In August 2009, Emily Pannier celebrated her 5 year anniversary as owner of Chandail Needlework, and looks forward to the next 5 years! Emily (an avid needlepointer, architect, business consultant and mother of two) purchased the shop for several reasons. She wanted to create an environment that promoted a sense of community around a common interest - needlepoint. She thought "If you create a fun, happy and hip place where people enjoy coming together, then success will result!" In addition, she knew how important personal service is to creating happy customers, as well as a successful shop. As Emily says, "Here we know your name, and we always welcome newcomers into our 'home'!"

Emily Pannier at Chandail

After having her first daughter, Emily retired from a career in business consulting and took up needlepoint for the first time since childhood. She was immediately hooked, and became very interested in designing her own stitch guides. A few years later, she was hired at Chandail, and became the manager for three years prior to purchasing the shop.� Her hobby has thus turned into a rewarding business. Today, Emily spends much of her stitching time developing monthly series of canvases with various artists, and works to develop creative stitches and guides with embellishments and more.

Emily and the Chandail staff are all accomplished stitchers and are skilled at crafting amazing stitch guides for any hand painted canvas. At Chandail, stitch guides are always complimentary when the threads are purchased with the canvas. Emily believes that the talent and creativity Chandail offers in this arena is a strong advantage to the customer.

They have also been working furiously on upgrading Chandail's website to offer more choice, information, and an overall more fun experience! (Chandail announced the launch of the latest upgrades in August 2009.) Here you can sign up for the store's blog, twitter, and newsletter so you can be totally up to date on the goings on at Chandail. When new designs come in, you will be able to see them and purchase them. When special finishing comes back, they will send pictures and more! Emily's favorite canvases will be featured and have already been stitch guided that are currently available to you. Chandail will continue to work on populating the website on a weekly if not daily basis to offer you more of what you want to see!

If you are interested in signing up for any of the exclusive monthly series or kits, you can find all the information on the fabulous creations from Chandail! In addition, Chandail has developed some new options for purchasing their popular series:

THE WORKS -is the traditional option offered in the past that includes the canvas, stitch guide and thread kit (everything you need to complete your project).
MIX & MATCH -lets you choose which canvases you want out of the series. This also includes the stitch guide and thread kit. This option is available once the monthly series has concluded its initial run (typically one year).
SWEET & SIMPLE -contains the canvas and stitch guide only. If you think you have more thread at home than at a needlepoint shop, this option may be for you!

An evening at The National NeedleArts Market with friends: Derek (a new artist and Amanda Lawford's son), Amanda Lawford, Raymond Crawford, Emily Pannier (Chandail), Melissa Shirley, Susan Weatherby with Melissa Shirley Designs, and Lisa Snyder of Needlepoint of Back Bay.

Chandail regularly presents trunk shows and the canvases are always 15% off! If the canvas is not present in the trunk show-dont worry, they can order it and you still get the 15% discount. If you don't live in Houston you can visit Chandail's website, link to the current featured artist's website, and order over the phone.

To see a listing of the threads, fibers, and more that Chandail offers please visit www.ChandailNeedlework.com, and click on "threads" at the top of the page.