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Dutch Treat Designs
P.O. Box 8214
Catalina, AZ 85738-0214
925-294-8621
 

Dutch Treat Designs
May 28, 2013 Update

Happy Spring! Spring has arrived in California, and I hope you will be enjoying warmer weather soon. I know that it has been a long time since you received an official newsletter from me. I hope you are still stitching on something, even if it's not a Dutch Treat project.

The first update I want to share with you is, of course, a family update. Bruce and the cats are good. Bruce and I just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Before we got married Bruce said he would like to have only 2 cats. When we got married I brought 5 cats with me. I thought to myself; only 2 cats - not likely. Well, at the 20 year mark we now officially only have 2 cats. I have to confess that we do feed one of the neighborhood cats, but he does have a real home somewhere besides ours, so maybe it's actually 2.5 kitties. In any case we are as close to only having 2 cats as we are ever likely to get. Bruce likes the current mix of cats, and our two inside residents get along, which makes us all happier. We currently have Dolly, who is a very small gray tabby, and Foxy who is a large gray Norwegian Forest cat. They are both young and full of energy. I'm sure that eventually another feline face will appear at our door, but for now it's just two (and a half) cats at Bruce and Claudia's house.

There are a couple of reasons that it's been so long between newsletters. I took part of last year off from designing to do some teaching and traveling, which was a fun break. I did the Celebration of Needlework shows last Fall and this Spring. I just returned from doing the Celebration show in Nashua, NH. Last year in 2012 I just didn't stitch as much as normal, and it takes a while to get new designs ready to show you. I know that the focus these days is always on what is NEW. In case you didn't realize this, I am about ready to release my 87th tabletopper design. As with any designer pursuing quality in their work, we all hope that some of the classic older designs are just as good as the new ones. Now that there are actually NEW designs for you to see, it is time for an update.

If you want a Dutch Treat update between newsletters, sooner rather than later, those of you on Facebook can follow us at Dutch Treat Designs. You can always see what we are doing by checking out our website at www.dutchtreat.com . This is a wordy newsletter and I apologize for that. Keep reading to see what is currently new and all the projects and parts that are available to you from Dutch Treat Designs.

Claudia

 

The Newest Tabletoppers

Coming Soon - available on June 6th
#087 Cats Tabletopper   Chart only $8.00; Kit TBD
Suggested fabric color - antique white or peach Anne Cloth.
There are two versions included in the chart:  a Halloween topper and a multi-cat topper to stitch in the colors of your herd and house.


Clicking on the picture will take you to our info page about this design

 

#086 Sunflower Tabletopper  Chart only $8.00; Kit $38.00
Suggested fabric color - ivory (cream) Anne Cloth. The kit contains LTD edition Caron Watercolours.


Clicking on the picture will take you to our info page about this design

 

#085 Celtic Tabletopper Chart only $8.00; Kit $32.00
 Suggested fabric colors - ivory (cream) and pink Anne Cloth.
You will need 4 skeins of DMC size 5 pearl cotton to complete this design.


Clicking on the picture will take you to our info page about this design

The ivory (cream) model was stitched with DMC 500. The optional Center Square is stitched.
The pink model was stitched with DMC 498. The Center Square is not stitched.
This Celtic design can be stitched with any color of thread and fabric for any season.

 

Anne Cloth fabric update
The following original Anne Cloth colors have been discontinued and we will not be able to get any more of these fabrics:

antique blue, teal green, opalescent, white/white - out of stock fabric colors

For better or worse, the tabletopper designs are fabric specific - which was a design risk worth taking. Because no one has the above colors to sell, we have discontinued the charts for most of the tabletopper designs that were primarily stitched on the antique blue, the teal green, and the opalescent fabrics. If I can rework a discontinued design on another currently available fabric color, I may reinstate it. Just be aware that it will take some time to make those changes.

We have LOTS of the following original Anne Cloth colors available, in stock, and ready to sell:

antique white, lavender, patriotic, peach, pink, pink windowpane, oatmeal, natural, taupe, black

Just my opinion: For those of you that liked the white/white color, the antique white dye lot is a great substitute and works really well for anything that was stitched on white. Most of the tabletopper designs originally stitched on white/white fabric will now be offered as kits which include the antique white fabric. For some of my designs, I agree that the white/white is still the best choice, but for most of the tabletoppers the antique white is a great stitching option. You can still find some tabletopper kits containing the white/white fabric on my website.

 

Discontinued Tabletopper Options
Even if a chart is discontinued you may still be able to get a kit for that tabletopper design. There will be available through my website, while they last, some limited edition kits of discontinued designs containing the green and blue fabric. Fortunately for you, I had these kits already made up and when they are gone - they are gone. You can view all the "limited edition" kits on my website.

For some of our older discontinued charts, we will be many designs as a Chart/fabric Pack. A Chart/Fabric Pack contains: the chart, fabric, needles, thread card, and size 12 pearl cotton. These will be available for older designs where the fabric color is still in stock. I am still making changes and updating the website, so keep checking back to see what is available. If there is something you want that you can't find, you can always email or call.

 

Moving Forward
Even though we have lost some of our original fabric colors, the tabletoppers have been fun to create and there are still more designs to come. I am working on getting two new tabletopper designs done for this year. The new Cats tabletopper design is previewed in this newsletter. A new Christmas set called "They Followed the Star" is in process. I have additional tabletoppers in the works for 2014. I also plan on doing more LTD edition tabletopper designs, which include a fabric or thread that is only available from Dutch Treat. I will keep you posted when a new design is available and where you can buy it.

In the future I will split my time more evenly between the tabletoppers and the mottoes. We all know that, at least for me, there never seems to be enough time to get everything done that you would like to do. I have wanted for a long time to educate people about the creativity seen in original 1800's perforated paper pieces. For those of you stitching my motto designs, you will be happy to know that I have more mottoes charted than I have had time to stitch. I hope we will both see some new motto designs available before the end of the year. New designs are charted, they just need to be stitched.

 

Another Newer Design - not a tabletopper or a motto

#818 Bristol Grace   Chart only $9.00
This sampler came out at the end of 2012 and my goal was to give those of you who liked the look of the original Bristol samplers something to stitch that was not as involved as an exact reproduction project. This sampler is stitched in the style of the Bristol orphanage samplers. Both versions of this sampler are included in the chart. This sampler can be worked on any 14 or 28 count fabric. The finished design fits in a 11" x 14" frame. Thread sets of the Caron Wildflowers used for this sampler are available from Dutch Treat.

Clicking on either picture will take you to our info page about this design

 

DMC Flower Thread
Just a reminder that Dutch Treat carries and sells the largest supply of DMC Flower Thread still available anywhere. This great thread, that can be used for counted thread work, knitting, crocheting, and more, was discontinued in 2003 and we still have close to 75% of the colors to sell. If you like working with DMC Flower thread, check out or website or contact us to see all the the available colors.

Questions? Here's our contact information:

Dutch Treat Designs
P.O. Box 161, Livermore, CA 94551-0161
Please use the P.O. box for payments, requests, flyers, etc.

Phone number:
925-294-8621

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