first kit. We hope it will ship by mid June. We also have a fabulous door prize for one registrant from Sharon.

We have been busy stitching for the shop and have gotten back some great things from the framer. I know this Birds of a Feather design is an older one but its still available and oh so darling.....

We are thrilled to be able to have the fabulous Civil War needlebook from Threadwork Primitives. This is such a cool piece- Nan put a lot of time and thought into this one and since they are limited please call soon so you won't be disappointed!

If you have been by the shop in the last month then you might have met our new puppy- Abigail. She is getting bigger and I bet she is up to 5 pounds now. Here she is playing with her new toy sent to her from Tina/Teri of Shepherds Bush. Thanks girls- she loves it.

We expect our books from Stacy Nash next week- my name is Lidyah. We are so touched to be mentioned in the acknowledgements- Stacy you are the best! It looks fabulous and we can't wait for ours to arrive. Give me a call if you want one held for you. We should also have the fabrics and fibers to go with all the projects! WE will also have the 18th Century Rook in stock next week for the new sampler from Shakespeares Peddler- just gorgeous.

The sampler I chose for this weeks blog is Sally Starbuck. She is from Nantucket, Massachusetts. Sally was a Quaker and she and her sister Mary went to the friends school there. The Starbucks were one of the founding families of Nantucket. Quakers were both finacially and politcally influencial in the building and shaping of Nantucket Island. This sampler is a genealogical record of her family.

I am currently working on Numero Uno from Jeannette Douglas and next week I will post a picture of my progress. This is such a cool piece. I hope you get some peaceful stitching time in this weekend.................Ann