The Attic Needleworks - Part One

My friends and I are the luckiest stitchers on Planet Earth!!!!  We went to The Attic Needleworks in Mesa, Arizona last weekend!!!!!  We flew from Chicago to Phoenix and planned four wonderful days of stashing and stitching at this shop that is like Disneyland for stitchers!!!!  Here we are pictured with the wonderful shop owner, Jean Lea.  She took such good care of us!  We were treated like queens and we enjoyed every second we spent in the care of Jean and her wonderful shop girls, Debra, Beth, Andrea and Carolyn!!!  Thank you to all of you wonderful ladies who made us feel so special and so welcomed!

From the moment we entered the shop to the moment we left...everything was simply perfect.  I will have to spread my pictures out over a couple of blog posts because there was so much happening and so much to see!!!!  We were able to participate in two shop events...Thursday night stitching and Sampler Sunday stitching.  In between those two events we were able to spend most of our days at the shop.  We went around and around looking at all of the models, picking out different projects and sitting at the spacious tables you can see behind our group.  We were able to shop, stitch and be together in the most perfect setting you can imagine.  

I would highly encourage any stitcher to make a trip to The Attic!!!  You will not be disappointed....in fact, for us, it was certainly a highlight of our stitching lives!!!!

 

This is the display we saw when we first walked in!!!!  Wonderful patriotic charts and models!

Another stroke of luck...that very first day we were there this wonderful chart and model was unveiled.  This is a project by Linda Danielson of Samplers Remembered.  We all loved it and kitted it up!!

The shop is full of special little nooks and corners like this antique chair with charts to look through!

Here is a darling little project that Brenda kitted up.

The Attic has a sampler of the month each month.  If you don't subscribe to their newsletter....go sign up right now.  You will receive a biweekly newsletter that will tell you about the sampler each month and much more.  Jean has ingeniously showed us several of the samplers of the month and where she is at in terms of her progress. 

Here is a sampler on the wall.  Love that red dress!

This is an older Carriage House Samplings chart that my friend Patti and I fell in love with it!!!!  We have it on order from The Attic to be sent to our homes.  Won't that be a fun package to receive!!!

While we were at the shop a package of silk threads arrived!!!  Loved seeing them in bulk!!!  They were simply gorgeous!

Jean was a very good sport when we asked her to model a huge skein of the silk threads as if it were a scarf!!!  So cute!

The Attic has every type of thread imaginable and they do lots of conversions into silks.  They will help you do and find anything you want!

I fell in love with this sampler and kitted it up!  It is by Linda Danielson of Samplers Remembered.

This is a very special piece by Tanya Brockmeyer of The Scarlett House.  We were very very lucky to spend some quality time with Tanya because she is a friend of one of our group (Karin who could not come with us).  More on that later, but I wanted to show you this chart because it was my very first purchase at the Attic!!!  

The name of the sampler is Mary Ann Farmer.  It is breathtaking!!!!

Now get this....here I am with the designer of the piece, Miss Tanya of The Scarlett House her very self!  She is helping me pick out a piece of 32 count linen that will work for the sampler!!!!  Is that cool or what??? 

I love this little sampler.  Should have bought it!  Oh well, that leaves me something to get next time or I can always call in an order!

 Here is Mary Roe another reproduction sampler from Tanya of The Scarlett House.  It is simply stunning!!!

 This whole corner of the shop has many models from The Scarlett House.  It is so exciting to see them all in one place and dream on them.

Another highlight of the trip was meeting other stitchers at The Attic...these are the ladies that are lucky enough to call The Attic their LNS!!!  Here is Teresa with Cindy....Cindy is working on a band sampler that gets updated every week with a new border to stitch.  This is a project that started in Holland in January.  Teresa is ready to jump on this train!!  Here is a link to the site where it all started....Randje Per Week.

Patti had a finish while we were there!  Hurrah!!!!!  So cute!!

A big Hurrah to Jean and the staff at the Attic!  To Tanya Brockmeyer and to all the stitchers at The Attic for making us all feel so welcome.  You provided us with a once in a lifetime experience and we are so thankful to you all!!!!!!!

I will be back soon with some more pictures and stories!!!