It was a two and one half day stitching extravaganza that flew by in what felt like minutes. Getting ready to go was a feat in itself, spending days upon days packing and figuring out what items to bring. My friends thought I was closing up the shop...for good! The shelves and walls were stripped bare all to give the folks at Celebration a taste of what Inspired Needle is all about! Here are my two cohorts when they were still my friends, before they found out how really hard it is to load and unload the van and set up the booth for the show!
This year driving to New Hampshire, we decided we were going to switch drivers every two hours. What a difference that made in being able to get out of the van and stretch a little. We found this little pull-off along I-80 somewhere in Pennsylvania, I believe. The pictures I shot are not-so-hot, but the view was breathtaking!
And we can't forget the shot of the van which is filled to the ceiling! We rented a 15-passenger van, so you can imagine how much stitchy goodness we had crammed into there!
We set out driving on Tuesday morning around 7:45 a.m. We stopped for lunch along I-80 and had dinner in DuBois, PA. We stopped for the night around 9:00 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Wednesday morning, we headed out again, arriving in Nashua about 3 p.m. We unloaded the van and put up the walls, lights and tulle in our booth. That took about 4 hours, sweating and suffering in the heat. There was no a/c in the ballroom since the unloading doors were propped open. Needless to say, we all needed showers when we were finished!
Thursday morning we were up early again to eat breakfast and get down to the ballroom to start the task of setting up the booth. We hung stitched model after stitched model and really filled the booth! We even had lots of extra models that we had to hide under the tables because we just didn't have enough room to hang them. I think we finally finished setting up around 7 p.m. and we went out for a nice steak dinner to celebrate!
^if you enlarge the photo, you will see a table with a black & white skirt to the right. That is Judy Whitman's booth; she was located directly behind us.
There has been a lot of chatter about my booth at Celebrations and I'm just tickled that you liked it! Thank you so much for letting me know...it helps to know if we're on target. Plus, the girls will love to hear that their hard work was appreciated!
Debbie came to see me at the shop last Saturday and Pam showed up for work yesterday, so I guess they are still my friends! I am so blessed to have two friends who will work their fingers to the bone to help me! We do have a great time at the show and it is so much fun to see the same faces from last year along with new ones. We hope some of you will be able to join us in St. Charles, MO, for Celebration of Needlework Midwest. It is sure to be as great a time! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please send me an email and I'll be sure to clue you in.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I love to hear your comments!
