My dear friend Jean Lea of Attic Needlework had both her primary and backup disks fail recently so she has to rebuild her e-mail list from scratch. If you love following Jean's newsletter like I do, you can go to Attic Needlework's website and sign-up again. She's not been able to send a newsletter for awhile but is on the road to "recovery".

News from the TNNA Winter Trade Show

As I mentioned last week, Debi and I attended the winter trade show in Long Beach in early January. This show is where most of our needlepoint vendors (as well as the yarn vendors) come to show off their new designs. It's a 3-day show and we usually spend most of that time walking the show floor. Attendance was down although not down by a huge amount. What we saw was that most retailers brought fewer people with them to save on expenses. We also saw a few less vendors as many are having to choose which show(s) to go to to keep their expenses down as well. It's all part of the economic downturn that everyone hopes will improve this year. But regardless of the number of attendees, we had a great time catching up with everyone who was there. Debi and I even were BBFHs (Booth Babes For Hire) on Monday for Norden Crafts and Sharon G Designs. It gave them some time to visit with others on the show floor and we got to sit for a bit.

We always try to find at least one new thing at the show we're really excited by. One from this show is Kreinik's new Holographic thread. The Blending Filament version is like a very thin ribbon and it really catches the light. They are creating 16 colors in sizes BF, #8, #12, 1/6" Ribbon & 1/8" Ribbon. Debi is stitching a Christmas design with the 1/16" Ribbon in gold and it really reflects the light. If you've been looking for a great Orange in a metallic thread you'll more than likely love 027L - Orangeruptis. It's a vibrant orange and should work great for all those Halloween designs. We have the #8 and #16 in the shop and will be ordering the other sizes shortly. You can order any of them via our Kreinik page - just look for all the ones that end in L. The colors are:

001L - Solar Silver	002L - Chromo Gold	003L - Robot Red
005L - Blinding Black	007L - Power Pink	008L - Kinetic Kelly
012L - Lavendartric	015L - Laser Lime	021L - Coptic Copper
022L - Molten Mocha	024L - Fiery Fuschia	026L - Punchy Purple
027L - Orangeruptis	029L - Dyelectric Blue	031L - Berry Red
	033L - Royal Blast

The other item we thought was very cool is from Alice Peterson Co. They introduced some designs as Kindle covers in their Stitch & Zip line. These are big enough to carry your Kindle and keep it safe from scratches. It's not a permanent cover like many of the Kindle covers on the market, but more of a carrier. We ordered them at Long Beach and should get them in during the next few weeks.

Speaking of Alice Peterson Co., Cathy the owner, is also a TNNA board member so we we spend a good bit of time together at board meetings. Since this show was in Long Beach and AP Co. is near LAX Cathy took me by her facility before dropping me off at the airport. Wow, I've never seen so much coned thread in my life! Cathy's staff does all the kitting in their facility and the canvases are printed here in the US. The Stitch & Zips are all sewn by people in the LA area. So the entire line is made in the USA. She had an amazing range of floss and metallic thread colors on cones which are grouped together for a design, measured and cut then bundled into a kit. All the packaging is done there before being shipped out to stores all over. It was great to see how it all works and I even got to see some ideas she and her staff are working on for the future. One of the things I have enjoyed about being a board member for TNNA is getting to know so many great people in our industry. Thanks to Cathy for the tour (and the drop off). As a Kindle owner I can't way to get my Kindle cover and start stitching.

For accessories a new item I think many stitchers will love are the new Canvas Clips from Dream House Ventures. I'm using them on my Zecca bird canvas (which I'm almost done with). I like being able to roll my canvases vs. putting them on scroll frames. Partly because I like not having it weigh as much and also, when I stitch sewing motion I need to be able to have the canvas be very flexible, so I like the ease with which I can unroll the canvas using the clips. In the past I've used some gimp thread to tie the canvas into rolled sections but I don't have to do that anymore. These look like very large bobby pins and are quite easy to use. There are 4 in a packge, two large ones and two smaller ones. The set of 4 is $11.50 (they're not in the online catalog yet so call or e-mail the store). The current batch is light teal and black. We did make some suggestions for future colors and we'll see what happens with that. Of course we suggested purple!

I've not tried them with my cross-stitch fabric yet but I think they should work fine on it as well. They'll keep whatever fabric you use them on rolled up so it's easier to hold while stitching. If you need a taut area scroll frames, stretcher bars or Q-Snaps are still the best options. But if you like being a little more loosey-goosey like me, you should try these out.

As I mentioned above I'm almost done with the front of my Zecca bird bag. I finished the background last week and stitched in his beak last night (no squaking yet). I've got a few of the smaller circles, the leaf and the big circle to finish. I'm hoping to get that done in the next couple of weeks. Then I can start on the back, which resembles a Hawaiian quilt pattern - more aqua, lime and purple and less of the gold. Whatever your week is like I hope you find a little time to stitch. You're always welcome to come visit us and enjoy a pot of tea some stitching company!

Happy Stitching,

Cathe
Cathe's Personal Blog
...and Debi, Leila, Jennifer, Mary, Ali, Mary Frances, Caroline, Sherry, Susan and Margaret

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