Feb12

2019 Woodlawn Drop-off

Posted on February 12, 2019 by lindam55

Mr. M and I packed up the little Mazda 3 and set off on Friday. It’s actually quite remarkable how much can get stuffed into that car – we didn’t have an inch to spare!

Yes, we did manage to fit in some luggage. And Mr. M didn’t have to travel with anything on his lap!

Our first stop was Starbucks in Mt. Laurel where we met Melita, who is also submitting a piece to Woodlawn so we added that to the inventory. Melita designs some fabulous pieces and blogs about her various projects at Melita Stitches 4 Fun. Be sure to check it out.

The rain eventually stopped as we were traveling through Maryland. We stopped for lunch at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse in Laurel. I do have a deal with Mr. M – whenever possible we try out a brew pub for lunch on a stitching field trip. BJ’s is a chain that we’ve been to in the past so we knew what to expect. But the food is good (I had a bowl of excellent vegetarian lentil soup that was quite filling) and Mr. M enjoyed the beer.

After lunch we headed to The Waste Knot in Arlington to see the new shop. Last year Lori moved a few blocks from her Lee Highway location to a larger and much brighter shop on Glebe Road. She carries quite a lot of threads and beads along with all the canvases. I did purchase one canvas as well as needles and a couple of small magnets. I had to buy those because I had brought two projects to work on in the evening but forgot needles and magnets. What a disaster that could have been!

The Waste Knot’s new location

Ho Ho Ho from Strictly Christmas

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Old Town Alexandria, right near the King Street Metro Station. We did make quite a sight as we unpacked a few pieces of luggage and then started carrying in all the needlework pieces.

On Saturday our appointment at Woodlawn was 10:00. In years past we’ve had a 9:00 appointment, in advance of the general public (well, the general stitching public) bringing their pieces in. This year was different – and was probably the most efficient one yet. We were met by Debra K. who is one of the co-chairs of the show and a member of Nelly’s Needlers. Instead of checking in at the front desk, we were led to the other wing for a separate check-in. For those who have been to the Exhibit, we were in the room that houses the Cafe.

They had several tables set up for us; Mr. M and I unpacked all of the pieces and lined them up. Only after all the pieces were unpacked (which itself took about 30 minutes) did Debra start the check-in. She processed the paperwork and examined every piece so that she could note the condition of each, including slight marks on frames, buckling of canvas, etc. Debra was very thorough in her examination and we talked quite a bit about finishing techniques. As we were entering the pieces many of the other volunteers came through and looked at our submittals. As was expected, there were a lot of comments about all the different colorways for Stars for a New Millennium; several people were trying to decide which colorway was their favorite. By the way, we have 9 versions of Stars in the Exhibit.

While we were checking in we did chat with some of the other volunteers. We learned that almost half of the pieces that had been entered were from first-time exhibitors, and there is a notable increase in the number of men who entered this year. I think that’s a great sign for the continuation of our craft!

All in all, the check-in process took 2 hours to get our 27 pieces (by 19 NJNA exhibitors) fully checked in. By that time we felt we deserved a nice lunch, so we headed back to Old Town to The Wharf on King Street where Mr. M enjoyed a shrimp po’boy and I had a lovely she-crab soup and side salad.

We had an early dinner reservation at the Mt. Vernon Inn that evening so we returned to the hotel and sat in the atrium where the lighting was perfect for me to stitch. I managed to get quite a bit of Herringbone Happening stitched.

Dinner was fabulous and I enjoyed a brie appetizer, a large salad with shrimp, and a slice of cherry pie. Mr. M had the turkey pot pie and apple pie. We also were very pleased with a Virginia wine. This was the first time we had been to this restaurant, although we had visited the estate in years past, but it won’t be our last time.

We traveled home on Sunday and made good time – at least we arrived back in NJ early enough to get settled before facing the work week.

We’ll be heading to the Exhibit in early March when Nora is home for Spring Recess. I’m looking forward to seeing all of our pieces! I hope you’ll consider heading to Woodlawn to see the exhibit. It is open the entire month of March (except Tuesdays). There are quite a few events in conjunction with the Exhibit, so be sure to check them here.

Happy Stitching!

Linda

Feb10

2019 February SOTM

Posted on February 10, 2019 by rosielunde

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Hi Everyone —

This year, NJNA SOTM Group has elected to do the ANG SOTM Mystery Project. Thirteen of us gathered on February 9 to stitch this month’s installment. This is quite exciting as the directions allow quite a bit of leeway even within a given colorway. A number of us have deviated from the designers’ colorways so that’s exciting too!

Four of us are up to date after Saturday:

Presentation1

A few of us are just starting and are in different states of progress:

Presentation 3

Presentation 2

Dee hit a major milestone on “A Different View” by completing her last hexagon. Now onto the small squares and beads!

Hexagons Complete! Beautiful!

Diane is finishing up the border on Autumn Kaleidoscope by Lorene Salt.

Almost done! Diane expects to be able to start the Mystery next month!

It was a bright, sunny day so we had plenty of light to stitch by. Thanks to all who brought the wonderful assortments of dessert!

Cheers, Rosie

Jan29

2018 SOTM – Wrap-Up

Posted on January 29, 2019 by lindam55

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This is a bit late but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share everyone’s progress on our 2018 projects. Many of the group worked on Lorene Salt’s Autumn Kaleidoscope this year while others continued to work on SOTM projects from previous years. A few of us finished while others have a little more stitching to do. We all had a great time at our monthly sessions and will be sharing our 2019 projects.

Barbara finished and framed her Stars for a New Millennium (Tony Minieri Designs) in time for the Woodlawn Needlework Show.

stars finished - barbara

And the roll call of Autumn Kaleidoscope; note that in addition to changing the colors many of our stitchers also varied the borders.

Amy

Diane

Janet

Janice

Jill

Linda

Mally

Marge

Nancy

Noelle

Robin

Rosie

Sue C

Sylvia

What a great project! Thank you, Lorene!

Jan24

Resolve to do more of what you love – Take a needlepoint class

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Mally Becker

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Almost 80% of all New Year’s resolutions go by the wayside before they’re achieved. In fact, most of us give up on our resolutions by January 12.

Is anyone surprised?

All of those pesky lose-weight, get-in-shape promises are such a bore. And, really, you’re fine the way you are. As a matter of fact, you’re wonderful.

So why not do something radical this year: Resolve to do more of what you love.

Do. More. Needlepoint. Find a new canvas or stitch. Retrieve one of the few unfinished projects in your closet. (“Few” is a relative term.) Or resolve to take a class.

Our local needlepoint stores have offerings to help you stretch your imagination, play with new techniques or stitches, enhance your skills, and make new friends … all of which are more fun than eating celery or getting up at 5 AM to jog.

Here’s what you’ll find at the fabulous needlepoint stores we all frequent:

Needleworkers Delight on Route One in Metuchen maintains an up-to-date class listing and on-line payment options here: http://www.needleworkersdelight.com/DesignerClassSeries.html

The Edwardian Needle in Fairfield offers the following classes and events through March. Contact The Edwardian Needle at (973) 743-9833 in advance for information about cost and registration.

Sunday, January 27 Goldwork Butterfly with Kate Festo 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM

Sunday, February 3 Super Bowl Party Noon – 5 PM

Thursday, February 7 Stars “II” with Cathryn Curia 5 – 7:30 PM

Sunday, February 10 Canvas Embellishment Studio Noon – 5 PM

Thursday, February 21 Stitch-In 6 – 8 PM

Sunday February 24 Bargello Class with Andrea Santiamo 10 AM – 4 PM

Friday, March 8 Studio with Anthony Minieri Noon – 5 PM

Sat. & Sun., March 9-10 French Ribbon 1 with Anthony Minieri 9:30 AM – 4 PM

Thursday, March 14 Stars “III” with Cathryn Curia 5 – 7:30 PM

Sat. & Sun., March 30-31 Crazy Quilting with Betty Pillsbury 10 AM – 4:30 PM

Knit One, Stitch Two in Pennington will offer The Gazebo – a red, white and blue canvas with a gazebo, topiary and flags – as a “stitch along” on February 11 (11:30 AM – 1:45 PM) and February 28th (11 AM – 2 PM). A stitch guide will be available. Stitch Along fee $25. This is not a class. Minimal instruction is included, and attendees must be able to stitch basketweave. If you’re interested, please email me for the project photo (I couldn’t post it) or contact the shop at http://k1st2.com.

I’ll post information about additional classes upon receipt. In the meantime, happy stitching!

Data sources for those gloomy New Year’s Resolution cited above: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2980864;https://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/wellbeing/this-is-the-date-most-of-us-give-up-on-our-new-years-resolutions/news-story/ae2e1a32a5e5f5ef0783412fefe6abbf

Jan22

Herringbone Happening Tip

Posted on January 22, 2019 by jawilliams4

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For those of you doing the Herringbone Happening piece, I thought you might be interested in what I came up with to make stitching a little easier.

The issue I had was figuring out where to END the bands…trying to follow the master diagram just wasn’t cutting it for me. Left to my own devices I would probably have stitched the corner squares before the bands, giving myself a clear sign about where to stop stitching the bands…but since I couldn’t do that, I basted a diagonal line from the corner of the large square in the upper left, down to the lower right. You can see the basting stitches. in the photo.

After pulling out two or three bands because I got the length/placement wrong, I was annoyed with myself for not thinking of the basting at the beginning!

herringbone-basting

Jan15

January 2019 SOTM Complete!

Posted on January 15, 2019 by rosielunde

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Hi Everyone —

The NJNA SOTM group is doing the ANG SOTM which is a Mystery! I chose my own colors and just finished stitching the first installment. It is great fun to do these fancy stitches — even if it took me three aborted attempts to get the correct thread length on the crescents.

I also want to say that using two strands of floss on the circular Amadeus was a true challenge to my thread-laying ability! But only one aborted attempt on the thread length, but three re-stitches because of missed holes!

Can’t wait to see what February brings!

Cheers, Rosie

Dec24

Christmas in SC

Posted on December 24, 2018 by jawilliams4

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I arrived to spend Christmas with Carol on Thursday, and by Saturday we were ready to shop. We set out early, met up with another of Carol’s stitching buddies, and drove to Atlanta.

The first shop we visited was the new Labors of Love. Carol and I have decided to stitch “Patchwork of Peace,” the American-flag-in-little-boxes piece that I think Margaret and Sylvia have already stitched, so we had a LOT of threads to search out! We decided to focus on the blue threads to start. Mark and Charlesy helped us pull the threads, and especially in my case, to find substitutions…because of course I decided to be different and stitch on Congress Cloth and not 18-count canvas. Imagine, we found ALMOST all the threads in one shop! And they special-ordered several that they didn’t have.

For anyone visiting Atlanta, we highly recommend that you visit Labors of Love! The shop is spacious and airy and the walls are lined with full ranges of many threads not always found in smaller shops. You want Dinky Dyes? How about those Threadworx overdyed Kreinik braids we had trouble finding for Autumn Kaleidoscope? They had them both…Burmilana? Bella Lusso? Yes and yes again. And Mark and Charlesy were knowledgeable about all the threads and very helpful. They even recommended someplace for lunch…but when we got there we couldn’t find parking so we headed over to the second shop on our list…

Nimble Needle is a smaller shop, but also carries a large thread inventory and walls full of painted canvases. We found a couple of the thread colors we hadn’t found at the first shop and I succumbed to an ornament canvas from the trunk show currently on offer. But frankly I was a little shopped out and didn’t spend as much time absorbing the surroundings as I might have otherwise. But this would also be a great destination for you if you visit Atlanta!

We ended up having lunch at an unassuming-looking barbecue place just a few shops down from Nimble Needle, and it was wonderful.

Both shops have off-street parking, always nice in urban settings.

Dec23

SOTM – December

Posted on December 23, 2018 by lindam55

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I know I’m very late in getting this posted, but it’s a busy time of year!

The December SOTM gathering is especially fun as we not only stitch but also enjoy a pot-luck lunch. This year was no exception as we worked our way through a reuben casserole, several different salads, deviled eggs, and delicious desserts. The food was fabulous and the friendships are priceless!

Many of us are finishing with Autumn Kaleidoscope (designed by Lorene Salt), which was the SOTM this year. By the time you see this, a few will have completely finished. Those of our group who chose their own colorways were deciding on bead colors and will be making a trip or two to find the perfect beads! And I apologize – but something seems to have gone wrong with my photos of this month’s progress. So, no photos this month. But we’ll try to get them back in January for a full display! In the meantime, check out the NJNA December Meeting Summary for some of the completed pieces.

The SOTM project for 2019 will be the ANG Mystery Project. We are looking forward to seeing this project develop!

Until January – happy holidays, happy New Year, and happy stitching!

Nov13

Sandy Jenkins Needlepoint in Fredericksburg, TX

Posted on November 13, 2018 by dmbstitch

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I am on a bike trip through the Texas hill country west of Austin. I didn’t quite look at the weather forecast before we left (or perhaps I looked but decided to not believe the forecast!) so was not prepared for the extreme cold snap here. Sunday’s biking was a bit rainy but doable; Monday morning was not too bad it by afternoon, the winds had picked up and the temperatures fell so the biking was cut short quite a bit. The tour leaders decided this morning was way too cold and windy to be safe for biking so we headed into Fredericksbug. I quickly checked out if there were any Needlepoint shops in town. There is a fabulous museum to the War of the Pacific and a cute downtown. And of course, I found the Needlepoint shop!

Designer Sandy Jenkins (www.sandyjenkins.com) has a wonderful shop with all her own designs. I had to admit I was not familiar with her work. Since she gave up teaching and traveling to market, she does her own painting as well as designing. She welcomed me immediately even though she was working with a client pulling threads. When I responded that I was a stitcher, she encouraged me to look around at the designs and finished samples and reminded me not to touch samples (standard practice as we all know) and not to take pictures due to copyright issues since these are all her own designs.

Since I decided to limit myself to just one canvas, I had a tough time deciding! There was a lot of variety of style and themes. I chose a fun Thanksgiving Sampler, which she offered to kit for me. Since I was limited on time, I decided to not kit it for now. I did listen in as she was helping the other client pick threads and was impressed with how she worked with the client. While her thread selection is not vast, it was varied and I would have had no problem finding any threads I wanted or needed.

Sandy Jenkins’ shop in Fredericksburg, TX

While I couldn’t take photos inside, she did allow me to take an outside shot. She does host stitching retreats, so we may need to think about a road trip!

Nov10

SOTM – November 2018

Posted on November 10, 2018 by lindam55

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Twelve of the SOTM group met today to stitch and share conversation. It was a bright autumnal day and our stitching area was well lit. We even had a surprise visitor – Tina was able to join us to stitch today as she has been visiting from Wisconsin! It was great to catch up with her.

Here is our progress as of this month. All of the projects look fabulous!

Barbara’s Stars for the New Millennium

Autumn Kaleidoscope progress.

Ellen

Jill

Joan

Linda

Nancy

Noelle

Rosie

Sue C

Sylvia

Tina

And, no, you didn’t count wrong – Margaret is being shy about her progress on Stars but we’ll get a picture soon.

Next month those of us stitching Autumn Kaleidoscope will be working on the outside border and the beading. And, we’ll all be deciding on our project for next year!

Happy Stitching!