I am going to give you my caveats one more time and at the beginning of each post. I was lucky enough to attend H&H Americas as a demonstrator for the hand Weaver’s Guild of America I am not supported or affiliated with any of the organizations that I mentioned.

I was very careful while attending this show to ensure that I was not drawing the vendors attention away from their primary customers, this is often these organizations livelihood, and how they make their living so I did not want to in any way draw from that. Even though I did not draw the attention away, all of the demonstrators were very generous with their time and often without my even asking, they offered samples. This post I’m going to talk about the samples that I received and in the next one, I will mention the items that I purchased while I was there.

Each day had slightly different offerings, but I have mushed them all together into the single post. First there was a golden ticket drawing, I sort of want to say that everyone won this, but I don’t have proof of that. Brewer quilting and sewing had two different prizes and since I somehow received three messages that I won, I received both of the prizes. One is a lovely little pouch with handles and zippers, and the other is a mini box opener. Both products are extremely well-made, and I anticipate using them for decades in the future. The vendor and display were absolutely amazing.

Spun silk world Company was extremely generous with their samples. I received two sets of three puffs along with a sample of Eri silk and a sample of Mulberry silk. As I stated in my first post, I will be doing a comparison of this along with plying up the samples that I spun during the conference in a future post. Even though I’ve been home for a few days, I still have not taken my wheel out of the car, so I certainly have not gotten my spun fiber onto bobbins yet. The colors were very rich. I have three different pinks as well as some amazing grays that I am so excited to be playing in the near future. Again, this is not an advertisement, but I do have to mention that this is the absolute fastest I have ever been able to spin silk. Their fiber is absolutely remarkable and if you were starting to spin, I recommend this as a silk to try.

Woodsy Craft Co, OMG! I just love their wooden shapes that can be colored in with their special acrylic markers. What I find remarkable is that the markers lay down a very fine line as opposed to the craft markers that I’ve worked within the library where they not only lay down a thicker line, but they bleed. I had the opportunity to test this and I could’ve colored in the entire shape, however there was still a lot of the show to look at so I wanted to move on. They do have all of the supplies to turn these into banners as well as small kits for single banners and bigger kits for organizations. The demonstrator was extremely friendly and willing to speak to me. She even took down the information of my manager so that she can recognize the name if an order comes through. I am going to recommend that we order these kits because they are just amazing.

There were several publishing companies that had booths, as I was familiar with them I did not spend time stopping by to check them out. However, on the second day, there were two authors present at separate booths that had their books and we’re signing them. I offered to purchase a copy of each of the books, however they were signed and gifted to me. I believe they were doing that for everyone. I am so excited to take my time and explore these books as they are simply phenomenal. I was planning on purchasing both of them in the near future anyway and I certainly am going to recommend them for purchasing for the Library as well as possibly loaning them out so that some of my patrons get an idea of what can be done. Both of the authors were absolutely delightful.

I stopped by the Oxford punch Company because I have a kit, and I know the basics of how to do rug punching, but I always love ogling their tools. They have an amazing new stand that can hold between three and six punches, along with some accessories, and it looks like a fabulously compact way of storing their items when I mentioned that I love their punches I was offered a free sample kit, which was extremely generous. I love the smiley face, and I look forward to taking time to create my little wall hanging in the near future.

On my second day, I discovered a part of the conference that I hadn’t even noticed the first day, it was so huge. In this part, there was a heat press as well as a sublimation ink printout, and a bag that you could put it on. This was so much fun and I love that. I got a chance to see exactly how sublimation ink works. The heat press could not have been easier, though they did have a note that you had to be careful because it would get very hot.

There was a beautiful fabric line by Camelot fabrics and I will be having pictures of those not next post, but the one after that. When I asked for a business card or their information, they gave me a set of three hair ties instead that has their website on it. Since I’ve been home, I have been looking online to see where I can purchase the two panels that I greatly admired, and I have not found an online retailer in the US yet.

The stitchin’ tree had a lovely demonstration of their traders dice, and they also explained along the way how they use it to sell items in a retail environment, which I found fascinating. Each participant was given a free set of dice as well as the information to order more and a wide variety of uses other than what was mentioned in the demonstration. These little dice are amazing, each person brings a particular number of whatever is being traded. For example, if you are going to be trading skeins of yarn, each person would bring six. Three would stay by that person and three would go into the kitty. Each person would roll the dice, there are three dice, then the dice are turned so that the words can be read by the player and whatever action it tells you to take you do for each die. For example, if one is trade across one is a kitty and one is hold then the player would choose a skein of yarn that they like from the player across from them and trade it for one that they did not like take a yarn from the kitty in the middle and keep a hold of what they have for the third die. Gameplay will end when all of the items from the kitty have gone. The presenter mentioned several times that when they have a family reunion, they bring all sorts of coins, not only different denominations but international coins as well and use the dice to create a fun. This was so much fun, not only to participate in, but to learn about and of course the dice at the end are just lovely.

Knit the Rainbow is an organization that donates items to LGBTQ plus youth in Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles. If you were looking for an organization to donate your handmade items to this is well worth your time. We actually have need in our own community so I will not be bringing this to my supervisor, however, if you were in a more affluent community or if you simply do not have the same need that we do I highly recommend participating with this organization. They also let me take a button home.

Last, but definitely not least Last but definitely not least Scented Stitches very generously gave me some extra samples to give to my patrons as they will be expiring in July so she was unable to sell them in her store. These are simply delightful, moisturizing bars in an almost mini deodorant, type container. The vendor was absolutely lovely and generous, and I’m going to have to keep one of these for myself as it smells wonderfully, and I can always use moisturizer.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!