Celebration once again

At the end of April I made my fifth annual trek to Nashua, NH, to attend Celebration of Needlework. I took two classes, though in truth my main purpose in attending was due to the wonderful vendor area; no longer having an LNS near me, I do so miss fondling linen and picking out the variegation in threads! I'd gone through my charts and picked out quite a few to kit up - it's always so frustrating when I want to stitch something new and have to place an online order and then wait for it to arrive, so I decided to get a lot of ducks in a row for the future. One of my favorite vendors at Celebration is Inspired Needle, which sets up a small full-service needlework shop. I dropped a fair amount of money there but it was well worth it - to my surprise and delight they gave out gift bags full of charts and even kits with each purchase (I received two Sweetheart Tree kits!). Depending on how much you spent, you received the same dollar amount in free merchandise.

The hardest thing about not having an LNS is getting linen of the right color and texture for various projects. Ordering online doesn't always get you what you thought it would. I brought a list of linen to look for at Celebration, but even when I found the right fabric, the color didn't always look as I'd expected. For example, I wanted a piece of PTP Dill to stitch something from a Punch Needle & Primitive Stitcher magazine chart. I found one, but the color was nothing like the one in the magazine, and I didn't like it at all. But I certainly did find plenty of linen to have on hand for future projects (on the far left is a large cloth bag that came free with my purchase from Gypsy Stitching):

I didn't buy too many new charts, but did get a few I'd been coveting:

I enjoyed both my classes, but can't help but worry about the future of Celebration, if attendance is any indicator. My first class had only two students (I'm surprised, but glad, that it ran). It was called Trio of Projects and was taught by Candy Scott of The Workbasket, who was absolutely delightful to spend a few hours with. The projects are a bookmark, a needle book and a scissor fob. Candy showed us some unique but simple ways of finishing things that are really going to come in handy. I'm so happy I took this class.

The following day, I took a class taught by Lauren Sauer of Forget Me Nots in Stitches. There were five students this time, which was a nice size for a group. The project was called Designing Woman's Miniature Drawing Portfolio, which incorporated a palette of crayons and a sketch book. There were a number of specialty stitches in the project, so this will be a real challenge for me. Lauren was a patient and inspiring teacher. The first picture, of the finished design, is from the Celebration website,

Here's everything that came in the packet: 

So that's my haul, now I better get stitching!