Knowledge and Needles was fortunate to have been invited to be a Boutique at the annual Canadian Embroidery Association Seminar. This year's event "1000 Islands, 1000 stitches" was hosted by the Cataraqui Needle Arts Guild out of beautiful Kingston, Ontario.
Over 200 dedicated and extremely talented needleworkers descended on St Lawrence College for the event. There were classes by world renown needle artists, 5 boutiques, a Market Madness evening with 20 more vendors and artisans, lots of opportunities to stitch and visit and it was just generally a lovely respite from our regular lives. It was wonderful being at an event with so many other people who also love to ply a needle.
Beatrice came to Kingston with Dan and me on the Tuesday to help set up out half of the classroom we were allotted. I certainly appreciated the help because setting up and deciding where to put what, was very time consuming. This is what it looked like...
The week sped by and on the whole was very busy. I found that people were hungry for fabric, especially linen!I was extremely fortunate to have so many good friends help me.
As mentioned Beatrice came on Tuesday.
On Wednesday and Thursday I had Bernie who certainly knew what to do and was a tremendous help. There were times of dead quiet but when class got out there were lineups and I would have been pretty frazzled to have been there on my own with on one to keep an eye on things, help customers and bag merchandise. I was lucky that Bernie, who was attending the Seminar had not signed up for a class on those two days.
Marie Paule came by on Thursday ...what a saleswoman she is!
Friday, Sharon from the Belleville Guild was volunteering in the morning to help out the Cataraqui Guild, and she came in the afternoon and evening to give me a hand as well.
Dani came down after work on Friday and stayed till Sunday also.
Marie Paule and Her husband Adrien showed up on Sunday to help Dani, Dan and me with the tear down. Believe me it is easier to dismantle a display than it is to put one up!
Also helping on the home front were Yvonne and Judie who came by while Dan was at work during the week to let the girlie dogs out.
And on top of all that help, on Saturday while I was in Kingston, Dan painted the shop for me. He knew that since all the stuff was out for the trip to Seminar that I was planning to re-organize and re-arrange everything so now I can do so in a freshly painted new look shop. Next blog, I'll I publish photos of the newly painted space and the end result when all the merchandise is back on the shelves.
I am so lucky!
And here is a picture of beautiful Lake Ontario that I snapped early one morning when I was out for a walk before the shopping day began.
6 comments:
Oh Ann- it sounds like you had a fabulous week! I am so glad.
Hopefully, you have far less stock to put back in your newly painted shop. I look forward to seeing it.
You do have the most amazing friends to all pitch in like that! Way to go~
Sounds great ... one of these days I am going to have to make it up to your neck of the woods and try to meet all the wonderful people I so enjoy reading about on Dani's and your blogs.
I wished that I could have come to help you also, and to add to my stash also, hehe. Sounds like it all went really well, well done. Those purses are gorgeous also.
Glad to have been able to help.
My pleasure!!!
I'm so happy that it went well for you1
How exciting! I hope you sold tons of things! What wonderful friends you have and how sweet of Dan to paint while you were away!
Ann I'm always more than happy to be slave labour. And hey sleeping in the parking lot was fun ;-)
Post a Comment