Finishing

We were very busy in December with all the finished items coming back. We received beautiful stockings, ornaments, pillows, purses etc. I will be adding a picture of Helen's Summer Gnome in the next week. I'm sorry I didn't have my camera to catch her excitement as she opened the UPS box! It is beautiful and hanging in the store.

Christmas Cookie Recipes from Needle Arts

I participated in a posting of Christmas cookie recipes with many other Needle Arts professionals. We all submitted favorite Christmas recipes which have been posted on one of three blogs:

http://www.thearmchairchef.com

http://ilovetobakecookies.com

http://ilovetobake.com

I cheated a little and used one from my mother-in-law, Ellie Aird. She always made these meringue cookies when we went out to visit. Several times she even made them at our house for us.

It's fun to see the favorite recipes of others. Look at the blogs and try the recipes. I can highly recommend mine!

Warning about Magnifiers

At a recent class, one of our customers told of her near disaster with her magnifier. She left the magnifier uncovered by a window. While she was out, the combination of the magnifier and the sun caused her canvas to smoke. The threads were actually burned away! It was her completed Stars piece. Fortunately, she was able to rip the threads in that area and restitch the one area.

But it is a warning. Do not leave your magnifier uncovered by the window. It's a safety hazard.

L'Ete or Summer Girl

At the 2005 American Needlepoint Guild Seminar, I won a second place for L'Ete. This beautiful canvas by Birds of a Feather is one of a series of four canvases. I was asked to do a stitch guide. I finally finished it and it is now available on our website or by calling Ridgewood Needlepoint directly. I'm pleased with the stitch guide. I'm including the picture of the canvas below! It was a fun project.

Christmas Is Coming

Christmas results in seeing the work of many people finished beautifully. We've had stockings returned and ornaments. One is more beautiful than the next one. Today we also had a class on finishing. Customers learned how to finish those ornaments thatdidn't make the deadlines.

In addition, for those who missed the class, we do have several items that could still be finished before Christmas. We have some small ornaments from Lee that can be put inside gold or silver metallic leather holders. The ornaments are sweet and still doable.

In addition, we have some luggage and key fobs that are already inserted in leather cases. They would also make great Christmas or Chanakah gifts.