Snowy trip to Nashville Market?

It's finally here...SNOW! After an overly dry, nearly snow-less winter, the white stuff has finally arrived. The weather guys got so excited, they cancelled school in advance of any actual snow falling.

We awoke to a mere 1/2" of snow on the ground, but it's been snowing steadily all day. It's a real winter wonderland outside our cozy, snowlit L*K office.

YIKES...our annual trek to Nashville Needlework Market is only a week away. It's always a long drive, but it could be tricky (weatherwise) this year. As always, we'll be loaded down like the Beverly Hillbillies with market goodies taking every square inch where we're not sitting.

We're doing two very special Limited Edition Kits for market this year. Sorry...we're not releasing pictures of the actual projects until market (gotta have a little mystery), but here's some of the process involved in getting our kits ready.

I did the designs last November, before the holiday crunch. I decided to make these really inclusive kits (call me crazy), with all the goodies you'd need to finish and embellish the designs.

So, while I was stitching models, I got to work shopping/researching fun finishing products. When I finalized my lineup of extra goodies, I sent my finished models off to my Mona (finishing guru extraordinaire) so she could work her magic. We consulted a lot...lots of texting images back and forth...to create our finished look.

Then the real work began! I ordered/purchased lots of supplies and they all began arriving in the already crowded L*K office. My upstairs office became a fabric warehouse...

and Alan's office (our warehouse/shipping area) held the other supplies as we readied them for their Nashville debut. Lots of thread packs to cut and assemble...

embellishment packs to put together (one little zip bag at a time!), finishing fabric to cut, iron and fold, yards and yards of rick, lace and hemp twine to cut...

and of course the stitching fabric needed to cut and folded and we inserted a needle, too. Of course, sometime during this process I had a nasty little incident with the rotary cutter and a trip to the ER...hazard pay!

Finally, the printing was delivered (back covers pictured above) and all the kit goodies were ready to put together. We moved some folding tables into our family room and put the assembly line in motion. 

And 4 movies, several episodes of Downtown Abbey, and seasons 4 and 5 of Friday Night Lights later, the 2 kits were assembled and ready to hit the road. Special thanks to Coach Taylor and Tim Riggins for getting me through with a smile on my face (the wonderful men from Friday Night Lights, for those non-watchers).

We promise more sneak peek pics and info on the next post.  Meanwhile...stay warm and keep those needles humming through this snowy February!