Dec15

December SOTM

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Hi Everyone —

I think December is my favorite SOTM month since we end the year with stitching and a pot-luck luncheon!  We had appetizers, salads, soups, casseroles, fruit, and (of course) dessert!  What a wonderful tradition!

In addition to stitching, December is the month where we start to discuss our plans for next year.  I think I’ll be continuing on Ruby Razzle Dazzle again, but with all of the wonderful suggestions, I may get sucked into something new!  HA!

Here’s our progress on this year’s ANG project:

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Don’t these look wonderful?  Kudos to all for the great progress!

Happy New Year to all!

Cheers, Rosie

Nov6

EGA Seminar next year in Asheville, NC

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On Friday I drove down to Alexandria, VA, with friend Barbara K. to see the classes that would be offered in Asheville next year as well as to go to the boutique and Merchandise Night.  I was hoping that there would be classes for the 2017 EGA Seminar that I would like because I really wanted an excuse to return to Asheville.  There are and I will register this month during early registration!  To tempt you to log on to the EGA website–egausa.org–to see the classes, let me tell you a bit about some of them.  Ann Strite-Kurz will be teaching the hedgehog Rosie has been talking about, Happy Hedgie, as well as Loon Tunes, that we have seen stitched by Rosie in a pilot class.  Ann also has a one day class, Leaf Luster.   Another teacher we are familiar with is Gail Stafford.  She is teaching Fog in the Mountains which Jill took at the ANG seminar in Myrtle Beach last year.  Gail’s second class is A Dusting of Snow showing a gazebo in the snow. Kurdy Biggs has a one day class of a three dimensional ornament and a four day class reminiscent of A Different View in that the canvas is covered with many different stitches that all fit together–how does she do that?  Gail Sirna has two offerings, Rosalie’s Roof Garden and Lily of the Lake, both beautiful designs.  Joan Thomasson has a one day class with another of her Santas, this one called Medieval Santa Ornament and a four day class, Bavarian Wedding.  Janet Zickler Casey has a two day class stitching a “minaudiére” which by the class description is a small purse.  Janet is also teaching another two day class with two of her Santas, Christmas Light Santa and Candy Swirls Santa.  Jeanette Rees has a four day class, Feeding Frenzy.  This is described as a mixed media class and is not as canvas.  All of these classes as well as the rest of the offerings should be online this evening or tomorrow morning.  Early registration runs through the end of November.

Asheville has other draws as well.  The famous Biltmore Estate is located there as well as the well known Southern Highland Craft Guild located on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the outskirts of Asheville.  If you are going to Asheville, the Grove Park Inn is well worth a visit just to see the lobby and walk around the public areas reading a bit of the history of the building.  One of the women working the area showing next year’s classes told me that the day following the last day of classes there will be a total eclipse of the sun visible in this area of North Carolina making it worthwhile to stay an extra day before coming home.  You can see I am excited about visiting Asheville next summer!  If you are not currently a member of EGA check to see if there is a chapter near you!

Sue

Oct12

The Real SOTM!

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Hi Everyone —

With so many people away this month and the last two posts about Alternative SOTMs and Alternative Seminars, I felt the need to represent the real, true NJNA SOTM.  Wish you were here!

Last Saturday, seven of us met at Sue’s house for stitching and conversation.  Five of us are working on the ANG SOTM by Susan Hoekstra and two of us are working on 2014 and 2015 SOTM projects.  (The only exception to attending and NOT working on the current project is if you are working on an older SOTM project!)

So here are the results at the end of the day:

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Clockwise from the top:  Nancy W, Barbara L, Joan, Sue C, and Carol.

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Rosie’s “Razzle Dazzle” on the left and Dee’s “A Different View” on the right.  Slow but steady progress!

Aren’t all the color choices awesome?  A good time was had by all!

Rosie

Oct8

Alternative SOTM

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Although I am missing the actual get-together today for this month’s SOTM, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on the piece.

I was somewhat surprised when I saw the instructions — “daisies” seem pretty far afield from the all the other very geometric stitches. And I have to say, I’m not sure that I like them. And I admit to finding them pretty boring to stitch. But I’ve finished two sides, and here they are:

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And a close-up:

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And in case you’re wondering where I am, it’s here:

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Oct1

Alternative Seminar – Class II

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This past week I started the second class in what I’m calling my “Alternative Seminar”. I am ghosting a class through the ANG Mt. Rainier Chapter – Thank You Jean, which is a study of Jean Hilton stitches.  The designer is Karen Garinger, a member of that chapter. We have a Facebook page so that we can ask questions, share photos, and get advice from Karen.  She told us that the piece was originally intended as Frank Lloyd Wright-inspried but as the design evolved it was clearly using the stitches devised by Jean.

I originally saw the piece on Facebook and signed up immediately.  I am stitching it on black 18-count canvas although it was also available with red and green canvas.  The threads are all silver/gray.  Interestingly, the project also includes a piece of chiffon which is mounted between the canvas and the stretcher bars.  When we first got the kit (which was beautifully shipped, by the way, and included a project bag), I assumed the chiffon was provided to give the piece some “texture”.  kitHowever, Karen explained that when she stitched the piece she found  some of the threads showed through the canvas and, since there was no way to avoid some dragging, the chiffon provides backing to help hide those threads.  I have heard of stitchers who mount felt or other material behind their canvases so that they don’t have to worry about dragging threads, but have not done so myself before now.

The threads include Shimmer Ribbon , Silk Lame Braid, Kreinik, Neon Rays and DMC rayon floss and perle cotton, and Sulky Metallic. The first step was to complete the outer and inner borders which are stitched in #8 perle cotton in satin stitch. I started stitching last weekend and was able to do only an hour or two a day during the week. It was a very stressful week at work so those few hours in the evening were therapeutic for me. I managed to finish the borders on Thursday night.

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Step 2 is to place Waffle Stitches along the long side between the inner and outer borders. The Waffles are stitched in two colors of the Shimmer Ribbon. I did get a few of those done last night and will continue with the Waffles today. Here you can see the placement of the Waffles. These are done in a silver Shimmer Ribbon and the stitches in between will be done in a darker gray Shimmer Ribbon.  border-waffles-093016

I am looking forward to sitting down later today to complete the areas between the borders.  I’ll post progress in a few days.

Happy Stitching!

 

Sep27

The Wright Friends Part II

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I continued to work on The Wright Friends through the past week. I have other classes lined up (more later) so I wanted to get to a good stopping point. I mentioned in my previous post that we worked on the fuchsia window in class. We also started on the center square in the class. I finished that center square and started/completed the lime green window. I’ve declared myself half complete since I still have to fill in some beads on the first two windows as well as stitch the remaining two windows.

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The remaining windows are purple and turquoise which I’m planning to complete in the next month but I’m off to start another project. I’m hoping to post about that class later this week.

I usually watch DVDs while I’m stitching – I rarely watch shows when they’re actually on tv and prefer to “binge watch” several episodes at once.  I couldn’t make up my mind what to watch so I listened to an audiobook recommended by a friend:  The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.  It is the story of two sisters in occupied France during WWII and how the choices they make in reaction to the events affect their lives.  I enjoyed the story thoroughly and I thought the narrator, Polly Stone, was excellent. I recommend it highly.

Happy Stitching!

Sep20

A Stitching Weekend

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This past weekend several of us from NJNA were invited to join the Monmouth Chapter EGA at their annual stitching retreat at a hotel in Voorhees, NJ.  We went down on Friday afternoon stopping first at the Nimble Needle in Haddonfield where we browsed, found threads for projects, found new things we could not do without and generally had fun.  Karen, the owner, is a delight to work with helping with finding things or suggesting stitches to use, or picking out the ideal thread.  From there we went to the hotel about twenty minutes away.  Monmouth Chapter had a large meeting room set aside for us from three on Friday to four on Sunday.   You could find someone in there stitching from 7:30 in the morning until 11 at night!

From NJNA Tina finished four pieces that had been languishing at home waiting for the final few hours of work!  Then she began working on another needlepoint piece that needed several days of work but did come out of the dark for work to begin again.  Ada was thwarted in working on her Japanese work but had brought some other pieces and almost completed the background on a winter piece after receiving suggestions for a good stitch from others gathered around.  She also completed the stitching of another small piece.  And I completed the stitching I needed to do for a piece being offered at Friends of Counted  Thread, began Bali Hai unsuccessfully and then worked on Sisters from seminar with very good results.

It was so much fun to see what others had brought to stitch with them.  One woman had been in Linda’s class from the previous weekend and was working on that.  Another brought a Ton Mineri piece that she had set aside for several years and can now see the end in sight.  An interesting bit was that a section had been stitched with a plated silver thread which had tarnished in the intervening years.  It would have been impossible to remove or clean but outlining the section in a dark thread did make that section show up, rather than recede into the piece.  One woman made a beaded bracelet before moving on to needlepoint.  A cute York Peppermint Patty ornament was completed and the next, a Hershey bar was begun. Others made great advances on a single piece of cross stitch or needlepoint or knitting or moved from one piece to another. But stitching with others gave us companionship, many laughs, suggestions or encouragement when needed. of course, there was food involved with many trees available for snacking or dessert all day.   All in all a wonderful weekend!

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Sep12

Alternative Seminar – Class 1

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I’ve probably mentioned this in the past but  my bucket list includes attending an ANG (and an EGA) National Seminar. I can only imagine the thrill of being able to take a few classes, chat with fellow stitchers, shop, and retire to a room that has been prepared by someone else. It sounds like heaven. Alas, I am resigned to waiting a few more years to experience that pleasure. It just won’t happen with college move-in occurring at the same time as ANG Seminar and having to budget vacation days for all those other college-oriented events. However, I do keep my eyes open for classes offered locally (and those held on weekends are an added bonus) or by mail/on-line.

This weekend I was able to attend a two-day workshop organized by the ANG Central Jersey Chapter: The Wright Friends designed and taught by Tony Minieri. You can read about the piece on Tony’s website. As many of you know I have taken more than a few of his classes and always learn so much.

The workshop was held at the Colts Neck Library and the venue was just amazing. The room was large enough to provide ample room for about 15 stitchers at tables and we were all able to spread out comfortably. Although plenty of extension cords were provided for additional lighting not many of us needed it; the overhead lighting was sufficient for stitching. Additional tables were set up to allow us to enjoy bagels and other goodies before the class as well as our lunches and more goodies during breaks.

Stitching started promptly at 9:30 a.m. and we worked one of the four windows. The windows are stitched alike but with variation on the four colors – fuchsia, turquoise, purple, and lime green. As always, Tony’s designs feature unique stitches as well as familiar stitches used in unique ways. Those of you who attended our August meeting saw Cathryn’s beautifully stitched and finished piece up close.

At the end of the two days my first window was about 95 percent complete, although I do have to admit that I found a few mistakes that needed to be ripped out before I could complete the window. Here is what the fuchsia window looked like at the end of the second day. You’ll note that there are accents of turquoise to the right and lime green to the left –  the adjacent windows will be turquoise and lime green.

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I am planning to work on The Wright Friends this week before starting on Class 2, which will be the subject of another post.

Kudos to ANG CJC for organizing a fantastic workshop. I enjoyed stitching with this group and hope to participate in other programs with them.

Happy Stitching!