Well, to catch everyone up on the rack and its problems: Monday I talked with John at Rainbow Gallery about the problem. I had looked at the base Saturday and again Monday morning and couldn't see any damage. I was all ready to start putting it back together, but decided to wait until I could pick John's brain. Since I'm in Florida and he's in California, I had to wait until 12:30 to make the call. Thank goodness I did. John walked me through the rack's possible problem areas. I had the rack base in my lap and was rubbing it (my employees tell me that I rub lots of things. Guess I'm in the right business since I obviously like texture.). All of a sudden, I realized that I could feel the long crack in the black plastic, but I couldn't see it. After I tilted the base here and there, the crack showed up. John wasn't surprised at my discovery and is sending a replacement base. In the same box will be a small fiber order I placed--free shipping and a free base! What a deal. Of course, next week I'll have to reload the fibers on the rack. That will definitely cut into my shop stitching time. I should have asked John to come visit and help!
Speaking of visitors, I had the manager and her husband today from Rittenhouse Needleworks in Philadelphia. It's always nice to meet people from other shops. Often at wholesale markets we are all too focused on what we're seeing and how much we're spending to spend much time chatting with each other. I like to visit shops when I travel. The region of the country and the personality of the show owner govern the inventory. Often I see items I had overlooked at market. For instance, Needle Nicely has an unusually large inventory of belt canvases. That's partly because golfers will wear needlepoint belts; tennis players are less apt to. We also have a studio where we design custom belts for customers.
Some of you might have noticed that I'm a sports fan. I grew up with 6 brothers and 2 sisters--and guess who controlled the television? As I grow older and athletes change teams for money with no loyalty, I am less apt to watch professional team sports(with notable exceptions like Peyton Manning and his brother Eli), but I love individual sports like tennis and golf. This past weekend, Boo Weekley was in the running to win the Heritage Golf tournament in Hilton Head. But Boo has to get some putting lessons, because his putting cost him over $200,000. if not the tournament. But I was there with him Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. At least, by television viewing! And I got quite a bit of stitching done between watching those "just a moment ago, Boo did..." Here's my progress:
Not only did I finish the Lilac fish, but I got over half of the fins done on the golden fish. So I estimate another two weeks of stitching before I start on the next project. I can't wait!
EDIT: I forgot to mention, I'm going to be doing a newsletter, perhaps randomly, but if you'd like to receive it, either put your email in the comments or email me at nnicely@gate.net I'm trying to come up with content that hasn't appeared in my blog. We'll see if I'm successful.
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