Today is Opening Day for The Needlework Show. This is an online wholesale trade show that is open for public viewing and participation. Wholesale open to the public?! How is that possible?

Well, sales are made only to registered wholesale buyers, i.e., shop owners, just like the huge trade shows at convention centers. However, since this is online rather than at a convention center, consumers can join the fun, viewing designer and manufacturer “booths,” which are pages in this case.

From the comfort of your home, in your pajamas or sweats, before you shower (or instead of showering), noshing on chocolate or pizza, while you’re stitching a bookmark you can browse 20 featured designs and products from each of 137 designers and manufacturers and make a wish list. Maybe you can find some bookmark patterns, or patterns that you can turn into bookmarks.

Since you’re at your computer, you might as well make your wish list on the computer, maybe even in your email program so that you can send it to your local shop owner and/or to everyone in your address book, providing a helpful tool for anyone wishing to surprise you with gifts. What a thoughtful thing to provide loved ones!

If you are not so fortunate as to have a local needlework shop (I used to be in that boat, but now I have Arctic Needle–lucky me!), you can find one right there on The Needlework Show site, where they have listed all the registered buyers by state and country.

Or maybe I can make it even easier. The following Bookmark Challenge participants are also registered buyers in The Needlework Show. Any of these shop owners will cheerfully help you fulfill your Wish List. When you send them an email, you can thank them for supporting literacy and this program.

Alaska
Karen or Ann
Arctic Needle
4101 Arctic Blvd
Anchorage, AK 99503
907-562-6500
arcticneedle@alaska.net

California
Michelle
Come to the Point!
1040 Court Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
415-485-4942
aiguille1040@comcast.net

Florida
Janet
The Cross Stitch Station
18 SW 8th Street
Miami, FL 33130
305-372-3730
janet@miamicrossstitch.com

Kathy
Needle Delights
1813 Creighton Rd Ste B
Pensacola, FL 32504
850-478-8898
1-888-633-3530
kathy@needledelights.com

Indiana
Liz and Dianna
Fancy Works
3635 W. St. Rd. 46
Bloomington, IN 47404
812-935-6353
stitch@fancy-works.com

Louisiana
Gayle
Accents, Inc.
3501 Severn Ave, Suite 1B
Metairie, LA 70002
504-888-2458
gayle@accentsinc.com

Wisconsin
Kendra
The Stitching Bee
2304 Velp Ave.
Green Bay, WI 54303
920-434-6884
Xstbee@aol.com

There is a Fun Page on the site with a scavenger hunt. If you find all the items in the hunt, you can enter the contest to win a $25 gift certificate.

I hope you have time to enjoy the show. It is not, however, an excuse to not stitch a bookmark; it’s an opportunity to multi-task.

Funk & Weber Designs is in the show, of course, and we’re running a puzzle contest, of course. With prizes, of course. Life’s a Game and Everything’s a Competition, right? Of course!