Jan21

What’s Happening at NJNA

Posted on January 21, 2021 by lpleyer

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.

Dec17

SOTM – December 2020

Posted on December 17, 2020 by lindam55

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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!

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!

Happy Holidays – stay well and happy stitching!

Linda

Dec1

More SOTM Progress

Posted on December 1, 2020 by lindam55

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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.

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Linda

Nov24

SOTM – November 2020

Posted on November 24, 2020 by lindam55

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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?

Next month is our final installment for this year’s project.

Stay well and happy stitching!

Linda

Oct16

SOTM – October 2020

Posted on October 16, 2020 by lindam55

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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.

Until next time…Happy Stitching!

Linda

Sep23

SOTM – September 2020

Posted on September 23, 2020 by lindam55

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The SOTM group did not meet this month as many of the members participated in a Chapter Workshop. However, that did not stop us from continuing to stitch on our project.

Last month we finished stitching on the Star, so this month we started on the background stitches. September’s stitch is Diamond Pavilion, a very pretty upright stitch.

We are eagerly looking forward to the remaining blocks of background.

Happy Stitching!

Linda

Sep12

Week 1 of Sunrise Reflection

Posted on September 12, 2020 by suesci

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The first lesson of the ANG virtual Seminar class began last Monday. We already had our kit and instructions; what arrived on Monday in my computer mailbox was the additional notes that usually are verbal when a class begins. The instructions for the first week covered the land portion of the piece. The written instructions were very complete, what was added in the notes was icing on the cake! The stitching was fun to do because the picture unfolded quickly (at least where Needlepoint is involved)!

Here is the land portion.

The Bargello on the left establishes the hillside. Above that you can see the sunflowers stitched as eyelets with their green stems, a diagonal satin stitch. Below the Bargello, you can see the wildflowers which are stitched as a composite stitch made as a diagonal Gobelin . Separating the wildflowers and the Bargello is the soil stitched as free-form eyelets.

On the right side you can see pine trees, a slanted Gobelin, with trunks, a VanDyke stitch over a Fyre Werks for some glisten. Above the trees for the mountainside is an overdye Diagonal Roumanian (fun to stitch but a bear to remove!). The base is a Sprat’s Head to anchor that side.

I am ready for Lesson 2 on Monday! (Can you tell this is a delight to stitch??)

Sue

Aug28

Christmas morning arrives in my mailbox

Posted on August 28, 2020 by suesci

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ANG decided to postpone the seminar this year in Tucson for two years, but offered a virtual seminar instead. I signed up for two classes and the kit for one of my classes arrived in the mail yesterday. I knew it would arrive any day so I kept checking for the mail to see if it had come. It finally arrived at its usual time, just before 3:00, and there was a package!

Our instruction via email from Wendy Moore was to let her know when the package arrived and the contents checked. I opened the package and saw this beautiful turquoise painted canvas with slight variations in color–she had said that there would slight differences but it takes a careful eye to see that. Then this large package of threads divided into smaller bags, a bag with four needles and a needle threader–do you ever have enough needle threaders?

Wendy Moore’s class, Sunrise Reflections, will be taught in four sessions separated by a week. Each session addresses an area of the design. The threads are separated into bags for each section of the canvas which is in one session. There are numerous threads used and since many of these are more expensive threads, they are cut to the amount needed and put on thread drops. The Land section has 15 threads on green drop cards in a bag. The Sun has 8 threads on yellow cards. There are 9 threads on blue cards for the Water section and the bag for the Sky has 4 threads on lavender cards.

The direction sheets already had holes punched in the, so I immediately put them in a binder and double checked that all the pages were there. Today I will attach my canvas to the stretcher bars and be ready for the first session on September 7! I love this virtual seminar since traveling at this time is not what I am comfortable doing!

Threads and canvas

Aug24

NJNA at Woodlawn 2020

Posted on August 24, 2020 by rosielunde

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Hi Everyone —

During our August regular meeting on Zoom, we reviewed all of our Woodlawn entries, saw what prizes were won, and reviewed a few of the critiques.

It was too much to go into the meeting summary, so I thought I would try to capture the pieces in this quick (Ha!) blog post.

So here is a gallery of our first place pieces:

And the second place finishes:

And the third place pieces:

And the honorable mentions:

And last but not least, the rest of the NJNA entries:

Pretty spectacular representation, eh? I hope even more of us will display next year!

Cheers, Rosie

Aug17

SOTM – August 2020

Posted on August 17, 2020 by lindam55

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We were two small groups for this month’s Zoom version of Stitch-of-the-Month, but no less enthusiastic about getting together. As usual, during our first session we caught up on what’s been going on in everyone’s lives. During our second session we discussed the SOTM project.

This month we completed the last point of our star. Each piece is so different – even those that are using the same colors. It is really amazing to see how the colors work with each other.

Tina

Sue

Rosie

Robin

Nancy

Linda

Jill

Janice

Jacqui

Ellen

Brenda

Next month we will start on the background. Some of us are still deciding on background colors, waiting until the full star was completed before checking out different threads. So, stay tuned for the September SOTM to see what each of us picks!

Happy Stitching!

Linda