There are several extremely hard-to-find and highly desired class charts by Merry Cox, CA Wells, Lauren Sauer, The Examplarery, Catherine Theron, Maureen Appleton, Ruth Sparrow, and others available on eBay right now from a very reputable seller.
They are listed as Buy-It-Now, so grab them while you can! 
Quite a number of Merry Cox class charts are available from one of the most reputable sellers I know. Note: Only one chart is available — the original class chart — for each of the designs listed for sale … So if you’re interested, don’t hesitate!
Available are charts from kits you can only get if you take that particular class with Merry Cox (who is the very highly sought after designer behind From Merry’s Heart, known both for her wonderful stitching designs — most of which include lovely specialty stitches — and her fantastic finishing instructions for reproduction-style needlework smalls) — or by taking your chances on eBay.
For most people, taking a class with Merry means expenses which also include travel, hotel, and food costs; Merry’s teaching fee; guild fees; etc. I’ve paid anywhere from $500 to $1,000 US dollars — in addition to kit expenses — to take classes with Merry Cox myself. Therefore, in my opinion, these charts are bargains, especially for non-US stitchers. A small number are charts from kits you can purchase directly from Merry — but only by attending a class with her (and then only if she happens to have that particular kit with her at that time; many stitchers who’ve taken classes with Merry have not been able to get their hands on some of these designs because Merry just doesn’t always have everything with her at every class … ).
Quite a number of the charts on the list are from Merry’s “older” repertoire of teaching pieces; i.e., when she does teach a class nowadays, she usually teaches a newer piece, meaning the availability of many of these charts is becoming rarer as time passes.
Furthermore, Merry Cox has cut “way back” (her words) on her own traveling and teaching schedule in order to spend more time with her family (in fact, she is currently referring to herself as “semi-retired — NOT RETIRED!!!”), so the opportunity to take a class with her at all is definitely becoming even more limited than it already has been.
The seller is a personal friend of mine (whom I first encountered by being a regular eBay customer of hers; these days, she tends to avoid eBay since eBay has raised various fees to ridiculous amounts in a way which takes terrible advantage of both bidders/buyers and sellers — at least in my opinion and hers). I can personally assure you she is a trustworthy person to purchase anything from; I would never hesitate to buy anything I wanted from her. If you’re at all interested in Merry Cox charts, especially if you are unable to attend a class in person with Merry Cox, you cannot go wrong if you choose to buy from this person.
All charts include the excellent finishing instructions Merry is so well known for, as well as good photographs of both the finished stitching and the finishing steps. (The seller will be able to verify for certain if a particular chart lists the exact fibers and fabric Merry used for the stitching portion of the design; I do know most of Merry’s charts do contain this information.) The fabric Merry chooses for finishing the design into a needlework small is usually not named in her charts; however, it is often well photographed so you could probably find something very similar if not even the identical finishing fabric. Of course, there is nothing requiring a stitcher to finish a design the same way a designer does. 
Many of Merry’s designs would make absolutely stunning framed samplers if you’d rather not attempt the finishing work. (Or, I happen to know an excellent finisher, too, who is familiar with finishing most Merry Cox designs and might well be able to help you come very close to a duplicate of what Merry intended when she designed her piece.)
I can also absolutely guarantee these charts are originals. The person selling these would NEVER sell copies. Period.
If you’ve been reading Independent Needlework News for any length of time, you already know quite well exactly how I feel about copyright laws. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to explain the importance of following copyright laws (to the handful of individuals who don’t think it matters just how important it is to do so), and specifically with respect to the needlework industry if we want to continue to see the designers we love continue to publish new designs.
With that in mind …
♥ Lastly, without getting into too many personal details, I can say my friend is selling these charts for a dedicated Merry Cox stitcher who decided to part with these charts only after being unable to pay even the first half of her annual real estate tax bill. Although purchasing any these charts won’t count as a tax write-off for you, it will help a stitcher in need keep a roof over her and her family’s head … and give her that peace we all seek while feeling the floss flow through the fabric. ♥
Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum has announced (through her Yahoo group in message 86618): “with great pleasure … that Beth Katz has become the new owner of Told in a Garden, Lavender & Lace, and Butternut Road” — all of which are accessible through the same website (Told in a Garden at http://tiag.com) as in the past.
This restructuring of the selling of Marilyn’s lovely designs, which began in October, has apparently fueled rumors of her retirement. All such rumors are completely false. Per Marilyn herself in the same message, “I will never stop until I am done.”
Beth and Marilyn are still working to get everything organized just exactly the way they want things to be on the website and with the new business setup. In the meantime, stitchers are asked to continue supporting their nearest local needlework shops to obtain her designs and the necessary supplies for stitching them. Doing so will help Marilyn and Beth out a lot by allowing them to focus on keeping up with the larger orders from distributors.
However, should you have questions about a particular design, or if you have difficulty locating a pattern, orders for Marilyn’s designs may be directed through the Customer Service link on her website.
Over the last few months, several of you have asked me if I know what happened to Sage Stitchworks. I’m sorry, but I don’t.
Never fear, however … I have another seller I can highly recommend to you for obtaining a similar — and I think even better! — product.
For some time — too long, in fact — I have been planning to tell you about another company which provides absolutely gorgeous Victorian Motto kits. I owe an apology to the owner of the shop and company, Nancy Turner, because she even wrote me an email in which she pretty much wrote a very short article for me. I prefer to write my own articles, so I did not take advantage of her email at the time, but my health has just never gotten back to what it was before my kidneys failed. It’s really difficult for me to admit that there are things I simply can’t do anymore, or can’t do as well or as quickly as I could do them before … but I have to learn first to accept that I’ve probably made as full a recovery as I’m going to, and secondly to accept the help that’s offered to me so graciously.
Nancy Turner has successfully owned and operated her store, The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe, through eBay (as an eBay store) for going on four years now.
I actually purchased four or perhaps even one or two more of Nancy’s mottos from her about nine months before she wrote me asking that I advertise her shop here on Independent Needlework News. I was so impressed with both her service and her products that I fully intended to write an unsolicited review of her shop for my readers. (In other words, when I made my purchase from her was sometime very shortly before my kidney failure as well as my husband’s own stay in the hospital; I had intended to make up these motto kits as holiday gifts for 2007, and I can tell you that I was ordering them at a point in the year I would normally consider “too late” for starting a needlework gift — much less a needlework gift for each family member, LOL — but I knew how fast these mottos would stitch up and that the timeframe was actually feasible.) However, due to my unexpected illness and the slow recovery from it, the discombobulation of dealing with my husband’s illness at the same time, and our deep grief over the sudden loss of my father-in-law, I ended up putting all Nancy’s lovely motto kits aside for another time.
I’m glad I did, too, because when I picked them up again, I could really enjoy them instead of their being unfairly (for them) associated in time with such a difficult emotional period in my life.
But back to the review … as you’ll notice when you look around Nancy’s shop, she has a very wide range of wonderful motto kits for you to choose from. Everything from reproduction style Victorian mottos to kits exemplifying modern-day humor. I’m quite sure you’ll find something there which will tickle your fancy, and if you don’t find just the right thing, then you’ll get an idea of what you’d like to have. From that point forward, all you need to do is contact Nancy, who I know will be happy to work with you to create just the motto you have in mind. She says designing a new motto from start to finish (once she has the idea for what it should say in mind) generally takes about eight hours, and she really loves doing this — not just for herself, but for you, too!
If you have all the threads you could possibly want to work with already, and thus would rather not purchase a full kit, ask Nancy about purchasing the “pattern only.” I put “pattern only” in quotation marks because what you’ll get if you choose this option is the design drawn for you on the perforated paper so that it’s easy to work; it’s not quite the same as what we counted cross stitchers usually tend to think of when we think of a pattern or chart only vs. a full kit. 
This is what I did, and Nancy was extremely accommodating — the pricing for the kits I wanted to purchase became just affordable enough to fit within my budget.
On the other hand, don’t be afraid to give Nancy’s stunning hand-dyed threads a try. They are her own brand, and over the years, she has perfected them to achieve just the look you want for your old-fashioned-looking, “antiqued” motto samplers. Although I elected to kit up my own threads to work my motto kits with, Nancy sent along a couple skeins of her threads as a treat, and they are truly spectacular. I was extremely impressed with their softness and sheen, not to mention with the colors. I’ve read reviews written by a few other people — at least one of whom wasn’t interested in the motto kits but ran across her fibers and wanted to try them — that have been very, very positive.
I decided to push myself to get this article written early in May because I had popped into Nancy’s shop for a visit and noticed she is having a wonderful sale for the entire month of May:
I can assure you this is a wonderful deal because these kits are terrifically addictive. They work up so quickly and look so gorgeous. Not only do you end up with a masterpiece you’ll cherish forever — or something you can work up in a flash that will be a much appreciated gift — but you’ll be eager to start the next one after experiencing the closest thing to instant gratification there is in the stitching world. When you’ve done everything Nancy already has available, you’ll be coming up with witty sayings for her to design into kits for you, and none of us will ever run out of things to stitch again (oh, wait … did we ever have that problem? )
Also, Nancy’s husband makes the absolutely beautiful frames you see her pieces framed in (Nancy stains them to individual customers’ requested colors), and these, too, can be purchased through her shop for a very reasonable price. For instance, the piece below, Scatter Smiles, is a complete kit available including the frame, for only $43.99!
Most of the frames range from $59.00 to $79.00 and one of the nice things about them is that you can buy one frame and change the design in it throughout the year to suit your fancy.
Nancy also does other great deals, such as offering wholesale prices if you buy ten or more kits. So hurry on over to her shop and see what you’ve just got to have! You’ve even got time to order and stitch something for everyone on your list for Mother’s Day!
Now that you’ve finished your taxes and gotten a good night’s sleep, it’s time to celebrate with a little (or a LOT) of good S.E.X. (by S.E.X., I mean “stash enhancement experience,” of course … but if you wish to enjoy the other kind, too, then by all means, ENJOY! ) at the online Needlework Show, which actually opened yesterday and runs through midnight on Monday, April 20th (but don’t wait until the last minute to place your order; please give the shop[s] you choose to order through plenty of time to order what you want for you).
Although the online Needlework Show is a wholesale show, so you’ll have to put together a list and give it to a participating shop to order for you, there’s not much better than being able to find out about the latest and greatest needlework patterns and products on the market — even while wearing your pajamas if you so choose!
Participating fully in the online Needlework Show is one of the most important things we stitchers can do to show our support for the designers, the shops, the manufacturers, and every other part of this industry we love so much. Not only is it the absolute BEST opportunity we stitchers have to find out what is actually available in the needlework market, but this is also our chance to let store owners know exactly which of those available products we want and will buy if we can just get our eager mitts on them.
All other needlework markets are a guessing game for store owners, and all of those other needlework markets limit us stitchers, too — due to the fact that we may never get to see any number of designs and products that were offered, but that the shop owners decided not to purchase because they thought they might not sell. Since the online Needlework Show doesn’t just allow for but actually encourages stitchers’ input, it’s no longer a guessing game for shop owners as far as what they should buy. As long as we stitchers do our job by looking through the online Needlework Show and communicating with the shop owners, a significant amount of the risk shop owners take on when they purchase products is actually eliminated — because we’ve already promised them what we’re going to buy.
In other words, it’s my opinion as a stitcher that it’s my obligation to check out this show each time it rolls around, and then to provide my wish list, suggestions, and so on to my favorite shops. This is something substantial I can do — all by myself! — to keep this entire industry in business.
I’ve also found the online Needlework Show is a superb opportunity to interact with many of the designers, most of whom seem to welcome being contacted by us stitchers, especially during this show, with questions, suggestions, compliments, etc.
You also won’t want to miss the large variety of opportunities to win or download free patterns or products. These are available on various individual designers’ pages throughout the show, and also by completing the activities available on The Fun Page. Many of the contests can be entered daily, so make notes, and check back each day for more chances to win!
Unfortunately, my own actual local shop has so far refused to have anything to do with the online Needlework Show. (In fact, my local shop has pretty much refused to have anything to do with being online, and is pretty much in business only because she’s turned primarily into a yarn store. 
) However, I still try to utilize the online Needlework Show each time it rolls around to help my local shop owner improve her business by stopping in to her shop to try to get her to at least take a look at the online Needlework Show — while I’m there in the store. I haven’t been successful yet, and I wouldn’t be being honest if I didn’t admit I’m really losing patience with her. I don’t buy much from her anymore because she simply refuses to meet my stitching wishes, much less my stitching “needs.” But I keep trying because I keep hoping perhaps she’ll change her mind … that perhaps if she’d just take a look at what’s out there, if she’d just listen to me as a customer, things might change for the better.
If your local shop isn’t one of the participating retailers in the show, you might want to try having a similar chat with them (and hopefully you’ll be more successful because hopefully your shop owner will be more open-minded). In the meantime, you still won’t miss out; there are plenty of participating shops to choose from to place your order(s). You can even spread the wealth if you want to by ordering from more than one shop!
So, what treasures have you discovered in this online Needlework Show? Come back here to Independent Needlework News and let me know what you’ve just GOT to have!
Also, let me know which shop(s) you chose to order from — and why?
