Long overdue greetings to all of our stitching friends.......

I've been away several times since I last wrote, visiting my GRAND DAUGHTER, Fiona in Massachusetts - snuggling with the baby, watching chick flicks with my daughter, Chrissie and of course helping with those late night fussy times.  Most days we stayed in our pj's 'til afternoon!  It was really hard to leave! 

Here are some of the latest pictures of our sweet girl, Fiona!

   

This is Fiona with her Great Grandmother.....and showing us her sweet smile!

Here is Fiona with her parents (That's my daughter, Chrissie) and her great grand-parents!

I'm so grateful to everyone at TSS, especially Molly and Beth, for doing my job as well as their own and getting the orders out to you while I was gone.  I really missed everyone here as well as ALL of YOU.

It recently occurred to me that the folks at TSS, both staff and customers, have formed a sort of Community - linked by our devotion to stitching - I'm calling it "the X-Factor"  in our lives!  There are so manya of you that have become friends with us and with each other through our shop.  Sometimes a customer will come in that I've been sending things to but never met - and it's amazing how I feel that I know them - because I know what they've stitched!  Some of you have even shared pictures of your homes with your stitching displayed.  We LOVE these virtual visits.

I want to celebrate this connection we have through a kind of X-Factor family album.  Please send us stories (100 words or less) and/or pictures of the X-Factor in your lives - a special piece you've stitched and what it meant to you or others.  Pictures of how you've used your stitched pieces to decorate your home.  You can e-mail, snail mail or drop off in person.   In the future we'll tweak it a little with different X-Factor themes but for now, just think of why those little x's are important to YOU.

My goal is to eventually put these in a book which Abby will create to share with everyone.  For now - we'll showcase your thoughts on our website each month.  Everyone can vote on their favorite, and that person will receive a $35.00 Gift Certificate.  So please shower us with X-Factor ideas!  If you don't want your name on the website, that's not a problem - just tell us and we'll use initials only.

We'll start off by showing 2 wonderful pieces by our staff - Phyllis and Mary Anne.  Both of them did the wonderful Sarah Moon reproduction...but look so different!  That's the neat thing...THAT'S the X-Factor!!!

   

Unfortunately, I was not able to capture the details of these without the flash!! 

UGH....My apologies.... but you still get the idea!

They look so different....and so beautiful.

If you're interested in some of the other Ackworth Samplers still available....

you pop over to our Ackworth section and see what's out there!

Until we meet again and share our stitching ideas...and so much more!

Connie