I am combining two days of classes because last night when we got back from dinner, I had to wrap the Leah skein of #12 over dyed perle onto a soft roll of paper that I had made. I spent an hour working on it last night and another hour this morning when I got up. I couldn't not complete the wrapping without cutting it a couple of times because it got so tangled. When I started and held the open skein at one end and let go, it twisted right back up which explains why it was so difficult to wrap! So by the time I had put in my hour of wrapping, I was too tired (and frustrated) to write!

The class and the project are both going well, except that we have quite a bit left to do tomorrow, the last day. Day 1 was spent doing quite a bit of basting which you might think should/could have been prework, but the teacher, a first timer, felt there could be too many questions/mistakes. I think she was right. We did get a few things stitched as you can see from the picture.

End of first day

Day 2 began with plunging the gold threads to the back and wrapping them. What an experience! She gave us the option of using out $10 Japan needle or a plastic dental loop. I chose the dental loop as I was afraid the needle would fall off and I would lose it! It worked great to pull the gold to the back. The wrapping takes practice–I got pretty good and much faster with the ones I did tonight for homework! Then we needed to do 36 queen stitches so that we could be ready for the fan, or as she said “the fan” scaring us all. Then came laying the gold alongside the fan to be couched. Before we knew it four-thirty arrived and we had to be ready to do the next part tomorrow and most of us were not, hence homework.

The only thing I have left to do before class starts is to lay the three sets of gold and couch them along the top. If you are wondering why I am not doing it tonight, it is because there is no surface to work on besides the bed, so I plan to go early tomorrow and complete that before class starts.

I did look at the classes for next year and found several that I really like! Susan has two beautiful pieces on it, including a two day class. Chicago should be a great seminar city! I spent a small amount of time in the exhibits and again was impressed with someof the pieces. One was interesting with a great story behind it. It was a needlepoint piece of two sides of the brain, a healthy brain and one that had been attacked by Alzheimer's. A woman whose husband had Alzheimer's so the x-ray in a magazine and thought that designing a needlepoint piece and stitching it might help her with dealing with her husband's illness. She contacted the magazine which put her in touch with the man who had submitted the x-ray. She e-mailed him asking permission to use it for a design. In under ten minutes he not only gave her permission but also melded the two x-rays of the healthy and the diseased brain into one image with one side healthy and the other diseased. During the time that she was stitching it, her husband passed, but she did complete it. I was impressed with her way of dealing with what was happening and using it to find some comfort.

Look for more tomorrow!

Sue

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