I had the best intentions to blog more often about the trip out to Tucson for the ANG Seminar. But life happens… I’ll try to let you know what’s been happening as briefly as possible.

Mr. M and I traveled to the Phoenix area last Monday and spent several days touring the area. Of course, we visited four needlework shops in Scottsdale – Old Town Needleworks (needlepoint and cross stitch), Quail Run Needlework, Be Stitched Needlework, and Family Arts Needlework. I did purchase a couple of ornament canvases (all desert-themed) and two cross stitch charts of Frank Lloyd Wright designs (Scottsdale is home to Taliesin West). The shops were all very well stocked with threads (Mr. M was quite impressed).

On Thursday we drove to Tucson for the ANG Seminar. We were able to check into our room in early afternoon and I was able to pick up my registration material as well. Instead of a gift at the Opening Banquet, it was given out at the registration desk along with some goodies from River Silk and The West, the needlework shop here in Tucson.

We were able to visit The West here in Tucson before Seminar, so I stocked up on Arizona and southwest related needleminders. We did visit the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures, which was fascinating. If you love those miniature rooms and dollhouses, this is the place. Here’s some miniature bargello needlework from one of the houses.

My first class started on Saturday and was a two-day class with Dawn Donnelly – Mr. Sparkles. This was a very popular class and I heard that it sold out at registration in under 10 minutes. Dawn is a great teacher and the design is just so cute – perfect for my after Christmas/New Year theme of snowpeople. Here’s my progress after the two days. And those are two of my new needleminders.

Last night was the Opening Banquet, a celebration of ANG’s 50 years. It was great fun talking to stitchers in person! And our own Melita won the President’s Award for her original design Spring Sampler. Congratulations, Melita! See her blog post at http://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com.

Today I started my second class with Terri Bay – Dragonfly Mandala, which is a whitework/blackwork/pulled thread design. The first day was devoted to surface embroidery and blackwork. Tomorrow we are supposed to come to class angry so that we can pull the linen tightly. My progress from Day One is shown below (the satin stitched outline was pre-work – I did not become a turbo stitcher).

I have one more day of this class; Wednesday is a free day so Mr. M and I will do some touristing. Thursday and Friday are my third class, so more on that later in the week (I hope).

NJNA is represented by 13 members of the Chapter here at Seminar, so a very nice turnout. Next year’s Seminar is in Atlanta and the project offerings are spectacular. There will be some hard decisions about what to take in 2023.

Here are two photos from around the resort taken during my sunrise walks.

Happy Stitching!

Linda