Fresh NEW designs blooming at L*K!

Spring has sprung in my yard! Every year I'm excited...same flowers, same blooming bushes and I'm crazy excited every spring to see them open their smiley faces.

It seems a little early to me, but who's arguing with flowers before the Easter bunny arrives? Having everything greening makes better hiding places for the eggs. As we prepare to move soon, every time a holiday passes I think..."sigh...the last Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter/etc. in our old house" and so it goes.

Here's the view out my 2nd story office window. The neighbor's pear tree is gorgeous this spring (for the last time...sigh).

I've been busy in my little L*K studio even with all the spring distraction, so here's the new batch of fresh designs!

#170 How To Be a Mean Mother

I found this saying when my kids were young (back in the day) and I ran across it again recently. I did some editing and updating, and it's ready to go again!  Good parenting never goes our of style...right?

S118 Collect Moments Snippet

Flora's been busy again, creating another little vintage-style masterpiece. There are 2 designs squeezed into this Snippet... a little square (perfect for a  pin pillow or lots of finishing options), and a matching fob.

K79 A Little Wedding Kit

You asked for it... another Little kit to add to our Little Kit collection. This is the quickest, sweetest wedding/anniversary chart you'll ever stitch... and it's personalized! Kit includes 32 ct. lambswool linen and antique gold key charm. The main design is stitched over 2 threads, but the personalization is done over one thread so ANY names will fit in the space.

F151 Today Choose Joy 3 Little Words Flip-it

F152 Never Give Up 3 Little Words Flip-it

Our Flip-it series continues with more 3 Little Word wisdom. Stitch them all together, or choose your favorite 3 Little Words to create your own personalized stitchery. Stay tuned for our upcoming online contest to submit your favorite 3 Little Words. We'll vote and the winning sayings will be graphed and posted FREE on the L*K website.

Need some new spring releases in your life? Contact your fave needlework shop and make sure they're ordering the newbies from L*K!  

We're shipping to shops on Monday, April 6. We moved up our shipment to make time for a "spring break" visit from our daughter, Sarah. She teaches high school in downtown Chicago and their spring break is SO late - the week following Easter. Whatever/whenever...we're excited to have her in Kansas for a few days...visiting our new "still in progress" house, seeing our new L*K office (already re-located), visiting her sis in KC,  and generally relaxing and having fun together!

I hope it's springtime wherever you are. If not, THINK spring!

Our market BUZZ - mystery design revealed!

It was a blast to travel to Needlework Market last week in Nashville, but,  in the immortal words of our own Kansas gal, Dorothy (from Wizard of Oz)...."there's no place like home"!

Thankfully, the weather cooperated as we made the 5 state trek to Nashville - to and fro. OK...we drove through 4 hours of rain coming home, but it could have been much worse (and I'm sure it was, for those traveling in other directions).

Alas...after my 18th year at Nashville, I have grown accustomed to the routine, and almost forgot to take

pics....big OOPS!  I have absolutely no pictures of us or our best pals we enjoy seeing every year. But, lots of shoppers snapped pics of Alan and I with their cell phones to share with their customers. I'm sure pics of me with one eye closed are out there somewhere.

Here's the view off our balcony inside the Embassy Suites atrium. There's our colorful banner on the lower left. I'm looking down on the dining area, which is a BIG part of needlework market. Don't cut in line to get BACON at the breakfast buffet - could be injurious to your health. Same goes for the bar line at Happy Hours at dinnertime. The needle ladies (and men) love to eat, drink and hang out together.

And here's the view of the L*K sign/suite from way across the atrium. We always request to be next door to our good friend, Judy Whitman, from JBW designs. This year Judy brought her husband, Dick, a market first-timer! Dick did an outstanding job in his rookie appearance at market. Judy says she's renewing his contract for next year!

I bring along a big roll of black paper and make a few impromptu signs as we set up. Alas, they are chalk, and you can see the smeary flower in lower left corner as customers lean on the door. No problem...it landed in the trash as we tore down.

Another chalkboard sign over our Inspiration Boxer sale. We make piles of all the Inspiration Boxers B33-B50 on the little bar area in the room. Conveniently, we use the drawers underneath to hold additional inventory. 

Finally, here's the elusive BUZZ kit!

More and more, designers release photos of their new market goodies BEFORE market. That allows shops to do pre-orders, plan ahead, etc. But some shopowners don't like this, and want to be surprised at market, and rewarded for their attendance. So we do BOTH - it's impossible to make everyone happy, but we try.

The BUZZ kit was this year's "wait until market" kit. I'm happy to say the little BUZZ kit was a hit!  We had some special fabric dyed just for this project and it's gorgeous. We got lots of compliments on this one. Kit includes 28 ct. Verdant linen, a couple mother-of-pearl buttons for the flower centers and pattern. Lots of BUZZ-y fun!

Our projects were small this year, so we made some blowup posters of the new kits so everyone could see when the room gets crowded - which is often.

Above are a couple other NEW kits.

Hip Hop - includes 30 ct. cream linen, fabulous finishing fabric for front and back, orange polka dot ribbon, flower button, yellow buttons and beads, and complete finishing instructions.

Limited Edition (fabulous) Farm Fob - This 2 sided project includes pale linen (assorted shades will vary slightly), antique gold rick rack. lots of rusty beads, and complete finishing instructions for 2 sided fob. These little critters will be gone soon...headed back to the farm.

A Little Gray Hare Kit Limited Edition Kit- Everyone at market had the same question...."did your little gray hare every reappear?" and the answer was "NO". Our previous post was about the mystery of the disappearing bunny. Our sweet bunny model went AWOL a couple weeks before market. Thank goodness he posed for pics before hopping away. 

As I stitched furiously the week before we left to create a new model, everyone quipped "well now the bunny will shop up for sure". But he didn't....market has come and gone...still no bunny. Maybe he'll reappear for Easter?

This kit contains beautiful hand-dyed 32 WDW seafoam linen, sweet coordinating backing fabric, WDW overdyed threads, pink rick rack, pale pink beads, egg template and complete finishing instructions. 

Meanwhile, I'm keeping a close eye on the NEW bunny model. He disappeared briefly in our room at market while we were setting up....hmmmmm. And then, when we returned home, he was the absolute last thing we unpacked. I was wondering if he was going to reappear or not....or maybe he ran off with the first bunny?

Happy Stitching, everyone!