You all know by now that I bought Amanda Lawford’s needlepoint line. No need for an update there. Amanda has been busy doing acrylic paintings over the last few months since she moved back to New York.

Last Sunday, Aggie and I drove into the Bronx to go to the opening of Amanda’s art show.

Lots of the New York area needlepoint characters were there, including Rita of Rita’s Needlepoint in the city.

I bought a painting, of course…My second Amanda Lawford original.

You should check out her website to see what she’s been up to. If you’re in the area, stop by the Riverdale Y and see the show. It’s up through the month of February.

Yesterday I spent the day in NYC at the Gift Show.  There are so many exhibitors there.  It was totally overwhelming!  I don’t think we got through a third of what was there.  BUT . . .we did find some really awesome new things for the shop.  We have new custom boxes and coasters coming that are self finishing.  I found tons of new tote bags and project bags.  It was such a blur.  I have so many catalogs to pour through!

Amanda (as in Lawford lol) came with me.  What an eye she has for finding new products and developing them with the manufacturers!  It’s almost like the needlepoint designs just appear in her head when she sees something they can be applied to.  Let’s just say that there will  be lots of new designs coming in the next few months.

As we were wandering through, all of a sudden we spotted Fab Funky herself!

   Kelly is such a doll.  She is dying to see the pieces stitched.  I better get that needle moving!

I’ll be honest . . .I am SO over trade shows right now. LOL!  But it was really nice to be back on the buying side instead of being buyer and exhibitor.   Thank God Dallas is seven months away!

I’m still standing . . .barely. LOL!  We got back from the Vegas show on Monday night.  I have never been so tired in my life!  I’ve attended the shows before, but only as a buyer.  This was my first time exhibiting.

All I can say is that I have a new found respect for what the designers go through to put on these shows.  It is an unbelievable amount of work.  Not only do we create new designs, there’s prices lists, stitch guides, shipping, social media and SO much more.  And the stress that comes with it . . .I’ve heard the designers talk about “show stress” but you can’t imagine it until you’re going through it.

I highly encourage all the shops to come to the shows to show your support for all the hard work the exhibitors go through to bring you new needlepoint designs.  I know we can all sit at home and order from what we see online, but I’ve always thought that the most important aspect of a trade show is getting together with people in the industry, getting to know them and sharing ideas.  To me, that’s priceless.

Here’s some pics of our room.  It took Linda, Mary Susan, Aggie and I 9 hours to set up two rooms.  I’m not kidding when I say that this is exhausting!

 I had a 5 foot cardboard Santa made to stand outside the rooms.  Aggie’s getting a little silly with Santa.  And yes . . .she’s that short. LOL!

We did manage to squeeze in some fun.

A selfie with my buddy Carolyn Hedge Baird.  Love her!

Now I can sit back and relax . . .or try to.

If you haven’t checked out the new website for the wholesale line, click here to pop on over.

No . . .I’m not referring to the song by Imagine Dragons (one of my son’s favorites).  I’m talking about the new Thunder series from the Vallerie Needlepoint Gallery.

Amanda Lawford originally designed two of these pieces.  The idea behind them is that they are designed to learn stitches.  She originally stitched Summer Thunder, picking all of the threads and stitches.  I stitched Fall Thunder.  I decided that I couldn’t stop at just two seasons,  I had to create all four!

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

I had Winter and Spring finished like a large coaster that will fit into a custom acrylic tray.

Summer and Fall I picked out fabulous fabrics and trims and had beautiful pillows made.  So many possibilities!

These were SO much fun to stitch!  I loved picking the threads to make these canvases come to life.  It was fun doing large and very graphic stitches that I don’t usually get to do on most of the designs I stitch.  But, I will be honest, stitching it for the third time was a bit painful.  That’s how I spent my Christmas vacation.  It was torture being so secretive about everything I’ve been stitching.

This is going to be a great class in early Spring at the shop.  One canvas . . .four colorways.  Something for everyone!

I’m sure you’ve seen the designs from Kim Leo over the last few months on the blog.  But if not, I’ll show you again.

A new artist to the Vallerie Needlepoint Gallery is Kimberly Hodges.  I only produced two of her designs.  But don’t worry . . .more will be coming in the next few months.

This design is available on both 13 and 18 mesh.

Hop on over to the website to get all the details on the pieces.

I always tell me customers that needlepoint should be fun.  If you aren’t digging the piece you’re working on, pick up a new one.  The needlepoint police haven’t laid down the law that you have to finish a piece. LOL!

Fab Funky is an artist with such fun and silly designs that crack me up.  She has thousands of pieces of artwork, so this is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come from her.

You can see all the details about each design by jumping over to website.  I hope you think they’re as cute as I do!  I have to say, I think my favorite is the bulldog stuck in the glass.  That little fat butt squeezed in there is too much!  Which is your fav?

The TNNA show starts tonight!  It’s been a whirlwind getting here.  I’ve been working for months on this.  I have four licensed artists, my own designs and Amanda Lawford.  There’s a lot in the Vallerie Needlepoint Gallery.

Introducing the new designs from Scott Partridge!

Aggie is teaching this piece at the trade show to shop owners. How stinkin’ cute is it?

I’m sure I can talk her into teaching it at the shop!

To see all the details about the canvases, hop on over to the VNG website.

I am SO excited for the TNNA show next weekend!  I have been working like a dog.  The boxes are packed and on their way there way to Vegas.

 I sent seven boxes of finished pieces, stitch guides, displays and tons of canvases for cash and carry, of course.  Wait till you see what’s in the tall thin box!  It was a little tough watching all of my inventory leave and putting it in the hands of FedEx. Finger crossed!

I have had my eye on this piece by Melissa Prince since the Dallas show.  When it arrived in November I decided to be a  good little shop owner and not take another piece for myself.  The night before the December sale at the shop I had decided I was going to put it aside for myself, but I forgot and a lucky customer snatched it up.  So, I ordered myself another one.

I promised Melissa I would get it stitched for the January show.  Why I do these things to myself I’ll never know.  But, it was so much fun to stitch that a deadline didn’t bother me.

I designed the stitches for this piece for teaching purposes.  I thought it would make a great class for anyone wanting to learn stitches OR if you know most of these stitches ( I guarantee no one knows all of them since I made up a number of them), you can see how different threads look with the same stitch.

If you know me at all, you know beading is not my favorite thing.  But when it needs to be done, I’ll do it.  To me, and Melissa, this isn’t a real bunny.  It’s a bunny ornament.  So, I used a cool beading technique with clear beads to create the ornament.

The other cool thing about this piece is that I took a stitch and did variations with it.  Sometimes I filled in an opening in a stitch and other places I left it open.  They look totally different, like the mommy and baby bears’ heads.  I also enlarged or shrunk a stitch, which I think makes a piece look more cohesive, rather than putting totally different stitches all over a canvas.

So many people in the shop have asked if I would teach this class.  Of course I will!  Saturday, March 24th will be the date!  I’m squeezing it into our crazy schedule and I know many of you are anxious to take the class.  So, the trick is, you need to sign up really soon,  by January 27th, in order to guarantee a canvas for you.

You can sign up for the class online or by calling the shop.  If you can’t make it to the class, but you’d like to order the kit, you can do that online by clicking here.

There are two different links so make sure you’re clicking on the right one.  One is for the class and one is for the kit.

Now back to my regularly scheduled stitching for the show in less than two weeks.  AHHHHH!