Lavender Pincushion

A new pincushion using some of the overdyed wool from a shop in St. Croix Falls. I made two, one went to California and one went to Lanesboro. We drove down there yesterday to make a delivery-Cornucopia Art Center is a beautiful gallery. We are looking forward to being members there.
As you can see from the sidebar I will be participating in One World One Heart blog giveaway again this year. It is a great way to find and visit others blogs. Last year my giveaway was one of my pincushions and it will be again this year. I now just have to decide on the color and design! Click on the badge on the sidebar to get all the details about participating. OWOH starts on Jan. 25th and ends on Feb.15th. Thanks to Lisa Swifka for all her hard work hosting this! And please come visit, Leave a comment on that particular post and maybe win a pincushion!

catching up on projects

Things have been so busy lately. We are in the midst of closing our physical shop and, of course, the closing sale is really bringing in the customers. We will run it through the end of the year and then get our new online shop up and running. In the meantime I have been making Christmas ornaments- these are a special order going to North Carolina.

I have also been making some changes at home. I used some of the silk flowers from the shop to make this arrangement. The container is an old aluminum pitcher that I painted and decoupaged a number of years ago. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing that- I might do some pieces for the online shop. We might do some art fairs and farmers markets next year. There are quite a few good local ones. It will give me the opportunity to make cookies, handmade soap, and jams.

These are jars of my raspberry/blueberry jam and some of my bread and butter pickles. I also just finished some cranberry/raspberry jam and candied apple jelly. The candied apple jelly has a hot cinnamon flavor and should work well in thumbprint cookies. With Thanksgiving this week there will be plenty of cooking to do. Then it is cookie baking time!

Swan Song Pincushions

It has been a somewhat disappointing fall this year if only for the shortness of color. This picture was taken a few weeks ago in October and we were looking forward to many drives in the bluff country along the Mississippi, but weeks of cold and wet(it even snowed a little) caused many of the leaves to drop quickly. We drove down to Maiden Rock to deliver pincushions to Swan Song Gallery and all the trees are bare. It is still beautiful countryside and we saw plenty of eagles, but I miss the color.

These are part of the order we left at the gallery. This is one of our consignment orders so I hope this holiday season the spending is better everywhere than it was last year. Suprisingly, even though today is November 7th the temp. is in the 60's and sunny. Apparently October and November have decided to switch.

pincushions to California

I've gotten another wholesale order! These pincushions are headed for a shop in Santa Monica called Artful. Since we have decided to close our physical shop and concentrate on wholesale and internet sales this is another step in the right direction. We drove aways down the Mississippi River on Sunday checking out possible shops and galleries and found a delightful one in Maiden Rock,Wi. called Swan Song. As soon as I can make about 12 more pincushions we will be taking them down there. Delivering them ourselves gives us an excuse to stop at the Smiling Pelican bakery across the street from the gallery- wonderful bread and the best Apple Cardamom cakes! Tomorrow we are taking half a day to visit Stillwater and look into those galleries. I love daytrips!

early works mercantile

This is one of the pincushions I'm saving to sell as part of a set with a needlebook on a new site-http://www.earlyworkmercantile.com. It specializes in items that evoke the 18th and 19th centuries. The name of my shop will be The Needlewoman and should be up and running November 1st. I'm also working on an embroidered sampler and possibly a wool penny rug.

Hearts

Piecework magazine is going to have a Heart ornament contest in the spring. All the details will be available in October and the deadline is in April. There is to be 4 catagories all involving a different form of needlework-knit/crochet, embroidery/surface design, lacework, and quilting. The maximum size is 4", so this one is too large.

Since I'm going to be thinking about ornaments for Christmas now anyways I might as well think about hearts,too! I might try one for each catagory. Details about the piece above are on my lollishop site.

Citron and Plaid Pincushion

This is two views of the new pincushion. The side piece is the overdyed plaid from Merry Hooker Woolens. I love the visual texture of the plaid.

I am going to start Christmas ornaments soon and thought I might do some primitive styled ones in wool as well as my mini hanging pincushions.I'll also do some embroidered birds. It seems too early to think about the holidays, but if I don't I won't get it all done.