Kokeshi Make & Take from Melly

Late yesterday I received an email from a customer that put a huge grin on my face.

Hello ladies!

I stopped by your booth at the AQS show in Knoxville and picked up your embroidery special - 2 DMC thread colors and a hoop, then you get the linen with the pattern stamped on it.  so cute!  Of course I'm addicted to embroidery now! Finished that cute doll pattern, and have downloaded several more :)  My question for you is:  I loved the linen that your free pattern was printed/stamped on.  What is it called?  And do you stock it in your store?  And do you stock any more embroidery patterns?

Thanks ladies - for introducing me to hand embroidery!  What fun fun fun!

Our customer is talking about our new Make & Take, Kokeshi. A free pattern from Melly & Me. This is a fun example of designers & shops working together to teach and inspire.
Last month, I contacted Melly and ask her if I could use her free pattern as a give away in the booth. I noticed that I was not selling her designs that included embroidery and I wanted to be able to show how easy the back stitch is and how fast and fun it is. Well I barely got it together for AQS, but I managed to finish some examples and to transfer some images onto our favorite linen, Waterford Natural Linen from Kaufman. There was a great response to it and I walked around the booth most days just stitching away. We ran out of linen before the end of the show and just had the handouts, so I considered it a great success.

To answer our customer's questions, we do have some other great designs.

Melly create a block of the month quilt filled with cute fairy tales embroideries.

She & her sister Rosie also have three wonderful books out, which are truly a deal cause you get so many patterns and design: Gift, A Stitch in Time & Kaleidoscope. 

We carry a huge selection of Melly & Me plushie, purse and quilt patterns, as well as a bunch of other cool Australian designers.

Here are some other cool books I have in my personal collection that can be purchased from Amazon:

• Embroidered Effects: Projects and Patterns to Inspire Your Stitching (Sublime Stitching) 
• Sublime Stitching Craft Pad 
• Stitch-it: Simple Instructions and Tools for 35 Chic to Classic Embroidery Projects 
• Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners 

Here is a cool contest from Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching and an article from Craft:

• Sublime Stitching Contest (craftzine.com)
• Embroidery Explosion (craftzine.com)