World Candle Congress and Trade Show

ALAFAVE (AsociaciÃ³n Latinoamericana de Fabricantes de Velas) and NCA (National Candle Association) are gearing up for their second world candle congress in CancÃºn, Mexico, June 25-29, 2007. It’s a great opportunity to see what’s new in the candle world, gain new knowledge, business and network. There will be plenty of trade shows, buyers, suppliers and speakers attending.

The National Candle Association represents US suppliers and is widely recognized as the leading technical authority on candles and candle manufacturing. Shown here is a picture of a wedding basket, courtesy of NCA. Nearly three quarters of women surveyed from NCA stated that candles were present as a key element of their ceremony.

Membership in the NCA gives suppliers and manufacturers the opportunity to learn about new products and services. 90% of candle companies in the US are members of NCA and adhere to strict ASTM candle standards. They publish a directory of their members annually and include background information, plant locations, descriptions of products offered, and contact information. If you don’t want to spring for the printed directory, it appears most of the manufacturers and suppliers are listed on the NCA site.

I enjoyed reading their facts and figures on candles. According to their stats, US sales of candles are estimated at 2 billion annually and over 95% of the purchasers are women.

Stitching Housewives offers a ton of cute, sort of country feeling cross stitch patterns with different themes I don’t quite understand but they’re super cute so let’s get into it.

One section is called Dapper Doodads, which it looks like are all square. Tiered Tray Tidbits are generally more rectangular, and RoundAbouts are circular. There are also Sassy Strippers, and I don’t know what the difference among all the different kinds is. All of them are colorful, graphic, often with text, and mounted on something cute. A lot of them are seasonal designs.

Just as an example, here’s Charlie Chicken, a big black chicken hauling an even bigger pumpkin in a wagon past a house with sunflowers. This one is labelled as a Tiered Tray Tidbit, but again I don’t really know why.

This one uses seven colors and is 56 by 42 stitches. It comes out to 4 by 3 inches or 10 by 7.6 cm when stitched on 28 count linen (equivalent to 14 count Aida). It’s shown mounted on a wooden pumpkin, but you could put it in a frame or make it little pillow or whatever you like.

There are lots of smaller categories with some themed projects, such as “calendar crates,” which are themed for the month but don’t actually have the month on them. There’s a lot of Christmas patterns, and smaller collections of Halloween/fall and spring projects.

Another section is called “What’s in My Cup,” which features a tall coffee cup with text on it and decorations in and around the cup. For example there’s a happy birthday cup with a cake coming out of the top and surrounded by presents and balloons. The Good Old Days collection includes monthly minis with the month on one piece, a house decorated for the season and another little seasonal design.

The seasonal series includes literal seasons as well as Halloween and Christmas designs.

It’s hard to tell you what’s here but if you like the style of this one or combinations of text and fun images, check out all the goodies at Stitching Housewives.

[Photo: Stitching Housewives]

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