Author Archives: rosielunde

Mar31

Beads, Beads, Beads!

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March 31, 2024

Hi Everyone —

A few weeks ago, I was stitching with Erin, one of our newer NJNA members. Erin told me about a beading exhibit at the Morris Museum. So, the two Sues (C and R) and I decided to make an outing to see the Jan Huling “Everything is Alive” exhibit.

I haven’t posted for a long while, but I know we have some beading fanatics in NJNA, so I wanted to share a few pictures and encourage you to get out to see the exhibit if you can. It runs through May 26.

The star of the show is the Preying Mantis.

Isn’t she beautiful? Look at all those beads!

Here’s a picture that will give you some idea of the scale of the Preying Mantis.

The Sues seem small in comparison!

Now a little close-up of her tail(?) — I’m sure there is a more scientific name.

The sign said that these are all glass beads from Czechoslovakia.

I though this dog looked so regal.

He’s about waist high and I love the colorful mandalas!

Many of the dozens of creatures are whimsical and feature wings and jewels. Erin had gone to the lecture and showed me a picture of the artist’s car hood — yep, fully beaded!

A permanent exhibit of Native American artifacts also features beaded items. So this makes an interesting juxtaposition of the old and the new beads. There were so many beads on the artifacts that we stopped to think about where the beads came from. This too was explained by signage — in trade with European fur trappers!

I hope I convinced you to make a field trip to Morristown! Prepare to be amazed!

Cheers, Rosie

Sep1

NJNA Members Achieve National Fame!

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September 1, 2023

Hi Everyone —

Two of our NJNA Members were recognized at the opening banquet of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America (EGA) National Seminar in Boston.

First, the NJNA VP for Programs, Cathryn C, received the Gold Thread award for the Metropolitan Region.

Doesn’t Cathryn look stunning in her beautiful silk jacket? In addition to the red rose, she received a certificate and a Gold Thread pin! Congratulations!!

Moreover, some of you will remember Melita’s presentation about the EGA Master Craftsman Program and the beautiful items that she stitched and submitted. Tonight she was recognized for finishing the program and becoming a certified EGA Master Craftsman!

Melita received a rose for her accomplishment and the entire body of work for the program is featured in the exhibit! Congratulations!

Further congratulations are due to Melita for taking a prize ribbon for her Lady Sybil piece in the exhibit!

Aren’t we lucky to have such talented members of NJNA?!

Cheers, Rosie

Mar7

Celestial Twist

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March 7, 2021

Hi Everyone —

In January, Sue C, Linda and I decided to enroll in the ANG Workshop by Mail. The workshop was Celestial Twist by Ann-Marie Anderson-Mayes. We had to write to Ann-Marie at Beautiful Stitches in Australia if we wanted a kit. So we looked at the website and found a treasure of silken threads and designs! (www.beautifulstitches.com.au)

Sue C showed you her threads in her January 27 post on this site. We’ve been combining our orders to save on postage from Australia. But the threads and colors are just luscious! At Ann-Marie’s suggestion, we have bought our canvas locally to save on postage. Another excuse for a visit to Needleworker’s Delight!

Today, I am pleased to share the finished results of our stitching. My goodness, what a difference a color can make!

If these stay static in the post, we have Linda’s, Rosie’s, and Sue C’s from left to right. Rosie did the original colorway and Linda and Sue chose other threads from Ann-Marie’s collection. In all cases, Ann-Marie chose the solid colors to coordinate with the over-dyed threads.

All three of us agree that this was such a fun piece to stitch with all the Amadeus, Crescent, Norwich, Ray, and Herringbone stitches. We discovered Wrapped Coils for the first time!

The three of us all have additional Beautiful Stitches projects in our stash (or current project pile). I am doing the 2021 Block of the Month piece called “Long Time Gone Stitching” which features an array of well-known quilt patterns interpreted in needlepoint!

We owe ANG a huge thanks for introducing us to Ann-Marie. Just another benefit of guild membership!

Cheers, Rosie

Jan30

Ahwahnee!

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Hi Everyone —

A few months ago, I signed up for “Ahwahnee” by Lorene Salt which was being offered as a workshop by EGA. I thought the design looked balanced and interesting; I ordered the PDF and skipped the kit because I wasn’t fond of the color. The design was supposedly based upon a stained glass window at Yosemite Lodge. So, I was thinking of using shades of green, redwood bark, and blue sky to evoke the feeling of the Yosemite National Park. So when I got the material list, I started combing my stash.

Ahwahnee by Lorene Salt in the original colorway.

The class instructions came in six lessons spaced about a month apart. With the first lesson, Lorene sent a picture of the window that had inspired the design and I immediately knew that I would try to emulate that window instead of following my original plan.

This is the Ahwahnee window in Yosemite Lodge! So gorgeous!

Now came the hard part! I was determined to use my stash so that I didn’t have to shop during Covid. Needless to say, that didn’t work out so well. The only red in my stash was bright Christmas red. I had a nice green, but adjusted when I didn’t have a Kreinik that would work with it. I had lots of bright yellow, but only a few strands of gold that might work. So I stitched and ripped and stitched and ripped until I finally went to Needleworkers Delight and just bit the bullet!

My version of Ahwahnee!

You will note that I took a few liberties with the design. I didn’t like the Chilly Hollows around the center motif — they felt too large, so I changed them to emulate the little triangles in the stained glass. I think it is too busy now, but I’ve stitched this area too many times to count. I’m also not completely happy with the middle side panels — they need more red, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it. Those areas have been stitched at least three times!

My base colors were DMC 815 for the red, 704 for the green, 783 for the gold, and 310 for the black. When I was almost finished, someone told me about this nifty program on Stitch Palette where you could upload a picture and it would convert it to DMC colors. So I uploaded the picture of the Ahwahnee window. Stitch Palette converter recommended DMC 355 for the red, 904/906 for the green, 832 for the gold, and 3371 for the frame and dividers. So epic fail on my part!

No, I don’t plan to stitch it again — but it was interesting to stitch and a real challenge for colors!

Cheers, Rosie

Aug24

NJNA at Woodlawn 2020

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Hi Everyone —

During our August regular meeting on Zoom, we reviewed all of our Woodlawn entries, saw what prizes were won, and reviewed a few of the critiques.

It was too much to go into the meeting summary, so I thought I would try to capture the pieces in this quick (Ha!) blog post.

So here is a gallery of our first place pieces:

And the second place finishes:

And the third place pieces:

And the honorable mentions:

And last but not least, the rest of the NJNA entries:

Pretty spectacular representation, eh?  I hope even more of us will display next year!

Cheers, Rosie

Mar22

Sharing with Friends!

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Hi Everyone —

I’ve decided to post new pictures at the end of each day instead of as they come in.

So, I have this wonderful little piece from Tina F to share tonight.

 

Tina (2)

Tina writes:

This is a Laura Perin Design from Needlepointers magazine, March 2009.  I am suppose to teach this at my Wisconsin Guild.  But with Covid-19, I am not sure that will happen.  But I am ready to go, if the meeting isn’t cancelled. It was a quick stitch as there is a minimal laying of threads.

I also realized that I had three pictures of finished pieces from Janice M.  I took these when we were stitching at the Edwardian Needle (an era ago) and I had planned to put them into the March meeting summary.  But, I figure there’s no time like the present!

Janice NACWS

This is an ANG Correspondence Course called “Not a Creature Was Stirring” by Joni Stevenson.  Janice had it finished as a stand-up.  It looks wonderful!

Janice Pillow

Janice found someone on ETSY (in Germany, I think) who charted the names and dates and everything!  Janice finished it as a pillow for the new couple’s home!

Janice The Wave (2)

Last, but not least, is Joni Stevenson’s “The Wave” which was done as a regional workshop with Metropolitan Region EGA.  This one was also finished as a stand-up!

Kudos to both Tina and Janice!  Who’s next???

Cheers, Rosie

Mar21

Stitching Without Friends, Still Sharing

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Hi Everyone —

I hope you are all making time to stitch.

Janice M completed Stitcher’s Parking Lot.

IMG_0409 (2)IMG_0410 (2)

Janice tells us this about the Stitcher’s Parking Lot.

It’s from a class thru Cyberpointers that was held in March.  In addition to holding laying tools, scissors and needles, it’s also a frame weight.  I stitched it a bit differently from the directions (no surprise there) in that I used perle #3 for the background (I even used two different colors of the perle in addition to the Watercolours on the back side).  The directions called for Mandarin Floss but I did not want to lay those threads.  You could also personalize the parking lot with your initials but I choose the word “stitch” instead.  If was a fun design worked on 13-count interweave canvas which made the finishing easy.

C’mon everyone — share what you are stitching so we can stay connected in this time of social distancing!  I’ll be happy to post it for you or maybe now is the time to DIY it!

Did you love Sue C’s post about “The Neighborhood”?

Cheers, Rosie

 

 

 

 

Mar17

Stitching without Friends!

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Hi Everyone —

Just wanted to post my first finish of the COVID-19 era!

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Lady with Mandala II

This was one of the classes that I took at the ANG seminar in Houston last year.  It’s a canvas by Brenda Stofft with stitch guide and thread suggestions from Cynthia Thomas, the instructor.

I made some thread changes with Janice’s help to tone down the make-up.  I lost one bead which is somewhere in the house here.  Luckily I had a suitable substitute in my stash.  I needed additional tutoring on attaching the beads with glue.  They are sort of a mess and gluing will never be in my skill set!  I also lost two needles (one with thread attached), but my husband is sure to find them when he walks around in his stocking feet!

I’d like to suggest that we all share our quarantine finishes with each other via the blog.  Many of you already have author privileges.   But I invite any of you to e-mail me a picture of your finishes along with some interesting tidbits about the designer, who it’s for, what you thought about while stitching, or anything else that might be of interest to our members.  I’ll be happy to post.  It won’t be as comprehensive as the meeting summaries, but it might help us to feel less isolated from each other.

Cheers, Rosie

Mar16

March SOTM

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Hi Everyone —

I’m hunkered down and hoping to complete more than a few WIPs!  We had only three attendees at SOTM, but I heard that many of you were stitching along in spirit at home.  Please send pictures.  I have four pictures to post today, but if you send me your SOTM picture, I’ll edit this post to include it!

The three of us whizzed through the first triangle on Saturday and thought it would be a short day — and then we started on the square.  No one had finished by the time we called it quits and I was half-way through the second square before I realized that I missed the bit about crossing over two Smyrna!  Sue and Dee both promised to send pictures when they finished.

So here’s what I have so far:

Top Row:  Nancy W, Rosie
Second Row:  Sue C, Dee
Third Row:  Jill, Robin
Bottom Row:  Janice, Ellen S

I had to shop my stash to find a second Watercolour thread to use since the one I bought seemed way to dark.  I found two strands remaining from a kit where the instructor divided skeins to keep the cost down — but I had to manipulate the thread to pull out the color that I needed.  It’s on my shopping list now!

Enjoy!

Cheers, Rosie