My second class at this year’s Seminar is Serenity with Margaret Kinsey. It uses the Japanese needlework technique called rozashi.

Rozashi is stitched on a specially woven silk gauze fabric called “ro” which is starched. The thread count of the ro is 37 to 40 warp threads to the inch and 14 groupings of 3 Dan weft threads. It is tiny!!

I had to go back to my room to get my high powered light and magnifier combination!

I made good progress and am enjoying the class immensely.

Final day of classes tomorrow 😦 but so great to spend time with kindred spirits

Hi Everyone —

I thoroughly enjoyed my day-off  yesterday.  I got in about two hours of stitching; two hours of volunteering at the exhibit; a long lunch in which I was able to catch-up with my good stitching friend, Ann Carol; a short swim to cool off, a quick circuit around Expo; pizza with jazz; and drinks with friends in the lobby bar!  So here is my current progress on American Plains.

The top yoke is almost done after my day-off!

As others have mentioned, the Pink and White ball made for excellent people watching last night.  Unfortunately the after ball parties resulted in a sleepless night for many of my needlepoint ladies!

Today I started a class with Jo Christensen — of the Needlepoint Book fame!  Jo is a funny, patient, and well able to hold the class’s interest.   The piece we are doing is called “Bunnies on Lavender Lane” and Jo’s main focus is to teach us four different kinds of stumpwork.   This requires a level of patience, artistic ability, and dexterity that I fear is beyond me.  Here’s my progress at the end of Day 1.

Bunnies on Lavender Lane — Day 1

So as you can see, I have one of six bunny bodies attached and one of twelve hosta leaves completed.  And I learned A LOT!  Because Jo stitched most of the bunny body for me as a sample, I have homework to stitch a second bunny after the banquet tonight!

Cheers, Rosie

Although I missed posting yesterday, I will post photos of beginning of class and end at the end. We have been working totally on buildings until break time this morning. Then we moved on to the highway below the buildings. We are saying this is Lake Shore Drive and that it is raining lightly making the roadway wet. Can you see the glistening of the road with the Neon Rays+ and the Capri threads? The lights, both headlights and brake lights, are created by the rayon floss. We lay the Neon Rays+ and couch it with the other threads. The lights are random which is not difficult in the first line of lights, but may become more difficult.

After lunch we began on the sunset. Diane had used many photos of the sunset behind the skyline. This gave her not only colors but also where the sun sets in relation to the Sears Tower so that this is realistic. To do the various sky colors, we are blending threads and using an encroaching Gobelin to make the color changes more subtle.

Two things that Diane does that I love. She writes the threads that we will be using for each am and each pm of class. So when we arrive, we can get them out and ready. When we start a new section, she tells us how long she will give us to work on this section. This means that five minutes before we move on, I am not starting a new thread with 4-6 strands of floss threaded in my needle. I use the time to work on another section where I have loose threads.

It is a great class!

Beginning of class, end of class

I neglected to post my progress on my first class, Liberty with Dawn Donnelly. So here goes – I made good progress in class and think I will be able to finish fairly quickly. I had ripped out my stitching on the white section (second from top) and did not want to put it back in until I get home.

I did buy a red, white and blue laying tool from Dawn at Expo last night. She makes them as well as jewelry and magnets in her spare time – after her full time job and needlepoint!

Hi Everyone —

I have a day off today — sort of.  I have a two-hour volunteer stint at the exhibit later today.

Let me start by saying that I updated my first American Plains post by adding a photo of Toni’s inspiration for the project.  So please go onto our full site to see it!

Second, here is my progress at the end of day 2.  Hopefully I’ll have even more after my “day off”!

American Plains — Day 2!

Third — Both Toni and ANG gave me presents for being the class angel.  The pin on the right is from ANG and the magnet on the left is from Toni!  I am getting quite a collection of stitching angels!

Finally, as Marge indicated in her Facebook post, I will become the Correspondence Course Chairperson for ANG after seminar.  It may be more work than I’ve been led to believe!

Cheers, Rosie

Today was Day 2 of my two-day class with Gail Stafford. I really enjoyed this class; I learned a few new techniques that I will be able to use on future projects. Gail is a great teacher – very relaxed – and her instructions are comprehensive.

We stitched the gazebo today as well as some of the greenery. At one point during the day Gail passed around puctures of some of her attempts during the design process showing different stitches and threads she experimented with before finalizing the design. She even had a photo of her doodle canvas showing thread combinations. It was a valuable insight into the design process.

We also cut out the “trees” (they are crepe myrtles which I think of as a bush despite their size). While I won’t attach the trees until more stitching is completed we did practice with some scrap ultrasuede.

I really like this piece and plan to finish it soon. Here’s where I stand as of the end of today’s class.

And here are my trees, ready to be attached to the canvas.

During  lunch Sharon B and I visited the Exhibit and saw all the wondrful pieces that were entered. All of the entries are fabulous and the ribbon winners are spectacular. Be sure to check them out when they are listed in Needlepointers magazine. We also saw the new Chapter Project Book and Group Correspondence Projects, as well as the projects being offered for the 2019 seminar in Houston. I’m already thinking of possible choices. There was even a hint for next year’s SOTM – it is another mystery piece, this time a collaboration by four designers (I believe the same ones who do the annual mystery retreat).

This evening I attended the Cyberpointers meeting and ran into two stitchers from CT I know from the Stitchers Hideaway retreats. Their ANG Chapter folded so they were looking into joining Cyberpointers. I also attended the Teachers Showcase at which I saw a number of pieces that I woul love to stitch. At what age do I finally not need to sleep more than a few hours? Surely I must be gettinng close!

Tomorrow I will be volunteering at the Hospitality Desk in the morning. Mr. M will meet me after my shift to tour the Exhibit after which we will do some touristing. Tomorrow night is Expo!, which I’ve been told is a must-see shopping event.

We will be leaving DC on Sunday to return to NJ. I have really enjoyed my first Seminar and have met quite a few new people. I even met Lorene Salt, the designer of our current SOTM Autumn Kaleidoscope! She told me she has been following our progress and was really impressed by the different colors. Great praise for our talented stitchers!

I am sorry to be leaving this Seminar and hope I can attend next year in Houston.

Happy stitching!

This design by Diane Herrmann is the sky line of Chicago from Lake Michigan at night. When we got to class this morning, we each got a line drawn canvas of the entire piece and a bag of fibers most of which are DMC. Diane told us in our teacher letter that she would show us an easy way to store all these threads if we brought a kitchen towel with us to class. Here is what she showed us to do.

We placed all our threads on the towel in whatever arrangement we wished. Folded the sides over the threads and rolled it up into a small bundle! How neat is that for the number of threads we are using! There are also some other threads such as rayon floss, Twinkle, Kreinik and others.

We began stitching the Sears Tower. The open spaces will be in a lighter color for the lights. The top of the tower has no lights because there are no windows. It stores water to be used in case of fire. The second building we worked on to the right is the John Hancock building–the roof top bar would be well lit at night, wouldn’t it? Then we began on the diamond in the Diamond building. This is where the rayon floss came in with the yellow outline. Diane gave us two tips which made working with the floss so much easier. She had us cut a length of about one yard, strand it, and dampen each strand then laying it out to dry. We threaded two strands in the needle, put the needle in the middle and knotted the four ends together. We used an away waste knot to secure it. We had a diagram to follow to make the outline and three small hash lines on the canvas indicating where we should go. It really worked! And what life it gives the outline. The inside is being filled in with basketweave using the thread Twinkle–rayon with a filament. I am loving the class. There are eleven of us with ten tables for students and excellent lighting. Couldn’t ask for a better setup. We shouldn’t be interrupted either as our classroom. Is one of the most remote.