Two new Artists Collection charts showed up yesterday: The Bittersweet Season shows a pumpkin of different colors and textures topped by a black cat with a bat hanging off of his tail. And The Sugarplum Season is a thin Santa standing on top of a house.

Birds of a Feather had another great batch -- their style has developed so much these last few years. Wish Upon a Christmas star is a great stocking -- love the shape and those bright colors on the chocolate-colored linen are fab. Counting Magpies illustrates a great little picnic game from long ago (how many of these birds you see signals a fortune for you.) And The Kindness Sampler has great colors, style and an important lesson: Kindness Begets Kindness.

Cross Eyed Cricket came out with four nice charts in July, my favorite of which is Infant Oaks -- a great topper for a round basket, and a wonderful acorn fob or ornament.

Ewe & Eye & Friends has such a cute new Black Sheep kit called Summer Hive. I've always been a sucker for bee skeps, though. They told me some new patterns will be on the way soon...can't wait.

Fanci That's Shaker Village finally came in -- it had been on backorder, which I'm assuming means it's been popular so far. The button packs are so cute, some of my shop customers have been buying just the button packs, but I love the old town feel of the Shaker-style buildings on this long skinny piece.

What could be sweeter than Granny's Apples? Stitch these juicy apples up for fall. This new Full Circle design could be a companion to Pumpkin Patches (released earlier this summer.)

I really like these new charts by Goode Huswife: Fruitful Clusters (grapes are so pleasing to stitch), Sampler Farm (clever), and June Morning (bright colors on a black background make this primitive-style sampler striking.)

Look for Heart in Hand's new pieces Spooky (Kit of the Month this month), Acorn Sampler and Blessings -- some great pieces for fall. More will be coming soon, including some blackbirds, a teacher piece with an apple, and their 2002 Santa.

Homespun Elegance sent me a few more charts this week, but I know more are coming. So far, I have Land of the Free Sampler (sheep, flags, a wagon, and a few brass buttons) and Autumn Motif Sampler, which looks very shaker to me. Love the fall motifs on this one, and it'd be a nice weekend project.

La D Da's new Leaping Cat and Garden Angel charts are so cute. Garden Angel has a band sampler-style skirt that you can stitch in Needlepoint Silks or Sampler Threads, and Leaping Cat is leaping over, what else, the alphabet!

Lizzie Kate had a great batch of designs ready for market, including the last three Flip-It's in that monthly series. Think outside the box on these -- they could all be stitched on one piece, vertically or horizontally. She's promising another fun series next year. My Other Car is a Broom is a lot of fun, and Gather a Harvest and Autumn Boxer make great fall stitching projects. Her new Santa for 2002 is so cute (and WANTED!), and she also has a new Christmas stocking with a snowman. But I'm predicting the big Lizzie Kate piece for this year will be Joy Sampler, a spot motif sampler with a seasonal flare.

The Prairie Schooler pieces showed up Friday night, and I had them scanned and up Saturday around noon. The new 2002 Santa is patriotic, and so handsome in Colonial-style clothes. G*H*I adds three more letters to the alphabet (Garden, Honey, and Indian Corn). Redwork Santas and Blackwork Angels are in plenty of time for Christmas stitching, and Christmas Strawberries make great ornaments or needlework trinkets.

I had to be one of the first ones in the country to get the new Silk N Colors from The Thread Gatherer, and they're such great colors. They are $5.40 a skein, and make great stash enhancements. The new colors are: Birthday Confetti, Blue Cotton Frocks, Cherub Cheeks, Coffee'd Calico, Dragon's Breath, Honeysuckle White, Hummingbirds & Hollyhocks, Linsey-Woolsey, Moon Flax, New England Berries, Rose Briar, Swedish Blue and White, Vintage Violets, Whippoorwill Lane, Windwhistle Cottage.

What else is new? You're just going to have to keep checking back to Theresa's Basket at http://www.shakespearespeddler.com/basket.html to see. I'm waiting for new designs from Barrick Samplers, Bent Creek, Brightneedle (boy, these are cute!), Chessie & Me, The Drawn Thread (coming in September), Ewe & Eye & Friends, Examplars from the Heart, Fanci That, Heart in Hand, The Heart's Content, Homespun Elegance, The Just Cross Stitch 2002 Ornament Issue, Just Nan, Mirabilia, Moss Creek Designs, SamSarah, Shepherd's Bush (charts will be here this week, kits in September), Sisters & Best Friends, Threads Through Time, Twisted Threads, The Victoria Sampler and more. New Sampler Thread colors will also be here soon. I post new things often during August and September, so bookmark the basket.

If you have anything you'd like to pre-order (like the Shepherd's Bush kits, which can be viewed on their site at http://www.shepherdsbush.net or the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue), just let me know. I'll be happy to put you on a list.

I've been working on updating my designers' listings on my site. A lot of them had broken or outdated links. Some designs were taken off the site if they're not too popular anymore. Hopefully this will make your shopping/browsing easier. It's good to clean house every few years -- eek. And, I've also added Hog River and Eastside Moulding Frame prices next to designs which call for those. I have two distributors for those, and they're such nice frames.

It's been fun for me getting to know some of the local needleworkers here in Fargo. I'm finding out that there are some holes in what local shops are carrying, such as needlepoint canvases and transfer patterns, so I'm planning on adding those here in the shop. It's also fun to see what my Fargo customers like to stitch. I'm selling a lot of the little Mill Hill kits, like boxes, bags, and perforated paper designs. They've been tickled to find designs and products they've never seen before, so it's fun for me to share their excitement.

I hope you all have a wonderful August. And have fun stitching!

© 2007 Theresa Venette. Articles on this site may be reproduced in needlework group newsletters or other handouts with permission of author and proper attribution. Send questions, comments and suggestions to: xspeddler@yahoo.com