This month we are looking forward to hearing from Ann Strite-Kurz on “Creative Adaptations for Canvas Embroidery” She will be showing us a number of her canvas designs and how she developed them. Also, guidelines for handling color, curves on canvas and more.
Hopefully today the Kreinik Factory has again opened. For the second time they have had to close due to the pandemic. We all love their product and are looking for it in our LNS as fast as they can produce it.
Keep Feb 21 thru 28 on your calendars for the ANG Auction – you never know what you will find that you can’t live without – and the money goes to support the organization we enjoy being members of. Remember – you have to be in it to buy it !
If you liked the first one – for sure you will like the 2nd Mary’s Whimsical Stitches book that is just out. More great stitch combo’s on a single page like the first book. You can read it over and over and still find something you didn’t see the first time. I want to try them all !
Hope to see some new faces on the zoom meetings – always a nice time.
A few months ago, I signed up for “Ahwahnee” by Lorene Salt which was being offered as a workshop by EGA. I thought the design looked balanced and interesting; I ordered the PDF and skipped the kit because I wasn’t fond of the color. The design was supposedly based upon a stained glass window at Yosemite Lodge. So, I was thinking of using shades of green, redwood bark, and blue sky to evoke the feeling of the Yosemite National Park. So when I got the material list, I started combing my stash.
Ahwahnee by Lorene Salt in the original colorway.
The class instructions came in six lessons spaced about a month apart. With the first lesson, Lorene sent a picture of the window that had inspired the design and I immediately knew that I would try to emulate that window instead of following my original plan.
This is the Ahwahnee window in Yosemite Lodge! So gorgeous!
Now came the hard part! I was determined to use my stash so that I didn’t have to shop during Covid. Needless to say, that didn’t work out so well. The only red in my stash was bright Christmas red. I had a nice green, but adjusted when I didn’t have a Kreinik that would work with it. I had lots of bright yellow, but only a few strands of gold that might work. So I stitched and ripped and stitched and ripped until I finally went to Needleworkers Delight and just bit the bullet!
My version of Ahwahnee!
You will note that I took a few liberties with the design. I didn’t like the Chilly Hollows around the center motif — they felt too large, so I changed them to emulate the little triangles in the stained glass. I think it is too busy now, but I’ve stitched this area too many times to count. I’m also not completely happy with the middle side panels — they need more red, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it. Those areas have been stitched at least three times!
My base colors were DMC 815 for the red, 704 for the green, 783 for the gold, and 310 for the black. When I was almost finished, someone told me about this nifty program on Stitch Palette where you could upload a picture and it would convert it to DMC colors. So I uploaded the picture of the Ahwahnee window. Stitch Palette converter recommended DMC 355 for the red, 904/906 for the green, 832 for the gold, and 3371 for the frame and dividers. So epic fail on my part!
No, I don’t plan to stitch it again — but it was interesting to stitch and a real challenge for colors!
What’s happening is we need to say Welcome to a new member. Melita Glavin, welcome to the party !! Remember – the more the merrier !!!!
So you can get an idea of what our membership is like, just turn to page 39 in the new Jan/Feb issue of Needlepoint Now. The article about Pam’s Parking Lot Pals is us. We weathered the pandemic all summer and fall with more enabling, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), ice cream and laughter – the parking lot in front of The Edwardian Needle will never be the same. Thank you Pam for all you did for us during those hot sticky days and cool fall afternoons. Anyone can come join us to stitch or to just chat, all you need to do is bring a chair. Just know that Roy comes with the ice cream truck on Friday’s ! Magnum Bars all around !!
If you need to increase your stash of lumber we have a large array of stretcher bars being sold for the benefit of the chapter. Contact us for a list of what’s left.
Be sure to watch the SOTM progress, so much to take in as there are 3 different pieces being worked on this year.
FYI Anyone that likes Burmilana Wool thread needs to know that The Needle Works in Austin TX has taken it over. They have all 256 colors available. I saw a piece of Bargello done with it and the depth of the colors was just beautiful.
And, a special thank you to Jane of Chilly Hollow fame for including us in her blog !!
When ANG posted this piece as a Workshop by Mail last fall, I knew that wanted to stitch it. I loved the design as well as the flow of exciting colors. Reading a description I realized that you could also get it kitted with the threads by the designer Ann-Marie Anderson-Mayes of Australia. I looked at her website, Beautiful Stitches, and along with several other members of NJNA, ordered some threads. I ordered two complete kits of threads and picked the most vibrant of the two. Yesterday I started to stitch. Oh, what fun and what beautiful threads to work with and what clear true colors.
Here is my beginning with the threads I am using. Isn’t the overdye beautiful?
What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time our SOTM group gathered to start on the 2020 project – for most of us it was Kathy Rees’ Star, the ANG Stitch-of-the-Month. We lasted two months before COVID forced us to find an alternative means to meet. As with many other groups, we had a crash course in Zoom technology. While we miss the in person sessions, at least these virtual gatherings provide us with the opportunity to catch up with each other and share our project progress. It looks like we’ll be continuing our virtual sessions for the foreseeable future.
This month thirteen of us met during our morning session and nine were able to return for the afternoon session. We had no overwhelming consensus for our project this year, so the group decided that three projects would be selected – Jennifer Riefenberg’s Stratigraphy, which is the ANG 2021 SOTM; Jeff Kulick’s Asymmetrical Copper; and Laura Perin’s Petite Arabesque. As always, group members can also stitch a previous SOTM project.
Stratigraphy by Jennifer Riefenberg
Asymmetrical Copper by Jeff Kulick
Petite Arabesque by Laura J. Perin Designs
Stratigraphy promises to be an interesting project. Jennifer Riefenberg describes it as “a band sampler representing a cross section of the earth such as a geologist may see if taking a slice through time – complete with horsts and grabens (those pattern “offsets”), which are geologic features of fracturing (faults) and movement in the earths’ crust, often associated with valleys and ridges.”
Several of our stitchers are taking that description to heart. Robin is going to use a photo of the Grand Canyon as her guide for threads.
Rosie and Jill are both going to replicate map colors from the US Geological Survey (USGS), supplementing stash as needed. Since Rosie is using her stash, she has made a start on the project.
Sue C will be stitching hers in pastel colors as a true band sampler. Diane and Dee are opting for the Jennifer’s colorways as the subtlety of the gray palette really appeals to them.
Janet and Jacqui, as well as a few others who were unable to attend, will be stitching on Asymmetrical Copper. Both have picked their own colors with lots of red, black, orange, pink, and turquoise in the mix. Janet is also going to stitch it symmetrically! Jacqui did finish her fabulous version of last year’s project.
Barbara is stitching Petite Arabesque in the original colors as she had previously purchased the kit. It’s always a great feeling to be able to pull a project out of stash! I know a few others have said they would be stitching on this project, so expect to see more versions in future blogs.
Members of our SOTM group are encouraged to choose one of our projects from previous years if the current selection(s) do not fit in with their stitching style. Our newest member – Holly – decided to join the group after seeing last year’s project. She’ll be stitching Kathy Rees’ Star from stash, and has already made a great start.
A few of us are going to be stitching an older SOTM project from 2015 – Ruby Razzle Dazzle by Ann Strite-Kurz. Nancy and Linda had started the project that year but, for various reasons, put it aside before completing it while Noelle is just starting it. Linda’s piece is in Russet and Turquoise while Nancy is stitching in Green and Purple. Noelle will be using the original Red and Purple.
In the meantime, Nancy has finished her Star from last year, adding a border in one of her overdye threads. That border really finishes off the design!
We are all looking forward to stitching together this year – even if we must do so virtually. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will once again be able to gather for our monthly sessions.
Last night we had a great meeting. The highlight was a talk given by Toni Gerdes. You may know her from her spectacular projects such as Fire & Ice, Autumn 3 Ways, Golden Ginkgo Kimono, Under a Copper Moon, Abyss and so many more.
Her talk was fascinating. She spoke about newer threads detailing the good the bad and they ugly. She had several tips and tricks that you would not have thought to use to make using certain threads more enjoyable to stitch with. Toni uses many items to create her pieces with and spoke about how she did it. I was blown away by the copper pot scrubber ! Thank you to Toni for such a fun evening.
The woman in charge of work shops made sure to ask her if she would be willing to do a work shop with us. Keep watching to see if that can be arranged.
Next month we are lucky enough to meet Ann Strite-Kurz. She has published 6 books and is a master of open patterning. She will be speaking about how her designs evolved and so much more.
Come join the party at NJNA – we have a full program for the year thanks to Cathryn and the work shop group is busy putting together many group projects for our members.
This year’s SOTM project is now history. We all agree that Kathy Rees’ project was a perfect SOTM – the design and stitches were interesting and the amount of stitching each month was perfect. Now the challenge is deciding how to finish our projects.
All of the colorways are just fabulous!
BrendaDianeEllenJaniceJillLindaRobinRosieSueTina
Although we could not meet in person for much of the year, technology helped us stay connected and stitch virtually each month. It looks like we’ll continue to meet remotely into 2021.
We are all looking forward to next year’s SOTM. Watch for another blog to find out what project we’ll be stitching!
Tina sent her progress photo but I unfortunately didn’t receive it. I wonder if there are undelivered emails floating around in cyberspace?
Tina is the stitcher who came up with the idea of changing the November Hungarian stitch to a Balloon stitch so that the size matched the other background stitches. Quite a few of our stitchers agreed with her and used that same Balloon stitch on their pieces. Our group just loves designs that can be adapted!
The December instructions were posted today so we are all set to finish this yeat’s project.
We are close to the end of this year’s SOTM project. It has been quite a year – we have been meeting via Zoom each month rather than in person. While it has been great to “see” everyone, it’s just not the same as being able to stitch together in one place. It looks like we will continue to meet on Zoom for several more months.
We have continued to progress our projects despite the challenges. Several folks made modifications to the this month’s stitch – can you spot them?
BrendaDee
Diane
Ellen
JaniceJillLindaRobinRosie
Sue
Next month is our final installment for this year’s project.
We are now in the thirteenhundredth month of the year 2020 – or at least it feels that way. I miss getting together with all my needlework friends! Zoom is great, but it doesn’t replace in-person gatherings.
That being said, our intrepid group met again on Zoom earlier this month to continue our progress on the SOTM project. We are all working on the background sections. Kathy Rees has chosen some very calming stitches for those areas, which we all need right now.
Many of us are using neutral colors that blend with our canvas colors. But there are some surprises in those backgrounds. Without further ado, here are our October progress photos.
Brenda is stitching in Kathy’s original colors.
Ellen chose a pink background that coordinates beautifully with her overdyes.
Jacqui played with several different colors before deciding on a dark green to set off her red and gold design.
Janice is also stitching in Kathy’s original colors. Stitching with overdyes gives a unique look depending on the color placement.
Linda chose a neutral background to allow the greens and purples to really pop.
Robin matched her canvas perfectly with her choice of background thread.
Rosie also matched her background with a pale gray that coordinates with the yellows and grays in the star.
Another green background for Sue really offsets the star design.
Pale threads are the way to go for Tina as well.
And, Tina finished a previous SOTM – Stars for the New Millennium from Tony Minieri in her own colorway. Just beautiful and well worth the wait.
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