Hi, Everyone —

I finished the first of three that I hope to complete during the month of April.  This is my first finish from the Anaheim ANG Seminar.  It’s the wonderful, beaded “Irresistible Iridescents” by Nancy Cucci.

I-Squared!

Cheers!

Rosie

Hi, Everyone —

I tried writing this in California, but just couldn’t get it done.

As expected, seminar was great fun and I learned a lot from two great teachers!  My lovely brother picked Sue and me up in Anaheim on Saturday morning and after stopping to get my Mom, we drove to his newly-renovated “cabin” at Lake Arrowhead.  The renovation was extensive, but the result is a comfortable, relaxing retreat.

Bill’s Cabin

Lake Arrowhead was once a vacation destination for the Hollywood crowd, so Bill took Sue and I on a grand tour of the celebrity houses by boat!  He said that hearing me scream when he hit waves at high speed was “priceless”, but he shared all sorts of tidbits about various points of interest around the lake with Sue.

Sue is ready for her boat tour!

The lake is deep and clear (and cold), but I managed about 20 minutes of my swimming exercise routine!

We drove back to Riverside in time to attend the SBANG meeting which Sue has told you all about!  I picked up my pre-work for Ro Pace’s “Atlantis Rising” workshop which is being held by SBANG in late October.  The pre-work is extensive and I’m in a panic about getting it done in time.  So my seminar pieces will have to wait!

On Tuesday, Sue and I toured Riverside’s most famous landmark, The Mission Inn.  This is a hotel, that has the feel of a mission even though it was never used as such.  It has an interesting history that ties in with early California, the railroads, and orange trees!

The Mission Inn Bell Tower!

I picked this picture for the blog so that you can compare it to the bell tower at San Juan Capistrano!

Mission Inn Court Yard with rotating Clock Tower!

This court yard has seating for lunch, but it was over 100 degrees, so we sat inside!  The rooms on the top floor are all named after well-known authors who came to the Mission Inn to write!  What a nice way to round out our Anaheim experience!  Thanks, Mom!

Cheers, Rosie

After a wonderful weekend at Lake Arrowhead at Rosie's brother's “cabin” with no stitching, but total relaxation with good food, clean air, cool nighttime temperatures, and lots of reading, Rosie and I went to a meeting of our west coast chapter, SBANG, last night.

For those of you who are long distance members as we are, you know that at each meeting there are three door prizes to be won. You guessed it, I won AGAIN!

Tropical Santas on perforated paper

How appropriate for Southern California. Now who should I stitch them for?

We were made to feel so welcome as we're the other out of towners who had come to seminar and stayed over for the meeting and another workshop. I think Rosie will be telling you about some ideas that they do which we might like to try at our chapter.

The program last night was a one day piece by east coaster, Sue Reed, called Journey.

Sue Reed's Design and Kit

In a little over an hour she fed us with many hints, went through the stitches and demonstrated several she thought important for,us to see in person. We all agreed that she is an excellent teacher. You would never know that she had taught a two day workshop on Sunday and Monday which followed the week long seminar with only Wednesday free of any teaching! She was patient and thorough! I asked her to sign my copy and she even took time to write a note. By this time of the morning, 7:30, she is now on her way home to Peabody, MA. This has been a great “journey” for me!

Sue

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Hi, Everyone —

I’m sitting here with the Arizona football game on ESPN Gamecast on my PC, so I am writing this blog post on my I-pad mini.  Six minutes left in the fourth quarter and NAU just blew a fabulous drive — so the score remains 28-0 U of A!  I hope Marisa is in the stands for this great game!  Oops — U of A’s new quarterback just ran 64 yards for another touchdown so it’s now 35-0!

So today we continued on I-squared and did some additional beading.  I find it hard to lay stitches next to beads that are already in place, so I only added beads when there was something unique about the particular application.

Last Day of I-Squared!

Nancy Cucci was a wonderful teacher — serious, helpful, and I learned a lot from her.  I would highly recommend her classes to any of our NJNA members!  Today we received a wonderful participation “gift” — a wooden seashell shaped thread holder!

I thought you might enjoy seeing this needlework tote that Nancy received as a gift from one of her friends.

Nancy’s Custom Tote

This wonderful tote starts out as a tool carrier in plain canvas from Harbor Freight.  Her friend then used acrylic paint to paint the background rectangles and a paint pen to decorate the background.  This has so many compartments, handles, etc.  I think this would make a wonderful chapter project.  BTW, I also learned how to make a foam board carrier for in-process needlepoint.  Another potential chapter project!

I understand that it made the national news, but yesterday there was a freak storm in Riverside where my Mom lives.  There were high winds and rain (100 year storm levels) for about twenty minutes.  Mom was without power or phone for a long while afterwards.  The weird thing is that NONE of the towns around Riverside got any rain at all.    My brother says that “WE” have chores to do before we can go to the mountains tomorrow!

Hopefully Sue wrote about our banquet tonight — there was a terrific presentation to get us all psyched about Chicago in 2014!

Cheers!

Rosie

Today Rosie and I completed our classes for this, our second, seminar. Hot Pot was a fun piece to stitch and one I anticipate finishing. It was a learning experience for me as I had to compensate not for a straight edge, but for a CURVE, not my favorite thing! And more than one curve as you can see.

Hot Pot, day 2

I feel comfortable about finishing this piece on my own and I would definitely take a class from Dawn Donnelly again.

This evening was the closing banquet. Rosie and I sat with a group that included members from the Kansas City chapter, both current and former, including a teacher, Toni Gerdes, as well as Ann Carol, who we met last year at seminar. It was a good table that included us in their conversations. Dinner was fine with an awesome chocolate dessert–no menu was included so I have no clue what it was. Then came the announcements, opportunity basket winners, and awards. They also told us the money that was made during the seminar for ANG which included $77,000 from the two auctions, silent and live. The online bidding really boosted the results according to one insider I spoke with. The opportunity baskets raised over $4,000. At the opening banquet we were told a out an initiative to raise money for the Golden Threads for the celebration of ANG's fifty anniversary. At this seminar they raised $100,001 towards this foundation. You can see there is some wealth among the needlepointers!

The committee co chairs for Chicago in 2014 made an excellent PowerPoint presentation selling us on Chicago, what the city has to offer from museums to parks to music to needlework shops to food. It was amazing. That plus the classes being offered make me want to attend in August, 2014!

Hope you have enjoyed our view of the seminar for this year and hope that there will be more attendees from NJNA next year in Chicago!

Goodby for this seminar! Sue

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I began the second class today which is much more relaxing than the last class as it is not all new and different. My main challenge in this class is stitching inside the lines, or deciding where the lines are and how to keep those curves smooth. The teacher, Dawn Donnelly, designed this after looking at the polymer clay covered decorative tea pots. So as you can imagine the colors are bright, but not sharp, if that makes sense. Threads are perle, floss, Splendor and Needlepoint Silk. Some class members were saying that they would like bling added and were thinking of ways to add some bling, but I think the piece is cheerful as it is and the colors do remind me of the polymer clay.

Hot Pot with a few colors

After class today I had volunteered to work in the exhibit area, wearing white gloves and all! What I did was watch to see that no one was misbehaving–touching anything on display–offer to lift or hold something for someone, open a booklet, turn over a piece, etc. there was also a flashlight a available to allow someone to see inside a box or details of a piece. While I was there, a woman asked one of the other volunteers to hold a Christams stocking upright so she could view it from a distance. She told us that she had been a judge at the Philadelphia Seminar (I think it was there) and was looking to make her selection for viewer's favorite. She showed us some of the techniques the stitcher used to create the picture she wanted on the stocking. It was interesting watching her evaluate pieces. There was a small piece of a picaninny in a field in the south. She showed me how the mat in the framing was cut with the bevel going in rather than out so that there was no white showing. It was obvious when she pointed it out that white would have detracted from the piece. The little girl's face was surrounded with a circle of French knots that were larger than usual made with a heavier thread to look like the ends of the corn rows in her hair. I learned quite a bit from her! When I left the exhibit area, she was sitting outside in the open stitching area and we talked about her class which was a notebook class using colored threads on blocks of color painted on a canvas and seeing how the appearance changes with the color behind the thread. It was a good use of color theory that even I might be able to retain if I took that class!

After supper tonight, we went to Expo! For those inexperienced it is a room filled with tables of people selling things to needleworkers which can run from painted canvases to accessories to designs, kits, and even jewelry and then the entrance of hordes of women who want to buy! Rosie and I arrived about half an hour into the frenzy and it was still booming! I did buy a few things.

Directions for Ort with a Twist and stitched buttons

As you may be aware, Rosie is the picture taker between us. She has been taking the pictures after each day of class and then editing them while I watched. Yesterday I asked her if she had a special program for the editing. She told me that I could do the same thing with my iPad and she had me try it. I can! So today I took my class photo and did the editing! By the time we got back from the Expo, the room was too dark to take a good photo with the iPad so Rosie was back at work. Thanks, Rosie!

Sue

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Hi, Everyone!

Today Sue and I went on one of the sponsored ANG tours to Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Ready to Board the Minibus!

First off, let me say that of the eight tours offered at this seminar (four on Saturday and four on Wednesday) — only two had enough participants to go ahead.  On Saturday, One Thousand Flowers: Clay Millefiori Sculpting was offered here at the hotel.  Today, Home of the Swallows was the only tour that ran.   And out of over 400 attendees at seminar — only 14 people took this tour.  It makes me wonder about tours for future seminars if participation rates are so poor.

So, the good thing about our tour — there were only 14 people!  :-)!   We boarded a luxury minibus at the hotel and about 45 minutes later, we arrived at the Mission San Juan Capistrano.  You can see that we had a beautiful day for this!

Mission Entrance

We were quickly escorted inside and assigned a private docent for our group.  She took us through three separate areas of the mission — one for the Spanish soldiers, one for the Native Americans, and one for the Priests.

Garden and Grounds at the Mission

Here’s a lovely picture of Father Junipero Serra — the founder of the mission.

Father Junipero Serra

We heard the wonderful story of the Swallows at the Mission.  Swallows are rather messy birds and the merchants in town were irritated about the debris, so one of the priests invited the birds to make all the mess that they desired at the mission — and the next day the birds came and took up residence!  And legend has it that the birds return every year from Argentina — on March 19!

Our docent showed us through an old mission church (where I did some more needlepoint research!) and then we walked around to the old stone church.

Ceiling in the Mission Church — and Great Needlepoint Border Ideas!

The old stone church took nine years to construct, but was destroyed after six years by an earthquake.  Many people perished inside the church and only a few walls remain now.  We were asked if we felt any ghosts!

Old Stone Church and Statue of Father Junipero Serra.

This next picture is my favorite from the mission.  It is interesting to note that one of the needlepoint projects on display in the seminar exhibit area was exactly this scene from Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Mission Bells!

After our tour, we walked down the main street of Capistrano to an old building that houses the restaurant El Adobe.  This was a favorite place of the Nixons.  Anyway, we had a private room and were served the Mexican Fiesta — family style!

The window in our banquet room at El Adobe!

We had Guacamole prepared tableside, followed by a Cilantro-Pepita Salad, then Taco Fiesta Platters (three kinds of meat), Cheese Enchiladas, and the most wonderful Sopapillas for dessert!

Are you hungry yet?

I was so stuffed that I fell asleep on the bus ride home!  What a wonderful day!

I feel refreshed to begin my new class “Irresistible Iridescents” tomorrow morning.  I think I’ll call it “I-squared”!

Cheers!

Rosie

Since we did not need to be in class today by 8:30, we saw the lobby from our room at 9:00 when the sun was coming in the wall of window behind the registration desk. You can see it on yesterday's blog as we added it to the description I wrote.

Before the tour, we went down to see if either of us had won a door prize. I won my second door prize today! (The first, on Monday, I handed back in when I saw that the design called for 15 spools of Kreinik plus additional threads!). Today I found a cross stitch prize that was worth taking. It has the design as well as fabric and thread.

Lori Birmingham design

We left on our tour of the mission in San Juan Capistrano about 9:30. Rosie will be describing much of what we saw. The Native American women who worked for the padres were responsible for food preparation and one of the foods they prepared was based on acorns. After shelling the acorns–how do they do that?–they would grind it to a powder by grinding one rock over another. The friction created cups in the rocks. The women all gathered around the one rock to work, and what do women who have gathered do? They talk! Thus the name of the rock.

Gossip Rock

After a delicious lunch (see Rosie's blog), we returned to the hotel. I spent some time in the exhibit hall and this year voted for my favorite, a piece by Liz Morrow, called Leaping Stag in the professional original category.

Tonight was Teacher's Showcase. Rosie and I decided we would check it out and see if any of the east coast teachers had potential workshops for our chapter at some time in the future. We went into the room and were shocked to see the mass of women trying to see what was displayed by each teacher.

Teacher's Showcase

We picked up flyers and business cards from all of them even the woman from Tasmania, Australia! There were so many things that we thought some members would enjoy. The next step for those on the west coast or in the middle of the country is to see if we can find other chapters in a near by area who would be interested in a workshop with that teacher. So many choices!

Did I pick up a needle today? Yes, I wanted to wrap and secure the “plunged” gold threads from yesterday and I did. Now I need not worry about them moving on me before I work on this project again. Tomorrow is another project!

Sue

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Hi, Everyone —

Today was the last day for my class, Imari Collage.  We have had such a good time stitching this and have also gotten quite a lot of stitching done.  I think it would be good if classes were at least one day longer than necessary so that students could get “significant” stitching done before they leave.  In my humble opinion, that would lead to more stitching finishes!

Final Day of Imari Collage

You will see that I have some stitching done in “almost” every section of this design.  I purposely did not stitch a few sections because I wanted to fill in enough that long, gold, layed stitches did not “snag” on things in my backpack or luggage.  I can’t wait to “show and tell” this piece to you in person!  In addition, I have a Japanese 5 Yen coin to attach to the red square and five bamboo beads to attach in the red rectangles.

In other interesting news today:  Susan Rossi won a door prize!  I consulted my participant list and unfortunately this was not our NJNA Sue Rossi, but someone who lives in Malibu, California!    What a coincidence!

The seminar newspaper today credited Linda Mosch for her donations to the Opportunity Baskets — Linda will have to let us know what she sent in.  Total value of ALL the Opportunity Baskets is in excess of $15,000.

Tonight, Sue and I had dinner with Anne Carol at a Chinese restaurant across the street from the hotel.  I think they cooled the dishes down for our western palates!  But I convinced them to make Salt and Pepper Shrimp for me and they had sake, my beverage of choice!

Tomorrow, Sue and I will be going on a sponsored tour to San Juan Capistrano followed by an authentic Mexican lunch!  Hopefully, the pictures will be a little more interesting!

Cheers!  Rosie

Thought you might like to hear about our hotel room which is on the fifth floor and overlooks the lobby and restaurant with a huge glass wall at the back of the lobby–so we do see outside.

A Room with a View!

We can pick out our room from the lobby because Rosie’s backpack is on the ledge. That is a good thing as we could have used it to store our crackers and cookies! There was one chair which is a not very comfortable desk chair. When we heard that others had we requested a second chair, Rosie called and asked for another chair so now we have a banquet chair as well–perfect for stitching. Now if there was only enough light to stitch. There are two lamps in the room, a high intensity desk lamp and a lamp between the two beds. There is no ceiling lamp in the room, so it is good that the open stitching areas are large and the hotel did move some more lights into that area to help out. There are some good things as well, we got a refrigerator so breakfast is in the room–and with tea at $4 a cup, it is a good thing! There is adequate drawer space for all that we brought with us, the beds are comfortable and the service is good. So we are happy.

There was quite a bit left to do for day three of my class,but we managed to get quite a bit accomplished. The teacher, Valerie McAleenan, is very patient, but I don’t think she is accustomed to teaching a large group so that most often she is going around to tables to explain what to do next. She would start in the front left and work,around the room, I was front right and she would often get waylaid before reaching our table. Neither my tablemate nor I was hesitant about calling her attention to us to see and learn! Today we were supposed to take the layed gold threads that met at an intersection and weave them. I tried, I really did, but eventually my gold threads were becoming pretty ratty. She had given us an alternative pattern that I did in the corners and am quite happy with it, especially compared with some of the finished knots that I saw. The last thing we did was to appliqué felt circle padding and then metallic kid with an overcast gold thread around the outside with needle weaving through the gold. That needle weaving was the hardest thing of all for me as it took forever to “see” the pattern! I did get it as you can see from the picture!

Final Day of Lapis Gold

Tomorrow is the tour! See you then!

Sue

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