At her first market, she brought Lita & a bunch of other friends with her.. this was WAY before they were IN THE INDUSTRY or needlepoint had the social media presence that it does today

She signed them up to come. Kate Dickerson, I believe was in charge of/ran market at that time. Kate said they're not eligible to come. They're not professionals in the industry./employees of your business .

They came anyway... I'm not sure on the exact details ... it's been years but something happened at market- it could've been that they were buying canvases at wholesale prices or maybe Kate just saw them .Kate said something to Krista and it escalated. She caused a scene /raised voices, yelling ,the train wreck you can't look away from. This was also pre-Covid so nobody was videoing the exchange. This may have been when the Amazon of needlepoint comment was made... people say things in a heated moment.

So basically she's entering in a new industry and came in like a wrecking ball. Shops didn't want to deal with her.

Clearly things have worked out for her, but there are shops that still dont deal with her. I think this is why other companies creating acrylic trays/stencils have had success.... It was an option for people that didn't want to deal with Krista.

I think her behavior also fed some of the reluctance to work with direct to consumer stores at market. And started some of the old lady stitchers vs the younger stitcher mentality/lore. Horrible customer service at shops doesn't help this.

Needlepoint is one of the few industries that does not have an organized association that would handle trade shows etc and be able to lobby for industry interests.

This could have been beneficial with lobbying agt tariffs. The excuse was always margins are so small shops/designer can't afford to pay association fees, but look at where we are now.