A New Look

Yes! a new look for the website. I am thrilled to say Veronique from Evoque Designs worked her magic to revise our website as it had just given us some problems the last couple of years. To add new products and events wasn't as easy as it should be, so V. hooked me up to this and WOW she has done a fabulous job! Thanks V. As you can see the tabs are at the top to move you to the different pages; but right on the front page you can see what is new, and go to a category right away. Otherwise you can go to the design page and the different categories will come up. But alternately you can sort by most recent or alphabetically. It does give you an option of sort by price but that is actually not connected. I encourage you to shop at your local needlework shop - all my designs are available through 3 distributors. Again having said that if you are having difficulty getting a certain item please don't hesitate to ask for anything you are interested in.

I love how the EVENTS page has an actual calender! That makes it very easy to see where in the month the event actually is. I love the BUY page as it has the shop spots pop up on a map. Aren't we a visual bunch!

You can see me on facebook and pinterest also. How fun is that! I always say I am going to post more or do more with blogging, but..... I just run out of time. But maybe now that it is an easier set up, it all might go smoothly and be great! In the meantime look around the new website and enjoy!

Jeannette

A lovely Canadian Thanksgiving

It was a lovely weekend indeed. My niece had all of us Douglas’ over for a wonderful time with family. We always look forward to catching up with each other. I finally felt recuperated somewhat from the week of festivities in Utah! The theme for the Shepherd’s Bush retreat was Christmas, so I can say festivities with gusto and mean it. By now you have seen some pretty scary pictures of me on facebook! ack! either in total concentration because I did not want to make a mistake at the till with Tina or like a crazy woman showing the design for the retreat at the big reveal on Thursday Sept 27. Haha… I laughed at them. And then that Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers took the most amazing pictures and then one of me photo bombing her shot! Check out her blog – she wrote a great overview and super pictures of our time in Utah - http://plumstreetsamplers.typepad.com/ what a treat to spend some time with Paulette, we both enjoyed every minute. So I feel I don’t need to repeat her great rendition on her blog! Thanks Paulette. Another wonderful blog on the retreat is from Bonny Woomer - http://thenebbyneedle.blogspot.ca/ – she is a new designer on the block, doing some lovely things and she did a super write up of the retreat also. Thanks Bonny! I am afraid there is not much from me…. I came home last Monday and have been working tons on my further events for October – this weekend at Camp Chief Hector out in the mountains for Stitching Corner here locally and then next weekend in Portland for Acorns and Threads.

I just have to say that spending time with fellow designers is terrific. Sometimes I feel in a bubble all wrapped up in my own concerns, so it is so nice to share. I had some great times with Pat and Ann from R& R Reproductions, I always say I want to repin everything they do on pinterest so you know from that – that you like the same things…. it’s nice and comfy that way. It was so great to get to know Linda  Lautenschlager  of Chessie and Me- I had to go check her website to see how to spell her last name and good grief, she has a great blog on the retreat too! Okay I feel totally bad that I didn’t take pictures and do a story, but here is her’s too, check it out too – http://chessieandme.blogspot.ca/ – this way you can see them all and enjoy a variety – that’s my excuse…… Thanks Linda, we had fun and you forgave me for that first day where I kept calling you “Chessie” instead of Linda….. I totally kept doing it too!  What can I say about that “Charland’ but that she is the best. I hope you read my little JCS story with the ornament because it is about Charland! Charland always brings her fabulous sense of humour and I love it. It was Ann’s birthday at the beginning of retreat and Sydney of Charland Designs at the end so we had birthday festivities too! Cece of The Thread Gatherer did a wonderful project for one of the evenings at retreat and I am always amazed at her talent. She can do so many things and be good at them all! Tina and Teri – well they do put on an awesome retreat. It is an event!! and amidst all that planning and fun stuff for retreat a great sampler design yet too.

As I look to the next events on my calender I can only say “WOW” what an awesome 2013 we will have!! Look for it to come on the events page soon, and yes we are working on the website….. renewal coming up soon. I need to firm a couple of dates yet for next year and then I can post that. But of course the Hawaiian cruise is set – April 6th 2013 – see pdf on front page of the website.

Well Calgary and area ladies, looking forward to seeing you on the weekend! Hope the weather gets nicer…. and Portland ladies, I am thrilled to come again, and you are going to love the project!! It turned out great and we have some nice surprises for you!

See you soon, Jeannette

New Releases for Fall 2012

Well in Calgary there is a distinct crispness in the air especially in the morning. I bought a couple of big mums to put out at the front door, I love those! I took a picture with my phone and maybe I will post a picture of those beauties. New releases this fall include the following:

In the ‘STITCHES’ series we have Pumpkin Stitches, with some absolutely lovely oranges, that was a challenge for me who hardly ever uses orange, lots of reds but not necessarily orange. It was fun. It has a thread pack available with the great handpainted pumpkin charm. Also in the ‘STITCHES’ series is Apple Stitches, what is fall but a wonderful fresh apple. Again also a thread pack with this pattern, but no charm funnily enough, it just didn’t seem to need it with those big apples in it.

I have to tell you, I designed this next piece called “Christmas Sampler’ on white fabric, I had so much fun and enjoyed the colour palette, but it also called to me in the more natural, primitive colours, so yes, I did it both ways. In the chart is White Winter and Au Naturale – both charts in one leaflet, just the thread pack is packaged either one way or the other, so depending on what you want to stitch you can get the white glitzy number… or the primitive au naturale stlye. Nearly all the motifs were the same but one, it is just the colour changes that make the difference!

Then of course, we have had so much fun with the pincushions, that yes with the help from Just Another Button Company we did Hallowe’en Quaker Pincushions and Christmas Quaker Pincushions. I designed one pincushion like the original and the others are different quaker motifs again to make these. The finishing remains the same the WDW Wool Fabric and JABC has packaged up the buttons and pins in a button/pin pack in whatever colour you might want! It is awesome.

In a couple of weeks I am off to Ogden, UT to go to the Shepherd’s Bush event, what a treat to be invited again to this wonderful retreat in Park City. I hope that I get to meet you again or for the first time and look forward to seeing you all. And you know that I had fun with the theme for the event and have some great smalls to go with it! It’s going to be great!!

Then come mid October off to the west coast I go…. to Portland, OR – Acorns and Threads – and you who signed up with no idea of what I was doing…. I love you! you made my day! I look forward to seeing you and sharing in our wonderful passion for needlework.

Just a quick note on the Just Cross Stitch Issue of Sept./Oct. that has Pumpkin Sampler in it – I do have thread packs for this design available, just email me at info@jeannettedouglas.com or shop@jeannettedouglas.com

May your autumn be filled with colourful events just like the season!