Mrs. Kellogg goes to Washington (State)
I recently had the good fortune to go the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA, with my friends Mary Ann Donelley, Kathi Mundt and Cheryl Churchill. While we waited at the airport, I taught Mary Ann how to knit.
Okay, so I have a loud voice. And our plane was delayed. So one by one, I was approached by people who wanted to learn how to use the Fix-A-Stitch to repair their stitches. Since I was on my way to a sewing expo, I didn’t have a sample to demonstrate … so I kept ripping down on Mary Ann’s new scarf. But of course, since I used Fix-A-Stitch to make the repairs, it doesn’t show.
While Mary Ann was getting started, she dropped one of her cast-on stitches. No surprise that I easily picked it back up using Fix-A-Stitch. Watch for a new video about how simple it is to make that repair, now that we have Fix-A-Stitch!
At the expo itself, I made new friends and saw old ones:
• In my classes I was very impressed with Nancy Zieman of Nancy’s Notions. She believes in keeping things simple. After the talk, I learned she’s a knitter — and samples of Fix-A-Stitch are on their way to her.
• It turns out that the lace Fix-A-Stitch is PERFECT for threading both the Baby Lock 10 needle embroidery machine and their Crown Jewel long arm.
• A seminar on “365 Days of Notions” introduced me to so many wondrous things to add to my own collection that I had to leave my shopping list with The Pine Needle so they could ship it all to me. I’m especially excited about a light table I can use for my appliqué work, as well as my piles and piles of photo negatives that still need reviewing and culling.
There were many wonderful vendors at the Expo. I was delighted to see Great Yarns there — they always have amazing knitted items to drool over (oh, how I wish I had time to knit!). And of course, Makers’ Mercantile was there with all of their wonderful offerings.
In the non-knitting department, I visited with friends from ThimbleCreek (I hope Joe has time to get us a newsletter this week, now that the show is over), and made friends with Bobbi Bullard. After listening to her speak, I was certain we have a connection, which it turns out we do: We were both raised in Atlanta, Georgia … about the same time … and even have some mutual acquaintances.
One of the most impressive speakers I’ve heard in a long time was Tula Pink, a young (32) fabric designer with enough stage presence to be a stand-up comic. She kept us enthralled for over 2 hours. When Mary Ann went to get a book signed for her daughter, I was able to move in close enough for a photo.
At the airport on our way home, I spent some delightful conversation with Jiordan Castle, a young writer now living in San Francisco. I gave her a card, and hope she will be in touch so we can continue our discussion of books and movies and other fun stuff.
Let’s talk lace
Many Fix-A-Stitch fans are familiar with the original tool, but did you realize we have a lace weight version to help you with finer-gauge projects, too?
Bonnie created the “daintier” Fix-A-Stitch in response to her own need for something that would easily go in and out of lace weight stitches. Its flexibility lets the tool pick up that dropped stitch much more effortlessly than a standard crochet hook could.
Recently, Bon even found ANOTHER great use for the Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch: An avid machine embroidery user, instead of “pushing” the thread through the holes on her 10-needle machine, she used the Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch to pull the thread through. “It was MUCH easier. Because the Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch has a slight bend to it, I could even do the bottom hole, where a traditional crochet hook wouldn’t fit.”
Here are two photos from her triumph:
Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch tools are sold in packs of two. Share your Fix-A-Stitch story, and you could win a prize! Email us at bonnie@fixastitch.co for details.