December 30, 2011 eNewsletter · Next, you will be inspired to plan your 2012 Christmas ornament...

Where Samplers Rule

The Attic, Mesa, AZ Toll-Free: 1.888.94-ATTIC (1.888.942.8842) www.atticneedlework.com

December’s Sampler of the Month from The Scarlett House

“Hannah Tingey 1823”

THE ATTIC Issue No. 11-47

J u s t 1 5 m i n u t e s f r o m t h e A i r p o r t a t t h e

NE CORNER OF CENTER & MCKELLIPS

1 0 6 E . M c K e l l i p s R d , S u i t e 1 1 1

M e s a , A Z 8 5 2 0 1T E L E P H O N E

( 4 8 0 ) 8 9 8 - 1 8 3 8

2011 December 30 www.atticneedlework.com

F A C S I M I L E(480)898-0332

Right, “Hannah Tingey 1823” ~ As our SOM, save 15% by purchasing 2 of the 3 parts during December:• chart $22• Lakeside Linen (40c cut w/2” margins is $23)

• Silk: NPI $56 or Overdyed Silk Combo $95.75Until our January SOM is announced, the 15% savings on “Hannah” continues.

http://www.atticneedlework.com




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As a member of our Attic Addicts Club, during December you may enjoy (or your family member) a one-time

December gift (15% discounted shopping spree) from The Attic to thank you for your support as an Attic Addict. The discount can be used on any day during December and is applicable to all items except those that are marked “No Discount.”

Support a great cause (all net proceeds go to breast cancer research) by buying a copy(s) of the Recipes for a Cure cookbook for a donation of $14.95 (or more) with fabulous time-tested recipes as well as complimentary designs from 11 designers.

December

I’m pleased to announce the dates for our Merry Cox W o r k s h o p w e e k e n d .

Thursday - Sunday, November 8 - 11, we look forward to welcoming you to a special 4-day weekend of workshops with Merry Cox, when she will teach Le Nouveau Palais Royal twice, Sweet Little Blossoms, Souvenir Book, and So Dear to Thy Heart (the 2011 Williamsburg piece). Thanks for your interest. It promises to be a very special needlework memory. Watch for information in the New Year about prices/dates & times/pre-stitching kit availability.

November

Sampler Symposium Celebrating Arizona’s Centennial January 13-15, Friday evening through Sunday noon $440 I am thrilled to present our faculty:

*Vickie Jennett of NeedleWorkPress*Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers*Tracy Riffle of Hands to Work*Darlene Anderson

*Catherine Theron of Theron Traditions

Sunday, January ??, 1 - 4 PM, Sampler Sunday Because of the Sampler Symposium and also the TNNA Tradeshow being held in Phoenix this year, January’s SS will probably be January 29, but that’s still not certain. Watch for information in a future eNewsletter.

Additional Class, Sunday, January 15, 2 - 5 p.m. and

Monday, January 16, 9 - 4 p.m. (lunch is included) $260 ~ You do not have to attend the Symposium to register for

this class. Catherine Theron’s beautiful sampler that has several smaller samplers within it, “My Peaceable Kingdom” Worked on 30-count Vanilla linen, this lovely, “peaceable” counted thread sampler will provide hours of pleasurable stitching

for the intermediate stitcher. The top section features a lady in her garden complete with dogs, lilacs (I love lilacs), & beeskeps. The center has a colonial home reminiscent of the houses in Williamsburg, VA, “alphabet trees,”a family, pets, & plenty of birds. The bottom area has a village scene surrounded by the wild woods & various woodland creatures, tamed by a pair of Bible verses. Finally, the piece is outlined by a flowing strawberry border. Stitches used include Long Arm Cross, Smyrna Cross, Stem, Diagonal Satin, Padded Satin, Petit Point, Colonial Knot, Spiral Trellis, & more. A myriad of colorful silks & cotton threads are used to create this vibrant, textural scene. All threads are included in your kit. Finished size is 17-1/2” x 19-1/2” ~ No pre-work.

We still have some BCRF cookbooks left.

Thursday, March 8 - Sunday, March 11, Junipine Retreat This annual Attic event is always sold out, with previous year’s attendees

given priority, limited by the size of the facilities. Waiting list available. $300 fee includes 2-bedroom creekhouse (shared with 3 others) for 3 nights + opening reception + door prizes.

March

Saturday, January 7, 10:30-12:30, Beginning Linen Why not start the New Year off right, with a wonderful

class featuring Linda’s Tulip needlebook design as the class project. The $30 fee includes expert instruction + all project materials.

January 2012



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Workshop Projects ~ Our 2012 Sampler

Symposium Celebrating Arizona’s Centennial

Friday night at 5 Vickie Jennett of NeedleWorkPress will present a exclusive project that she’s designed for this event derived from this sampler, which is steeped in Arizona history. Attendees will also receive an autographed copy of the sampler, to be released in late February in Nashville.

Next, you will be inspired to plan your 2012 Christmas ornament stitching by Darlene Anderson’s slideshow of her incredible sampler ornament collection.

Sunday, January 15, 9 - 12 Noon, Catherine Theron’s “A Stitcher’s Envelope” This 5” x 4” envelope is stitched on 32-count linen with silk floss in black & shades of pink, blue, gold, & green. A Florentine Stitch pattern & the stitcher’s initials grace the envelope flap. The back & front feature a strawberry ribbon pattern, a Quaker-style alphabet, & the stitcher’s name. A diminutive needlecase adorned with a Florentine Stitch pattern, a scissors sheath repeating the strawberry ribbon design, & a scissors fob all nestle inside the envelope. Stitches used include Florentine, Petit Point, Smyrna Cross, Backstitch, Cross-Stitch Over One, Stem Stitch, Chain Stitch, & Nun’s Stitch. The kit includes all directions, charts, finishing instructions, linen, practice fabric, needles, silk flosses, lining & wool fabrics, & a color copy.

And then Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers will present her special workshop project, “A Lady’s Trimkeep,” the perfect project for needleworkers of today, a place to store the wonderful trims available to us. Kit includes the linen, thread, and Crescent Colours trims. Attendees will also receive an autographed copy of Paulette’s “Brother’s Keeper,” to be released in Nashville and while you work on your trimkeep she will give you the “back story” behind the design.

Saturday morning Darlene Anderson will begin our day with a PowerPoint presentation of her remarkable Adam & Eve sampler collection ~ this presentation on the breadth and beauty of her sampler collection will have you in awe.

After a morning break, we will get grungy with Tracy Riffle of Hands to Work leading the way while we learn to emulate her primitive “finishes” of a box and pincushion and small sampler to go with.

Saturday night, 5 ~ ??, Open House at the shop with refreshments and food!

Classes will be held at Hyatt Place, Mesa, 888.492.8847 OR 480.969.8200 ~ ask for the Attic Needlework group rate (King $109; no Queens available at this time but rooms have pull-out sofa). Room block is only available until mid-December. Continental breakfast included. Symposium Fee includes lunch each day as well as refreshments at breaks and the Saturday night soiree at the shop. Hotel provides free shuttle service to the shop (anywhere within a 5-mile radius) so a rental car is optional.



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Clockwise from above left: The chart photograph of “Ann Dale 1827 Big & Beautiful” ($30) from Shakespeare’s Peddler ~ our conversion to all overdyes ($221.75) ~ the silks as called out in the chart (NPI + Belle Soie + Gloriana, ($168.50) ~ the fabric suggested is Lakeside’s Vintage Pear, and for both 40c ($54) and 36c ($50), it will require a full Stitcher’s Half. Join our SAL and purchase the entire project and receive a 15% discount.Left, “A Part of Ann Dale” $22. Paula has again volunteered to lead a Stitch-Along in 2012, and she has divided this exquisite sampler into monthly “assignments” to ensure that by following her stitching schedule throughout the months, by this time next year you will have this beautiful piece ready for its frame. Look for her first segment about mid-January in this newsletter.

Ann Dale 1827 - Big & Beautiful

Please Note: Paula will begin this SAL around

mid-January (she’s now working ahead of you, “preparing” your first assignment) ~ we are

waiting for more beautiful hand-dyed supplies.



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Attic, Mesa, AZ Toll-Free: 1.888.94-ATTIC (1.888.942.8842) www.atticneedlework.com

Once upon a time there was a young girl who learned her embroidery skills from her grandmother, and thus began a love for needlework, and samplers in particular, that spanned decades and continents, and inspired her to study samplers in the finest museum collections in England, where one of her most amazing skills became evident: She could look at the sampler backs and determine how stitches were done. She introduced America’s needleworkers to silks on linen in the mid 1980’s when her “Pomegranate Sampler” appeared on the cover of a Just CrossStitch issue using Au Ver A’Soie silk ~ which prompted a needlework shop in Mesa, The Attic, where I was then a customer, to begin to stock this luscious French silk (and thus began my love affair with silk). Left, my “Pomegranate Sampler” ($8) that I began in the mid 1980’s and finished in 1991. I’m sure many of you have found this to be true: that remembrances of moments in your lives are stitched into your samplers, and this one I finished while sitting with my father in my mother’s room in a care center where she was battling the ravages of breast cancer. I used the “I” for the J’s in the words, for the first and the last time. Each time I see this I stumble at the “Eye an ewe airy” month.

A Loving Tribute to an Accomplished & Genteel Needlewoman

And soon thereafter I became a Darlene O’Steen groupie (I even had to own the same Vera Bradley patterned bags that she carried) and I found myself stitching her samplers more than any others’. I also changed to stitching from right to left like Darlene did, finishing each stitch as I went (now perfect for the overdyed silks). Her gorgeous “Virtue” ($12) remains one of my favorites. I started it in the mid 1980’s, with its incredible border of Queen-stitched carnations, and then I took a workshop with her and preferred the pulled-stitch Queen stitches but was unwilling to start over, so it awaits the time when 32c linen is all I can see.

Please note: Chart prices shown are plus or minus a dollar or two, considering current printing costs; charts are available on an order basis at this time.



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More from The Needle’s Prayse

Above, the “Flower Sampler” ($9) was another of my favorites, and I nearly finished it ~ I see that I’ve left it undated for when it happens :) There are a few that I’ve finished, though, and had framed. Clockwise from far right: “Counted Thread Sampler” ($8) finished in 1987 ~ “Star Sampler” ($8) finished in 1989 (after learning to “open the holes” in the Queen stitches) ~ “Spot Motif Sampler” ($14) finished in 1993 (I can’t remember why I “reordered” the motifs, and I did change the rusty reds to more rosy reds); this was, I believe, an Attic class and such fun to stitch because it features so many specialty stitches.



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In 1987 I was privileged to attend the first Just CrossStitch Williamsburg seminar, where Darlene O’Steen was the only teacher. “Our English Heritage” was the project, and Darlene did a masterful job under not very ideal circumstances (very poor lighting in a hotel ballroom) teaching 62 ladies the intricacies of this sampler, including the detached buttonhole stitch, and several of the ladies had never stitched on linen. In 1993 I was again privileged to be at Just CrossStitch’s Christmas in Williamsburg celebration where Darlene taught her beautiful reproduction of “Dorcas Haynes Sampler,” the original of which is housed in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Darlene’s reproduction of Dorcas’s sampler, dated December 25, 1720, was done from the back of the sampler, thus its brilliantly rich colors. Darlene said it was her favorite sampler ever, because of its brilliant silks. In the ‘90s, and I’ve forgotten exactly when, she taught “Dorcas” at The Attic.

The Needle’s Prayse Continued

Below, a photograph that appeared in the June 1998 issue of Just CrossStitch magazine. There I am in the front r o w, a l o n g w i t h m y t r a v e l companions, left to right, Robin, Melanie, and Beth. It was a most memorable trip. Left, my collection of The Needle’s Prayse samplers, too many still unfinished, needed its own cabinet ~ the drawers are overflowing with Darlene’s sampler designs, patiently waiting to be finished!

Below, Marianne’s beautiful finished “Dorcas Haynes.”



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Clockwise from above: “Richmond Band Sampler” ($10) ~ “Dogwood Sampler” ($20) ~ “Pearl Sampler” ($20) ~ “Flowers of Spring Sampler” ($18). I have all of these started, and I hope I have time to finish them some day. I love each of them for different reasons (the verse in the “Dogwood” ~ the “Pearl” because of the fond memories I have for a trip to Portland, ME and the Bayberry Needlework Shop to take the class ~ and I love everything about the “Flowers of Spring.”

More of Darlene’s Beautiful Samplers



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Clockwise from the left: “Garnet Sampler” ($20) ~ “Strawberry Sampler” ($22) ~ “Humil i ty Sampler” ($25) I have several of these started as well, and I so want to finish them.

Darlene’s Band Samplers



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Clockwise from the right: “Williamsburg Whitework Sampler” ($13) ~ “17th Century Whitework Sampler” ($22) ~ “English Whitework Sampler” ($28) A n d r e m e m b e r, wh i t e wo rk , wh i l e

traditionally done with white/ecru threads on white/ecru linen, it is more broadly defined as embroidery on linen where the threads are the same color as the linen. My friend Cathe Ray, owner of Needle in a Haystack, is doing the

“English Whitework Sampler” on a beautiful discontinued teal linen with matching silks. It is stunning! So don’t let your “non-white color preference” steer you away from this most

elegant form of embroidery.

Darlene’s Whitework Samplers



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Two Special Samplers & Motifs

From the left: First known as the “Millennium Sampler” (many others were likewise named), then renamed the “Cranberry Sampler” ($50), was followed by its companion piece, “Queen Sampler” ($50), that Darlene taught at The Attic in November 2000. Both are exquisite samplers featuring a variety of sampler stitches and whitework stitches and techniques. Darlene took two of the beautiful motifs from the “Cranberry Sampler” and published them as charts, “The Berry Motif ” and “The Acorn & Berry Motif,” each $12.



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Darlene’s Reproduction Samplers

Clockwise from the left : “Our Saviour and the Two Thieves” ($15) ~ “ M a r t h a G r e a v e s Sampler” ($25) ~ “1870 Sampler” ($8) ~ “Susanna Rowland Sampler” ($8)



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Clockwise from above: “The Holly & The Ivy Sampler” ($12)

~ “Secret Garden Sampler” ($22) ~ “January

Sampler” ($24), which I also would like to finish ~ “King

of Kings” ($8), featuring one of my most favourite deer

ever charted ~ “Norwegian Sampler” ($11)

More of Darlene’s “Gifts” to Us



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Clockwise from the left: My almost-completed version of her very beautiful reproduction, “Berlin Woolwork Sampler,” published in 9 parts ranging from $8 - $10.50 each ~ you can see that a finish is close at hand by the above close-up of my Part 9, with an inset of Marianne’s Part 9 showing her very special “closure” on this heirloom piece. Both of ours are stitched on 40c linen; many of the motifs are done in the continental stitch, exquisitely beautiful motifs; many would be lovely as singular motifs on a needlework small or individually framed. Below, Marianne’s finished “Robertson” and “Wallace” parts of the “Celtic Sampler,” each $40. Stunning samplers that are in my to-do basket(s).

More Recent Needle’s Prayse Samplers



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Darlene’s Last Design

“Norwegian Garden Whitework” ($50, available in summer), was designed by Darlene for the Special 25th Anniversary Celebration of JCS’s Annual Christmas in Williamsburg Needlearts Seminar. Vickie told me several months ago that she’d never taken a class from Darlene, and I was pleased to give up my place in class so she could experience Darlene’s remarkable teaching and design. The saddest part about Darlene’s retirement is her teaching will no longer be there for those of you who haven’t experienced it. Both she and Melanie shared some of their in-class photos with me as well as shots of Williamsburg decorated for the Holidays. It’s a magical place at any time of the year but even more so in December.

We’ve all heard it said that behind every great man is a great woman. Well, Darlene’s husband, Chris, proves that the reverse is also true. He’s been by her side during her several decades of designing and teaching. In fact, we learned that on their first date Darlene brought along her sampler in progress, for a stop at the needlework shop to pick up more threads!



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The weather was actually this glorious, beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine, temperatures in the ‘50s. The Governor’s Palace was all decked out for our visit!

Images from Williamsburg 2011

Luncheon Honoring Darlene O’SteenDarlene Teaching

Inside Bruton Parish Church

Windows and doors are beautifull decorated with live fruits and flowers



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In addition to the JCS Needlearts Seminar, many more fond memories: a reception in the Folk Art Museum where the tree was decorated with hundreds of handmade ornaments, the beautiful garlands and wreaths decorating the colonial homes, an impromptu parade wi th the Williamsburg Fife & Drums, a very special dinner at the Williamsburg Inn, renewing friendships, and meeting many of our customers. It was a wonderful few days indeed!



December 30, 2011 eNewsletter · Next, you will be inspired to plan your 2012 Christmas ornament...

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