This post was submitted by Frederikka Payne, owner of Aurora Yarns and our TNNA Maker Faire Chair . . .

Detroit Maker Faire rocked!

Needlepoint across the generations

Mona Rummel sharing the joy of knitting

Dakota teaching other young men

What a fun, exciting and uplifting weekend! Who wouldn’t be excited and uplifted by seeing 800-1000 people (at least 50% of them children) learn to knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch in two days? The TNNA Needlearts Zone was indoors this year in the fabulous Henry Ford Museum – out of the heat! We were in a very large open space and were allowed to spread out. As a result, we only had to turn a few people away and ask them to return (and they did).

Once again, we got a lot of parents to join in with their children, and they enjoyed the experience. One family really sticks out in my mind. One of the daughters wanted to learn to needlepoint and had picked out a kit, but the rest of the family was hungry. She asked if I could hold it for her until after lunch. An hour or so later, three generations of her family were learning to needlepoint, cross-stitch, knit and crochet. It became a blur, as nearly every family member went on to learn all four disciplines!

In fact, that family was not alone – quite a few people made the entire circuit of our booth, either in one day or two. They were at Maker Faire to experience, learn and make and they did all of that for sure in our booth.

TNNA’s Needlearts Zone won two Editor’s Choice blue ribbons! I was able to speak with both of the awarders and both said we had the best booth in the Faire (so did many of the attendees – many told us that throughout the whole weekend). I spoke at length with the second awarder. He was very impressed with the diversity in our booth – all ages, both sexes, different races. We bring people together from all walks of life, but in our booth they are all just interested in the same thing – teaching and learning needlearts.

He pointed to various groupings – a grandfatherly man teaching two young girls to needlepoint, a teenaged boy teaching a mother and her teen son and daughter to knit, a motherly woman teaching young boys to cross-stitch, a left-handed woman teaching a left-handed man to crochet (we love our lefty teachers!) – and said "where else could you possibly reach all these different people?” Pointing at various people, he asked, "without this experience, would that person have ever been likely to go to one of your member’s stores?” In each instance, I had to respond "no” because he had pointed out the people who looked most unlikely to even to know a yarn, needlepoint or cross-stitch store existed.

Because of TNNA’s booth at Maker Faire, they have been exposed to and welcomed into our needlearts world and their lives have been changed – we hope forever.

Our volunteer teachers in Detroit are phenomenal. Many of them were returnees – and after giving up anywhere from 4 hours to more than 3 full days of their time and talent, they thanked us for the opportunity. Every one of them wants to come back next year to teach. In addition, we collected nearly 50 names of people who are interested in teaching in the Needlearts Zone at next year’s Maker Faire, simply because they were so impressed by what we are doing.

One woman (Suzanne) worked with us from the first moment of set-up to the last moment of tear-down. In addition, she agreed to represent us on Wednesday in a segment of a program Maker Faire has set up with a local teacher’s group. The segment is a miniature version of what we and other "Makers” did at Maker Faire, to show teachers what they can do to stimulate their students’ imaginations and inspire them. I can’t wait to hear her report!

Suzanne stitching the new needlepoint canvas

Next up, New York — September 17-18. If you are in the New York area and would like to join us and teach, contact us at tnnamaker@gmail.com. It is more fun with needlearts than you can possibly imagine!

I’m really not sure where to begin. Perhaps starting now and counting backwards . . . but isn’t that what they ask you to do when you go under a sedative for surgery. . . count backwards. Let’s see how far I get before you all go to sleep . . . because I really could go on and on.

Since TNNA’s NeedleArts Market closed on the 13th of June, there’s been a constant stream of "happenings.”
Beginning tomorrow, we’re looking towards the Detroit Maker Faire, coming up on the 30th and 31st of July. If you’re in the Detroit area, look for our upcoming email about TNNA’s Needlearts Zone . . . This will be our second year there, and we’re going to need lots of volunteers to help teach again. These events are getting bigger and bigger, and draw in lots of new, enthusiastic stitchers. We don’t have the sign up sheet posted yet, but will soon. If you want more information, or want to be on the list . . . send us an email a tnnamaker@gmail.com.

In the meantime, we’ve said good-bye to some of our PiPN interns, and hello to a new one. (Check out the TNNAPiPNblog.com to see what the interns have had to say so far.) We’ve seen the PiPN Summer Scholar class come to a close and more of our interns head off to their individual host sites. So far, we’ve heard back from several, including Elli McHugh interning with Be Sweet and Kimberly Esasky who’s with Vogue Knitting. BTW, Kim’s looking for fiber artists in the Los Angeles area who are interested in exhibiting at the Vogue Live event there in September of this year.

I’m in the process of returning the beautiful hand-embroidered (crewel) gown created by Renee LaCoste, winner of TNNA’s Best of Show Award in Hand NeedleArts, as well as the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association’s award winning boards. Funny how packaging things up and sending them off seems to take forever . . . even though I’m saving lots of money by using TNNA’s UPS service!

I’m also following up with Dave Krebs, and determining a date for the upcoming CBC Webinar for our "Being Number Smart in the Needlearts” class. We’re hoping to have our first webinar on July 11th at 4 pm EST, and the second on the 13th at the same time. We’ll be sending out reminder notices to those who attended the class at the show. I’m also about to start knitting him a tie . . . Seems he’s really into ties (did you notice the one he wore at the show?) . . . anyone have a good pattern?

We’re also beginning to work seriously on the Yarn Resource Catalog. Thanks to the generosity of the Yarn Group members who supported the Great Wall by sending in samples and additional skeins. With all the yarn provided, we’ll have enough to create several Catalogs to be made available to the textile and fashion professors across the country.

I think there were several other things that happened between the 13th and now, but I can’t quite remember them all. I do know, right after the show, I slept for an entire day.

The days prior to that, were filled with lots of excitement and activity. The June show this year really was a new world. The streets of TNNA were lined with great new products, new people, and old friends. The new Fashion Show (going online soon, I promise), the new Great Wall and Discover What’s New area all added to the fun. Attendance was up, spirits were high, and everyone could feel it.

So now that we’ve counted backwards to zero, I guess it is time to take a rest. Oh, except things are already in the works for Baltimore . . .