I know I’m very late in getting this posted, but it’s a busy time of year!

The December SOTM gathering is especially fun as we not only stitch but also enjoy a pot-luck lunch. This year was no exception as we worked our way through a reuben casserole, several different salads, deviled eggs, and delicious desserts. The food was fabulous and the friendships are priceless!

Many of us are finishing with Autumn Kaleidoscope (designed by Lorene Salt), which was the SOTM this year.  By the time you see this, a few will have completely finished.  Those of our group who chose their own colorways were deciding on bead colors and will be making a trip or two to find the perfect beads!  And I apologize – but something seems to have gone wrong with my photos of this month’s progress.  So, no photos this month.  But we’ll try to get them back in January for a full display!  In the meantime, check out the NJNA December Meeting Summary for some of the completed pieces.

The SOTM project for 2019 will be the ANG Mystery Project.  We are looking forward to seeing this project develop!

Until January – happy holidays, happy New Year, and happy stitching!

Twelve of the SOTM group met today to stitch and share conversation. It was a bright autumnal day and our stitching area was well lit. We even had a surprise visitor – Tina was able to join us to stitch today as she has been visiting from Wisconsin! It was great to catch up with her.

Here is our progress as of this month. All of the projects look fabulous!

Barbara’s Stars for the New Millennium

Autumn Kaleidoscope progress.

Ellen

Jill

Joan

Linda

Nancy

Noelle

Rosie

Sue C

Sylvia

Tina

And, no, you didn’t count wrong – Margaret is being shy about her progress on Stars but we’ll get a picture soon.

Next month those of us stitching Autumn Kaleidoscope will be working on the outside border and the beading. And, we’ll all be deciding on our project for next year!

Happy Stitching!

It was a warm day but that didn’t stop nine of our SOTM members from gathering to continue with our projects. Eight of us worked on Autumn Kaleidoscope by Lorene Salt and Dee continued her considerable progress on A Different View from Kurdy Biggs.

This is picture-intense; we’ve decided to take individual pictures each month as it is difficult to get a good photo of all the canvases together. So, here goes.

Dee is continuing her work on A Different View, which was our SOTM a few years ago. This is one of the suggested colorways although it is up to the stitcher to choose the elements. Isn’t this just gorgeous and so rich-looking on the black canvas?

Several stitchers are working Autumn Kaleidoscope in the original colorway, or a slight variation thereof, while others have chosen their own colorways. Even the pieces being stitched in the same colorway look different depending on how the variegated threads are placed.

Janice is stitching her own colorway, dubbed “Cherries and Chocolate”. She started with a variegated thread from Colour Complements and then picked other threads to go with the colors in the base thread. Interestingly, her concept is based on the colors and not on the type of threads, so she makes choices in each box. This really does look like chocolate cherries!

Rosie is also stitching her own colorway. While she started with a concept of substituting colors one-for-one, she has improvised along the way depending on how she thinks the areas work in relation to each other. The colors are really vibrant.

Marge has been traveling a lot this year so she is just starting out. As a result she’ll get the benefit of the group’s experience. Her colors feature pinks and magentas, with some “pop” colors (apologies for not taking a picture of her threads). But she is off to a good start.

Robin and Janet started with the original colorway for threads but changed the canvas colors (the original was stitched on black). Janet is stitching on ecru and Robin is stitching on a darker beige.

Janet changed out some of the “pop” threads and made some other adjustments in colors. It is really interesting to see how the threads look on the ecru canvas.

Robin went rogue and used the solid pearl cotton on the inside borders, rather than the variegated thread, as well as changing the canvas color. The result is more of a stained class look. She also changed out some of the purples and blues.

Mally, Nancy, and I are all stitching the original colorway on the black canvas. However, even though we are stitching the same colors, our pieces look different due to placement of variegated threads.

Here is Mally’s piece – note that herringbone stitch in the lower right quadrant. That was our “challenge” stitch this month!

Here is Nancy’s stitched piece.  Look at how different the center bargello section looks (and it’s not due to the quality of the photography).

Finally, here is my piece. Again, it’s in the original colorway on the black canvas.

Please don’t think that I finished all of this month’s sections in one sitting. I finished stitching after everyone left, so I waited to take the picture until then. I lost some time during the afternoon session – I had to leave to rescue Mr. M who was in a car accident. Fortunately, he is okay although the car didn’t fare too well.

It’s hard to believe that we are more than halfway through this project. Everyone is enjoying this project immensely, and I think we are all in agreement that each month’s “assignment” is a manageable amount of stitching that doesn’t consume us, enabling us to stitch on all those other projects. We love getting together each month to chat, stitch, and enjoy each other’s company. And, we are really thrilled with being able to talk through stitches and colors and techniques with each other. Perhaps that is the most valuable part of our SOTM group.

We encourage those SOTM members who weren’t able to attend this month to share photos of their progress as well.

Happy Stitching!