Last night after work I didn't get out of work until almost 4PM. Needless to say I was not impressed! I had imagined myself being on the road at 3:30. I was happy with the time I made on the road though, I was buzzing in at Marj's apartment at 8PM, 4 hours exactly. That's including two stops! Marj and I had a nice long visit before going to bed after midnight.
This morning I was up at 8AM and by 10AM we were on the road to take the GO Train downtown. That was nice, I don't think I've been on a train since 1997, during my trip to London, England.
Alright I'm sure you're dying to hear about my impressions of this year's show. Well there was a number of empty booths this year. A sign that the show may be in decline? In terms of needlework the show is definitely on the decline. The number of needlework booths from when I first went in 2001 to this year in 2005 has dropped drastically. There was only five needlework booths, pitiful isn't it? Let's see who was there...
Gitta's, one of Toronto's biggest needlework shops. Gitta was hosting Jeannette Douglas one of my favorite Canadian Designers! I bought Jeannette's Class kit from the CSNF Crystal Winter Sampler, fourth in a series (which I have all of them now!). I've heard that Gitta's will not be attending next year's CSNF which is a total shame... yet another sign that the show is in decline???
It was great to see Jeannette again! Jeannette, Marj and I had a great long natter about stitching and the show of course! While we were visiting with Jeannette Yolanda stopped by. It was nice to see her again, we met for the first time at the show a couple of years ago.
Jeannette and I at Gitta's booth
Then we walked over to see a designer we did not expect to be there but had heard from Marj's friend that she had seen him the day before.... TERRANCE NOLAN was there! Oh My Gosh! Oh My Gosh! I was so excited to hear he had decided to come up to the show. I had talked to him about the show years ago when I met him at CATS (Creative Arts and Textile Showcase). So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that he was there. Terrance was sharing a booth with Maureen Applegate of The Heart's Content. Marj and I must of talked with Terrance for about 30 minutes about the show and how it was not as well populated by needlework as it used to be. He and Maureen have already put in a deposit for next year and will be teaching as well (yay!). Terrance says that he has already gotten in touch with a group of American designers and are hoping to bring up at least 10 of them. Terrance would like to see all the needlework vendors/designers together in one area. He made it one of the conditions of agreeing to come to the show next year that they all be grouped. I think its an excellent idea because its a pain in the a$$ wading through all the quilting and scrapbooking booths to find the odd needlework booth. Did you know that one quilting booth to the next just becomes one big blur! They all start to look the same.
It was also nice to make the acquaintance of Maureen Applegate, I was very impressed with her designs. More impressed by the fact that so many of them are stitch over one on small counts!!! Wow! I was running low on cash by the time we got there so I'll have to look into buying some of her designs at a later date.
Here's Me and Terrance
And here's Marj and Terrance
Here's me and Maureen
Since it was getting close to 2:30 I wanted to hit the Camus booth to say hi to Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams before she was off to teach a class. We didn't have too long of a visit with Jennifer, and I won't bore you with pictures (didn't take any) since you're going to get to see enough after the Cross Stitch Cupboard's Retreat where Jennifer is the guest instructor. Also I was starving and starting to get the shakes. I bought two charts from that booth, Jennifer's Dragon of the Deeps and her new one I'll Make My Own Happy Ending. I think I'm going to try to get that one stitched up for the retreat next week! Teee Heee! I don't have as busy of a week coming up as this past week.
After lunch Marj and I wandered around making sure we didn't miss anything good. I picked up some Swarovski Crystals and Pearls for my Mum. I also picked up some jump rings to make a bracelet for Marj and I picked up the pattern for the Empressa Chain.
Oh yes, all you Canuck stitchers out there! I wanted to give you a heads up about a new needlework magazine that is purely Canadian its called A Needle Pulling Thread. They were giving away copies for free at the show. Its quite a nice magazine, from the quick look I had and it covers all kinds of needlearts. So keep an eye out for it at your favorite magazine shop, its a quarterly publication.
And now for something completely different...
These moose are all over downtown Toronto, each painted in a different way.
And that was my day!!!
9 comments:
So sad that the show is showing such a decline in needlework :(
Thanks so much for sharing what you saw (even the moose, that's pretty cool) and all the pics are great :)
Dani, you will just have to come Down Under! We have two HUGE Stitching Shows that go around Australia every year. One is called the Stitches And Craft Show, and the other is um...forgotten the actual name of it now, but something like "Needlecraft and Patchwork". They both feature all kinds of crafts, but mostly needlecrafts and quilting. Far from being in decline, they seem to get bigger and busier every year! It's impossible to move freely along the aisles sometimes, you just get caught in a crush!
Very cool update Dani!!! Loved it, all those great pics! I might go next year!! Toronto is not so far from here, and DH loves going to Montreal, so why not try him out in Toronto!! So sorry to hear the show has declined though! At least the designers who were there were top notch. Wow, going back to read it all again :-) Thanks again for the very cool update!
Oh, forgot to say - we saw that moose show in Vermont in June when Mike went to buy his new car... I posted two or three of those moose in my blog then... I also collect the cow figures of Cows on Parade from Chicago. Pretty cool concept - nice to see they made their way up to Toronto now :-)
I love the pictures, Dani! And you are so lucky...I've always wanted to go to Toronto.:)
Stacey
Sorry to hear that the show seems to be on the decline in terms of needlework. Toronto is only a few hours from Erie....and since you posted the moose pic, my DH wants to go!! His mom lives in Chicago, home of the cows, and here in Erie we had fish a few years ago. Now he wants some moose pictures to add to his collection!!!
Thanks for the update & pics, Dani. I won't stress not going if there were so few needlecraft booths. I will be on the lookout for the magazine - sounds interesting! We really need one here!
Lucky you to get to go to a needlecraft show. I have nothing like that where I live--not even one little LNS!! :( I love seeing stitched models--it looks like there were loads of those at least. Thanks for sharing all the photos!
I loved reading your experiences at the CSNF. It's devastating to hear that Gitta's will not be attending next year's show. My mom, sister and I all attended one of Jennifer's classes. We make sure we take at least one every show. We go in the Spring too. It seems that Scrapbooking has taken over the show. I remember a few years ago being in the Gitta's booth and the lady telling us that having a booth was just too expensive. It's thousands of dollars. Thanks again for sharing your CSNF experiences :)
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