Aug19
Aug18
Lady with Mandala II — Day 2!
Hi Everyone —
I don’t really have much to report today. I quite enjoyed the remainder of my class and I am awed that we discussed every single stitched area, bead, and thread on this piece. Cynthia was an energetic and supportive teacher, but we all would have liked more time to stitch. I have a free morning tomorrow, so I may try to put a few more stitches in.
My progress at the end of day 2.
Tonight was the closing banquet. We had a table of 7 NJNA members and Donna F from San Francisco area who happens to be a California stitching buddy of Barbara L! Small world! Hello’s all around!
Tomorrow afternoon I have to pack up all of the correspondence pieces for shipment back to the teachers. Surprisingly, Houston was a great choice for seminar and this is one of the best hotels we have ever had in terms of lighting, distances, and amenities.
Next year in Tucson!
Cheers, Rosie
Aug18
More Color Play – Day 1
As many of you know, I struggle with picking colors and understanding color value. Thus, I was eager to take Jennifer Riefenberg’s More Color Play. We did a lot of stitching today – mostly Scotch Frame – all with the same thread, while Jennifer explained how the background and thread colors appear to vary as they interact with each other. Add in a Woven Stitch in the middle of some of the Scotches in a different thread with a different color value and you get even more differences. I chose the warm (blue) colorway and it was interesting to compare the same canvas with those doing the cool (pink/red) colorway. The biggest stitching challenge was all the compensation as the kites are on different oblique angles. I am enjoying the simplicity of the stitching along with getting a better understanding of color and its interactions on a canvas. Here’s my Day 1 progress.
Aug17
Lady with Mandala II
August 17, 2019
Hi Everyone!
Today I started a new class — a painted canvas by Brenda Stofft Designs — with Cynthia Thomas who designed the stitch guide and is teaching the class. It is called Lady with Mandala II.
The painted canvas!
I started the class by asking what a mandala was — I had thought that they were the crystals hanging behind the lady — but no — they are the disks in the upper right quadrant of the design. So — here’s what Webster’s had to say:
Mandala, (Sanskrit: “circle”) in Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism, a symbolic diagram used in the performance of sacred rites and as an instrument of meditation.
We have four students in the class. I am the only one who does not usually do painted canvas, but I explained that I needed to get back to stitching on my Lombard Street and I hoped that the course would provide some inspiration. I also asked Cynthia to explain how and why she picked the various stitches and it’s been great!
The kit has hundreds of threads, beads, and crystals and was beautifully kitted by Chandail Needlepoint. We mostly worked on the lady’s hair today — I think this class could easily have been a three or four day class, so we have to hurry to get through everything in two days!
My Progress at the End of Day One!
After class I walked the perimeter of Texas a few more times and then attended the Seminar Expo! after dinner.
I discovered my picture on Facebook today — ANG had taken a picture of me hawking the correspondence courses last night!
Time is flying by. I spent some time this afternoon looking at the classes that will be offered next year in Tucson. I think I found some interesting options!
I’m looking forward to getting some uninterrupted stitching time!
Cheers, Rosie
Aug17
Beaded Bermuda Reef
This three day class was taught be Kathy Rees and I am so happy that I signed up for this class! Her directions are so clear. The colors do make you think of exotic seas.
The first two days we spent stitching various sections in a variety of textures, Splendor, Silk Lamé, Neon Rays, Petite Very Velvet. After break this morning we began the beaded fringe which will be added after the stitching has been completed. This technique was all new to me, but I did manage to complete my fringe before class ended. To add a new thread you had to make a slip knot, capture the old thread in the knot and tighten the slip knot. Good thing forming the slip knot can be found on YouTube!
This shows three days of stitching and the completed fringe. Below is the placement of the fringe when all the stitching is completed.
Because of the various NJNA workshops and the pieces that we have done through the years with the Stitch of the Month, it was easy to stitch the Spratt’s heads and tied crosses! I can see this being finished at one of my stitching retreats coming up!
Aug17
Mt. Whitney Waterfall
My first class ever with Lois Kershner, and it was wonderful! The piece is a photograph she took of a waterfall at Mt. Whitney, transferred to Congress cloth, and then stitched. LOTS of detail, and choices to be made about where stitched areas start and stop, and a fair amount of the dreaded random placement of things…think I’m getting over the all-too-common fear of random!
Lois is a wonderful teacher and her directions are wonderful, some of the best I’ve ever seen. I wish there had been more than two days for this class so I could have kept on stitching…it always seems like you get such a tiny amount done in class! But I have no doubt that I’ll be finishing this one. She also demonstrated the process of doing the photos transfer onto the canvas, so that we might try it with our own photos.
Here’s what my piece looks like after two days…
Aug17
Abyss Day 2 – ANG Seminar 2019
After a fun Fiesta banquet last night, i had day 2 of Toni Gerdes’ Abyss. Toni is an excellent teacher explaining each section, allocating time to practice the stitches in that section, letting the class know when there was about 5 minutes left on a section to allow time to finish a thread, double checking that everyone was in the correct place, answering questions,etc. i was impressed with how much progress I made on the piece even though when i look ati the photo, it doesn’t look like much. We focused on the right side today. The crescents were interesting shifting the focus of what was the inside as i moved from the left to right crescents. Toni spent a lot of time explaining howto do Bargello to get maximum thread pull and coverage. I think i may finally get it! At the end of the day we went over the background but i decided to wait until i could see where it really goes.
I enjoyed this class and love the piece. It is great to see how designers put stitches together and use colors and threads to create an effect as well as how different stitches can go together. While i have a bunch of other projects in progress, I’m hoping to get this one high on my list to finish!
After class, i worked at the Exhibit. There are some impressive pieces even though there seems to be fewer entries.
Tomorrow i start More Color Play.
Aug16
Winter Lights — Second and Last Day :-(
Hi Everyone —
First of all I have to thank all eight of my NJNA peeps for their help in moving the Distance Learning pieces to Teacher’s Showcase and back again! I couldn’t have done it without you guys!
Today was a busy day starting with my picking up my canvas for tomorrow so that I can have it ready to go as soon as class starts! (Still on my docket for tonight!).
My second day of class with Jennifer Riefenberg was every bit as enjoyable as the first. We finished all of the candles and I even was able to light one of them! The one candle that is not stitched on my canvas uses a reinforced sparkly tube — I chose not to stitch it onto the canvas until some of the surrounding areas are done — otherwise it would be too hard to lay those stitches around the raised tubing.
Here is my progress at the end of the day:
I am very glad that I have three retreats scheduled in the near future! I expect that Winter Lights will be one of my finishes!
Cheers, Rosie
Aug15
ANG Seminar 2019 – Day 1
Today was the first day of classes at the Houston ANG Seminar. I flew in yesterday along with Jill W and Robin M. The Marriott Marquis is a fabulous hotel and i hope to find time to enjoy all it has to offer along with all the Seminar activities.
My first class is Abyss with Toni Gerdes. This piece is a companion to her Fire and Ice and i think this piece is the better of the two. We began with the center front (short teal column which is actually done!) and worked towards the back left. We ended the day with the right center column. The rationale for working front to back is to establish the boundaries for the front columns before working those behind. You really can’t see how the columns overlap yet nor how the are like columns of ice. The stitches in each column are very interesting and the thread combinations wonderful. The challenge for me is not only working on Congress Cloth but doing the multi-layer stitches with very similar colors. Still, I love the piece and look forward to working the rest of the columns.
I was amazed how much work we got done today:
Aug15
Houston Seminar
August 15, 2019
Hi Everyone —
Greetings from Texas — we have eight NJNA members here this week so expect some great blog posts.
I’ll start by posting my SOTM piece finished through August!
I have to agree with someone’s thought that it looks like a bunch of shape blots on a canvas! Hard to imagine what will come next!
Sue and I flew to Houston on Tuesday because I have to help set up the Correspondence Course section of the exhibit. Little did I expect that no one else was there to help (except the marvelous Sue C) with any of the distance learning exhibits and we ended up having to do all of them. My gimpy leg was not much help! We spent over four hours with unpacking and set-up.
Even with my bad leg, we managed to walk the perimeter of Texas multiple times!
How’s this for a Texas-sized lazy river pool? Plus our room has a view of Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. Sue thinks she will take in Monday night’s game!
Classes started today. I am enrolled in a fabulous class with Jennifer Riefenberg called “Winter Lights”. It is a collection of candles — not a menorah, but the same number of candles. Here’s my progress at the end of Day 1.
Five of the nine candles are complete! No spaghetti!
Tonight we had our opening Fiesta banquet dinner buffet with a live band and Texas brisket in multiple forms. It gave me a chance to show off my special earrings!
These scissor earrings were my souvenir from Woodlawn this year!
Cheers to all!
Rosie
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