Spring has Sprung!

Sure, we're having a little April snowfall but Spring is definitely on its way! And there are some new spring bunnies now available in the shop! Signed and numbered handsewn little plush bunnies and a new One of a Kind art doll, Bunny B. Belle.

Happy (almost) Spring!

Love,

Heather

Brrrrrr

Thank you to everyone who took advantage of our Valentine sale! I hope you're all staying cozy and warm during this extra cold winter we've been having. But Spring is coming! Stay tuned for more Needlings news in the coming months.

To my Valentines...

50% off everything in the shop!

Bearlings are here!

Bearlings are brand new to Needlings' line of eco-friendly felt plush and are now available in two sizes in the shop!

The first 20 Bearlings made come signed and numbered (by me of course)!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Handmade Holidays!

Thank you from the bottom of my toymaker heart to those of you who supported Needlings this year. Through all the ups and downs that 2014 brought, I really couldn't have done it without you!

I hope you've all had a wonderful relaxing end to your year and I hope your loved ones loved finding their new Needlings under the tree this Christmas. All the best for 2015!

Thank you times a million and Happy Holidays!

Love always,

Heather

AKA Needlings

Shipping Deadlines

Just a friendly notice that the shipping deadlines for guaranteed Christmas delivery have passed. 

All orders made from outside of Canada can be expected in the usual 10-14 business days. 

or 5-12 business days within Canada.

Thank you all for a great 2014! And have a very happy holiday season! 

Love, 

Heather

www.needlings.ca

Visit Needlings at Handmade Hamilton November 29th!

Stop by the beautiful Staircase Theatre in Hamilton on November 29th, 11am - 5pm for Needlings only holiday show of the year, Handmade Hamilton! 

Aren't local? Head over to the shop to get some Needlings for the holidays! Order soon for Christmas delivery!

New for Fall!

Black Cat Minous and a new batch of little dolls are now available in the shop!

I'm now also taking orders for custom Minous to match your own kitties. Email a request to heather@needlings.ca for details!

Seven Years of Needlings!

Yep, seven full years of Needlings! Time flies!

Happy Birthday week to Needlings! 
My gift to me is to give you things for free! Or give you the chance to win some Needlings goodies anyway. 

Enter to win at http://www.facebook.com/Needlings (or directly below here) and follow, tweet, blog, on twitter, instagram, and other internetty things, etc. for extra entries (see contest tab for details).

This year the prize is one Owl Mama, a little robot, a Needlings button pack, and that cute little mini pom pom garland shown in the picture!

Good luck! A winner will be picked randomly at the end of the month!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being wonderful people, friends and customers. Sometimes I get really sappy and tear up about it with hugging involved so thanks for being cool with that. Seven years and not a bad egg among you. Thanks for that too! 



EDIT: Thank you so much for all of your entries and congratulations to the winner! 

Happy Fall!

Hi guys!

Summer is over and Needlings' birthday is coming up! Seven years of felt, fuzz and eyes that are just a bit too big and I know there are lots more to go. I can't really thank you enough for all the support Needlings has received over these last 7 years. It has been wonderful and has changed me for the better and I know that I have all of you to thank for it. Ok end of sappy birthday news (although let's be honest, there'll be more.)

This summer's shows were wonderful as usual and I want to also thank all of you that stopped by Locke Street Festival and Supercrawl, two of my absolutely favourite shows to do and two of my favourite things about living in Hamilton! Holiday shows are yet to be announced but safe to say I'll be sticking close to Hamilton this year. Stay tuned for specifics in the coming months (if you're into that kind of thing).

Yep, just a handful of some of the rainest and funnest days I have every year! Now back to sewing.

I'll see you all soon I promise!

Love,

Heather

New Colourways!

Check out the shop for new colourways of some of Needlings' favourites!

Happy almost June!

Hi guys! Just popping in to let you all know that any online shop purchases made between May 27th and June 6th will be sent out the week of June 8th-14th while I'm "out of the office." Sorry for any inconvenience! Please feel free to email me at heather@needlings.ca for any custom requests, inquiries, or if you just want to say "hi!"

I hope you're all having a perfect summery Spring so far!

See you soon!

Love,

Heather

One of a Kind Spring 2014 Wrap Up (In and Out of the Workroom Recap: Weeks 331-334)

First of all, hi guys! I've been in recovery mode after One of a Kind Spring Show this week which involves a lot of extra sleep and (a little bit of) reorganizing but the show was amazing! If you haven't followed me along during the show on Facebook or Instagram, here are a few photos from the week. I regrettably didn't get pictures of the little model kiddies carrying a couple Needlings down the runway in the kid's fashion show this year but thems the breaks! It was a busy and exciting week and thanks to some workroom help and marathon production mode - I made it through with a little left to spare in the booth at the end of it! But very little! Thank you so much to all of you that stopped by! I had so many lovely visits and chats with you all. It really was the highlight of the show for me!

As soon as I'm back in to the usual workroom work mode, the workroom updates will continue as usual with store restocks and hopefully a few new things to show you! See you soon!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 330

So we're looking at 15 days until One of a Kind Show now and I'm about halfway to where I should be so no problem! Nothing a few strategically placed 14+ hour workdays won't fix!

Last week I finished a bunch of little guys and this week is more of the same. It's all very exciting for you when the weeks are mostly identical, I'm sure.

The little owls are almost finished and I have some more kitties to add to the bunch before moving on to the next batch of somethings so things are coming along! Sleep then more sewing! 

I'll see you next week! 

In the Workroom Recap : Week 329

And by "see you next week," I meant, of course, see you at the end of next week obviously... One of a Kind Show is now officially 19 days away so there is plenty to do and the usual not enough time to do it in. So quick blog time:

Tickets arrived! It's coming!

Robot sewing!

Workroom helpers:

Sew, sew, sew!

I'll be (continuing) finishing up more little robots, kitties and owls this week and am lucky enough to have some more workroom help this weekend so things are coming along! I am trying to be very "zen" about the show this year. Sometimes living the full-time craft life means going through a sort of panic for months before a large show because I think we never feel like we did enough but this time I'm just going to work hard, do what I can and hope for the best! (Which is always my goal anyway.) 

See you lovelies soon!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 328

Week 328! (I think) We missed a few in there but if my math is correct, I'm pretty sure we're in the 328 neighbourhood.

Things are still a little slower than usual around here but I did manage to get a big batch of phone sleeves all finished up for One of Kind Show, with the exception of a small stack that was waiting on me to restock my supply of yellow rick rack. They're next on the list!

Just packaging and 7 left to go! In the meantime I'm a little more disorganized than usual too, working on multiple stacks of things at once (it's good to have a few things ready to go that I can work on by hand if I have to head down to the hospital) so I have a few robots I've been sewing, kitties cutting, and more owl faces sewing for little owlings. There's just about one month until One of a Kind but I'm hopeful I'll manage to have a full booth with lots of goodies available!

Luckily I am lucky to have a few lovely helpers to help me along the way! Parts cutting and packaging help is always amazing. Plus we get to hang out and have tea and treats! Best job, right?

See you next week!

February Update

Hello friends! Thanks for stopping by! Things have been a little slow around here in Needlings world but after a month of no regular "In the Workroom," updates, I thought it was time to explain myself and hopefully get back on track after a difficult month filled with days spent almost exclusively outside of the workroom.

A month ago now (wow, a whole month!), I took my dear 69 year old dad to the emergency room at St. Joe's hospital in Hamilton where he has been since, now with an unexpected dementia/alzheimer's diagnosis to accompany his other health problems, and now waiting on a long term care home. It seemed to come out of nowhere but after spending almost an hour talking to him every day on the phone and seeing the change in him now, I know he's in and heading to the safest place for him - heartbreaking as it is. If any of you have experience dealing with loved ones who struggle with dementia of any kind, hugs to you! And thank you for your patience and understanding. Life goes on and all I can do it be thankful of all the lovely support I have.

So between spending most days helping him at the hospital and getting a crash course in long term care home placement - I haven't done much sewing!

I am in the process of (slowly) getting back in to things and working on a very big bunch of cell phone sleeves for the One of a Kind Show coming up next month and will hopefully get back in to more Needlings work at a steady pace until then in between lots of hospital visits. It's definitely going to be a busy month to match the already busy year. But I can do it! (RIGHT? Right.)

Wish me luck! And give your dear ones a hug for me.

Love,

Heather

In the Workroom Recap : Week 323

Hi guys! Things may look a little different here at Needlings.ca but nothing too crazy. In fact, new things and the very first Needlings blog entries from way back in 2007 are all in the same place now. Full circle stuff! Most of them are completely embarrassing to me so read at your own risk. It is though kind of fun to see how far Needlings' has come since then.

This week, more time than I would care to remember was spent on boring behind the scenes internet stuff involving a lot of stuff I don't really love doing. But it's mostly done! Yep, mostly!

It started with a little fun cupcake order which I was happy to have the chance to make!

Then I took some time to package and ship some orders before getting back to some more studio organization and parts cutting.

So many scraps! I'm happy to say they are a little more condensed and there are a lot more pieces cut and ready to turn in to various Needlings goodies.

I hope you all have a lovely week! I'll see you when it's done!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 322

Hey guys! Week 322 was filled with a little early Spring cleaning, which really just involved a little rearranging of the workroom, and finishing up Needlings brand new line of fancy kitties and bunnies! It was fun to work on something new before getting going on restocking to prepare for the Spring One of a Kind Show in a few months (ah!).

At least I can start with a relatively clean workroom before the stacks of scraps and parts grow bigger and bigger...


Reorganization done! Then I got back to sewing work!



Which isn't always a tidy job...



Notice the start of a schedule for all the little guys that have to come together in the coming weeks! I'll try to take my own advice and just do what I can with the time I have! This will be my second year of doing such a big show so it's nice to feel like I have an idea of what I need. Which is a lot! I am happy that I will have some new Spring-y additions to the booth in March though!



Over the holidays I came across an old dance recital video (yep) where baby Needlings was dressed as a ballerina bunny hopping around the stage to "Cats and Rabbits" from Alice in Wonderland. I guess I was super inspiring. I also haven't been able to get that song out of my head so I may have sang a bit about cats and rabbits residing "in fancy little houses" while I sewed these little ladies up. We'll see what happens Needlings-wise when I come across that "I'm the Scatman" jazz dance performance from a few years later...

But until then, cats and rabbits! Or Beatrix Bun and Madeline Minou. Now available in the shop!



Speaking of cats...



Gus decided he found a fancy little house to reside in himself after I made use of some new shelves on my worktable. And when I closed the door on that one...



He just found another! 

I will say Gus normally does a really good job of staying clear of all the Needlings goodies but he just couldn't resist these ones. I can't really blame him. I guess I'm stuck with hiding things away in these drawers now which seems to have solved Gus' problem of deciding if he should sleep in his usual favourite spot or check out the new soft spots I seemingly created just for him to sleep in. You're welcome, Gus.

Cats!
(and rabbits.)

See you next week, friends!