Category Archives: NJNA at Seminar

Aug17

Hedgie’s First Day

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We are currently at the EGA seminar in Asheville, NC.  My first class is with Ann Strite-Kurz working on another of her animals, “Hedgie”. We did have prework to get in the correct shape of the animal as well as to have a foundation for the border design.

You can see how cute he is going to be!  It was a small class, fortunately because the room is small with light provided by large windows and two table lamps from the hotel, but we do have our own private bathroom!  Ann had us working on several areas to help us become accustomed to the stitches in areas where we may need to learn the best way to compensate.  We also began the framework for the quills and the framework for the background.  As the quills are blackwork, Ann explained the whys of the stitch sequence making learning the sequence much easier.  Ann also showed us a much easier way to get to the lobby by going outside instead of using the interior stairs or elevator!  Thank you, Ann!!

Aug17

Thursday in Asheville

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I arrived in the beautiful city of Asheville, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains on Tuesday.  Yesterday, Jill and I spent the day at the Biltmore Estate.  What an amazing place!

But the most ingesting was the kitchen and servants’ quarters – evoking memories of Downton Abbey!

Today was the start of my class, Dusting of Snow by Gail Stafford. Although I was in class for a full day, you can see how little was done – just a couple of trees, half a shrub, and a tiny bit of sky.


Tonight we went to the Grove Park Inn for dinner.  We were joined by Cathy and Lynn from New York.

What a feast!  What an amazing place – a historic hotel with a view that is beyond words!


Jill and I were so glad to be able to enjoy such a wonderful evening!


More from the happy campers tomorrow!

Aug16

Touring Biltmore House

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Today Carol and I went on a tour of the Biltmore Estate, the Vanderbilt home in Asheville that has been open to the public since the 1930s. The day included a self-guided audio tour of the interior of the house (think Downton Abbey), a little stroll through some of the gardens, a buffet lunch at a restaurant in a building that used to be the cowsheds, and then a visit to the Biltmore Winery for some wine-tasting and, of course, some wine purchases.


The views from the house are spectacular, across acres of forest to the Blue Ridge. We were told how Mr. Vanderbilt had a large scaffold constructed in the precise spot where the house would be to determine if the views were going to be captured as he wanted…I think he succeeded!


My favorite part of the tour (aside from the view) was the basement–the kitchens and pantries, laundry rooms and so forth, where the work of keeping the house running was done. It was easy to imagine all the servants bustling around keeping things on an even keel, enabling the Vanderbilts and their guests to live the life of ease that they did.

Apr23

EGA Regional Seminar: Fire and Ice

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Hi Everyone —

Several of our NJNA members participated in the EGA Metropolitan Regional Seminar in Florham Park this weekend.  Following our arrival on Friday afternoon, shopping in a wonderful boutique provided by Needleworker’s Delight, and  taking our chances on about fifteen beautiful opportunity baskets, we settled down to two days of concentrated stitching.

I’ll let others report for themselves, but Diane, Barbara L, Jill, and I were all enrolled in “Fire ad Ice” taught by Toni Gerdes.  This is about my fifth Toni class, so I knew it would be a wonderful class.

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Toni’s original Fire and Ice

Here’s my progress at the end of the weekend:

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Rosie’s Weekend Progress

I hope that I’ll be able to find some time to continue to work on this beautiful piece.  I am even more interested now that I know the inspiration behind the project.  This beautiful building in Kansas is an annex to the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History in NYC.

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Prairie Fire Museum

The architect used the red dichroic glass to simulate fire, and Toni found her inspiration for this lovely needlepoint piece.  Can you see it?

Just imagine being able to create a piece based on this beautiful building and then being able to teach it to the multitudes!  Color me impressed!

Keep on stitching!

Rosie

PS — I “won” one of those opportunity baskets!

Sep7

Traveling with needlework in your suitcase

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On the way home from the ANG seminar in New Orleans, the Department of Transportaion inspected my luggage that I had checked.  Where did I find the information sheet telling me that they had checked my suitcase?  It was in the ziplock bag that held my frame weight!  (It originally was a long heavy weight that I had made for my mom to hold her book open while she was reading at lunch.  It contains sand as the weight which is why I keep in a plastic bag).  I mentioned that today while I was stitching with friends.  One of these women told me that several years ago Debbie Stiehler told her class that at the top of her suitcase she includes a printed sheet saying that she is traveling to a needlework event and she has her tools packed in her luggage and then includes a list of what she has packed.  She began doing this because her luggage was often inspected.  When you think about it, here we are with several pairs of scissors, pointy things we call laying tools, numerous needles strong magnets and, of course, a frame weight.  I think I will be doing this in the future as well!

Frame weight

Sep1

Uber Delicious!

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Hi Everyone —

Today Sue and I are in the same class which doesn’t happen very often.  She has already told you the wonderful story of how “Sisters” got its name.  I did hear one woman in the class mention that she was renaming it the “Coven”.  In case you didn’t know, that is how many of our husbands refer to our stitching groups.  In my house, they’re my “Peeps!”

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Tomorrow we will add aquas and grays to the larger piece.

The hotel here in NOLA is right next to the Superdome.  So we dealt with the Saints playing the Steelers on Friday night, a Little Wayne concert on Saturday night, and the Saints playing the Ravens tonight.  One side effect of this is the earplugs that were placed on our pillows.  Another is total gridlock in front of the hotel.  So, when six of us needed a taxi for dinner tonight, we got in a very long line.  After about five minutes and no movement, I decided to use a skill that Meg taught me and I hailed an Uber cab!  Our driver arrived in about three minutes — but the bottom line is that we paid less than half of what our friends did!  So easy!

I forgot to mention that Meg had been in NOLA with her high school friends a few years ago and she sent me a list of recommended restaurants.  So tonight we followed her advice and ate at Muriels in the French Quarter.

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The food was terrific and I know that I ate too much.  I did my usual two appetizers instead of an entree:  1.  zucchini rolled with sun dried tomatoes and ricotta cheese, then deep fried and served with mint sauce and 2.  pan-fried crab cake with capers.  I also ordered wood grilled asparagus and Gruyere mashed potatoes.  Dessert was a carrot cake ice cream sandwich — the ice cream was cream cheese flavored!  OMG!  We had six very happy campers!

Here’s a random sample of some other lovely meals:

Many thanks to Meg for the excellent recommendation.  My other daughter texted me a picture of their dinner at my favorite Madison restaurant.  B***h, slapped!

Cheers, Rosie

Sep1

Beets Day 1

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I love root vegetables!  Today was the start of a two day class for Jennifer Reifenberg’s Beets.  This is the third in a series of three root vegetable pieces – carrots, radishes and now, beets!  I have stitched Redishes already.

Jennifer is a very organized and patient teacher.  We started with the band that goes between the beets which represents the earth,  it will continue in what looks like layers to well below the end of the roots.  We  worked on the middle and right side beets – my middle is finished except for beads.  Then we tried the stitches for the leaves.  But I wanted to wait to finish the leaves until I have stitched the sky behind them.

Tonight we are off to Muriel’s on Jackson Square in the French Quarter for dinner.  Who knows if we can sneak in some beignets?

Progress so far on Beets

Sep1

Day 1 of Sisters by Nancy Cucci

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Did you think I made a mistake?  Yes, this is my second class with Nancy at this seminar as these were my two favorite pieces of the offerings that I saw last year.  Nancy told us a story of visiting her best childhood friend, who had remained a lifelong friend, a few years ago in Iowa, half a continent away from where Nancy lived.  While seeing her friend, they visited the friend’s sister where Nancy saw a metal wall sculpture of interlocking squares that she liked.  A photo of this led her to the eventual design of this piece.  The name comes from the association of her friend, the photo at the friend’s sister’s home and Nancy’s feeling that her best friend was like a sister to her.  I like the story behind this beautiful design.

This piece of peach, aqua, and grey blocks is interesting as you will eventually see because all the small units are the same in each block but rotated.  We learned all but one component of the block that is foremost in the design today so we can transfer that knowledge to the remaining blocks when we return home.


Each section has beads that will be added and the missing block on the right will be just beads and stitched when we are fresh tomorrow morning.  I opted to wait until I am home to stitch the beads in the other sections.  Doesn’t this look like a pieced quilt block?  Nancy explained that this was her concept of the overall blocks, so there are no borders within the block but there is a Kreinik double border around it.  This block has two shades of peach as well as a Kreinik and a variety of beads coming.  I am looking forward to more stitching on it tomorrow.

Sue

Sep1

Beets!

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The first day of Beets taught by Jennifer Riefenberg was very successful…look how much I accomplished! (I’m hoping my photo shows up here, I’m using a different app to post and am not 100% certain what is happening.)

The red-violet color of the beets (they get beads added at the end) is luscious compared with the other threads, many of which are greens and shades of violet-gray. Jennifer talked about how she thought about the colors in all three root vegetable pieces (Carrots, Radishes, and Beets) as she was designing them, at the same time. It always interests me when teachers talk about the process of designing–especially since everybody seems to do it differently!

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