What a great weekend! A second road trip with Linda in as many months!! We met around 8 am on Friday to visit 4 NJ needlepoint stores where we spent between 30 min to 2 hours at a shop. Details are presented in the order we visited:
Colonia for http://needleworkersdelight.com/ where we me Kevin & Alison, the owners who are getting ready to celebrate their 1-year anniversary. The variety of canvases and fabrics is impressive as is the pre-finished items (towels/blankets/tablecloths). There is more cross stitch/samplers than needlepoint. I forgot to look at threads but I thought I saw Anchor and the website says they have Presencia Finca Collection & Jar Designs hand-dyed floss and perle cotton (I wish I’d looked at them). I had no problem finding some interesting items including some Vintage canvas (they have a little tea staining effect which I’ll use for Laura Perin Secret Garden collages which has some open spaces)! The collection of 8 fabric samples pictured below was a thank you gift for first-time visitors. I’m not sure what I’ll use the heart & oval frame for yet but I love that they are self finishing! And, the leaf wire hanger was too cute to pass up. We wished Kevin & Alison the best of luck & headed onward!
Wyckoff for http://www.ridgewoodneedlepoint.com/ where we chatted more than shopped with a lovely group of ladies who were there for a “Stitch & Sit” (& a few who we saw the next day at New Jersey Needle Festival aka NJNF). The store has wonderful light (making photos difficult) & several areas to sit & stitch!
Fairfield for http://www.theedwardianneedle.com/ where we talked with Tony briefly before he had to leave but Pam & the other ladies were wonderful. We managed to shop more than chat with another group of women who were there for a stitch & chat session. A few of them were headed to NJNF too. They were kind enough to ask if we wanted to join them for lunch but we’d already eaten & so we spent time shopping. I needed threads for a project I am designing & they have threads!! I really lucked out finding the red, white, & blue Silk Lame Braid (I had to get both weights – for 13 & 18 count – it felt like Christmas & my birthday). The Dinky Dyes came in a nice red, white, & blue overdyed floss. It took more effort than I expected to find matching solids across various thread types for red, white, & blue but selected Frye Werks, Kreinik (red 421, white, 100, blue 033), and Soie Cristale silk threads.
and Mendham http://www.mrsstitches.com/ where Ann was busy getting ready for NJNF. We managed to get project organizers before anyone at the NJNF!
We were only 10 min behind schedule for meeting Brenda, Ginny, Rona, & Rosie for good food, drinks, and stitching stories at a local restaurant! I forgot to get a picture of the gang – we were too busy talking. What a great day!!
The next day was just as much fun. Lori, Linda, myself, Brenda, Naomi, and Elizabeth (from left to right) shared a table together along with more great stories! And, the room was filled with needle crafters of various varieties working on wonderful pieces – so interesting to see everything. I am restitching Gentle Waves but won’t blog about it until after seminar – it is designed in honor of seminar being held in Myrtle Beach this coming September – you can sort of see my design in the picture below (bottom left).
And, there was more shopping with vendors including Susan Hoekstra’s table where I managed to find a leather Stirling bag which I understand is now discontinued. My first attempt at Gentle Waves will go inside the bag.
Trish is going to make me a lanyard with 2 hooks instead of single center one. She is a member of my ANG Keystone Garden chapter, Projects VP, and maker of incredible items. Trish Vine Designs is not on the Web yet but you can email her for a brochure and price list at trishvinedesigns@gmail.com – I have her iPad holder, a notepad holder, & various sizes project bags from past NJNFs.
There was one vendor which makes a yarn/thread organizing system (WaterfallThreads.com) with holes along plastic bars that hang in file cabinets. This is her business card! So clever.
Karen at Nimble Needle must be a mind reader – I wanted Tony Minieri’s Back to Basics DVD series & she had all 3 at her table!
This weekend wouldn’t be possible without Susan Hoekstra who hosts the event, including her husband & friends who help make the day such a success! What an incredible amount of work to make something like this go so smoothly & be such fun. She put a cute gift in our bag from her business (foxview.com).
Most of my thanks goes to Linda who is such fun to travel with & then the ladies at dinner, my table mates at NJNF, the store owners we visited & at NJNF, and all the women we met both days! Needlecraft is thriving in NJ!!
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