Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas!!!

Just a quick post to wish all of our friends, customers and family a Merry Christmas!!! We wish a wonderful New Year for you, too!!! Full with health ,happiness and many Blessings!!
We thank you for your patronage and look forward to helping you next year!! (and what an exciting 2009 we are going to have!!!)
Sincerely,
Margaret, Jessica, Amy, Pam, Ann, Holly, Shevera, and Melinda

Thursday, November 20, 2008

November 20, 2008 sneak peek of Summer Projects!!








Pat Carson's Sampler - full photo will be on our website after Nov. 29th Susan Greening Davis - Pieces of Eight and Ozark Basket






Eileen Bennett - Crown of Pearls Sampler











November 20, 2008

Ann and Margaret before Ann's trip to Florida!!
Hi and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have been having a busy November!! Jessie is just about 5 months pregnant!!! With a girl!!! She is feeling better than in the past few months - less morning sickness that seemed to last all day! (that is great for those of us working with her!!!)

We had our Fall Stitching Festival a couple of weeks ago.... we had 50 stitchers and a fantastic time with them all!!! Our theme was "Santa's Workshop" - all the projects that were included in the weekend were able to be finished too!! Holly,Our Event Co-Ordinator, did such a wonderful job with this weekend. She works so hard, with months of preparation,to make these weekends such an enjoyable time for our stitchers. We really appreciate all that Holly does for us!!!
The ladies learned the nun stitch,were introduced to table toppers, shopped ALOT, and met new friends to stitch with!!

The stitchers had a "dime toss" for door prizes and all donated their dimes to the Salvation Army.......they raised $109.00 and Cecilia's will match that for a total doantion of $218.00 to the Salvation Army. Thanks to all of our participants for their kindness and generosity!!!!

We have announced our "Summer Triple Feature and it is AWESOME!!! June -we are welcoming Pat Carson from Designs by Gloria & Pat. Pat will be teaching a beautiful Precious Moments Sampler that she designed to celebrate her 30th Anniversary as a Precious Moments Licensee. July - we will welcome Susan Greening Davis for 2 adorable projects and lots of giggles!!! If you know Susan you know you are in for a treat!! August - we are pleased to welcome Eileen Bennett who will be teaching a white work sampler called Crown of Pearls, it is a masterpiece of pulled threadwork!! We will have more details on our website and pictures of the projects, also.

November 29th we are honored to have Pat Carson, from Designs by Gloria and Pat, to be spending the day with us at Cecilia's Samplers. Pat will be unveiling her 30th Anniversary Precious Moments Sampler (the same sampler that she will be teaching for us in June). Pat will also be here to offer helpful tips and answer your needlework questions. Please drop by the shop to welcome Pat - she is truly a needlework legend !!!

Our " Official Greeter and Table Topper Queen" Ann left for Florida last week. She spends the winter in Florida with her family and will be back to see us in April. Ann is a HUGE help for us in the shop and we will miss her !!!!

I will try to add some photos to this post ( I am new at this, so keep your fingers crossed!!). I may add them to subsequent posts ,if I can't get it to work on this post. Thanks in advance for your patience!!

Hope you and your family have a Blessed Thanksgiving !!!!

Take Care,

Margaret, Jessica, Amy, Pam, Ann, Holly, Melinda, Shevera, and Liz

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

October 22, 2008 - Blessings and surprises!!

We're baaaaaack!!! I know, I know........there have been rumors...............we had closed the shop............we were retired and sunning ourselves in the Bahamas.............we had been abducted by space aliens and taken to another planet to teach needlework....................all not true ;-)........
The truth is we have been keeping several secrets and now we can let you all in on our exciting news!!
The biggest, most exciting secret is that Jessie is having a baby!!!!! We found out today that she is having a girl!!!!! We are so very happy and excited to be welcoming this precious little baby into our family. Jessie's due date is around March 29th.............we are very thankful to God for sending us this beautiful baby!!
We hope that you will forgive our "distractions" over the past few months - Jessie has had "all day" morning sickness and we have all been trying to help her with the ordering - placing wholesale orders and filling customers orders - so if we made errors or took longer than we should have in filling your requests we are truly sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused for you.
Jessie is teaching Amy (my other daughter/ Jessie's sister) to update the website, so hopefully we will be able to stay caught up with that.
More exciting news!!!! Holly, our special event co-ordinator, and I have been planning, plotting,arranging and rearranging to make 2009 a very exciting year at Cecilia's shop. As I am usually running in several different directions with our other businesses, I could not do this without Holly's generous help and major organizational skills...................so here goes..........so far we have a special meet and greet day next month with Pat Carson (Designs by Gloria and Pat) at Cecilia's shop.........Pat will be unveiling her special, absolutely georgous 30th anniversary Precious Moments sampler and announcing the class that she will be teaching for us in June...........we are honored to have this expert needlework legend to be teaching this class for us!! April we will be having our Spring stitching weekend - UFO's will be the theme.............come join us for a fun ,relaxing weekend of stitching and surprises!!! July we will be welcoming Susan Greening Davis for the 2nd year - her class was such a hit last July, the attendees requested another class this year!!! Susan has been seen on HG television as an expert in the needlework industry.............she is lots of FUN!! Susan will be teaching 2 fantastic projects for us this July. There are always lots of giggles, fellowship and fun when Susan is in Branson!!! August we will be offering an awesome class with Eileen Bennett !! Our plans are in the works with Eileen for the class project ( our choices are so beautiful, we just haven't been able to make up our minds, yet)and maybe even one of Eileen's informative lectures may be included. Eileen's historical sampler research is well known, and her books of sampler stitches are something a needleworker just can't live without!!! I have taken classes from all of these wonderful needleworkers, they are all very informative, fun, and really neat ladies - you won't be disappointed!!!! September - we are working on getting arrangements finalized with another designer.............we are waiting for dates, but we already have the project picked out - it is just way too pretty!!! And then we have our Fall Stitching weekend in November............a great time for stitching, Christmas shopping and lots of fun!!!!
Our website will be updated with all of the class and weekend information as it becomes available. The classes are limited, so call early to reserve your spot!!! Our weekends have been selling out, too........so sign up early for these fun events!!!
I thank you for your patience with us. We appreciate your patronage and look forward to seeing you at the shop, classes or weekends. If we can help with any of your needlework needs or questions, please call us or email us - we will be happy to help!!!
I will update again soon (really!!!)
Take care,
Margaret and the gals at Cecilia's-
Jessie, Amy, Ann, Pam, Holly, Melinda and Shevera

Saturday, June 7, 2008

June 7,2008

Hello from Columbus!!!

Jessie and I made it here late last night. It was about a 12 hour drive when you figure in traffic congestion, time change and road construction. But we are happy to be here!!!

Today we spent the day in the convention hall surrounded by so many new and beautiful needlework products it would make your head spin!! We found some awesome new yarns from Plymouth Yarn Company. They have these adorable kits for babies' sweaters that come complete with buttons and a free pattern, all you do is knit the sweater!! We also got a great yarn called Confusion - you've got to see it to believe it!!! This yarn has so many textures and colors all in one skein, it is really a unique yarn. We also got a yarn called Baby Alpaca Lace - it makes the most delicate lace knitted shawls we've ever seen!

Dutch treat has 2 new Table toppers that we just loved!! One is a piano theme and the other is reading and book themes. Really neat!!

We had a fun visit with Theresa Layman, she had here elegant gingerbread house on display with several of her miniature knotted rugs inside. She has several new cute designs that we ordered and can't wait to get into the shop for you to see.

Hoffman has the next Prairie Schooler Santa kit, complete with threads and 28 count linen. Nora Corbett has 3 alphabet fairies, each chart has a letter of the alphabet with a different fairy for each letter, very pretty !!!

Little House needleworks and Crescent Colors have teamed up again for another series.........the first one is about quilting..........threads are included!!

So much more, from Weeks Dye works and Sampler threads to beautiful scissors of all types and colors, I could be typing most of the evening. This was an order only market, so we will have to wait for our items to be shipped to us. Jessie will get them on the website as soon as they come in!!!

Got to get going..............time to have dinner and put our feet up for a bit. Have a great weekend!!



Take care,

Margaret and Jessie in Columbus!!!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

May 29, 2008

Hi Fellow Stitchers,
Hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend! It is always nice to take time to remember and honor our loved ones and our Veterans that have passed on. And to Thank God for our blessings!!
We are planning an exciting Summer here at the shop!! Jessie and I will be going to Columbus in June (6th - 9th) for the TNNA Needlework wholesale show - we plan to order lots of new goodies for you all !!! The shop will still be open - Pam, Amy and Shevera will be here to help you with your stitching needs 'til we get back.
We are still waiting for Ann to get back from Florida. Ann is our "table topper queen " and our official greeter -Ann has stitched almost all of the Dutch Treat tabletoppers and several other shop models (that is why our walls are so full!!!). She Winters in Florida and is usually back here by now - hopefully she will be back in another week or two!!
Susan Greening Davis will be here in July for a really neat class and her "Gadget Gal" presentation. We are expecting a really fun and exciting weekend, there are still a few spots left in the class, so if you are thinking about it, now is the time to sign up!!
I have been working on the Jeannette Douglas Stitching Treasures Accessories - Have them just about all stitched - now I need to finish them into a needlebook, scissor fob, alphabet banding, scissor case and pin wheelie. They were really easy and quick to stitch. For those of you that have the box, Jeannette suggests using the left over threads from the thread pack, but I am going to put together a thread pack for the accessories as soon as I get them all done and see exactly what we need. The whole set really looks so beautiful together with the box.
Got to be going.............have a wonderful weekend............maybe sneak in an ice cream cone for yourself!! My Mom always loved ice cream, it makes everything fun!!!
Take Care,
Margaret

Friday, May 16, 2008

May 16, 2008


Hi,

I am back again............I am going to try to put a picture of our new knitting needles onto this page, they are so cute........wish me luck!!! Have a wonderful day!!

Margaret

Thursday, May 15, 2008

May 15,2008

Hi fellow needleworkers!!

Hope you are all enjoying our wonderful, yet sometimes rainy, spring weather!! We have chosen a name for our blog - Ethel's W.O.W. Blog ( Ethel being my Mom and W.O.W. being "words of wisdom"). I have included a photo of my Mom, Dad and me taken a couple of years ago. (Mom went home to be with Our Lord 2 years ago, Dad is still here with us). My Mom and Dad have taught me just about everything I know. I have truly been blessed by having such great parents!Hopefully, I can pass on some of their wisdom, lots of needlework news, some fun tid bits and maybe even a few yummy recipes.

We are having a really busy year at Cecilia's .......we have added many new classes that have been so much fun!!! We have a beginners knitting class the 3rd Saturday of each month. Knitting is a needlework that I had done as a teen, but found slow and a bit boring..............but now, WOW!!! We have so many fun and unique yarns to choose from!! Some of the yarns do the work for you by self striping and patterning (is that a word?) as you knit. And the knitting needles are so varied and fun, from light up needles to hand made wooden needles with a variety of decorative tops, to the classic pretty colored metal needles I remember from my childhood - there is a knitting needle for every need and want!!

In addition to our Stitching Weekend retreats, we are also inviting some expert needleworkers to our shop to teach classes. We have Susan Greening Davis coming to Branson in July. She is such a fun person and will be teaching a beautiful project for us. It will be a zippered needlework bag, the front panel being stitched with a variety of stitches in pretty colors to compliment the fabric on the bag. Susan will also be treating us to her "Gadget Gal" presentation, which is very informative and so much fun!!!

We had a very special treat this past Fall when we got a visit from Pat Carson!!!! (Owner of Designs by Gloria and Pat).She is one of my "needlework heros", Pat has spent years teaching and passing on her love of needlework to so many of us. She has graciously allowed us to exclusively reproduce her 17th Century Band Sampler Chart that had been out of print for several years. It is such a neat chart to have!!! The sampler itself is just gorgeous, and the reference material included in this chart would be a great addition to anyone's stitching collection. We are happy to be able to donate 25% of the sale price of the chart to the Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation, we thank Pat for her generosity in allowing us this opportunity.

Watch for another announcement coming soon about a special event with Pat Carson!!!!

We are already planning 2009's classes ..................and it will be GREAT!!!

I've got to be going. I am working on Jeannette Douglas' New Stitching Treasures Accessories and I've got to get stitching!!! Hope you enjoy each and every day!!Be back soon....
Take Care,
Margaret

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May 6, 2008

Hi all,

This is my first post to our new blog!! We hope to use this blog to keep you updated with the newest items and news in the shop as well as some extra goodies!! We thank you for your continuing support that allows us to be able to have our shop and share our love of needlework with you. We hope you enjoy reading this !! Will be back soon.

Take care,

Margaret