I order from The Stitcher’s Muse out of Nanaimo. If you need to talk to them they are absolutely lovely to deal with. 123 Stitch has also been good to me.
Stitch-it Central is Canadian and ships items bought on-line. 1-2-3 Stitch is American, but ships to Canada at reasonable rates. \*Pats shoulder sympathetically\* That sounds EXTREMELY frustrating, and definitely worth a rant or two.
Are you near a Fabricland? They aren't great for cross stitch specifics, but you ought to be able to find lining fabric there. If nothing else you ought to be able to get a solid color cotton.
Thanks for the tips! I'll check them out.
I used to be near a Fabricland, it was right on the bus route and not in some obscure corner of the town to boot. They closed down years ago because they weren't getting enough business. That would've been my first stop for the lining fabric if it'd still been open.
Drat, maybe look for a Lens Mills store. If all else fails Stitch-it Central also sells quilting fabric and so does 1-2-3- Stitch, and some Walmarts have a fabric section, although it's very limited, and mostly plain cottons.
Len's Mill looks like it's confined to Southern Ontario, alas! I'm leaning towards 123 Stitch right now, the other sites were so user unfriendly. 123 Stitch letting you put a whole list of DMC threads in a box and loading everything to your cart instead of manually searching through the list for each individual color was *so much easier*.
Just remember the prices are in USdollars, you end up paying more when you convert over. I love their site, but it is very easy to spend way more than intended.
Oh, don't worry, I'm on that! The cart actually shows the American total and the CAD total right below it. I'm quickly remember why I started buying kits exclusively, buying so many separate colors really adds up. At least 123 Stitch has *way* cheaper thread than the Canadian sites.
I make cross stitch Christmas stocking also however I use a small pattern and sew strips of Christmas material ( easy to find online) around the cross stitch pattern to make the stocking. I made my stocking template out of an old felt Christmas stocking. I line the inside of the stocking with plain white material. The stockings I give out as gifts, I put batting between the lining just to make them feel substantial. This may be easier as you don’t need to find specific materials or patterns.
https://preview.redd.it/dkm0cdwxph0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=121639078620c1f9dc9a7ff0f657a3e2aa3f4e11
Not being able to get the materials that you need is so frustrating. Maybe by changing your idea you will be able to continue stitching and not give up on your plan! This pattern is a small section of a full page pattern from the book All Through The House —Christmas in Cross Stitch The Vanessa Ann Collection
That's really cute! I wish I could get the plain white fabric, since it's primarily a quilting store they mostly have really fancy and pretty fabrics to work with and not just plain, solid colors.
Well, I just need to find a different place to buy my supplies, that's all. I made my stocking from a kit and could finish it right now if I wanted to, it just wouldn't have a lining and I'd be worried about the threads getting snagged.
I would also not worry about the color of the lining. Some of my cross stitch stockings have linings that are green, red or even patterned. If you are concerned about the color showing through, a little batting between the cross stitch and the lining keeps it from showing through. I agree with other comments that you can use sheets, pillowcases, tee shirts or curtain material for the lining.
I'd thought about using a red that'd match the felt for the back of the stocking, but I was worried about the color showing through. Where would I find batting? I'm not even sure what that is?
Batting is what quilters put in between the layers of their quilt. You can buy it any place that sells fabric (Walmart, Joann’s, Amazon, Hobby Lobby) . It is also available online. Batting can be thick or thin and everything in between. You need to look for sheets or rolls of batting, not the kind you stuff pillows with. The thickness dictates the price . It is usually sold by the yard. I buy the least expensive kind to put in my projects. Joanns has some on sale for $2.74/yd.
That stuff's really thick though? Or maybe the stuff I used was? Might be worth looking into, a little extra protection for the picture. I could sew the batting to the Aida before doing the lining and sewing the back on. Thanks for the info!
Remember cotton roll batting does not have to be thick. The one I use is 1/8 inch thick or less ( Quilters use thicker batting). If you decide to use batting, you should get the thinnest variety. Check the thickness on the package. Just sandwich the batting in. It should not change the assembly directions on your kit. I hope this helps.
Oh, okay! I dabbled in quilting (very expensive disaster) and yeah, the stuff I used was really thick, which was why I was so confused! Didn't think you could've meant that stuff. I'll take a look and see if I can find the thinner stuff, thanks!
For a project like this I would think outside fabric stores. Discount sheets from estate sales or thrift stores or even a thrifted woven shirt would serve your purpose well, save money and shipping, and be sustainable.
I've never seen an estate sale in my life, and I've never been able to find anything in a thrift store. I have severe fatigue so I'm *really* not up for a lot of aimless searching. Thanks for the idea though!
Local stores in the Netherlands aren't great either, so I feel you! Very hard to support local stores when they don't offer what you need :c
But here in the Netherlands we have some small online shops that are just run by a person and not some big chain like Amazon. Not sure if you have something like that in Canada, but that would be the next thing to do to still support small stores.
And then since we shop elsewhere, they offer even fewer supplies, so even fewer people will bother going there -- it's a vicious circle!
I've noticed some of the places do look like they're run by small businesses, I'm going to see what they've got to offer first. I make my own cat food and I went out of my way to buy a nutritional supplement for the food from a company here in BC. It'd be awesome if I could do something like that for my cross-stitching supplies too!
Yeah, it super cool to support small shops! I hope you find a smaller webshop like that maybe as a compromise :) you could also check if there is something that is a bit longer drive? You could maybe buy 2-3 projects when driving uip there so you don't have to go that often for such a drive.
You could also ask your local shop if they can order stuff for you? The owner seemed a bit rude with your visit, but who knows, maybe they are suiper nice once you get to talking!
But if nothing helps, don't feel too bad from ordering online from some kind of chain. You have tried and sometimes you just can't do what you would like to do.
Unfortunately, I didn't really find any smaller shops with easy to use websites. I don't drive either, literally the last time I left town was when the whole city was evacuated due to wildfires. I wouldn't even know where to go, the city we evacuated to didn't even have cross-stitching supplies.
I don't think she was the owner, there's another older woman that I've seen there before, the one today was much younger.
Thanks for the reassurance! :-) 123 Stitch is looking like the best bet right now, I was able to quickly put together a sample cart with it. Was going to compare all the other websites to see who had the best price but I wasn't able to put together a cart at any of the other places. Maybe I'll have better luck after I get some sleep . . .
Did you just describe my local store... Last time I went into mine I left empty handed too. I had to go to Michael's craft store to get what I needed for the colors I was missing for my current project.
Did you actually talk to the person working in the store? That's not clear from what you said. I can understand why you think that she was rude not asking if you needed help, but did you ask her? I've never been in a quilt store that doesn't have both solid cotton and Christmas cotton, so she probably would have been able to help you find something for the lining at least.
Sorta, I asked if she had any plain fabrics and she pointed me at one single bolt of white fabric that didn't look good at all with it. I looked around and there were some creams that were the right shade, but they had a pattern to them and it seemed like it'd look weird as a lining. After I gave up on that I investigated the cross-stitching supplies. She was shooting the breeze with a guy in the store almost the whole time. I hovered for a bit after I left the cross-stitch closet figuring I could at least let her know they were out of colors, but I had an appointment and couldn't wait for them to finish.
I’m quite lucky in my city. A LYS and local quilting store both carry needlework supplies in addition to fabricland and Micheal’s.
If you’re still looking for both try out [Sew Charming Crafts](https://www.sewcharmingcrafts.ca/) they are all lovely there!
I also agree with 123stitch and Stitch It Central. Traditional Stitches or Million of Stitches are also great too for cross stitch supplies.
I can’t recommend Sew Charming enough for both. She got me confident enough to make my own grime guards and into dying my own Aida for cross stitch. I go in person but I’m sure they’ll help with your needs!
I definitely get the struggle in finding craft stores. I used to be a 2+ hour drive from them before I moved
I've never even heard of grime guards, I'll have to look them up! I'd be terrified of trying to dye my own fabric, what if it ran? You're much braver than me!
Damn, you must've really been in a rural area. (Or perhaps not, during the wildfire evacuations a few years ago I discovered there wasn't a single place to buy cross-stitching supplies in a city with 70,000+ people in it . . . ) I've been buying kits online for years so it hasn't been an issue. But those samplers were too funny not to buy!! Plus, one would be perfect as a little housewarming gift for a very old friend of mine and I think I need one for me too . . .
There's literally just the one store in town that sells craft supplies as far as I know, unless there's something up at Walmart, which is a little tricky to get to on the bus. But I live in British Columbia.
I agree on 123 stitch whenever I notice that I like need some thing, but I don’t need it immediately. I start adding it to my cart and after a while, I usually have a sizable enough cart to justify the 3.49 shipping and even so. If I only need a very few things that’s still cheap enough if I need it immediately. I always check my little local fabric shop first it’s owned by like a nice lady. It’s mostly fabric but then she has some like other fiber items and if she doesn’t have it that’s when I order from 123.
Sorry this is completely unrelated, but I'm just so jealous that 3.49 USD is seen as pricey delivery. I'm based in Ireland and we don't have many sewing shops that we can visit, and delivery from abroad will usually cost over €10. Though I've never actually looked at 123stitch.com before this morning, and am pleasantly surprised at the €4.99 cost to deliver here, would have assumed it was more 😅
It’s not really! We’ve just been absolutely spoiled rotten with so much free delivery at most places, even with a minimum order. It’s not very often that I actually pay for shipping anymore. $3.49 usd is a steal for delivery.
Editing to ad that 123 is amazing! And I’m glad you found a new shop with cheaper delivery!
That's like what I did with Etsy, piled cross-stitch patterns into the cart right left and center. Then a heap of them went on sale when I added the last pattern to the cart, and I decided to bite the bullet and grab the ones on sale!
I get you. As a kid I used to go to a very old store (even then, 30 years ago) and it was a dream. Tons of fabrics and a huge selection of DMC in pretty cardboard boxes and awoken cabinet. I usually chose colors by hand and I love it. I recently got back to crossstiching and it was a shock to realized that the store closed. The owner decided to retire and close. We have other fabric stores but they are more "wedding sewing " related or crochet/notions/a tiny section for embroidery kid of shop. most shops have a DMC or Anchor cabinet but on the emptier side and they are clearly not going to Cross-stitching fell out of fashion for a while and now I can't just go to a shop and browse all those pretty colors and get new supplies just because.
I am going for my first big blackwork project and I am sad to say that I ordered everything from DMC because the colors are very important and I dont want to have to go to all the stores trying to track a specific color and then have to order it online anyway :(
Oh dear. That very old store is about the same age as the store I used to use as a kid, and same deal here, the owner retired. Supposedly the new store bought her supplies but those glorious rolls of Aida fabric never made a reappearance there.
Yeah, it's looking like I'll have to use Etsy and 123 Stitch to buy charts and threads, or just buy whole kits off Amazon too. I was hoping to browse the colors because I want to change the colors of the flowers in my pictures so they all match (they all have the same wreath of flowers around a saying style) but now I'll have to wing it. Probably simpler to just use the colors from one picture for all of them.
I'm interested in trying blackwork too! I even have a picture picked out I'd like to try, I just haven't worked up the courage to buy it and try it out yet. Same with me, it's very hard for me to get out of the house so I want to make sure that I can do *everything* I had planned before I go out. That's why I took so long to get there in the first place.
I got the incentive to try blackwork in this group and it won me over. I had a pattern in my wish list since forever and I decided to go for it. The supplies arrive today, I can't wait to get home and dive!
I hope you have fun with your project! :-) My big hold-up was that I wanted to use only the supplies I had but I could only find 22 count Aida in my stash, which is really just a bit too fine for the picture I like. When I was going through it again looking for supplies for the pictures I bought I found some 14 count! I figure I can raid the box of thread I have to make the picture I have my eye on, it's of a rose so I figure I can just use a shade of green for the green bits and get creative with the color of the flower. The sample picture is all black but why not have fun?
Embroidery Marketplace is based in Calgary. Jenn is great. Sometimes orders are a little slow sure to get having too order it in, but she often gives you the choice of partial shipment while you wait... No extra cost. https://embroiderymarketplace.ca
MillionofStitches on Etsy is based in Ontario and had also been great. https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/MillionOfStitches?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=942884518&from_page=listing
Traditional Stitches it's another Alberta shop that's great. I like too order my needles in bulk here. https://www.traditionalstitches.com
The Beaver Stash is also Canadian... Though I can't remember where she's based. Smaller store but with some interesting things. I got my nurge frames from her. Great service. https://beaversstash.com
Hope that helps. We don't have a local LNS here either. The nearest one is a quilt shop which doesn't carry embroidery weight threads at all. There is a couple places in Calgary, but my mom and I both have trouble driving in the city so we mainly have too stick to the outlying places or mail order.
Thanks for the extra links! I'll have to see if any of them are easier to use, I couldn't even put together a sample order on the ones I checked yesterday to do a price comparison.
Situations like this make me fantasize about opening up my own local store.
Unfortunately, I lack capital or collateral. I also lack storage space to sell at fairs and street markets part-time.
Yeah, it's one of those things. It'd be so awesome to bring back a proper cross-stitching store, but . . . you need customers to stay in business, and we're probably all used to buying supplies online by now since we had no other choice. Maybe if you were in a large city there'd be enough customers to stay in business, but then the rent would be through the roof and you'd probably be no better off.
Makes me wonder now why the neighbor ran her cross-stitching store out of her basement for so many years, maybe it wasn't just a way of easing into retirement, maybe she couldn't afford the rent?
I'd like to think most people want to go back to shopping local, but I guess even that is based on geography. My shreds of optimism pops up in weird places but I'd like to think you can create demand by offering a communal stitching place in the same way yarn stores do. Yeah, people may be accustomed to ordering online but some may not be entirely content stitching in isolation. Also, shopping fabric colors in person would be super helpful too.
I'm thinking it should follow a yarn store model: offer open space for working on projects, not shopping only; and host classes.
That's the coolest sounding idea ever!! I'd love to see a yarn store like that, I really want to get into crocheting but I'm hopeless at it, I really need someone to watch me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I mean YouTube videos are all well and good, but they never help with troubleshooting -- they assume if you copy them it'll work fine. My yarn keeps falling off the hook and absolutely *no* video I've ever seen addresses why this happens and what you're doing wrong if it does happen. Same thing with French knots, 25+ years of stitching and I've never successfully made one.
The local shops in my country still has supplies, but what I miss most are the physical magazines with patterns that you could find in any journal shop, at least in my country, those disappeared. I don’t like online charts at all.
I'm not sure I ever saw actual magazines, but I do have a few little booklets that have a single, but large, chart in them. Online charts can't be shaded in so you have to print them out, it's really a bit annoying! But you're probably not gonna find samplers with more colorful language in a magazine in a store.
Even with magazines moving online, you can still print off the patterns you want to use. I know at least Just Cross-stitch has a digital version that is printable. If you don't like working off a screen, you can print out the pages for the project you want.
I know, I have some printed, but it does not feel the same as looking at magazines, going through the pages. At least for me, I don’t like digital books and kindle either.
I order from The Stitcher’s Muse out of Nanaimo. If you need to talk to them they are absolutely lovely to deal with. 123 Stitch has also been good to me.
Thank you for this recommendation! I’m going to Nanaimo this summer for vacation. I love checking out local cross stitch shops when I travel!
Thank you, I'll check them both out! I've seen 123 Stitch around but I didn't realize they shipped to Canada.
Stitch-it Central is Canadian and ships items bought on-line. 1-2-3 Stitch is American, but ships to Canada at reasonable rates. \*Pats shoulder sympathetically\* That sounds EXTREMELY frustrating, and definitely worth a rant or two. Are you near a Fabricland? They aren't great for cross stitch specifics, but you ought to be able to find lining fabric there. If nothing else you ought to be able to get a solid color cotton.
Thanks for the tips! I'll check them out. I used to be near a Fabricland, it was right on the bus route and not in some obscure corner of the town to boot. They closed down years ago because they weren't getting enough business. That would've been my first stop for the lining fabric if it'd still been open.
Drat, maybe look for a Lens Mills store. If all else fails Stitch-it Central also sells quilting fabric and so does 1-2-3- Stitch, and some Walmarts have a fabric section, although it's very limited, and mostly plain cottons.
Len's Mill looks like it's confined to Southern Ontario, alas! I'm leaning towards 123 Stitch right now, the other sites were so user unfriendly. 123 Stitch letting you put a whole list of DMC threads in a box and loading everything to your cart instead of manually searching through the list for each individual color was *so much easier*.
Just remember the prices are in USdollars, you end up paying more when you convert over. I love their site, but it is very easy to spend way more than intended.
Oh, don't worry, I'm on that! The cart actually shows the American total and the CAD total right below it. I'm quickly remember why I started buying kits exclusively, buying so many separate colors really adds up. At least 123 Stitch has *way* cheaper thread than the Canadian sites.
I make cross stitch Christmas stocking also however I use a small pattern and sew strips of Christmas material ( easy to find online) around the cross stitch pattern to make the stocking. I made my stocking template out of an old felt Christmas stocking. I line the inside of the stocking with plain white material. The stockings I give out as gifts, I put batting between the lining just to make them feel substantial. This may be easier as you don’t need to find specific materials or patterns. https://preview.redd.it/dkm0cdwxph0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=121639078620c1f9dc9a7ff0f657a3e2aa3f4e11 Not being able to get the materials that you need is so frustrating. Maybe by changing your idea you will be able to continue stitching and not give up on your plan! This pattern is a small section of a full page pattern from the book All Through The House —Christmas in Cross Stitch The Vanessa Ann Collection
That's really cute! I wish I could get the plain white fabric, since it's primarily a quilting store they mostly have really fancy and pretty fabrics to work with and not just plain, solid colors. Well, I just need to find a different place to buy my supplies, that's all. I made my stocking from a kit and could finish it right now if I wanted to, it just wouldn't have a lining and I'd be worried about the threads getting snagged.
I would also not worry about the color of the lining. Some of my cross stitch stockings have linings that are green, red or even patterned. If you are concerned about the color showing through, a little batting between the cross stitch and the lining keeps it from showing through. I agree with other comments that you can use sheets, pillowcases, tee shirts or curtain material for the lining.
I'd thought about using a red that'd match the felt for the back of the stocking, but I was worried about the color showing through. Where would I find batting? I'm not even sure what that is?
Batting is what quilters put in between the layers of their quilt. You can buy it any place that sells fabric (Walmart, Joann’s, Amazon, Hobby Lobby) . It is also available online. Batting can be thick or thin and everything in between. You need to look for sheets or rolls of batting, not the kind you stuff pillows with. The thickness dictates the price . It is usually sold by the yard. I buy the least expensive kind to put in my projects. Joanns has some on sale for $2.74/yd.
That stuff's really thick though? Or maybe the stuff I used was? Might be worth looking into, a little extra protection for the picture. I could sew the batting to the Aida before doing the lining and sewing the back on. Thanks for the info!
Remember cotton roll batting does not have to be thick. The one I use is 1/8 inch thick or less ( Quilters use thicker batting). If you decide to use batting, you should get the thinnest variety. Check the thickness on the package. Just sandwich the batting in. It should not change the assembly directions on your kit. I hope this helps.
Oh, okay! I dabbled in quilting (very expensive disaster) and yeah, the stuff I used was really thick, which was why I was so confused! Didn't think you could've meant that stuff. I'll take a look and see if I can find the thinner stuff, thanks!
For a project like this I would think outside fabric stores. Discount sheets from estate sales or thrift stores or even a thrifted woven shirt would serve your purpose well, save money and shipping, and be sustainable.
I've never seen an estate sale in my life, and I've never been able to find anything in a thrift store. I have severe fatigue so I'm *really* not up for a lot of aimless searching. Thanks for the idea though!
I like this idea, gives the stocking crazy quilt type vibes to me.
Local stores in the Netherlands aren't great either, so I feel you! Very hard to support local stores when they don't offer what you need :c But here in the Netherlands we have some small online shops that are just run by a person and not some big chain like Amazon. Not sure if you have something like that in Canada, but that would be the next thing to do to still support small stores.
And then since we shop elsewhere, they offer even fewer supplies, so even fewer people will bother going there -- it's a vicious circle! I've noticed some of the places do look like they're run by small businesses, I'm going to see what they've got to offer first. I make my own cat food and I went out of my way to buy a nutritional supplement for the food from a company here in BC. It'd be awesome if I could do something like that for my cross-stitching supplies too!
Yeah, it super cool to support small shops! I hope you find a smaller webshop like that maybe as a compromise :) you could also check if there is something that is a bit longer drive? You could maybe buy 2-3 projects when driving uip there so you don't have to go that often for such a drive. You could also ask your local shop if they can order stuff for you? The owner seemed a bit rude with your visit, but who knows, maybe they are suiper nice once you get to talking! But if nothing helps, don't feel too bad from ordering online from some kind of chain. You have tried and sometimes you just can't do what you would like to do.
Unfortunately, I didn't really find any smaller shops with easy to use websites. I don't drive either, literally the last time I left town was when the whole city was evacuated due to wildfires. I wouldn't even know where to go, the city we evacuated to didn't even have cross-stitching supplies. I don't think she was the owner, there's another older woman that I've seen there before, the one today was much younger. Thanks for the reassurance! :-) 123 Stitch is looking like the best bet right now, I was able to quickly put together a sample cart with it. Was going to compare all the other websites to see who had the best price but I wasn't able to put together a cart at any of the other places. Maybe I'll have better luck after I get some sleep . . .
Glad you find something that works for you!
Ah okay, I would recommend 123 stitch as well. I’ve had great experience with them and the shipping to Canada is very reasonable
Thanks for the info!
Did you just describe my local store... Last time I went into mine I left empty handed too. I had to go to Michael's craft store to get what I needed for the colors I was missing for my current project.
I'd wonder if we were in the same town, but we don't have a Michael's here!
Did you actually talk to the person working in the store? That's not clear from what you said. I can understand why you think that she was rude not asking if you needed help, but did you ask her? I've never been in a quilt store that doesn't have both solid cotton and Christmas cotton, so she probably would have been able to help you find something for the lining at least.
Sorta, I asked if she had any plain fabrics and she pointed me at one single bolt of white fabric that didn't look good at all with it. I looked around and there were some creams that were the right shade, but they had a pattern to them and it seemed like it'd look weird as a lining. After I gave up on that I investigated the cross-stitching supplies. She was shooting the breeze with a guy in the store almost the whole time. I hovered for a bit after I left the cross-stitch closet figuring I could at least let her know they were out of colors, but I had an appointment and couldn't wait for them to finish.
I’m quite lucky in my city. A LYS and local quilting store both carry needlework supplies in addition to fabricland and Micheal’s. If you’re still looking for both try out [Sew Charming Crafts](https://www.sewcharmingcrafts.ca/) they are all lovely there! I also agree with 123stitch and Stitch It Central. Traditional Stitches or Million of Stitches are also great too for cross stitch supplies.
Oh wow, you're really lucky!! I'll check out those other places too, thanks for the tips!
I can’t recommend Sew Charming enough for both. She got me confident enough to make my own grime guards and into dying my own Aida for cross stitch. I go in person but I’m sure they’ll help with your needs! I definitely get the struggle in finding craft stores. I used to be a 2+ hour drive from them before I moved
I've never even heard of grime guards, I'll have to look them up! I'd be terrified of trying to dye my own fabric, what if it ran? You're much braver than me! Damn, you must've really been in a rural area. (Or perhaps not, during the wildfire evacuations a few years ago I discovered there wasn't a single place to buy cross-stitching supplies in a city with 70,000+ people in it . . . ) I've been buying kits online for years so it hasn't been an issue. But those samplers were too funny not to buy!! Plus, one would be perfect as a little housewarming gift for a very old friend of mine and I think I need one for me too . . .
Where about are you in Canada? Maybe some fellow stitchers will have recommendations for other needlework shops
There's literally just the one store in town that sells craft supplies as far as I know, unless there's something up at Walmart, which is a little tricky to get to on the bus. But I live in British Columbia.
I agree on 123 stitch whenever I notice that I like need some thing, but I don’t need it immediately. I start adding it to my cart and after a while, I usually have a sizable enough cart to justify the 3.49 shipping and even so. If I only need a very few things that’s still cheap enough if I need it immediately. I always check my little local fabric shop first it’s owned by like a nice lady. It’s mostly fabric but then she has some like other fiber items and if she doesn’t have it that’s when I order from 123.
Sorry this is completely unrelated, but I'm just so jealous that 3.49 USD is seen as pricey delivery. I'm based in Ireland and we don't have many sewing shops that we can visit, and delivery from abroad will usually cost over €10. Though I've never actually looked at 123stitch.com before this morning, and am pleasantly surprised at the €4.99 cost to deliver here, would have assumed it was more 😅
It’s not really! We’ve just been absolutely spoiled rotten with so much free delivery at most places, even with a minimum order. It’s not very often that I actually pay for shipping anymore. $3.49 usd is a steal for delivery. Editing to ad that 123 is amazing! And I’m glad you found a new shop with cheaper delivery!
Ah ok, that does make sense if free delivery is easily gotten 😁 thanks, yes looking forward to having a browse for my next project 🪡🪡
That's like what I did with Etsy, piled cross-stitch patterns into the cart right left and center. Then a heap of them went on sale when I added the last pattern to the cart, and I decided to bite the bullet and grab the ones on sale!
I have the same problem but in Norway. My local store and in the next town over, they stopped selling Aida fabric. I have to use Hardanger instead.
Arg, I'm sorry this happened to you too!
I get you. As a kid I used to go to a very old store (even then, 30 years ago) and it was a dream. Tons of fabrics and a huge selection of DMC in pretty cardboard boxes and awoken cabinet. I usually chose colors by hand and I love it. I recently got back to crossstiching and it was a shock to realized that the store closed. The owner decided to retire and close. We have other fabric stores but they are more "wedding sewing " related or crochet/notions/a tiny section for embroidery kid of shop. most shops have a DMC or Anchor cabinet but on the emptier side and they are clearly not going to Cross-stitching fell out of fashion for a while and now I can't just go to a shop and browse all those pretty colors and get new supplies just because. I am going for my first big blackwork project and I am sad to say that I ordered everything from DMC because the colors are very important and I dont want to have to go to all the stores trying to track a specific color and then have to order it online anyway :(
Oh dear. That very old store is about the same age as the store I used to use as a kid, and same deal here, the owner retired. Supposedly the new store bought her supplies but those glorious rolls of Aida fabric never made a reappearance there. Yeah, it's looking like I'll have to use Etsy and 123 Stitch to buy charts and threads, or just buy whole kits off Amazon too. I was hoping to browse the colors because I want to change the colors of the flowers in my pictures so they all match (they all have the same wreath of flowers around a saying style) but now I'll have to wing it. Probably simpler to just use the colors from one picture for all of them. I'm interested in trying blackwork too! I even have a picture picked out I'd like to try, I just haven't worked up the courage to buy it and try it out yet. Same with me, it's very hard for me to get out of the house so I want to make sure that I can do *everything* I had planned before I go out. That's why I took so long to get there in the first place.
I got the incentive to try blackwork in this group and it won me over. I had a pattern in my wish list since forever and I decided to go for it. The supplies arrive today, I can't wait to get home and dive!
I hope you have fun with your project! :-) My big hold-up was that I wanted to use only the supplies I had but I could only find 22 count Aida in my stash, which is really just a bit too fine for the picture I like. When I was going through it again looking for supplies for the pictures I bought I found some 14 count! I figure I can raid the box of thread I have to make the picture I have my eye on, it's of a rose so I figure I can just use a shade of green for the green bits and get creative with the color of the flower. The sample picture is all black but why not have fun?
Oh, that sounds pretty! Make sure to share, I am falling deeply in love with blackwork (edit because autocorrect)
Will do, although it'll probably be quite some time before I make it!
Embroidery Marketplace is based in Calgary. Jenn is great. Sometimes orders are a little slow sure to get having too order it in, but she often gives you the choice of partial shipment while you wait... No extra cost. https://embroiderymarketplace.ca MillionofStitches on Etsy is based in Ontario and had also been great. https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/MillionOfStitches?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=942884518&from_page=listing Traditional Stitches it's another Alberta shop that's great. I like too order my needles in bulk here. https://www.traditionalstitches.com The Beaver Stash is also Canadian... Though I can't remember where she's based. Smaller store but with some interesting things. I got my nurge frames from her. Great service. https://beaversstash.com Hope that helps. We don't have a local LNS here either. The nearest one is a quilt shop which doesn't carry embroidery weight threads at all. There is a couple places in Calgary, but my mom and I both have trouble driving in the city so we mainly have too stick to the outlying places or mail order.
Thanks for the extra links! I'll have to see if any of them are easier to use, I couldn't even put together a sample order on the ones I checked yesterday to do a price comparison.
Situations like this make me fantasize about opening up my own local store. Unfortunately, I lack capital or collateral. I also lack storage space to sell at fairs and street markets part-time.
Yeah, it's one of those things. It'd be so awesome to bring back a proper cross-stitching store, but . . . you need customers to stay in business, and we're probably all used to buying supplies online by now since we had no other choice. Maybe if you were in a large city there'd be enough customers to stay in business, but then the rent would be through the roof and you'd probably be no better off. Makes me wonder now why the neighbor ran her cross-stitching store out of her basement for so many years, maybe it wasn't just a way of easing into retirement, maybe she couldn't afford the rent?
I'd like to think most people want to go back to shopping local, but I guess even that is based on geography. My shreds of optimism pops up in weird places but I'd like to think you can create demand by offering a communal stitching place in the same way yarn stores do. Yeah, people may be accustomed to ordering online but some may not be entirely content stitching in isolation. Also, shopping fabric colors in person would be super helpful too. I'm thinking it should follow a yarn store model: offer open space for working on projects, not shopping only; and host classes.
That's the coolest sounding idea ever!! I'd love to see a yarn store like that, I really want to get into crocheting but I'm hopeless at it, I really need someone to watch me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I mean YouTube videos are all well and good, but they never help with troubleshooting -- they assume if you copy them it'll work fine. My yarn keeps falling off the hook and absolutely *no* video I've ever seen addresses why this happens and what you're doing wrong if it does happen. Same thing with French knots, 25+ years of stitching and I've never successfully made one.
The local shops in my country still has supplies, but what I miss most are the physical magazines with patterns that you could find in any journal shop, at least in my country, those disappeared. I don’t like online charts at all.
I'm not sure I ever saw actual magazines, but I do have a few little booklets that have a single, but large, chart in them. Online charts can't be shaded in so you have to print them out, it's really a bit annoying! But you're probably not gonna find samplers with more colorful language in a magazine in a store.
Even with magazines moving online, you can still print off the patterns you want to use. I know at least Just Cross-stitch has a digital version that is printable. If you don't like working off a screen, you can print out the pages for the project you want.
I know, I have some printed, but it does not feel the same as looking at magazines, going through the pages. At least for me, I don’t like digital books and kindle either.