Category Archives: miscellaneous

Major League Baseball Game at Ft. Bragg

July 12, 2016

James and I were lucky enough to be able to attend the Fort Bragg Major League Baseball Game on July 3rd! Although we didn’t originally plan on going, we were able to snag some extra tickets from will call at the last minute! Surprisingly, we had really awesome seats. We sat right there in the third row behind the first base, instead of up in the bleachers like we had anticipated!

The Marlins/ Braves Game was the first professional sports game ever played on an Active Duty Army Base. There was such a strong energy throughout the stadium, as the game was played, and many soldiers were recognized for their service and accomplishments. After all, there is nothing more American than baseball on the 4 July weekend! Although I’m not a huge sports fan, it was an amazing experience to be able to be able to share in a little bit of “history in the making!”

Fort Bragg Major League Baseball Game

In honor of the event, I wanted to share my top 5 favorite baseball canvases with you all, today on the blog:

1. All About Stitching’s Baseball Flag

Fort Bragg Major League Baseball Game

2. Rebecca Wood’s Baseball Santa

Fort Bragg Major League Baseball game

3. Stitch It’s Baseball Sweater

Fort Bragg Major League Baseball Game

4. Kathy Schenkel’s Baseball Mini Stocking

Fort Bragg Major League Baseball Game

5. Pippin’s Nine Baseball Canvas

Fort Bragg Major League Baseball game

We got a puppy!

May 14, 2016

Happy Weekend everyone!

Exciting news to share today… we got a puppy! Meet Charlie: our six week old Lab/Golden Retriever mix. Such a sweetie. He came home to us this week and we are already so in love with him!

We got a puppy!

For those of you who are curious, he’s a rescue pup from Peak Lab Rescue in Apex, NC. We cannot say enough wonderful things about this organization. All dogs are placed in foster homes until they find their forever home. Charlie and his four siblings were being fostered on a horse farm in Southern Pines with their mom, where they got lots of fresh air, personal attention, and had boundless room to play with each other!

Charlie is named for the Charles River in Boston. It’s right on the Boston University Campus, where I went to school. James also rowed there with the West Point Crew Team a number of times. We have a lot of happy memories together in Boston- so it seemed like the perfect fit! “Charlie” is also the letter “C” in the Army Phonetic Alphabet- so the name has lots of appropriate ties to our life!

Puppy

He’s really been a surprisingly easy puppy to train so far- he almost slept through the night last night, and is already learning his name. He’s definitely a true lab at heart, because we can hardly keep him away from the water! We put his water dish down, and he drinks for a minute… but then before you can blink an eye, he’s got his front paws in the dish, then his back paws are wet too… and then the whole thing is flipped over on our kitchen floor, and he’s rolling around in the water! (Obviously a habit we’re going to want to break… but it’s the funniest thing to see!)

Puppy

We can hardly wait for all the walks, belly rubs and games of fetch in our future! Thanks for rescuing us, Charlie- we love you!

Puppy

For more Stitch Style fun, be sure to subscribe by email in the box on the right and follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bloglovin’ and Pinterest so you don’t miss out !

San Diego Market with Needlepoint.com

January 16, 2016

Hey there everyone!

I’m just back from a whirlwind trip to the San Diego Market. I flew out bright and early Thursday morning out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport with Melissa our shop manager. After checking into our hotel, we immediately went over to the convention center to help the girls over at our sister companies Kirk & Bradley and Burnett & Bradley put the finishing touches on their booths. It took us quite a while to get everything just perfect! Can you believe that it took 12 trunks to bring all of our curtains and cash and carry inventory from our North Carolina store?! As you can see quite a lot of work went into making our booths look extra special!

San Diego Market San Diego Market K&B
I could not have been luckier because my job during the San Diego Market was my two favorite things, shop for new canvases and threads for Needlepoint.com. All of us had an incredible weekend! Here were some of my favorite finds:

I may be biased, but the new Kirk & Bradley “Hot Air Balloons” were released this weekend! Its taken a lot of restraint to not spill the beans and ruin the surprise while stitching them because I think they’re so stunning! I’ll be teaching the four large hot air balloons at our Raleigh retreat this coming March. I put a lot of love into stitching these canvases and can’t wait to share more with you soon. You can call the shop at 919-828-5538 or look online for more information on those classes.

San Diego Market Hot Air Balloons

Kirk and Bradley also released “New Orleans” and “Scotland” Travel Rounds along with six new snow cones. Joan Lohr and Ruth Dilts taught this one at market. He is my favorite!

San Diego market Snow Cone

Associated Talents released a new “Merry Christmas” banner which was absolutely adorable! Its a lot like the “Be Merry” banner that my mom stitched.

San Diego Market Be Merry

Melissa Shirley debuted her new artist Emma Williams, who had a lot of very unique still life canvases which I think are gorgeous.

San Diego Market Emma Williams

Cheryl Schaeffer’s new wine bottle stopper canvases and tray canvases also really stood out to me as something I want to stitch soon!

San Diego Market Wine Stopper

Pepperberry had lots of new Easter ornaments, and how amazing is this whole Easter Basket stitched?

San Diego market Easter Basket

For more photos from Market, be sure to subscribe by email in the box on the right and follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bloglovin’ and Pinterest !

Ginger Jars

April 13, 2015

Good afternoon everyone! I hope your weeks are off to a wonderful start!

I’ve been working away on my Colors of Praise Oriental Ginger Jars, and I have to say, working from Tony‘s stitch guide has been quite a welcome departure from my usual routine. It’s really nice not to have to be the sole innovator on everything I stitch. Of course, I’m probably biased because I write so many, but I think stitch guides are such a great learning tool. No matter how great a stitcher you are, it’s always helpful to have a new point of view on how to approach a particular area of a canvas. Sometimes I find myself stuck in a rut, and having someone else’s perspective can really open your eyes to new possibilities.

Here’s what I’ve gotten done so far:

Ginger Jars
The yellow jar is almost complete. This evening I’m planning on doing the beading that still needs to be done on the tassels. But it’s really close! (One down… six more to go!)

Ginger Jars
I started couching down the Kreinik #16 braid that I needed for the design on the black and white spotted jar. I think it makes the center medallion look like it’s set off the canvas- a very cool effect that I will certainly use again. Tony suggested I use a similar effect on the base of the yellow jar you see above.

Ginger Jars

Plus! How AWESOME is this blue crystal Tony found for me?! I think it really adds something special to the piece that couldn’t be created any other way. I have another smaller one to use on the handle on the Pink jar, too. I attached it straight away because I was sure it would get lost otherwise…

Ginger Jars

What are you all stitching these days? Leave a comment, and share below!

Facebook – Instagram – Pinterest – Bloglovin’ – Twitter

Weekend Reading

March 27, 2015

Happy Friday!! The weekend is here! I hope you all have something wonderful planned for your days off!

Weekend Reading
For those of you who are planning on spending a lazy weekend at home, I wanted to share some weekend reading with you all from some of my favorite needlepoint blogs… and beyond!

1. More about Vicki’s trip to work with the Embellishment Squad

2. Suzanne’s Melissa Shirley Pink Santa is back from the finisher

3. Loved this reminder to “dream bigger”

4. Ruth Schmuff’s newest Mystery Class started this past week

5. My Peter Ashe house Stitch Guide is done!

6. Great article from The EveryGirl on finding your own creative space

7. Tutorial on how to do jump through the loop turkey work from Needlepoint Now

8. I’m making this spiralized salad tonight with dinner. Yum!

9. If you want some stitch-inspriation… Check out Tony’s online portfolio. Wow!

10. New to needlepoint? Check out my top tips for new stitchers

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hello from Kentucky!

March 15, 2015

Good morning everyone! Hello from Kentucky!

I’m sorry I’ve been so remiss from blogging this past week, but with Tony’s class last weekend and James’ graduation from Engineer Basic Officer Leadership Course this past Friday, I feel like I’ve barely stitched at all!

I’m writing to you all from somewhere in Kentucky. James and I left Missouri (misery… As I like to call it!) yesterday afternoon, and we should be in Ft. Bragg some time this evening! I’m excited to go apartment hunting and to get him all settled in his new place, before he goes to Airborne school and I have to head back to Connecticut.

I know I said I hadn’t gotten much stitching done, but I did finish this cute little candy bar from The Point of it All up. Can’t do anything that requires too much thought on the road!