I Made it through October!

Well, technically, it’s only 10am, so the day is still young.

What I’m really referring to is the massive amount of miles I have put in on the road & the air! Between retail shows, retreats, The Trail of Orts Tour & Houston Quilt Market, I am one out-of-gas puppy! (Good thing I’m heading to the beach next week for some R&R!)

1st things 1st: New Releases!

I’ve got 2 shipping to shops right now. You can always see my shops that receive charts automatically on my website. Many other shops order as well so please email me if you need the name of a store near you & I will gladly refer!

Holiday Bells – a counted canvas design

2 colors – 4 shades – so easy to customize – a larger ornament size finish (I framed mine) – I had one stitcher tell me she was going to stitch it 4x & rotate so all of the red was in the middle! (Brilliant – a “why didn’t I think of that” moment!)

Winter Solstice – 2nd in the penny pillow series

This wasn’t even supposed to be a series – but when several shopowners call…you listen! Once again, woolfelt pennies are included. This just makes me want to curl up under a quilt to stitch! (1st in the series is Twice Blessed)

On to the Trail of Orts Tour wrap-up!

I teamed up with Tracy Horner of Ink Circles to drive from St. Charles, MO (Celebrations of Needlework weekend) & travel to Myrtle Beach (Stitching at the Beach retreat). We cooked up a plan to visit 5 shops along the way & have a live trunk show at each one.

My car has a lot of room & my Trail of Orts partner & I got very good at filling it up!

1st stop was Stitches, Etc. – Gail has a lovely shop located in the heart of historic downtown St. Charles!

Quite a few stitchers who attended the Celebrations weekend stopped by for more time to visit with us. Cathy Roginela from Inspired Needle & Cathe Ray of Needle in a Haystack came by to wish us well also! (It was Cathe’s birthday!) Gail was the 1st shop to say “I’m in!” as we were planning the trail.

We left St. Charles behind that Sunday & drove north to Stitches from the Heart. Shopowner Susie opened up on a Sunday evening for us & had quite a crowd come to welcome us.

Susie’s shop is packed – I mean packed with all sorts of charts, kits, fibers, canvases – everywhere we looked there was a new treasure trove of color & texture!

Look at the cookies! Yum. We did partake of the fruit as well (just to be healthy!) An awesome group showed up on that rainy Sunday evening!

Monday morning we traveled south to Nashville and a stop at the Stitchin’ Post. Pat had us set up in her front room where we each took some time to talk about ourselves and answer lots of questions. We held most of the live trunk shows over lunch hour – so we had lots of pop in visitors!

Here’s Tracy explaining one of her pieces (I thought I knew a lot about Tracy – but there’s nothing like spending nearly 2 weeks with someone on the road to make you realize how much you don’t know!)

While I was giving my presentation, I kept looking at a gal in the crowd – turns out, she used to live in my hometown & was a customer of mine when I had my shop! Small world!

We hit the road to Pigeon Forge that afternoon after we had lunch at the Jamaican restaurant that Pat suggested – it was delish!

Tuesday found us at Dixie Darlin, It is located in the tourist section of Pigeon Forge, but it has such a homey atmosphere inside – you just want to sit down & kick your shoes off!

This is what greeted us when we walked in the door! Very cool – our tour poster…in frosting!

Here we are with shopowner Cindy – you may also know her at the designer behind Foxwood Crossings & all of those wonderful little sleds! Cindy has a lot of pride in her hometown – you could tell as she showed us all around the historic area.

Wednesday morning we arrived at Stitch & Frame shop in Rock Hill, SC. The ladies greeted us in the parking lot, ready to empty our car! We were met with all sorts of southern hospitality – including a group of ladies that drove from Savannah just to meet us! I have to say that by this time, I was so overwhelmed with everyone’s kindness.

They had created the perfect little spots to showcase our trunk shows.

Lots of stitchers, lots of hugs, lots of new friends!

We left Rock Hill with full tummies & a gift bag of homemade goodness!

At this point it was on to Myrtle Beach with a quick stop to steal…borrow…harvest some cotton, fresh from the field.

Made it to the beach!

I would like to thank each of the 5 shops for opening your doors to us & making us feel so welcome.

This all started as a late night conversation of “hey, what if…”. Along the way we made friendships & memories… ran for coffee in the rain, scavenged late night dinner at Kroger, talked to the GPS lady as if she were the 3rd person in the car… and discovered that needlework is a pretty strong bond.

Enjoy the stitch!

Cathy