Friday, March 24, 2006

An excellent way to spend my day off...

First... tonight's installment of the saga of Medieval Town Mandala :-)

I had the day off today, and Mike suggested that we do something that I felt like doing. Well, being a stitcher, this was not a terribly difficult challenge for me! We drove up to ABC Stitch Therapy in Grantham, New Hampshire - I had never been there before, despite living in NH.... it is about an hour north of my house, in the mountainous ski area of NH near the Vermont border. The ride was really nice, despite the cloudy weather and intermittent light mist of rain. The shop was wonderful! Although they primarily do their business over the internet, they have tons of stock and customers are welcome to come on in! The only drawback was that they have no prices on anything, so I had to keep asking for price checks! But... I was able to get the Anchor kit for Waiting for Neptune for 50% off!!! I never thought I could get that kit for only $26!! It does need a good piece of hand dyed linen for it.... so, this was the right place to be! I don't think I got the linen for the kit, but I did spend a good hour or so fondling and drooling over their huge stock of Silkweaver, Sugar Maple Fabrics and Kiwi Illusions fabrics in stock! What a treat to see all of these goodies in real life!!! I limited myself to only two fat quarters of 32 ct opalescent lugana - and barely even broke the surface of their huge collection in the process! I got Silkweaver's Dew Drop and Sugar Maple Fabrics' Reflected Majesty Opal. I can't wait until I can go back again!! This was the most xs shopping related fun I have had in the longest time!!

It was a busy week for stash overall, so here goes.... today I received this gorgeous fat half of Silkweaver's new release, Startquest Cashel! Gorgeous! I am considering this for Mirabilia's Stargazer (had to buy the fat half, as it was on discount as a special for FOTM members). I also got in the fat eighth of Silkweaver's 36 ct Golden Harvest from ebay (aka KarenV - turned out to be the seller - LOL), plus a fat eighth of 36 ct Heritage I ordered on my own... these will be for some of the new Blackbird Designs.... plus a fat eighth of light grey limited run Lakeside Linens (32 ct) from the recent Odds & Ends page at Silkweaver... and I got in a whole bunch of various threads from ebay, plus the Hand-Dyed Fibers (Vikki Clayton) silk conversion set for Goode Huswife's 1798 Quaker Sampler (I am going to be sooooo busy now!!)

But, the week didn't end quite there.... I got more... I got in Barrick Samplers' Beneath the Waters, Forget Me Knot in Stitches' Strawberry Moon Sampler and Blackbird Designs' Evergreen from ebay.... and my dear pal, Karen, RAK'd me with a fat quarter of SMF's Heavenly Sky belfast too! Oh gosh Karen, you are too generous and kind!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

18 comments:

Jenn said...

Mary and I were thinking of trying to fit a trip to ABC in while we are at Celebration. Maybe we could all do that Saturday afternoon.

Susimac said...

What a lovely stash haul you have had this week, I've been lucky too with my buys. Its wonderful that you managed to go to a lovely LNS and fondles and saw lots of nice things, I only wish I had one near me that sold such lovely things.

Anne S said...

OK, now I'm really jealous! How wonderful to have such a fantastic LNS so close by ... and to be able to actually see the SW fabrics etc up close and personal ... yeehar! Your latest stash haul is stunning, as always - I love sharing in your stitching spoils online :) It's like getting a visual fix without having to spend any money ;P

Kiwi Jo said...

Sounds like an awesome day off! Did you know that the owner is a fellow kiwi :)

Anonymous said...

Nice stash this week, Carol! I REALLY like the new Starquest color from Silkweaver - oh my gosh. I just have to have some. I think your idea to do Mirabilia's Stargazer on it will be wonderful!

Pam @ Heart2Heart said...

What a great day, I am envious as I have no LNS anywhere near me and ABC Stitch Therapy is my favorite ONS at the moment. I would love being able to see and touch all that gorgeous fabric! Enjoy Carol, and since I'm behind on blog reading I just want to say I am loving watching your progress on MTM!

Von said...

Hi Carol! What a wonderful way to spend a day off. Time with dh and lovely stitching stuff. :D Plus all your new stash that arrived in the mail - awesome!

Leslie aka zoeandcooper said...

That sounds like a great day with some wonderful purchases. I have always had good luck with ABC. I wonder if you passed by the package that I heard was being packed for me today. Hopefully it will be in MD soon.

I love Silkweaver's Starquest too. I ordered a piece when it was their weekly feature and will probably use it for Stargazer:)

mainely stitching said...

What a wonderful week for stash you've had!

I would love to visit ABC Stitch with you - it turns out to be nearby my friend Sara's home (where we are staying for a week) so perhaps we can arrange something?

Svenja said...

I'm jealous! I wish I had such a great LNS close by.
Medieval Town looks great!

Nicki said...

Your MTM looks wonderful! You're doing a fantastic job!

Glad you had such a great day - I would have spent much more :)

BeckySC said...

Wonderful stash, Carol! WOW!
I am happy you got to visit the LNS! Nothing beats hands on!

MTM is really growing now! I love how it is progressing !!

(((hugs)))

Dawn T. said...

What a wonderful stash haul this week!

Bastet said...

Those carpenters must be working overtime on MTM! Wonderful stash haul. Been to ABC stitch twice and love it there. You never know what will be on the sale tables that aren't listed on the website.

Katrina said...

Hi Carol, I couldn't think of a better way to spend a day off, visting a LNS :) that is lovely stash too, I always enjoy reading about your stash purchases!

Dani - tkdchick said...

What a great way to spend a day off!

CJ in OK ;-) said...

Wow, stash, stash and more stash what a treat. Enjoy, CJ

Unknown said...

What an amazing stash haul you've had. I'd love to go to a needlecraft store like that, it sounds heaven.