Some of us who are here in Asheville for the EGA National Seminar went out to dinner last night to a Japanese steak house called Yama. The food was really good, and the chef a real showman. Here’s what the grill looked like as he started…
Aug16
Aug13
August SOTM Group
Hi Everyone —
For once I was back in NJ for the Stitch of the Month session. My Razzle Dazzle is sure suffering the consequences of all my travels!
Here is this month’s progress:
Slow and Steady Wins the Race! From the top, right to left: Sue C’s My Way, Rosie’s Razzle Dazzle, Linda M’s Starts, Diane’s Stars, Tina’s Stars, Jill’s Stars, and Dee’s Different View!
As you can see, the Stars pieces are gorgeous and moving along smartly.
I know we’ve all had these annoying, pesky knots in our threads, so I thought you should see what my project dealt with this week:
It is the same phenomena — called a hockle — caused by the release of tension on a twisted line — in my case about a one-inch steel anchor wire! And you thought you had problems!
I am looking forward to the coming week at the EGA seminar in Asheville, NC.
Cheers!
Rosie
Jul17
Missing all of you
Back in May, I started to post an entry about my 2016 Stitch of the Month, which is finally finished. Well life got in the way and the blog entry never got published. Here is what it said:
“So I’m only five months behind, but I prevailed. I am totally finished and framed with Stitch of the Month for 2016. It is the ANG Stitch of the Month by Susan Hoekstra (a former NJNA member) It is called Feuilles D’Ananas. This is a fun way to stitch a project and I liked figuring out the variations on the turquoise color scheme.
I won’t be around much the next several months, so I won’t be able to attend our chapter’s official Stitch of the Month monthly gatherings. However, I am hopeful to take a stitch or two of this year’s project, Tony Minieri’s “Stars for the New Millennium.” I”ll keep you posted! I wish a fun summer for all.”
Well, I am now addicted to the “Stars” piece. I am having so much fun. Working on that design is keeping me from doing the baby knitting that I need done by September when my newest grandchild will be born. I agree with Jill W., these colors make me happy! I can’t wait to see how the next area showcases all of them . My overdyed thread is Silk and Colors, 994 – Kaleidoscope. All of it just pops!
So now I will really wish all of you a wonderful summer. I will miss all of you in the fall while I help out with the big sister and brother and of course the new baby. Grandchildren are the only thing that will trump my addiction on stitching the Stitch of the Month projects! Happy stitching to all.
Jul9
Stitch of the Month – July
Eight of us once again convened for another session of Stitch of the Month. We enjoyed a day of stitching and chatting, and celebrated both Sylvia’s and Nancy W’s birthdays with cupcakes, ice cream, apple pie, and cookies. There is no denying that we enjoy our stitching sessions!
Sue C, who is working on My Way, and Joan, who is finished her Stars for the New Millennium, both left before we took this picture. We’ll get them next time!!
Top left – Nancy W’s Granite; Top right – Linda’s Egyptian Nights; Middle left – Margaret’s Egyptian Nights (with some experimenting on the sashing); Middle right – Sylvia’s Royalty; Bottom left – Jill’s Black Iris; Bottom right – Tina’s Cherry.
Most of us are using colors included in the instructions with a few changes to suit individual preferences. Both Jill and Tina are stitching in their own colors and threads.
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone’s progress next month!
Happy Stitching!
Jun11
Stitch of the Month – June
Eight of the SOTM group gathered on Saturday to once again enjoy a day of stitching. The weather was warm and sunny but we did have some nice breezes and our stitching afternoon was quite enjoyable.
We had a small stitching crisis at the beginning of our session. Jill came prepared to start on Stars this month and had basted the outlines of the squares. She noticed that the basting just didn’t seem quite right. Margaret checked to make sure that the basting lines were all correct (how easy it is to jump over a thread or two). We made sure the stretcher bars were at right angles (they were). Jill tried remounting the canvas, which didn’t work. Finally, we got out a t-square, a drafter’s triangle, and a quilter’s cutting mat and lined up the basting lines. Lo and behold, the canvas was warped and there was a 1/2 inch difference in the line over the length of the project!
Jill was prepared to make a run over to The Edwardian Needle to get another canvas so that she could start her stitching. Fortunately, we were able to find a piece of blank canvas (and luckily it was the right size); Jill re-basted her piece and was able to start her stitching.
The rest of us continued our work on Stars and we all commented on how the individual squares look so different depending on which colorway we used. All of the pieces are just beautiful.
Dee, who is working on A Different View, completed the third octagon yesterday. It is stunning in those colors on the black canvas. She is now deciding on which design to stitch for the fourth octagon.
With apologies to Sylvia and Margaret, who left before I remembered to take a picture of our pieces, here is our progress on these pieces. Top row is Nancy’s in Granite and Jill’s just-started piece in her own colorway (which will be spectacular). Middle row left is mine in Egyptian Nights and Joan’s in Plum Honey (notice Joan is almost finished!). Bottom row is Mally’s, also in Granite. Sylvia sent a picture of hers later that day; she is stitching the Royalty colorway. (And many apologies if I got the colorway or attribution incorrect.)
Do not think that Jill has been slacking off this year, as she completed My Way and brought it along with her yesterday to share. Isn’t it colorful? And look at how Dee’s piece sparkles even without all those beads!
I will remember to take pictures of all the pieces together next month!
We are all having a great time at these monthly sessions and seeing how everyone’s pieces are evolving. Until next time …
Happy Stitching!
May16
Stars for a New Milennium
I had decided to do Stars for a New Milennuim for our 2017 Stitch of the Month but was still (and still am!) working on the 2016 SOTM and had not had a chance to get my threads for Stars. I finally decided to do the Jelly Bean colorway after looking at all the overdyes at The Gazebo outside New Hope. I was passing The Gazebo again and only had my thread list (without colors) on my phone so I bought what I could but decided the Tangerine threads listed were too brown for my liking.
Since I had the overdye and my canvas mounted, I decided to start stitching the middle border to see how it would look. I then took a trip to The Edwardian to finish picking my threads since I knew they’d have a better selection of threads and be easier to spread out and decide what I wanted to do. After about 3 hours and with much help from Catherine Curia and one of the workers at the shop (sorry I don’t remember her name), I picked out the rest of my threads.
I had done the center of the first block before our May SOTM and only had a short time available to stitch on Saturday but enjoyed seeing epwhat others were doing and how far they had gotten. I did get one of the squares started around the center of block 1. I was enjoying stitching it so much, I decided to try to finish block 1 this week and did as you can see.
I’m finding this a fun piece to stitch that works up quickly. I’m loving my colors, which are way outside my comfort zone! I hoping the rest of the piece is as much fun and goes as quickly. It’s amazing how different each of the color ways look. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone pieces throughout the year.
Posted with BlogsyMay14
SOTM 5/13
We didn’t manage to take photos of all our pieces yesterday for a variety of reasons, so here is my “My Way.” I’ve finished four of the six squares — but don’t think I’m a speed demon, I had all the borders done as well as two of the squares before NJNA started this SOTM. (It was offered through CyberPointers a couple of years ago, and I started it then.) I’ve also bought threads to do “Stars,” so I need to get “My Way” done so I can catch up to the Stars stitchers!
Here are photos of the square I just finished along with the whole piece in its current state.
Apr23
EGA Regional Seminar: Fire and Ice
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.
Toni’s original Fire and Ice
Here’s my progress at the end of the weekend:
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.
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!
Mar18
Winter Adventure
Hi Everyone —
While watching all the angst about cancelling the NJNA meeting due to weather…..this is me coming in after a trek to the Barrow grocery store in about -15 degrees and windy and dark. I was told it was a two-block walk, but actually it was more like six blocks each way. The snow was too cold to be slippery, but I was walking blind!
One night we went to the Heritage Center and had a private tour of the whaling museum. I thought you all might enjoy seeing this Inuit sewing kit. You can see the sharp leather cutter and the awl for making holes in the leather all contained nicely on a sealskin thong. So clearly we needlepointers were not the first to invent scissor fobs! The small leather gathered piece is a thimble. The floss above the tool is caribou gut which was used as thread.
Whales were another source of fiber — this picture shows a baleen (one of hundreds in each whale’s mouth). The baleen is hard with brittle threads (cilia?) but after soaking, you can pull on a thread and pull it all the way to the end of the baleen. We saw baleens that were about five feet long to ones that were about two feet long — apparently the length depends upon the location in the whale’s mouth. These threads were traditionally used to weave baskets.
I hope you find this as fascinating as I did. I think I would really love to take a course in making a pair of traditional mukluk boots! Do you think ANG would consider it for a national seminar?
Cheers, Rosie
Mar12
Winter travels, addendum
Oops, I totally forgot to comment on a stop I made on the way home from DC. As per Linda M’s suggestion, I stopped at Hillside Stitchery in Stevenson, MD. As I was driving, I could not understand where the shop might be since at the exit, one drives for a few miles in quite the bucolic setting. Then all of a sudden there is this sweet little shopping plaza, in which the needlepoint shop resides. The staff and owner couldn’t have been nicer. They currently have a NeedleDeeva trunk show. One of the staff members had stitched and displayed quite a few samples of the Needledeeva canvases. I was quite taken with one of the faces she had done. I did decide to purchase the canvas (again without the aid of an enabler). So, the staff member allowed me to take a photo of her work and she also made a color copy of the canvas and wrote down the stitches that she used. I could not believe how accommodating she was. The shop also featured some totes in which you could put inserts or sew the canvas onto the front of the bag. Great choices! If you are going to see the Woodlawn exhibit, I highly recommend that you stop and take a look. I wish the shop well and hope they have staying power. They deserve it.
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