Well I have been very very remiss.
Just before I fell off the blogging train I planned to write about this design and who I designed it for.
Years ago I sold canvases exclusively to a little store in West Vancouver, Dick and Jane. Kirsten, the owner, had been the one who had planted the canvas-designing seed in my brain and then had held my hand and been encouraging and kind over early stinker designs. My kids were littler, painting time started after eight at night, and my hands were full with one shop.
One day Jody, of Needle in a Haystack of Montrose, California, was coming through West Vancouver with her husband Bob and stopped for lunch at the bakery down the street from the shop. How it was told to me was that she peered down the street as she ate and said to Bob, “Isn’t that a stitching shop?” and that was a pretty big thing as there aren’t very many needlepoint shops in Canada. The chances of that happening were teensy and a stroke of good luck for me!
She went into the store after lunch and ended up ordering a few canvases, and continued to do so for the next year or two.
Sadly, Dick and Jane closed, and I panicked wondering how this was going to work! I held onto the the thought that Jody in Montrose liked my canvases and boy, I wondered how many she’d like to order!
Jody kept ordering and then very kindly and generously put some of my designs into her advertising in Needlepoint Now magazine, and I think that was probably a big part of other stores finding Pippin. Which is great for Pippin but not always soooo great for Jody. When she wondered if I would design an exclusive canvas for her shop I was honoured. We settled on sunflowers and it’s modelled on the “fives” canvases except that this design has seven. Just to be recalcitrant.
I sometimes see Jody and Bob on their way through up to Whistler a couple of times of year, and Bob teases me for saying sorry to chairs when I bump into them. Which I do a lot. It’s been nice getting to know them and I will always always be grateful for their part in making me feel like I’m not a one-store wonder. Which it turns out I’m not. I was very pleased to design this canvas to thank them and if you would like to have one all your own, please contact Jody at Needle in a Haystack, www.needhay.com, or at 818-248-7686.