LAST DAY OF JULY ! !

        I apologize for the untimely notice of a past January posting.  I have no idea why that                occurred.

WoW!  These hot days of summer are just flying by!  Seems we were just waiting for the new year to roll in and here it is over half done!  

It has been very hot and humid here in Central Kentucky.  When you get our age in this kind of weather there isn't too much ambition to do anything.  Heck we are too lazy to even get in the pool.

Are you following our blog?  Be sure to sign up to follow so you can keep up with our shenanigans! 

NEEDLES 'N FINS STITCHING ADVENTURES - Private FaceBook Page for our Traveling Stitchers

Things are really in high gear as we prepare for our upcoming Tulip Time on the Rhine Riverboat Stitching Cruise!  We will be leaving the US on March 31 and welcome April 1 in Amsterdam!  We should arrive in time to see the beautiful tulips in all their glory.  However, don't think that tulips are all we will see!  From the looks of the promotional data there are lots of other flowers as well.  And, of course, we'll want to ship a bunch of bulbs home for us to enjoy in the Springs ahead.  

For those of you who recently ordered and paid for the Optional Class Kit, they should be in the mail this coming week.  If there are others still wanting to participate in the fun just drop us an email and we can take care of your request.  email:  duodesignsinc@yahoo.com

We have filled our allotted space on the ship and are scrambling to see if we can get more staterooms as more and more people are interested in joining us.  I understand we do have a wait list so don't give up if you want to come along and play.  Just keep in touch with our agent Liz (lwolak@vikingtvl.com) and she'll continue 'shaking the bushes' to see if we can make it happen.

Last count I believe we had 48 in our party and of those 36 are stitchers!  That poor ship will never be the same after we leave!

The teachers have their airline tickets so we are another step closer to the adventure.  We are working daily with our printer finalizing little surprises and fine tuning our plans.  Can't wait to share what we have in mind with you all! You know us - we're always up to something!

We have finalized plans for our upcoming Hawaiian Island Hopping Stitching Cruise!  Be sure to mark your calendar for April 13-22, 2023!  We have so much planned!  We will begin our journey with 2 days in front of the planned cruise ship's itinerary.  We can lay on the beach, shop, and have our first class prior to beginning our visit to other islands on the agenda!  You won't want to miss this one.

 

 Be sure to join the Face Book Group Needles 'n Fins Stitching Adventures to keep up with what we are up to!  There might be something you'd like to do with us. 

ANG VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Our ANG officers and committees (all volunteers) are working tirelessly in an effort to make this a very successful virtual seminar.  There is so much to do behind the scenes and it is done without complaint by these wonderful people!  I personally know that the current priority is getting the classrooms up and running so that we all may have nothing but a great experience - teachers as we share our lessons and participants as they enjoy doing them. 

While the majority of us really miss our face-to-face encounters in the classrooms, these virtual classes do offer an opportunity to those who may not otherwise have been able to attend a live seminar.  So get yourselves all geared up and ready to go once everything is in place and we all have our ducks in a row!

ONLINE MYSTERY CLASSES 

We are down to just a few more lessons on the fun Two by Two from Strictly Christmas.  We recently shared Noah in the last session posted.

 In a couple weeks we'll be sharing more animals.  Be sure to stay tuned!

F2F CLASSES 

We are awaiting word from the Florida shop concerning the canvases needed for the upcoming Whacky Flamingo class.  They are so fun but can't share if don't have the canvases - lol.  We're watching the situation closely.

Osterville Needlework in Mashpee, MA, however, has us very busy working on stitch guides for the next face-to-face class with them in November.  Here are just a few of them!  

I'll try to share more pictures next week of some of the others.  So many techniques!

Take care of yourselves and be safe.  In the meanwhile remember to stitch with a smile!

Sandy

 Good afternoon everyone!

I have no idea why this old post is being circulated!  Sorry for the interruption to your day.  I do play to do a blog tomorrow however.

Have a great weekend!

Sandy

 

Returning to 'almost' normal!

New ONLINE MYSTERY CLASS REGISTRATION.

Starting to reenter the world of teaching classes and feeling comfortable doing so makes life seems to be returning to some type of normalcy. We each have our own idea of what 'normal' is however.

In answer to the many requests received, we are offering the popular Vessels project as an Online Mystery Class.

Those of you who have taken our Online Mystery Classes before know the drill.  We have changed up some things so be sure to read the details. There is a teaching fee of $200 for a 6 session packet. Previously our classes have posted one a month.  For this class we are going to post 2 sessions a month - one on the first and one at the middle of the month.  The full kit price is $275 plus shipping/handling of $18.  Classes will start January 1, 2022 so that we can be finished before our Tulip Time on the Rhine riverboat cruise.

To register send an email to us at duodesignsinc@yahoo.com. We will acknowledge your request to join the class and send you a PayPal invoice.  The kits will not go out until December.  Keep in mind that you are not a member of the class until the invoice is paid.  Deadline for registering is November 15, 2021.

Face-2-Face Classes

We have a ton of wonderful canvases that we are currently preparing for our upcoming f2f class at Osterville in Mashpee, MA which is on Cape Cod.  We have such a lovely group that join us - ladies and gentlemen.  We have fun as we laugh at and with each other throughout the long weekend.  These classes sell out within hours so if you are ever interested be sure to have the shop owner put your name on a list for the next adventure!

Needles 'N Fins Stitching Adventures - private group of stitchers/cruisers - join now!

Well I have been informed that all the French Balcony staterooms I reserved for our Tulip Time on the Rhine are taken so it is obvious that we have a bunch of stitchers hungry to hit the road - errrrr water that is. We still have a few staterooms in our block just not with a French Balcony.  I understand this to mean that there may be other rooms on the boat they just may not be next door to another stitcher.  Heck that doesn't stop us!  When you think about the fact that there are a total of approximately 160 people on board of which we are a vast majority, well you can guess where that leads us.  Every turn we will see another stitcher!  

It's always fun to meet new non-stitchers as well, as their curiosity takes over and they like to ask what we are doing or want to see your beautiful work.  Most of us love to share and discuss our passion.  

One trip our butler got in the act and helped separate beads!

A scene we are looking forward to seeing

Our scheduled route 

One of our first scheduled classes for a trip.

I am so excited to take a ride on the canal!

This is our Optional Class Kit for The Netherlands Cruise - Windmill and Tulips.

Many familiar names and many new ones will be joining us. It is going to be a great trip and we are going to have such a wonderful time connecting with our cruising/stitching buddies and adding new ones to the fold.

Don't miss the chance to come with us.  Contact Liz at lwolak@vikingtvl.com to get all the details to help you make your decision.  We would love to have you join us.

DuoDesignsbySandra - an Etsy Shop

We continue to add new stitch guides to our Etsy Shop as time permits.  Be sure to check it out periodically.  We are also in the process of adding our line of needlepoint handpainted canvases soon.  Stay tuned!

Must get that cup of morning coffee!  Have a great week ahead and stay safe.

 HAPPY JULY 4TH!

We  are so fortunate and blessed to live in a country with such an abundance of freedoms which many take for granted!  Coming from a family chocked full of veterans - including my father and husband in my immediate family and boo-koos of uncles, cousins, etc - you have a slight understanding of what is involved in having these privileges at the many sacrifices of others.

Face-to-Face Workshops

I returned home safely from my week at Cape Cod and stitching with some fantastic students!  This bunch always provide me with fabulous canvas designs to work with.  We have such a productive and fun event every time.  This session we had Christmas, seaside, insects, landscapes, flowers, flags, samplers, animals, and on and on.  We played with all kinds of out of the box techniques and included stumpwork as well as needle felting!  Beads? Of course!  Specialty fibers added to the fun.  Wonder how many finishes we'll have materialize when I return in November?  This session I was blessed with students from the previous workshops bringing in some of their finished pieces and sharing them for all to see.  People, I'm not talking little ornaments either!

Here's on of the medium sized ones done by Ms. S. JamIEson.  Isn't she just the cutest.

And this wonder came in after I had left - bummer.  I would loved to have seen it in person. Since this was posted on the Internet I hope Caryl is okay with my sharing here. Didn't she do a fabulous job!

This was one of our Online Mystery classes.  The design is from the collection.  We called it Pillow Collage for our class.

We continue to work on our upcoming Florida trip to The Black Sheep in Orlando.  Canvases are being gathered to move forward towards setting a date.  We are set teach the Wacky Flamingo -

These guys are a hoot!  Contact Ann at The Black Sheep if you would like details.

Needles ' N Fins Stitching Adventures - Private Group

If you like to stitch and cruise you'll love our riverboat stitching cruises! Join the private group - Needles 'N Fins Stitching Adventures to follow our upcoming activities.  Once a trip is confirmed, another private group is available to those who have reserved their space on the cruise. This affords participants the opportunity to meet each other and to ask questions, make suggestions, etc. before we depart. If you have reserved the trip and did not yet receive your invitation to join the group just email us at duodesignsinc@yahoo.com and we'll get that taken care of right away.

As we have stated before, the staterooms are filling up quickly.  Our agent made arrangements to reserve a block of staterooms just for us.  This allows us to be fairly close together onboard.  While proximity may not be critical, space is so make your reservation NOW to guarantee your place with us.  

Remember that we have 3 scheduled class dates for stitching the Optional Class Kit or your personal piece you bring from home.  We have a few fun surprises along the way also.  Stitching is always going on!  In the lounge, on the deck, in the library, at the bar. If there are some chairs around, we congregate and stitch!  I have never heard a complaint of not enough stitching time - lol.  Our stitching does not interfere with the wonderful excursions either! So take advantage of touring The Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland to your heart's content and return to the ship to relax, compare experiences and stitch!

There are also optional extensions for those who would like to to go Lucerne - one of my favorites.  One of my most endearing memories was at the park of the Dying Lion of Lucerne.  In fact, a replica was one of the rare souvenirs that I purchased and still cherish.

The monument

My souvenir

So dust off that passport and contact our travel agent Liz - lwolak@vikingtvl.com and come join the fun.

Have a safe 4th of July and as always, honor our vets and their families.  Be mindful of fireworks!