Category Archives: NJNA 2014

Dec30

Need Another Project?

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I’m sure you are all looking for another project to do…Here are two I found that might interest you.

RibbonMonogrm

Laura Perin is offering her “Ribbons with Monogram” as a cyberclass, in five different colorways. Registration is open until January 18. Go to  http://www.laurajperindesigns.net/ljp-cyber-classes.html for photos of the colorways and to register. The class starts at the end of February and runs for a month. The complete kit is $58.

And then there is a Kathy Rees mystery class called “Starstruck” offered by the Shining Needle Society, also in half a dozen scrumptious colorways. Registration is open until January 3. You have to be a member to do this class, but membership is free. Since it’s a mystery, there is of course no picture of the finished piece. But it IS Kathy Rees. The class will run from February 1 through June and the piece is large — the cut canvas is 16 x 20. Instructions only are $100, the complete kit (with 22 threads) is $225.

I’m attaching the PDF of the class announcement which includes photos of the colorways. (Note that the announcement says December 31 is the last day to register, but they have extended it to January 3 for people who wanted to pay in 2015.)

Dec18

Set the Table

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Last night we gathered to celebrate the end of a successful year at NJNA.  I am grateful to the members for voting me in as recording secretary. I look forward to working with the executive board and I thank Sue C for the information — and the decadent bacon.  The other food items and baked goods were delicious and did not help my diet one bit.  The gift exchange brought lots of laughter AND fear to those who really wanted to “keep” what they opened, but alas the steal was in play three times. I congratulate those who got what they coveted; I hope everybody enjoyed the thoughtful gifts that were brought and shared!  Happy New Year! And happy stitching, Rona Goldberg

Paaaahhhhhtttttyyyyyyyy

Paaaahhhhhtttttyyyyyyyy

Nov17

Progress!

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I love it when I can see progress!

As I said before, I finished the stocking I've been working on but still needed to block it and find the fabric for the lining and backing. Wednesday night i was able to start blocking. I found the lining material in my stash but didn't have the right color or fabric for the backing. As it turned out, I was meeting my sister for lunch on Thursday south of New Hope and saw there was a Joann's about 15 minutes further south on 611. After a delicious lunch at a new small place we found, I was off to Joann's and found exactly what I needed. Thursday night I was able to finish the stocking before we headed to the lake for a long weekend! One project down!

Since I was done the stocking, I now had a chance to start to catch up on my “A Different View”. My goal was to get the border done over the weekend and I actually succeeded, despite needing some frogging where I didn't count quite right! I'm amazed at how much better I'm liking the piece with both colors of the border tying it together. My goal for our next SOTM group meeting in December is to have 2 of the octagons done and the other 2 started. I picked up some additional fibers to play with in the areas I didn't like the ones Kurdy Biggs had specified for the Koral Kiss color way.

I didn't have time to do pictures. I'll bring to our meeting this week to show off both projects !

Happy stitching!

Diane

Nov12

Finished!

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Yes, I have actually finished stitching Freezin' Seasons, the stocking I've been doing for my daughter's long-time boyfriend! I had a great time picking stitches, colors, and fibers to get the effects I wanted. I love most of it; not entirely happy with how the green scarf came out as you can't really see that it's the two ends off on the right. I'm working on blocking it and still need to pick up felt for the back, which hopefully I can find tomorrow (I have no idea if I had it and lost it or never had it)!!

 
 

I did an overall shot and one of each of the snowmen! I hope to have the finished product at next week's meeting.

 

 
 

Happy stitching!

Diane

 

 

Nov4

Sudoku Almost Finished!

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I need to get a second spool of Kreinik braid and decide what to do about the borders of the nine sections…but I’m getting close! This has been a lot of fun to stitch, and seeing how different the same set of stitches look depending on the arrangement of the threads has definitely been educational.

sudoku progress

You can see how heavy the outer border (Watercolors) is compared the the single ply of silk of the innermost dividers…And the shine of the gold braid doesn’t show in this photograph. It really gives the piece a nice sparkle when seen in person.

Oct16

Sudoku

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Jill's inspiration is inspiration to me. I love the pictures and her color choices. I didn't have a copy of the Needlepointers as a guide, and I took the Barbara Davis piece last night, so I think I will postpone sudoku, but not skip it. Jill's colors will not let me skip this project. Thanks, Jill, for the inspiration.

Oct15

SOTM, October, 2014

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The October SOTM met today for a “catch up” day for anyone who had not finished the fourth octagon. It was a small group of Dee, Linda, Carol, and Sue C. Linda decided that since she had completed her octagons, she would stitch the five small squares on a doodle cloth so that she could see what each square looked like. Fortunately for us, she is willing to share!

The squares are numbers one to five, left to right.

Thank you, Linda!

 

Oct14

Choosing Colors for Sudoku

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I won’t be at the meeting tomorrow — I’m out of town, on vacation — so Carol asked me to post about how I chose my colors for Sudoku.

When I choose colors for a design, I frequently start with some color inspiration along with the actual materials list for the piece which I think of as a model, leaving out the colors but taking note of the values (dark vs. light). I  also noticed that Marilyn Owen’s colors were complementary, or opposite each other on the color wheel — pink and green. After some thought I discarded that as a plan, though, and decided to stick with my own color inspiration.

For Sudoku my  inspiration came from some Persian relief sculptures I saw many years ago at an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The colors have always stuck with me, and in fact I have to resist the urge to do EVERYTHING in these colors! Here are a couple of images I found on the Internet — not the same pieces I saw at the Met, but similar. The colors are somewhat darker than what I have in my mind’s eye, but you get the idea.

warriors-relief

lion-relief

With my inspiration images in mind, I studies the materials list in Needle Pointers: two shades each of two colors, one shade of a third color that might be a neutral, a metallic, and a variegated thread. The samples shown in the article don’t stick to this precisely, though. It obviously makes it harder if you don’t have a specific model to follow (too many choices!), so I decided to try and follow the materials list model. But if the threads I found led me in a different direction, that would probably be OK as well.

In the end I managed to stick to the materials list model — two shades of turquoise Impressions, two shades of green Impressions, cream Impressions, and Watercolors “South Pacific.” I chose a gold metallic braid to go with it — I toyed with silver, which frequently looks good paired with turquoise, but decided that the gold gave it all a richer look.

(For some reason the greens look right in this photo but the turquoises do not — they are too blue and not greeny enough.)

jill-sudoku-threads

Even though I won’t be at the meeting, I’ll be stitching along with you tomorrow night, and will post a photo of my progress. You can never be entirely certain that your color choices are going to be successful — or look like what you expect — until you see them stitched.

Sep15

September 2014 SOTM

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Hi, Everyone —

The Stitch of the Month group met last Saturday and I must say that “A Different View” by Kurdy Biggs has made a wonderful choice for this year’s NJNA SOTM.  The stitches are interesting and provide a lot of opportunity for sharing and learning!  We can’t wait to show these off at the NJ Needlefest in November.  We adjusted our “agenda” so that we will not be doing the beads in November, but will instead use October to get caught up so that we can be working on the small squares at Needlefest!

So, I thought you would like to see these beautiful pieces up close and personal!

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Linda

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Dee

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Robin

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Diane

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Rosie

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Sue C

Doesn’t this want to make you join us next year?  It’s always fun to stitch with friends!

Cheers!

Rosie

Aug8

Peanuts and Crackerjack!

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Hi, Everyone!

Last night, a small contingent from NJNA elected to participate in “Stitch and Pitch” night with the Somerset Patriots!

Only Dee and Heidi were brave enough to stitch!

Only Dee and Heidi were brave enough to stitch!

What a lovely night we had!  First of all, the weather was perfect:  not too hot, hot too cold, clear and dry with a beautiful full moon.

Howl at that Moon!

Howl at that Moon!

Secondly, our seats were directly behind home plate.  Who could have imagined what a dangerous location this could be?  I swear that these guys are compensated for how many balls they hit into the stands!  Third, it was hat night!  Fourth, they announced “NJNA’s presence” at the top of the sixth inning!  Fifth, the food was plentiful.  Sixth, the company couldn’t have been better.  Seventh, as honored guests, some of us got scratch-off lottery tickets (no one won more than $3.)  Did I mention that the Patriot’s won — in overtime?!

It’s one, two, three strikes you’re out….

Cheers, Rosie