Enchanted Fabrics and Customer Service

I ordered a peice of fabric from Enchanted Fabrics. It is for the 50th wedding anniversary sampler I am kitting up for my parents. I chose Painted Champagne Cocktail. When the fabric arrived and I looked at it under my Ottlite, it had a peachish pink cast to it that clashed with the floss colors and gold metallics. So I called Enchanted Fabric to see if they had a color that is closer to pale parchment. I had not heard from them until I received an email today asking if I had gotten her message. Lori had called me back the very next day, but got the answering machine. I was very pleasantly surprised that she tried to reach me via email when the telephone had failed rather than to just let it go. To me, that is wonderful customer service! She recommended a different color (saharah) so I looked it up and it does look more like what I wanted, so I ordered it. I don't blame Lori for this as I realize that hand dyed fabrics do vary with each peice, and that pictures online do not always show exact colors clearly. I feel that she went out of her way to assist me with this project and I greatly appreciate it! I will definitely be ordering more fabric from her in the future!

New Stash and Dinky Dyes

I have ordered some new floss and fabric for my stash. I have a design called "Wedding Anniversary Sampler" by Lois Winston from "The Cross Stitcher" magazine June 2006. It is for either the 25th or 50th wedding anniversary. My parents celebrated their 50th on June 1, 2008 so I chose to do this design for them. I can't find a picture so I'll have to describe it. It has a border around it of gold hearts (done with metallic floss). At the top there is a larger heart with 50 years and two small flowers inside it. The heart and numbers are gold braid. Throughout the design are small flowers and smaller hearts. The verse is "Love is a second life. It grows into the soul, warms every vein, and beats in every pulse." Then there is space for both names and the date of their marriage underneath the names. It is fairly simple but quite beautiful and the flowers are the exact color scheme my mother uses when decorating her home.

My DH wants me to stitch it in silk floss as this peice will represent a very important event and I agreed with him. So I started looking for conversion charts from DMC to Dinky Dyes as I really love Jo's silk thread. I am not real good with color conversions so I sent an email to Jo asking if she could reccomend colors to replace the DMC for this design. I was not expecting an answer as I am sure she is a very busy person and must get a lot of similar requests. I was very happily surprised to get an email back from her that not only gave the conversion I wanted but also made sure the tones of each color would work well together. I really appreciate her taking the time to answer my request. Her warmth and willingness to assist her customers is one of the reasons I like her threads so much. Her colors are gorgeous and the silk (and cotton also) threads are just beautiful and a dream to stitch with. If you like stitching with silk, give Dinky Dyes a try, they are wonderful. I can't wait to get my order and do this chart as I think it will be beautiful!

I did get some more stitching done today on the Precious Moments peice, filling in the remainder of the angel's white gown. I'll try to post a picture of my progress tomorrow. I am hoping to have it completed by the end of the week as there really isn't much left.

Stitching and Life

This is "He Upholdeth Those Who Fall" from Precious Moments. It is being stitched with DMC floss on 16 count AIDA to make it fit within a 10 x 10 square for a charity quilt. This is what I have been stitching on a little bit lately, though I haven't been stitching as much as I want to. It is badly wrinkled but I don't want to wash it until it is done.

My back has been pretty bad lately. A couple weeks ago I drove to North Carolina to pick up my brother and my back handled the drive better than I thought it would, but it did raise my pain level. Once it finally started calming down the doctors did a myelogram (sp?) which is basically an x-ray after injecting dye directly into my back. It was done last week and I'm still hurting from it. I've had a headache every day, my lower back (where they were focusing on) has been hurting a lot more than usual and the right side SI joint has also been hurting and my whole lower back and pelvis is swollen. Swelling does not help pain much at all. So I've not been feeling up to doing much at all. I have been reading blogs and my emails, but I haven't been replying or commenting much because sitting in this chair hurts after just a few minutes. One of these days I need to get myself a laptop so that I can get online from bed. lol

I have joined my third exchange. This one is on the SanMan Originals Board and is themed Christmas In July. It is a surprise gift exchange so long as it is something stitchy. I am looking forward to getting my gift together and sending it out! I just hope my partner likes it! I'll post pictures of it once it is received.

Bridgette is now 10 months old and has started standing up holding on to furniture. She has tried taking a few steps holding onto the tables or people's hands. She is now eating solid food as she prefers that to formula or beginner baby foods. She says a few things that sound like words such as "Elmo" and "Hi". She also says, very clearly, Mama, Dada, and Baba (bottle). She is so happy and smiles a great deal. She has 4 teeth now with a couple more trying to come in. She is gorgeous and I am still thoroughly enjoying having her in the house. She is, of course, partly what keeps me so busy (though mostly it is my back that keeps me off the computer LOL).

Well that's pretty much it for me. I will try to update more often so people don't think I fell off the face of the planet or anything LOL