November 3, 2008

I was up until 3am getting everything priced and packed into my rolling totes. Today is the day of the Embroider's Guild of America Stash Flea Market/Swap! I have five totes in total filled to the brim with stash I won't use.

There wasn't a great turnout today, but once the business meeting was over the wheeling and dealing got started! I heard alot of buzz that the Saturday Interest Group meeting on the 15th will have alot more participants, so I'm really looking forward to that!

Once the business meeting was concluded, the wheeling and dealing began! I thought I'd get alot of interest in my charts and kits but I only sold one chart and two huck towels from my cross stitch stash. Everything else that sold was the "junk" I've been railing at my friends about for months; the beads and jewelry-making supplies and the stamp kits I've had for years. It's not taking up room in my house any more!!!

And, oh! Did I buy!!

Purple Passion Butterfly Necklace kit by Northern Pine Designs

Complete with 18ct mono canvas; tapestry needles; beading needle; Needle Necessities over-dyed floss #183; Encore E28 by Rainbow Galleries; DMC Black #3 and #8 Perle Cottons; Kreinik metallics in Blue, Purple, and Turquiose; Confetti Blending Filament; and purple seed beads. Black ultrasuede and Heat n Bond Adhesive included to finishing into a necklace.

I paid $3 for the entire kit.

These were $1 for all six books.

I found another issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts that I didn't have.

I paid ten cents for this!

Wish list items! I actually found some of my wish list items! I discovered Blue Bayou and Surf & Sand by Northern Pine Designs at the Online Needlework show and fell in love with the series. I also had the quilt squares by From Nancy's Needle on my wish list! Amish Trip Around the World and Desert Star! Merlin is designed by Kathleen Armstrong especially for Rainbow Galleries. The colors in this design just caught my eye and I couldn't pass it up. Lastly, I found Amethyst Dreams by Laura J. Perin Designs. I can't let anything with "Amethyst" in the name escape me!

These charts were only $ 2 each! Talk about a deal!

This is another fully kitted up piece by Northern Pine Designs called Eight Pointed Stars. As you can see, everything needed is here, including tapestry and beading needles, 18ct mono canvas, Needle Necessities over-dyed floss, Caron Watercolours, DMC Floche, and these nifty rubber spools with the Perle cottons and the metallics on them. I really like these spools because they fold over once you're done to protect the floss from getting dirty!

All of this? $5

Okay, don't be mad you weren't there...but these were all freebies. I didn't even realize both the booklets I picked out were Alma Lynne until I was laying them on the table to take the picture; I just liked the designs in them! So, from left to right, top row first, I got Alma Lynne's Star Spangled Country booklet, A Secret Garden needlewrok necessary by Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches, Rhapsody by Amybear Designs, Country Folk Art and other short subjects by Alma Lynne, The Little Spot Sampler by The Drawn Thread, 2 packages of 36ct Edinborough linen, Maryland Sampler by Poorehouse Designs (circa 1984), Sailboat by Cherry Horn (circa 1978).

Ahh...my coup de grace! Yep, I got some really great deals, but here's the best one! All those QSnaps? Five complete sets, everything from 6" to 17" and a set of extra clamps? SEVEN DOLLARS! Can you believe it?! I couldn't!!

I also purchased this blocking board, since I'm going to be getting into some needlepoint pieces, and only paid $5 for it!

I was so proud of myself! All this great stash, and I STILL walked out of the building with $20 more than when I walked in! I think that's a great day by any stitcher's standards!

I went to dialysis and ended up sleeping after basting the center line into the Purple Passion Butterfly's canvas. I couldn't understand from the graph where I'm supposed to start stitching. It's a good thing I joined EGA today, because now I have ladies I can ask! It says there's two sizes of Rhodes stitches and shows a stitch diagram, but it just says "start stitching the body of the butterfly." I can't tell from the picture OR the graph where these stitches go, and where I use a large Rhodes versus a small one! That's when I decided to just get some sleep to make up for all the sleep I didn't get last night!

I really wasn't "with it" tonight and didn't do much. I made dinner and remembered to put it away this time, so it won't go bad on me. I didn't even get through all my emails. I finally got all the pictures taken, wrote my posts for this past weekend and today, and now I'm heading off to bed!

Sweet dreams, everyone!