An Exciting Announcement + Show near Limoges

Hello to you!

Today, Thursday, March 21st, I'll be on the road for Limoges, or more precisely even setting up my stand at the Landouges show.

After the article about the colour Green last week, and having celebrated St. Patrick's Day on March 17th (a decidedly very green holiday that coincided perfectly with the article in question), this week I'm going to present this show and it's details, announce a very exciting bit of news for me, and give you a little nugget for the week ...

Show in Landouges

This will be my first participation at this show, situated in the Haute Vienne regiom. It's the 9 th edition for the Au fil de L'Aurence association. This year's theme is Once upon a Time - Tales and Fables.

I can't wait to see my friends again and meet new or old stitching friends again!

During this fair you'll be able to see a communal piece that the association have stitched since the last show. A cross-stitch reproduction, a chromolithography on advertising inserts in Limoges from the nineteenth century, in partnership with the Municipal Archives of Limoges.

There'll be many designers and stands: Creative, Specialized shops will offer everything necessary to create, stitch and make various embroidery techniques, knitting, cardboarding, and basically everything related to your manual hobby. You'll find the complete list of exhibitors here.
There'll also be workshops that you can attend, among others  Jour d'Angles , Réticello, Ribbon Embroidery, Sashiko, Boutis, knitting .....

It's going to be great!


During this show I'll be exhibiting and selling  my cross stitch and blackwork creations, my  hand dyed embroidery canvases, a range of  the Fils Atalie, my new hand dyed tote bags and 
my tinted hoop frames .. one of my new ranges for 2019!

Exciting Announcement!

It's been a while since I've been planning on doing this and I was constantly putting off starting through fear of not being ready or being able to do it. But this week I officially launched my Podcast: Cross Stitch, Colour & Wellness.

A podcast, for those who don't know, is like a blog but it's recorded by voice. It can be a conversation alone, between two or more people around a subject. There are thousands on a wide variety of topics. I like to listen when I'm dyeing my fabric and threads  .. you learn so many things and you do two things at once! For the moment I've published two episodes that you can listen here: Episode 1 and Episode 2

It would make me very happy to know what you think and if you enjoyed listening to these first two episodes.
I plan a lot of episodes on embroidery and well-being, colour and all sorts of things about, creativity, women and how to shine as a woman in this world.
I'll also invite my colleagues and friends to do interviews ... it'll be great! If you have ideas or topics that you would like me to address, please send me an email to tometlily@hotmail.com or through messenger, I'm open eared!

I would also love you to subscribe to this podcast either on, Anchor, Spotify or I Tunes!

Message of the Day!

Similar to Winston Churchill's quote about apples, this message has been adapted for all the stitchers out there! Stitching has been proved to improve your health!

Have a great week full of crosses, colour and light!

Happy Stitching!
Melanie
xxxxxx

Pexiora and Leaving My Comfort Zone + New Product

Hello!

Today marks the  end of February! Already yes ... we've had an extremely mild winter here in France so far with very warm temperatures .. we've had the impression that winter is over already and that we're already in spring. It's very nice and truly beautiful days but it disturbs me because the weather is changing and nature is turned upside down .

First of all, I wanted to warmly welcome all the news stitchers to my newsletter. Some of you may be visiting here for the first time. Thank you for following me and I encourage you to comment and support me by coming every week! I want this blog to be a place of sharing and a safe and comfortable community for all.

Pexiora Show

This weekend I spent three days in the village of Pexiora, between Carcassonne and Castelnaudary in the South of France. We celebrated the 10th anniversary of the La Passion au Bout des Doigts association, during this fair .. and it was a great party!

There were many visitors already on the first day (and the others following) and we were very hot ..even in February!

SOURCE

My Stand

The salon of Pexiora was my first show of the year 2019. For those who are used to coming to see me at shows, you can see that I've changed the background colour of my stand.

I usually have a champagne beige backdrop, but this year I've opted for a very soft blue jean.

I like it and I think the stitched pieces stand out well on this background, but it disturbed us during the installation! We just couldn't progress and felt stuck! 

Comfort Zone

Like with any changes it can disrupt your mind, stepping out of your usual zone of comfort too. Despite the fact that it's not that easy at all ... we must push ourselves to do it because that's where the magic operates. This is where we get the results we want and even results that lay beyond our expectations.

From something that may seem negative (leaving something known and comfortable) comes something really positive. Try to get out of your comfort zone to reach one of your dreams ... live your life even better with an open mind, you'll come out even more confident and positive!

By opening yourself up to the world, expanding your knowledge, your curiosity and your experiences you'll really discover who you are and what you love in life and what is important to you.

Remember this quote the next time you stop yourself from evolving! Become the actor of your life and not the spectator!

Embroidery Contest - Pexiora

During this show there was a contest (there's one for each edition), with a birthday theme. There were some great creations in competition .. and it was very hard to choose 3 winners .. you can see all the entries here on the blog of the association .. Which ones would you have chosen?

I voted for someone who will recognise herself here. Her stitched piece was very colourful and you know  how much I love colour!

Congratulations to all the participants ..To see who the winners are have a look here: 

New - Tote Bags

At this show I presented a new range of coloured products. These are my hand dyed Tote Bags.
These cotton bags are designed for shopping and re-usable to infinity and beyond! I imagine them very well as a creative work bag for you to carry your embroidery around everywhere with you.

There are 9 colours and each bag is unique.

Here are some pictures and the link to my site to see the whole collection.

28th February 2019

This day also sounds the end of the month of the SAL 365 Tree of Life .. We've already stitched 59 leaves and our trees are starting to grow! If you want to join us, that's great! I'd love to see your tree of life come alive alongside ours!

There's still time to join in, share this year with stitchers from all over the world. Make 2019 your year, full of intention and self-love and care.

https://bit.ly/2Eg1aDu


Have a wonderful week full of little crosses, colours and light!

Happy Stitching!

Melanie

xxxxxx

New, New and Oh New!

Hello!

Yes it's me again .. and yes "it's already Thursday!" Time goes so fast doesn't it ?!

This week I'm going to show you some new blackwork embroidery designs, a new hand dyed thread colour, show you some pictures of the progress of the Tree of Life 365 day SAL, and announce a great show that I'll be doing soon and where we could meet!

New Blackwork Designs

It has been a while since these embroidery hoops were finished but I haven't had the opportunity to present them to you yet. Following on from the Spring and Summer Hoops, here are the Autumn and Winter Hoops.  This closes the 4 seasons of the year.

Autumn & Winter Hoops

Spring & Summer Hoops

The charts and kits for these designs are available here: https://bit.ly/2MRlrkO and here: https://bit.ly/2HYsE3S

New Thread

A new Atalie thread was born during the month of January. I had a lot of pleasure creating it. I wanted to add a royal blue to the collection. Here is Lazuli! ...I'll let you in on a secret there are others in preparation!

Lazuli

The Lazuli thread is available here:  https://bit.ly/2SfPk4h


New Show

 I know, i know this isn't a new show ... it's quite the contrary! This year  La Passion au Bout des Doigts club celebrates it's 10th birthday! I'm really pleased to participate in this show and to be able to present you all my new designs and threads, at the end of February. More info will come.

New Month

The SAL 365 Tree of Life has really taken off! We are 71 registered ...for now, I say for now because there are new ladies signing up every day and registration can be done throughout the year.

January passed very quickly, in part thanks to the good mood in the group! Here are some pictures of the participants month of January!

January Winners

Every month I want to reward stitchers who have participated and are up to date with their leaves ... a little bit of extra motivation to encourage them on. I'm also giving a small gift to the stitcher who participates the most in the group with her posts, photos, comments and support for the other ladies.


The lady who's name was drawn out of the hat is MAURA!

Maura's Tree of Life - Holland

The best contributor for Januray is JANET!

Best Contributor - Janet - England

Congratulations to both of you ... your prizes are on the way!


Would you be tempted to join us for the SAL 365 Temperature with this year's Tree of Life chart? One leaf per day to cross-stitch, colour depending on the temperature outside. At the end of the year you'll have embroidered a tree of life unique to you, made stitching friends all over the world, all that whilst doing yourself good!

All info is here: https://bit.ly/2Eg1aDu

See you next week for another article on embroidery, colour and well-being! In the meantime, have a wonderful week!

Happy Stitching!
Melanie
xxxxxx

Mushrooms, Squirrels or Falling Leaves...

Hello friends!


Do you like this heat? .. It's summer after all, but 38 degrees during the day and 33 at night takes it's toll doesn't it?!

In addition I don't need to explain that working in the heat isn't easy at all!

Since my last article, my sister and her family have arrived for 5 weeks holidays! Not at all obvious for me to be able to work with all the distractions that that entails..so I do the minimum and I enjoy the beach and my family..I'll have time to catch up later ...


Hoop Competition

In my last article I made a cry for help to find themes for my next two creations. Not many of you participated, but those that did gave me some very interesting and varied answers!


Autumn Hoop

There were a lot of proposals in common, among which Mushrooms, Squirrels, Chestnuts and Leaves seemed popular

I had a long think and I believe that leaves will be very pretty, embroidered with blackwork using beautiful autumnal colours ..

Winter Hoop

For the winter theme, I immediately knew that it was going to be fir trees! An internal intuition in me that it was the good one!


Winners

The name of all those who had proposed either the leaves or the fir trees (well everyone really!!) were put in a bowl, and Maisy, my niece drew the winners .. one for each hoop ...

Cheeky Little Maisy !

SO...For the Autumn hoop,  the winner is Mamité.
For the winter hoop it's Didine! Congratulations to both of you! Please send me your mailing address to receive your charts.please be aware that the designs havn't been designed yet, so it will take a little time!


August Promotion

For the month of August you can take advantage of my promo AOUT15, in the shop and benefit from -15% on any purchase ...

THANK YOU

Thank you for your encouragement and nice comments..I love to write for you and without you I wouldn't be able to! Please share this article, or talk about my blog with your embroidery friends and help me make Tom & Lily Creations known ... a solo entrepreneur..made in France!

Happy Stitching!


Melanie

xxxxxx