In case you haven't heard...

CATS has been reborn as Stitching Jubilee! The only show I know of will be Oct. 2-4 at the Valley Forge Convention Center, which is either in Valley Forge or King of Prussia, depending on who you ask, lol. I think it's right on the dividing line. I will miss Hershey, but it will be nice for me personally to not have to travel as far. The website isn't up yet, but I believe it is www.stitchingjubilee.com.

Thanks Rachel for mentioning it in your blog!

Talking cats video

Someone shared this on one of the boards I haunt and I HAD to share it here! These little kitties are so cute. I'm wondering what they are talking about. Perhaps one was having a bad day so the other is comforting her/him. Maybe the one on the right wanted to go to a spa and the other one said, "Why spend so much money on a spa when I can give you a bath for free?"

What do you think?

Back from Hershey

Actually, I got back on Saturday but didn't feel like posting yesterday. Funny, after stitching most of the time at Hershey, all I wanted to do yesterday was stitch. I've made a lot of progress on Mirabilia's Halloween Fairy: one wing is completely done, the little bag is done, her head and hair are done (except for beads) and her dress is almost done. I finished the Christmas Fairy a few weeks ago but still haven't gotten the darn picture up. I have a lot of cleaning up to do around this blog, so I plan on updating my pictures and my blog lists this week.

Hershey was great! Sure, the market was small, but I spent most of my money at Picture This Plus, Mimi's shop and Stitch N' Stuff -- a huge chunk at PTP, actually. I met up with a lot of stitchers I hadn't met before and some I had. I'm bummed that it's the last one as I had so much fun this year, but Karri and I are tentatively planning to go to Celebration of Needlework in Nashua, NH in May. Here's my haul, or at least what I can remember without having my stash in front of me:

I bought a lot of canvaswork designs. I have a few others at home that I haven't started yet but one of my goals for the following year is to finish at least one. One of the ladies at the stitching lounge was working on "Reflecting Pools" by Laura (?) Perin, and that one is on my list to buy soon. I bought most of the following after seeing the models on display -- gorgeous! As usual, the photos don't do them justice.

Hot Stuff! from DebBee Designs


Haunted Hardanger from Michelle Ink (I love the chart and will teach myself how to do the stinkin' hardanger)


Evening Star by Nancy's Needle (I also bought the thread pack so now I only need the canvas and a bigger needle)


Amish Trip Around the World by Nancy's Needle (The model shows the antique jewel tones, but I'm going to buy the brighter jewel tones)


Watergarden by Chatelaine, will eventually buy the floss pack.


Mirabilia's New Year's Eve Fairy, and bought some nicer PTP fabric for her -- can't remember the name but it's a purplish/light grey color.


I don't have a picture of it, but I bought a small pink ribbon sampler done in one color of variegated floss. I'm stitching it in a teal variegated to make it an ovarian cancer memorial sampler, and may use other colors in the future. It's cute and will stitch up pretty quickly, I think. I also bought some nice light teal/grey fabric for it.

I also bought fabric for three Mirabilia mermaids at PTP. Oh, and I bought the latest JCS ornament issue.

Hershey CATS

Well, got back from CATS on Saturday. I was enjoying the rest of my long weekend off and wasn't online much. I also had Monday off because we get Jewish holidays off -- love that!

For the most part, I really enjoyed CATS and Karri and I are planning to make it an annual event. That being said, I hope that the vendor situation is different next year. The first year I went (2004) there were so many vendors that I couldn't take it all in the first day and had to look at the rest the next day. Last year there were fewer vendors but still many. This year it was very noticeable that there were fewer vendors -- about a whole row was gone. They tried to mask it by giving us more table space, but I could tell. After I went through I kept circling around, thinking I'd missed a row somewhere. I hadn't. Apparently, there is a new rule that if a vendor signs a contract to go to one CATS they have to sign up for all of them. So, some simply didn't attend, like that great thread shop (I think it's actually called "The Thread Shoppe" but not sure) that is always there. I was soooo looking forward to spending some money there. Thank goodness Picture This Plus was there so I at least got some fabric that I wanted.

The other side of this is that the place was very crowded. There was about the same amount of people (I'm guessing) as usual but we were concentrated in a smaller area than before, so it was difficult to get around and people were waiting in line for an hour or longer. I got in Thursday night and bought most of my stuff that night. I went back on Friday but it was so crowded that I could barely move, let alone actually get to where I could see anything. I expected The Silver Needle and Picture This Plus to be mobbed, but everything was. So, after about 10 minutes of that I had decided that I wasn't going to buy anything more and spent the rest of the day stitching on a big comfy sofa and chairs outside the main hall. Karri and I spent the afternoon stitching with three sisters we met there. I cannot recall their names and I don't think they visit the boards, but we had a lot of fun talking about movies and Harry Potter.

So, although the market was disappointing, I still had a very good time and Karri and I are already planning to go next year. I think we're going to try to stay in the lodge next year. It's more expensive but so much easier and more comfy.

I did buy some nice things, though. I bought hand-dyed fabric for Passione Ricamo's Moon Fairy Spirit and the three Mirabilia LE fairy kits. I also bought some Caron Waterlillies at Sunflower Samplings, as they were selling them for $2.75 each, and I bought Gloucester Grapes - Colors from Simply Old-Fashioned. I could have bought everything in her booth that I don't already have. I really like her designs and some of them are very unique.

I was going to post more, but I started this at lunch and had to come back later and have forgotten what else I was going to say, lol. I'm sure I'll remember eventually.