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!

working diligently

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!

Sep7

Traveling with needlework in your suitcase

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On the way home from the ANG seminar in New Orleans, the Department of Transportaion inspected my luggage that I had checked.  Where did I find the information sheet telling me that they had checked my suitcase?  It was in the ziplock bag that held my frame weight!  (It originally was a long heavy weight that I had made for my mom to hold her book open while she was reading at lunch.  It contains sand as the weight which is why I keep in a plastic bag).  I mentioned that today while I was stitching with friends.  One of these women told me that several years ago Debbie Stiehler told her class that at the top of her suitcase she includes a printed sheet saying that she is traveling to a needlework event and she has her tools packed in her luggage and then includes a list of what she has packed.  She began doing this because her luggage was often inspected.  When you think about it, here we are with several pairs of scissors, pointy things we call laying tools, numerous needles strong magnets and, of course, a frame weight.  I think I will be doing this in the future as well!

Frame weight

Sep1

Uber Delicious!

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Hi Everyone —

Today Sue and I are in the same class which doesn’t happen very often.  She has already told you the wonderful story of how “Sisters” got its name.  I did hear one woman in the class mention that she was renaming it the “Coven”.  In case you didn’t know, that is how many of our husbands refer to our stitching groups.  In my house, they’re my “Peeps!”

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Tomorrow we will add aquas and grays to the larger piece.

The hotel here in NOLA is right next to the Superdome.  So we dealt with the Saints playing the Steelers on Friday night, a Little Wayne concert on Saturday night, and the Saints playing the Ravens tonight.  One side effect of this is the earplugs that were placed on our pillows.  Another is total gridlock in front of the hotel.  So, when six of us needed a taxi for dinner tonight, we got in a very long line.  After about five minutes and no movement, I decided to use a skill that Meg taught me and I hailed an Uber cab!  Our driver arrived in about three minutes — but the bottom line is that we paid less than half of what our friends did!  So easy!

I forgot to mention that Meg had been in NOLA with her high school friends a few years ago and she sent me a list of recommended restaurants.  So tonight we followed her advice and ate at Muriels in the French Quarter.

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The food was terrific and I know that I ate too much.  I did my usual two appetizers instead of an entree:  1.  zucchini rolled with sun dried tomatoes and ricotta cheese, then deep fried and served with mint sauce and 2.  pan-fried crab cake with capers.  I also ordered wood grilled asparagus and Gruyere mashed potatoes.  Dessert was a carrot cake ice cream sandwich — the ice cream was cream cheese flavored!  OMG!  We had six very happy campers!

Here’s a random sample of some other lovely meals:

Many thanks to Meg for the excellent recommendation.  My other daughter texted me a picture of their dinner at my favorite Madison restaurant.  B***h, slapped!

Cheers, Rosie

Sep1

Beets Day 1

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I love root vegetables!  Today was the start of a two day class for Jennifer Reifenberg’s Beets.  This is the third in a series of three root vegetable pieces – carrots, radishes and now, beets!  I have stitched Redishes already.

Jennifer is a very organized and patient teacher.  We started with the band that goes between the beets which represents the earth,  it will continue in what looks like layers to well below the end of the roots.  We  worked on the middle and right side beets – my middle is finished except for beads.  Then we tried the stitches for the leaves.  But I wanted to wait to finish the leaves until I have stitched the sky behind them.

Tonight we are off to Muriel’s on Jackson Square in the French Quarter for dinner.  Who knows if we can sneak in some beignets?

Progress so far on Beets

Sep1

Day 1 of Sisters by Nancy Cucci

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Did you think I made a mistake?  Yes, this is my second class with Nancy at this seminar as these were my two favorite pieces of the offerings that I saw last year.  Nancy told us a story of visiting her best childhood friend, who had remained a lifelong friend, a few years ago in Iowa, half a continent away from where Nancy lived.  While seeing her friend, they visited the friend’s sister where Nancy saw a metal wall sculpture of interlocking squares that she liked.  A photo of this led her to the eventual design of this piece.  The name comes from the association of her friend, the photo at the friend’s sister’s home and Nancy’s feeling that her best friend was like a sister to her.  I like the story behind this beautiful design.

This piece of peach, aqua, and grey blocks is interesting as you will eventually see because all the small units are the same in each block but rotated.  We learned all but one component of the block that is foremost in the design today so we can transfer that knowledge to the remaining blocks when we return home.


Each section has beads that will be added and the missing block on the right will be just beads and stitched when we are fresh tomorrow morning.  I opted to wait until I am home to stitch the beads in the other sections.  Doesn’t this look like a pieced quilt block?  Nancy explained that this was her concept of the overall blocks, so there are no borders within the block but there is a Kreinik double border around it.  This block has two shades of peach as well as a Kreinik and a variety of beads coming.  I am looking forward to more stitching on it tomorrow.

Sue

Sep1

Beets!

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The first day of Beets taught by Jennifer Riefenberg was very successful…look how much I accomplished! (I’m hoping my photo shows up here, I’m using a different app to post and am not 100% certain what is happening.)

The red-violet color of the beets (they get beads added at the end) is luscious compared with the other threads, many of which are greens and shades of violet-gray. Jennifer talked about how she thought about the colors in all three root vegetable pieces (Carrots, Radishes, and Beets) as she was designing them, at the same time. It always interests me when teachers talk about the process of designing–especially since everybody seems to do it differently!

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