What an amazing first day! The photo in the seminar brochure did not do this piece justice – the threads are gorgeous. I have never ironed fabric onto a piece but did it today. Now we are working to couch the fad own the fabric with multiple layer of stitches.

Chicago Blues 1st Day

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After a quick trip to the grocery store for a few snack items of both the liquid and solid types, Heidi and I decided we wanted burgers for dinner. We both thought we'd passed a place in one direction from the hotel but couldn't find anything. Coming back toward the hotel, we found a restaurant that looked promising only to find it had at least an hour wait (of course, it's Saturday night in the city!). I had seen Weber Grill (yes, as in Weber grills) by the grocery store and we were able to get 2 seats immediately at the chef's bar where we could see them cooking at the grills. Burgers were absolutely delicious. I am glad though I got the 1/3 lb and NOT the 1/2 lb one!

The chefs at Weber Grill

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Hi, Everyone —

Before Meg can get the idea that I’ll be woeing through this post, I need to say that “Chicago Blues” is the name of the project I am doing today and tomorrow and not my state of mind!

I didn’t make a blog post last night because I wanted to focus on getting the Meeting Summary out from Wednesday’s NJNA monthly meeting.  The notes went out just before classes started this morning and new blog followers can check it out by clicking the link.

Chicago Blues is being taught by the designer, Joni Stevenson.  I saw the finished canvas on display in Anaheim and I knew that this would be my first choice piece for Chicago.

The threads in this kit are more beautiful that you can imagine.  We got 20 inches of the most wonderful knitting yarn called Dune and 10 inches of a French scallop ribbon in sorbet!  Plus several colors of Kreinik and two colors of Bijoux to give the canvas lots of bling power!  We also have organza and denim and sequins, so just WOW!

Now I have to admit that the class started on a low point — ironing!  Not one of my finer domestic skills….

But then we started stitching and voila!

Chicago Blues — Day 1

Sue, Jill, Carol, and I walked about a block from the hotel to the “Corner Bakery Cafe” for lunch.  It was fabulous — all fresh baked bread, homemade soup and lovely sandwiches.  Panera but better!

Carol and I did about 45 minutes of aquacise after class and it worked wonders at stretching those stitching kinks out of our backs!

For dinner, the four of us from lunch walked to an Italian cafe called Quartino’s where we sat outside and had a ringside seat to all the bachelorette, birthday, and other miscellaneous Saturday night celebrations.  What fun!  Jill has the picture so I am counting on her to post it for you.

Cheers!  Rosie

Heidi and I are both enjoying the class American Mosaic, a four day class in which each state is a different thread and a different stitch. We should be set for stitch directions for quite a few projects to come! As we started in New England, we were able to finish a few states before moving on to the next one, but you can see in the picture below that I have a few unfinished states and a few loose threads. As the light (and energy level) is better in the morning, I am going to do my homework of Delaware early tomorrow morning. I have to say that some of these borders are really fussy! Fortunately, the compensating of the stitches that Gail Sirna has selected are relatively easy, (says she who has not yet attacked Maryland which has lots of wonky borders!).

The Northeast

As we have over fifty threads in our envelope of threads, the first thing that Gail had us do was to pull out all the threads in the greens and blues and lay that out by manufacturer and number sequence. That has really helped in locating the thread needed as we threaded up our needles for the next state. I was even able to put a few threads in the bag of “all done” threads! We have also learned a bit about our history and geography in the explanation of the borders and how they got that way. I am finding the class fun, entertaining and educational. More about class tomorrow.

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I just came back from 6 hours working on Puzzle Pieces by Jackie Murawski. I loved the colors and the fact that there were a lot of multiple layer stitches in this piece, not to mention the geometrics. There are supposed to be 24 people in the class but one woman broke her arm recently so had to cancel (but still paid for the piece so she could get it to do on her own!) and one had to leave at lunchtime due to a family emergency. So there are 22 of us from all over the US.

Jackie handed out the canvas, which I was pleasantly surprised to find was sparkly! She then handed out these wonderful boxes containing our threads, a container for orts, and portable laying tools. There are lots of interesting fibers which I'll talk about another day!

Here's what the piece is supposed to look like when finished.

Puzzle Pieces Design Finished

Today we worked on 3 sections (middle leftmost on above design , the trapezoid above it, and the trapezoid with the crescents ). As you can see, I didn't make much progress! I did a lot of ripping out as the counts have to be exact and I would be off by one, so I'd have to start over!

My progress at end of day one!

I have lots of work ahead of me tonight and may baste so that I can get the next sections tomorrow correct! The class is exactly the challenge I was looking for, but by the end of the day, I needed a break before tackling it again tonight.

I'll see if I can get some class pictures tomorrow.

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Well, I have returned from six hours of stitching, feeling exhausted,. Gail Sirna is an excellent teacher, but she is trying to cover 12.3 states a day. We have Delaware for homework to make it our 13th state. I have only completed five of the twelve that she taught today. So I have extra homework tonight.

As My Canvas Looked Like at The End of the Day

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Diane and I have checked in and after a five hour battle with check-in, have finally got a refrigerator. The seven of us gathered for dinner in the hotel. My iPad doesn't take very good pictures, but it is the spirit of the group that counts.

Our First Night Out

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I was unable to fit my stand in my suitcase or carry-on and my System 4 table clamp did not arrived so I had to resort to a rock in a sock for my frame weight, which I put in my carry-on. Going through security they flagged my bag and asked if I had glass. I said “no glass, just a rock in a sock”. Well, it had to be tested for me to proceed to the gate. The TSA woman was very kind when she let me go, but asked “is there a story?” How do you explain ANG seminar and frame weights?

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Sue C was kind enough to host a luncheon for those of us who will be attending the seminar in Chicago. Those who will be attending Sue made a wonderful lunch of Cobb Salad, biscuits, and cantaloupe followed by an outstanding peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Seminar prep luncheon participants

The attendees for the lunch, all of whom will be attending seminar, are Sue C, Jill W, Dee, Carol, Susan H, Rosie, Heidi, and Diane. We're all getting excited!

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Rosie has been kind enough to reteach me to post a blog on our website. I hope to continue to blog while in Chicago and to include pictures of my progress. Sue C. has been a wonderful hostess and provided a delicious lunch to ease into the lesson. Thank you to both Sue and Rosie for the help and to the rest of the lunch bunch for the moral support.

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