For the stitch retreat before Seminar, I started a nightlight for my cousin's first grandchild expected in January 2016. Well, the little girl arrived January 25 so …. The pressure was on to finish the project. The stitching was finished so I had to tackle turning the canvas into a shade.

The canvas was sold as a package with the light so I had the major parts. I had a consult with a kind and generous expert (Sue C.) and some input from the internet – what did we ever do before?

Here is the finished nightlight which I will send to the new parents. Hope they like it.

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Hi Everyone —

Today was the last day of seminar stitching!

I made some progress on Starfire, but I also did a lot of backward stitching as well!  Some people in our class are almost finished stitching this, but I had two conference calls and all that ripping out to slow down my progress!

Starfire — Day 2

My threads for Starfire were more pastel than others in the class — this gives the piece a very different look and feel.  I may restitch a few areas with a darker thread so that the blackwork areas can be better seen against the white canvas!

We have been getting a lot of rain — so much so that this morning both the hotel wireless system and Verizon went out for a while — apparently two cell towers were flooded!  I’m back on line now and that is such a relief!  Sue and I have been packing our bags and we hope to get most of the car packed tonight after banquet so that we can get an early start in the AM.  We hope to get as far as Winchester, VA tomorrow!

It’s been a fun and exhausting week filled with good friends, good food, beautiful projects, and fond memories!

Thanks for letting us share our experiences with you!

Cheers, Rosie

Toni Gerdes designed a beautiful kimono filled with rays similar to the rays on the Japanese rising sun flag. When I first saw it last year, it was the rays that impressed me. I selected to do this on the pewter canvas with the accent color teal. The remaining threads are shades of grey as well as an almost white. Aside from some blue Bijoux for glitz the other threads are all silk. As usual, Toni has a visual table of contents–a drawing of the piece with the area and page in each section. This makes it fast and easy to select what page you are looking for. We worked today primarily on learning the stitches for all the rays in the bottom portion of the kimono and one ray in the sleeve. We had lots of stitching time to work on each portion. For me that means I can get all the loose threads completed and tied off at least at same point in class.

By the time that class had finished today, we had worked on each of the different rays making sure we understood how each stitch would fit in the ray. The only portion that we did not begin was the beading for the color. Toni's explanation was so clear that it should not be difficult. The kimono has some beads trailing done the rays in a random pattern. We all know that asking needlepointers to do something random places a heavy load on us. Toni showed us random: imagine a playground with second graders out there playing and you are watching from above. Here are three girls giggling together over here. Further away is the new girl standing alone watching everyone. Over there are two boys kicking a ball and in another area a group of kids are playing softball with several clustered around home plate and others a bit scattered. That explanation made random clear to me! Thank you, Toni, for that story and visualization!

Empire of the Sun

One of the women in class had a neat Ott light that was not available at one of our favorite stores for Ott lights. She purchased it at an electronic store. It weighed less than three pounds, folded flat, with a power cord. It had three kinds of lights and different intensities. On the arm it had a clock, calendar and thermometer–our classroom was 70 degrees.

Ott light

This class was a perfect ending for the seminar. New Orleans, here we come!

Sue

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Those of us from NJNA who are attending the seminar were delighted with next year's offering. It is designed by our own Susan Hoekstra! (We still claim ownership although Susan has moved to Maine.). The design is called “Feuilles d'ananas, a Study in Values”. The layout is similar to a pineapple quilt block and the title means pineapple leaves. Susan stitched hers in different values of gold ranging from very light to very dark. The threads look like they would be floss or silk, (maybe Splendor would have the range needed) with some Kreinik and a few beads. It appears as though you would be working out from the center of the design and adding layers each month. I think it would be a fun piece to stitch and to see what happens as different stitchers use a different family of thread values. (Pictures are not permitted in the display area.)

Sue

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We had a great time stitching on Patches, the Patchwork Penguin. He will be beautiful done in shades of blue, purple and black. Debbie Fourney has little hats to dress him for different seasons – could be fun to see what I can come up with.

He now has two blue eyes so he doesn’t look so blank.

Sadly, today is our last day in Myrtle Beach. The time has flown by with three classes, shopping, feasting and beach time (before the storms). I will be leaving tomorrow morning at a very early hour so I can get back to NJ by the evening. My hope is that the rain will not be too bad and that it will keep some of the crazies off the road. Well, I can hope!

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Hi Everyone —

I don’t have much to post today.  Many of our group have already taken and completed “Starfire” by Jeannette Rees.  Dee and Robin are both in my class here at seminar.  The teacher made up many different kits — each based on a different batik fabric from her stash.  Most folks are doing this piece in something close to the original colorway, but I chose a pastel fabric with mostly pastel threads.  I learned that I do not have the patience to cut out fabric shapes — as I recall, I flunked scissors in Kindergarten!

My Starfire — Day One!

I can’t believe that tomorrow will mark the end of another fabulous seminar!

Cheers, Rosie

After a day of shopping and relaxing on Wednesday, it was “back to school” today to begin work on the piece that made this seminar a must for me. Patches the Patchwork Penguin is an adorable fellow. He is about 8 inches high when finished and is in shades of blue, purple and black plus white.

Our teacher, Deborah Forney, shared how she had the idea for Patches. He is based on a Christmas ornament she had made. The colors are based on a blend used by Kreinik in one of their braids.

The threads Debbie has put together are wonderful – very rich colors and plenty of sparkle.

Here is my progress today. My penguin only has one blue eye but I hope to give him two by tomorrow.

Now we are off to dinner at the fabulous Croissants

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Hi Everyone —

Before I get into today’s events, I thought I would share with you my end of Tuesday progress on Tudor Garden!

Tudor Garden — Day 2

I venture to say that I would have had a bit more done if I hadn’t missed a whole stitching session for a conference call!  This was a fun stitch and as a result of being in the trial group for this distance learning, I earned a free registration for next year’s seminar!  Good thing I planned to go to New Orleans anyway!

Wednesday is always one of my favorite days at seminar — it’s tour day!  Unfortunately, ANG has not had a lot of people sign up for their sponsored tours which I think is a shame since these are both a cultural experience in the seminar region and also a great chance to meet stitchers from other parts of the country!  So, this morning, I boarded a bus with about a dozen other stitchers and we drove about 1.5 hours to the Hopsewee Plantation for a Tour and Tea.

Hopsewee Plantation House!

The Hopsewee Plantation House dates to the 1700’s, before the Revolutionary War.  The owner at the time was a delegate to the Continental Congress and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  When the house was built, the area was known for growing rice and the rice plantation owners were quite prosperous.  They kept slaves and I was able to walk through one of the slave houses on the plantation.  I tried to imagine what it was like to live there, but I couldn’t.

The plantation house itself is small (by cotton standards) — four rooms on the first floor and four rooms on the second floor.  Each room had at least four windows and breezeways connected the rooms to allow some minimal cooling of the house.  Many of the windows and some of the furniture is original to the house.  Today’s owners still live in the house and maintain its charm while still finding a place for their computers and big screen TV!  It really was special to know that you were touring someone’s home!

Our tour was extra special because it was conducted by the previous owner’s daughter — she grew up living in the house and had many wonderful stories to tell us!  I very much enjoyed hearing about a prior matriarch of the house trying to move a piece of furniture through a door.  When it wouldn’t fit, she took an axe to the door sill!  Our guide learned this from a family member of another former owner who happened to come on one of her tours!!  How fun is that?

The grounds were beautifully kept and I took several pictures of especially wonderful foilage.

A Coleus — I wonder if it is related to the Croton from my Saturday and Sunday class?

An unusual and colorful mushroom!

I have no idea what these berries are, but aren’t they luscious in color?

The tea house is on the property but in a separate building.  We had three pots of different tea blends, cucumber and boursin cheese sandwiches, quiche, salmon mousse on water crackers, curried chicken mousse on ginger snaps, and mozzerella, pesto, and tomato on meltaway crackers!  Then they served your choice of two of three kinds of scones!  We thought we were finished but then came dessert:  cheesecake, no-bake chocolate cake, lemon tarts, and a chocolate covered strawberry!  What a feast!

Tomorrow we will brace for Hurricane Joaquin!

Cheers!  Rosie