Hi Everyone —
I admit to being a little bit late in posting November’s SOTM picture. The “Stars of the New Millennium” pieces are truly beautiful and most of our group has managed to keep up with the monthly pacing. Aren’t all the colorways amazing?
November Progress!
I kept the photo big this month so that you can see the incredible detail and notice how the same square looks different based on the placement of threads.
Enjoy!
Rosie
Seven members of NJNA met with Cathryn C at Needleworker’s Delight in Metuchen for the third and final day of our Background Sampler workshop. Today would focus on the four corner sections as well as address any questions from the earlier sections.
As usual, Cathryn teased us by doing an easy stitch first in the upper left corner – couched window pane with filler – which went quickly. She then moved us onto a little more challenge with an eyelets pattern in the lower left. After lunch, the real challenge began with the Oriental Octagon stitch in the upper right corner, which is sort of like blackwork! Imagine that David McCaskill’s Background Sampler II has overlapping oriental octagons! Even Kevin commented you could hear a pin drop with the concentration as we all counted! We ended the day with the Diagonal Trellis in the bottom right, another wise move by Cathryn to end on a bit easier stitch!
As always, Kevin and Jimmy from Needlworker’s Delight are outstanding hosts, providing lunch and snacks throughout the day in addition to the excellent lighting in the work space. It’s a wonderful shop that is friendly and welcoming in addition to having an excellent supply of charts, canvas, painted canvas, threads, and needlework tools.
Thanks again to Cathryn and Needleworker’s Delight for providing this opportunity for us. We’ll look forward to our next workshop.
Hi Everyone —
Twelve of us met this weekend at Needleworker’s Delight in Metuchen for the first two days of our three day workshop of David McCaskill’s “Background Stitches 1” led by our own Cathryn C. Our hosts at the shop were long on hospitality and we had a wonderful time learning, stitching, shopping, eating, and chatting.
I, for one, have a few new ideas for my Lombard Street canvas! Now I have lots of stitching to do before the next session in November!
Thanks to Tina for arranging the workshop!
Cheers, Rosie
Eight of the SOTM group gathered on Saturday to once again enjoy a day of stitching. The weather was warm and sunny but we did have some nice breezes and our stitching afternoon was quite enjoyable.
We had a small stitching crisis at the beginning of our session. Jill came prepared to start on Stars this month and had basted the outlines of the squares. She noticed that the basting just didn’t seem quite right. Margaret checked to make sure that the basting lines were all correct (how easy it is to jump over a thread or two). We made sure the stretcher bars were at right angles (they were). Jill tried remounting the canvas, which didn’t work. Finally, we got out a t-square, a drafter’s triangle, and a quilter’s cutting mat and lined up the basting lines. Lo and behold, the canvas was warped and there was a 1/2 inch difference in the line over the length of the project!
Jill was prepared to make a run over to The Edwardian Needle to get another canvas so that she could start her stitching. Fortunately, we were able to find a piece of blank canvas (and luckily it was the right size); Jill re-basted her piece and was able to start her stitching.
The rest of us continued our work on Stars and we all commented on how the individual squares look so different depending on which colorway we used. All of the pieces are just beautiful.
Dee, who is working on A Different View, completed the third octagon yesterday. It is stunning in those colors on the black canvas. She is now deciding on which design to stitch for the fourth octagon.
With apologies to Sylvia and Margaret, who left before I remembered to take a picture of our pieces, here is our progress on these pieces. Top row is Nancy’s in Granite and Jill’s just-started piece in her own colorway (which will be spectacular). Middle row left is mine in Egyptian Nights and Joan’s in Plum Honey (notice Joan is almost finished!). Bottom row is Mally’s, also in Granite. Sylvia sent a picture of hers later that day; she is stitching the Royalty colorway. (And many apologies if I got the colorway or attribution incorrect.)
Do not think that Jill has been slacking off this year, as she completed My Way and brought it along with her yesterday to share. Isn’t it colorful? And look at how Dee’s piece sparkles even without all those beads!
I will remember to take pictures of all the pieces together next month!
We are all having a great time at these monthly sessions and seeing how everyone’s pieces are evolving. Until next time …
Happy Stitching!
I had decided to do Stars for a New Milennuim for our 2017 Stitch of the Month but was still (and still am!) working on the 2016 SOTM and had not had a chance to get my threads for Stars. I finally decided to do the Jelly Bean colorway after looking at all the overdyes at The Gazebo outside New Hope. I was passing The Gazebo again and only had my thread list (without colors) on my phone so I bought what I could but decided the Tangerine threads listed were too brown for my liking.
Since I had the overdye and my canvas mounted, I decided to start stitching the middle border to see how it would look. I then took a trip to The Edwardian to finish picking my threads since I knew they’d have a better selection of threads and be easier to spread out and decide what I wanted to do. After about 3 hours and with much help from Catherine Curia and one of the workers at the shop (sorry I don’t remember her name), I picked out the rest of my threads.
I had done the center of the first block before our May SOTM and only had a short time available to stitch on Saturday but enjoyed seeing epwhat others were doing and how far they had gotten. I did get one of the squares started around the center of block 1. I was enjoying stitching it so much, I decided to try to finish block 1 this week and did as you can see.
I’m finding this a fun piece to stitch that works up quickly. I’m loving my colors, which are way outside my comfort zone! I hoping the rest of the piece is as much fun and goes as quickly. It’s amazing how different each of the color ways look. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone pieces throughout the year.
We didn’t manage to take photos of all our pieces yesterday for a variety of reasons, so here is my “My Way.” I’ve finished four of the six squares — but don’t think I’m a speed demon, I had all the borders done as well as two of the squares before NJNA started this SOTM. (It was offered through CyberPointers a couple of years ago, and I started it then.) I’ve also bought threads to do “Stars,” so I need to get “My Way” done so I can catch up to the Stars stitchers!
Here are photos of the square I just finished along with the whole piece in its current state.
Friday’s snow did not deter our Stitch of the Month group from gathering today. Ten stitchers met at Linda’s house this month to work on our 2017 projects – My Way by Carolyn Mitchell and Stars for a New Millennium by Tony Minieri – or to complete work on an older project. As always, we enjoyed the camaraderie and the opportunity to get advice about the stitching. And, we celebrated Jill’s birthday with a delicious German Chocolate Cake from Sue.
We are working at our own pace so we stitch what we can each month. Here is our progress this month from Margaret, Mally, Nancy, Sylvia, Joan, Linda, Jill, Sue, Robin, and Barbara.
Our April meeting is the same day as the NJ NeedleFest so we will be taking our stitching on the road. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s progress!
Happy stitching …
Linda
For 2016, the NJNA Board decided to offer a Gift Certificate for The Edwardian Needle to one individual selected from everyone who brought a “Show & Tell” to our monthly meetings. The project could be anything finished within the past year – it did not have to be “finished”, just at least finished stitching, although we also love seeing everyone’s finished products as well. We had over 250 Show & Tell items for 2016 – we certainly are a prolific group.
Of course, this was helped by the 6 small projects the chapter did as our programs for the year. Members were encouraged to complete at least 3 to be eligible to receive a small gift at our March 2017 meeting.
I was very excited to find out I was the recipient of the Gift Certificate to The Edwardian Needle for my Honey I Shrunk the Flag project. Pam from The Edwardian was kind enough to provide the gift certificate to the chapter. While many of our members do shop there, it still was a generous donation on her part. Pam is a wonderful supporter of all our needlework guilds. I will definitely be traveling to The Edwardian soon to kit up our 2017 Stitch of the Month project (Stars for the New Millennium) and NJNA’s next chapter program Shell Game.
Thanks again to The Edwardian Needle for their generous donation to our chapter. I will update you on all my purchases!
Happy Stitching!
Diane
The SOTM group met yesterday, but we didn’t manage to take a progress photo at the end of the day. Partly because almost everybody was just starting, and there wasn’t a whole lot to photograph.
I actually started “My Way” two years ago with CyberPointers, so I had a head start. Here’s what my piece looked like before yesterday.
And here is that unfinished square after an afternoon and evening of stitching.
Not entirely successful — at least not that final very dark brown walnetto stitch. It almost completely hides the very beautiful smaller gold walnetto that you can barely see peaking out — and looks like some kind of sea creature that might suck you in. So I suspect it is coming out, to be replaced by something else, still to be determined.
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