Hi, Everyone —

The SOTM stitchers met at my house yesterday to work on Debbie Steihler’s Bargello SOTM Project!   The ANG website was the first thing most of us checked on April 1st because we couldn’t wait to see what happened next!

SOTM Stitchers Hard at Work!

We worked diligently and two of us (Linda and Sue C) are completely done and waiting for the next steps.

Various Stages of Progress!

All the various color combinations are fabulous!  We helped each other out with placement, counting, and techniques!  I hope that we can entice a few more of you to join us on this project — it’s not too late!  Plus it is so awesome to stitch with friends!

I am eagerly awaiting May 1st’s installment….it’s like being a kid at Christmas!

Cheers!

Rosie

Hi Everyone —

Carol and I arrived back from Mexico last night. We had such an awesome week — relaxing, productive, delicious, and fun!

We ended our “retreat” with more stitching done than when we started! Carol was able to start on the interior of her St. Margaret’s Star.

Carol’s St. Margaret’s Star

Rosie got as far as she could with the Or Nue. There were a number of errors/omissions in the article — but the one that stopped progress cold was when I ran out of Japan gold thread for the background. The article called for one spool (no mention of length), so this is as far as five meters would go:

Autumn Leaves OrNue

So, I’ll be visiting Mrs. Stitches sometime this week! I think this is a nice piece for teaching — but I’ll try to have some alternatives as well. The technique is pretty easy and I can think of a number of places where it would be dynamite!

We went back to the Italian restaurant at the resort just so that we could share the artful presentation of the food.

The flat bread had little Parmesan hearts baked into it!

The salad was tied (with an artichoke ribbon) and standing up on the plate. The dressing was sprinkled on top and the olives, cheeses and tomatoes were around the outside! Beautiful!

Ice Cream with Crescent Moon Cookie!

We also made the most unusual find at one of the shops — titanium necklaces! You can spread them or mold them into different configurations — truly unique and fashionable!

Titanium Necklaces with a few ruffles to demonstrate how they work! Cool!

We would love to do another retreat with more of you able to attend — so start brainstorming and we’ll see what makes sense…

Cheers! Rosie and Carol

Hi to All —

Lest you all think that we have forgotten that our time in Mexico is a “stitching retreat” — here is our progress through this morning.  First, Carol’s St. Margaret’s Star:

St. Margaret’s Star

And then, Rosie’s Or Nue Sample:

Or Nue Sample — about halfway done!

After stitching for all of yesterday morning, we decided to take a taxi into Puerto Vallarta.  The seaside is beautiful.

Seaside in Puerto Vallarta

We walked down the Malecon and shopped for goodies!  We came across this beautiful church near the end of the street.

Church in Puerto Vallarta

We chose a seaside restaurant for lunch and had guacamole made table side — clearly by a trainee with attitude!  I don’t know whether to show you the guacamole, or the food, or the double margaritas, or Carol!  Lucky you — I managed to get it all in!

Seaside Luncheon!

The hotel here was hosting a big Mexican fiesta and so the casual restaurant we had chosen for dinner was closed.  Because we had had a huge, late lunch — we decided to go to the Santuario, a central bar with small appetizers only.

Santuario

We sat out over the water on a wooden deck and ended up having front row seats to some fabulous entertainment.  There was a piano player from Jamaica, an artists painting Elvis, a unicyclist, a nightclub singer (and flirt) and Mexican dancers.  We couldn’t have planned for a more wonderful evening!

Mexican Dancers at Santuario

Wish you were here!

Rosie and Carol

Hi, Everyone —

On the off chance that someone has their IPAD open to our blog, Carol and I thought we would drop-in in real time!

These big guys are in the entrance to our hotel — it’s almost pitch black in there, so we hope you can appreciate the scale of these guys — at least three stories high!

Ancient Mayans

We are having a blast!  Yesterday we had facials at the spa (my first ever!) and learned that unlike our foot plunge pool, the plunge pool at the spa will restart your heart!

Plunge Pool in Room!

We had a delicious Italian dinner last night — wish we had taken a picture of the salad that looked like a bouquet!  Of course, we made a special toast to NJNA.

Toasting NJNA with Mexican Wine!

We have been enjoying almost all of our meals al fresco (except breakfast).  Our favorite lunch spot has a gorgeous view of the ocean and after I ordered the fish tacos on Monday, I haven’t tried anything else.  Carol has enjoyed chicken quesadillas, chicken fajitas and a gorgeous Cobb salad.  Our waiter knows to bring two margaritas each during their lunchtime happy hour!  It helps to become a regular!

Our Lunchtime View!

Last but not least, Harold informs me that Puerto Vallarta is known as the Mexican LGBT resort!  We might have guessed this from our flight and the new entrants to the mile high club!

And we thought we would share our biggest laugh — in competition with the naked bike parade from Philadelphia:

The photo that Sports Illustrated missed!

Wish you were here, but we miss seeing you at the meeting.

Cheers!

Rosie and Carol

Hi. Everyone —

Carol and I had an uneventful flight to Mexico and are enjoying stitching, swimming, and eating in the warm sunshine.  Our rooms are really beautiful and comfortable and have a total of eleven(!) beds!  (Plus two lounge chairs on the deck — overlooking the plunge pool where only our feet can plunge!)

Today we prepared for our week by hard boiling eggs, buying poptarts, making spa reservations, planning dinners, and, of course, stitching!  Carol is starting her stitching on St. Margaret’s Star in pink.

Hope we get to see your progress in Wednesday’s meeting summary.

Rosie is stitching the sample for our OrNue program in the fall.  Currently there are five meters of gold thread strung around our dining area!

Tonight we had a great Asian dinner (including sake for Rosie!) and our server took a picture of us toasting all of you.  The restaurant was called “Gong” and a guy we met while floating in the lazy river pool said that it was great but that our money would be Gong!

Wish you were here!

Rosie and Carol

Hi Everyone —

I’m sitting in California at my Mom’s and was so upset to miss the first meeting of the SOTM subgroup.  So I took out my canvas and joined you in spirit.  I am eager to hear how today’s stitching went and to learn how much progress everyone made.  I didn’t quite get through February’s assignment — let alone get started on the new March stitch!

So, the photo shows my progress at the end of the SOTM stitching day — I do hope others will share their progress and colors with us via the blog!  I miss all of my stitching buddies!

Cheers!  Rosie

Diane, Rosie and Sue C. spent an afternoon stitching together and Rosie said how much she would like to do this year’s SOTM designed by Debbie Stiehler, who taught Asian Collage at the Philadelphia ANG Seminar.  We all looked at the SOTM on the ANG website and decided that it would be fun to do.

2013 SOTM February

Since the programs for this year have already been established for NJNA’s regular meetings, we decided to do this SOTM as a sub-group outside of the regular meetings.  This is what we came up with:

• Meet monthly — either the first Saturday of the month or the first Wednesday of the month starting at 11:00 AM
• Bring your own lunch and take turns making dessert
• Stitch from 11 to 12:30, eat lunch, then stitch until 4:30-5:00.

We’ll meet on Saturday if some who work during the week want to join our group – otherwise, we’ll do Wednesday.

The stitching on that day would be the SOTM, but no one needs to be up to date and ready to start the new lesson when they arrive!  You won’t be able to work ahead since we will have to wait until the new month for the next stitches to be revealed!  Sue and Rosie offered their homes (both in Mendham) for the stitching meeting.

If you look here http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2013/feb.php, you can see what the first lesson looks like.  The previous lesson http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2013/jan.php shows the supplies needed.  Read down and Debbie explains how you can go about selecting your own colorway.  If you are a member of the ANG Yahoo list, you can go to the photo section to the SOTM photo album for 2013 to see the start of this design in blue.

Interested?  Contact Rosie or Sue C. or Diane!  Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

(I found this post from Susan H when I set-up my new ipad mini — Enjoy!  Rosie)

Friday I spent the day at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in Pennsburg, PA.

They have a great collection of PA German articles, including, but not limited to:

Fraktur’s, Berlin Work, primitive paintings and artifacts.

If you are ever in the need of a place to go for a day trip, the Schwenkfelder is a great place to go!

The chart below is a superb example of a Berlin Work piece. It is for a beaded purse.

The purse to the right of the chart is it completed. If you look closely along the purse bottom you can see where the beads were once attached!

Hi Everyone!

When Sue C and I visited Gladstone Country House last year, we decided that this outing needed to be a December tradition.  So today, Sue R joined us for our second annual Holiday visit to Ellen T’s store in Gladstone, New Jersey.  And what a wonderful day it was!

Gladstone Country House

Ellen’s beautifully decorated Christmas trees and clever decorating ideas are inspirational and can even put a Grinch like me into the holiday spirit!   I bought a “smoker” from Germany — when you place incense under the snowman, smoke comes out his pipe!  He is adorable!  I bought some Christmas scented incense and even my daughter, Meg, liked the smell.  (Of course it doesn’t hurt that there is a fox in front of the snowman!)

Four NJNA members enjoying the Christmas atmosphere at Gladstone Country House

After we made our purchases — complete with gift wrap when needed — we tooled on down the road to Cafe Azzurro for lunch in Peapack, New Jersey.

Lunchtime at Cafe Azzurro

A yummy time was had by all!  We’re already anticipating our “third annual” visit next year!

Cheers to all —

Rosie

PS — Ellen has an awesome tradition of providing a complimentary Christmas ornament with your purchase!

About two weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Sue C inviting me for an impromptu stitch-in at her house.  It seems that two of her stitching friends were bunking in with her because they didn’t have power restored after hurricane Sandy.  So — we spent a fine Thursday afternoon stitching and making new friends.  A great time was had by all!

Carol, Sue, and Jill stitching in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy!

NJNA members will recognize Carol and Sue, but did you know that they are both members of EGA with Jill?

We hope other members will share their stitching experiences on our blog.  Please contact Rosie to set up author privileges.  If you blogged at seminar — you are ready to go!

Cheers!