A Little Gray Hare!

It's that time of year again....Nashville Needlework Market. In a couple weeks we'll be loading up the car and traveling across 5 states (Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee) to the annual cash and carry market.

We've been working hard on some special goodies for market, and here's the first we want to share.

A Little Gray Hare Limited Edition Kit

Our friendly distributor, Norden Crafts, approached us many months ago and asked us to do a Limited Edition kit for them. What does this mean? Well, for shops it means that they can purchase this kit only from Norden Crafts. It won't be available directly from L*K. The Little Gray Hare will be MIA in the L*K market booth. 

For stitchers everywhere, just contact your favorite needlework source and request this kit!  It's "hare today, gone tomorrow!". We're only making a limited number of these this spring.

We're including all the supplies on this one (what were we thinking?). We used beautiful overdyed seafoam linen (Weeks Dye Works), 8 luscious shades of WDW thread, petite pale pink beads (on the eggs), light pink rick rack, and coordinating finishing fabric. Our finisher extraordinaire, Mona, has written complete finishing instructions, and we're enclosing an egg template. 

Here's a quick look at the evolution of A Little Gray Hare:

After I did the design on my computer, I stitched the model. While I stitch, I make notes about thread colors and amount, fabric choice, and other ideas. It looks like I originally called this "Good Hare Day" or "Happy Hare". I like "A Little Gray Hare" much better! I often make little design changes while stitching, so those are noted and corrected, too. Look closely at the 2 designs - I couldn't decide until I was stitching, and chose the right hand one!

Since it's a kit, I start calculating supplies (applying my math skills...you know the ones your high school teacher told you would be necessary for a successful adult life), and get everything ordered.

I mail the completed model to my finisher Mona, and wait for something fabulous to arrive in the return mail. Mona and I will chat about possible finishes, and she texts me photos of finishing ideas. Then we decide together what will look best (and what I can effectively "source" for supplies). 

The cones of Weeks Dye Works threads arrived first. I forgot to snap a pic when they were full, now they're almost gone...

and they've been transformed...measured, snipped and coiled into little 3" x 3" thread packs. Alan has perfected an ingenious method of pulling all 8 colors at once. Still, it's a lot of work!

The fabric finally arrived last Friday. A big, beautiful box FULL of seafoam linen.

So you know how I spent a long weekend.

Notice that I'm wearing my Klutz glove. No more accidents with me and the rotary cutter. That ER is no fun!

Here's our dining room table decor (definitely no eating occurring!). Going clockwise from upper left: pink rick rack, cut/folded/ironed seafoam linen, pretty finishing fabric (for back of egg), folded pink instructions, and egg template.

And, of course, the beautiful covers! I had so much fun designing this pretty cover and photographing A Little Gray Hare on a bed of pastel eggs.

I can't imagine how many hours have gone into this prep, but it's finally time to get our assembly line going. . OK...it really was "time" a couple weeks ago, but we'll get it finished. Maybe a little help from our friends? I've had an extraordinary offer from a group of able assemblers...will keep you posted!