A Small Celebration!

I'm quite late with my Smalls SAL check-in this month...but I have an excuse!  I was at Celebration of Needlework in Nashua, NH last week!  :)

But without further ado, here is the little owl scissor case that I was about to toss in frustration earlier.  I persevered...

...and he came out pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself.  The scissors were a purchase at Celebration - little owl scissors, just perfect!  They are a little small for the pocket, but they came with their own sheath, and as long as I use that it keeps the scissor holes lined up with the eyes pretty well.

As always, I had a lovely time at Celebration.  I didn't take any classes this year, so I spent most of my time stitching with friends, shopping, and pawing through the piles of unwanted patterns left by other stitchers (I took some of my own to trade, as well - and some lucky person went home with Cross-Eyed Kat's "Labyrinth" pattern that I finished for my husband).  I had grand plans of finishing Just Nan's "Wings" design, but realized after I arrived that I had everything with me EXCEPT the pattern. D'oh.  But I accomplished a bit on Told in a Garden's "Family Treasure III," and I should have the Cloudsfactory Labyrinth design done soon as well.

And I picked up SO MANY goodies!  I did stay within my budget, but a lot of my new stash came from those trading piles.  The little owl is actually posing on top of a few of them - a JBW Sweet Nothing, a Shepherd's Bush fob, and a couple others that might make an appearance later this year as smalls.  I bought:

1) This cute little Viking kit I found at Scandinavian Stitches - I'm planning a
little desk-sized "romantic" piece for DH with this.  LOL

 2) Summer House Stitcheworks' "Pin Money" kit.

3) "Take No One/Nothing For Granted" by The Purple Thread
(the stitched model was what sold me - I don't so much love the photo).

I seem to have had a thing for small kits this year. I did pick up 2 pieces of fabric, one from Silkweaver and another from Hand-dyed Fabrics by Stephanie. It was really nice to see some new shops on the vendor floor! I also enjoyed poking around in Gypsy Stitchers - the retail side of Stitching Pretty, with designs by Michelle Ink and others. They had a lovely newly released pattern (so there is no pic) called "Mermaid Spoken Here," all done in Thread Gatherer silks.