Sep28

Slacker Blogster

Posted on September 28, 2015 by rosielunde

Hi Everyone —

So, once again I am a day late and a dollar short. I’m not called “Slacker Mom” for nothing you know!! I think that’s something that Debbie could add to her list of addiction indicators — “Do your kids and husband refer to you as ‘slacker’?”

Perhaps you had to be at our opening banquet to appreciate that last remark!

Anyway — some of you know that I recently accepted a job as project manager for a submarine cable project in northern Alaska! So in between stitching, I have been taking conference calls, reading permit applications, and trying to be responsive to a myriad of questions from all quarters. Frankly, it’s exhausting.

So, before I settle down to read tonight’s application and to do my stitching homework for tomorrow, I thought I would fill you in on what I’ve been up to at seminar. Yesterday marked the conclusion of “Colorful Croton” with Joni Stevenson. I dearly love this piece and found it to be quite interesting to stitch. (This is my favorite piece at this year’s seminar, Joni’s Chicago Blues was my favorite at last year’s seminar, and there are at least two Joni pieces that are vying to be my favorites at next year’s seminar!)

The main canvas for “Colorful Croton”. One of the steps in this is “coloring” the canvas from white to this lovely purple-blue-gray color! There are three different blackwork patterns on the large croton leaves!

The small leaves of the croton are also done in a blackwork pattern! These leaves will be cut out of the canvas and tacked to the main canvas. But first I have to put bright red-orange veins on ALL of the leaves!

Today I started a new class, “Tudor Garden”. The class was supposed to be taught by Merrilyn Heazlewood, but when her visa didn’t come through to support her travel from Australia, Susan Hoekstra stepped in to moderate the class with Merrilyn checking in and demonstrating the project using “Go to Meeting” software. It’s a valiant try by ANG to make the best of a tough situation. Susan is past president of our NJNA chapter who recently moved to Maine, so it’s great to be spending the two days with her!

I think I just liked the look of all the colors in Tudor Garden. It is a delight to stitch, fairly easy, but with wonderful colors and threads!

This is the first time ANG has tried “distance learning” (or so they tell us) and there are a few kinks still to be worked out. One is getting the right combination of lighting for stitching and darkness for projecting Merrilyn on the screen! The extra spotlights helped the first issue but made the room awfully hot! But it’s exciting to be part of this experiment and we are happy to listen to Merrilyn’s lovely Australian accent!

Tonight our group was torn in many directions with meetings of chapter officers, cyberpointers, and other meetings! So Carol, Diane, and I found a Teppan Yaki restaurant and enjoyed a delicious Japanese Hibachi dinner. It wasn’t cooked at our table, but it tasted as if it had been! And, yes, Meg — I had sake! Our waitress even brought me slices of cucumber to float in the glass!

Kanpai!!

Time for Slacker Mom to put in those tent stitches for tomorrow’s 8:00 AM class!

Cheers! Rosie

Sep28

Day 1 of Jewel by Toni Gerdes

Posted on September 28, 2015 by bglmom

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via PressSync
What a great day I had today! I had some trepidation about keeping up with the more experienced stitchers. However, Toni is an excellent teacher and classroom manager. Her handouts are superbly done and she explained everything. Toni made it easy for us by doing the pre-work on the canvas herself. She took each student’s canvas and counted out and then enlarged holes that were key intersections. She opted not to draw the design because she was afraid many of the pencil lines would show through. She also paced the class so that we had ample time to work in an area. Much of the outlining came before the other stitches. That makes one feel better because more of your canvas is covered! I chose to do my project on 18 mesh, however many of the students were doing theirs on Congress cloth. My goal is to get more adept and do less ripping out, so that next time I can use Congress cloth too. Toni is very generous in spirit and gives freely of her expertise. Her pre-work was crucial and I know it took her a lot of time for each canvas. She was very excited to hear that I would be blogging about the class and readily agreed to let me publish a picture of the finished product. She loves to come and teach local chapters.

Toni’s version

Mine, so far.

My day ended at the Cyber Pointers meeting where I won my membership for next year. All in all a great day.

Sep28

Autumn 3 Ways – Day 2

Posted on September 28, 2015 by dmbstitch

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Yesterday was Day 2 of Toni Gerdes’ Autumn 3 Ways. Whereas on Saturday we concentrated on each ot the 3 techniques for the leaves, day 2 focused on the borders, which are dramatic. There are 5 borders, each more dramatic than the last. We spent time working on each border in turn, especially since it was needed to place the next border. Border 4 that looks like ribbons is really multi-trip Herringbone done in 16 passes! Each of the borders took some time to get the pattern but then flowed very well.

My progress – day 2

Toni was a phenomenal teacher who took the time we needed and always made sure we understood and we’re counting correctly! I thoroughly enjoyed this class even though I still have a long way to go. It was definitely worth my time as I learned several new techniques as well as have a piece I love!

Diane

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Sep28

The Mystery of Life

Posted on September 28, 2015 by jawilliams4

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This is my second geometric with Sue Reed, and it is a beauty. The original color way is red and green and gold, very rich and medieval-looking.

Here is mine, in the purple and lime green colorway, after day two. apologies for the bluish cast to the photo…I had a choice of bluish or yellowish, as my camera did not seem to want to cooperate. (I will post a better photo later if I can.)

Purple colorway

At first I was a little taken aback at my colors…not the colors themselves, but where they were placed in the design. Somehow I had it in my mind that my purple would take the place of the red in the original, but in fact it is the lime green that takes center stage, with purple as an accent. As I stitched, though, I liked it more and more. We have some options in laying in the color in the knots, and so I think I will be able to make the piece emphasize the purple a little more in the end.

Sue Reed is a wonderful teacher, and one learns a tremendous amount from her in a class. She does a great job of showing how to improve our stitching by paying attention to details that we might not even think of on our own.

Sep27

I’m a “First Timer”

Posted on September 27, 2015 by bglmom

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I’m a little bit behind in the blogging. But here goes. With much anticipation and excitement, I set off for Myrtle Beach on Friday. My 89-year-old mother-in-law, who lives a half a mile from where the pope slept in Philadelphia, warned me to not come anywhere near Philadelphia on Friday. That left an interesting dilemma as I was taking the exact route that the pope would take later in the day. Diane came to my rescue and suggested a westerly route through Harrisburg and then head south. So, I did not have to worry about running into hordes of visitors going to Philadelphia. One advantage of taking the car is being able to take anything your stitching heart desires. Look at the pile of bags at the top of my steps.

Of course, on my way, I had to stop at needlepoint stores. My first stop was in Washington DC. I went to see The Point of it All. It was quite aesthetically pleasing. What I noticed however, was that there were far more 13 mash painted canvases then 18 mesh. I did not see any charts for counted work at all. Also, the people working in the shop, as well as the customers who came in, all worked in hand. I was surprised by these elements. Although I didn’t buy anything, I’m not sorry I went. I’ve been curious about the shop for a while.

Back on the road again, I made my way to Richmond, where I was to spend the night with a friend I had made during my Smocking Arts Guild days. We had not seen each other in well over 20 years. However, we had a great time catching up. She took me to two needlepoint shops in Richmond, across the street from each other! The first one, Jermies, has been in business for 40 years. They had lovely canvases. I noticed that just like in The Point of it All, the edges of the canvas were finished with sewn on bias tape. It was really a clean and neat way to finish off the raw edges. Jermies also had find linens. Interesting combination!

The second shop, The Stitching Studio, didn’t look like a needlepoint store from the outside. Once you got in, it resembled more of what we have in New Jersey. It was just much smaller. The store owners were quite nice.

My last stop in Richmond, was my friends own store. She used to own one of the finest antique stores in Richmond. She “retired” two years ago, moved to a new location and opened up an heirloom sewing/smocking/quilting store with the finest fabrics and laces in the area. She is starting to concentrate more on the quilting fabrics. In addition, she also had beautiful gift items. I had great fun seeing what she did with her space. Lastly, she’s an Elna sewing machine dealer. Her house had at least six sewing machines in it.

Today was a relaxing, kickback day. I became acquainted with what the seminar has to offer. Of course my favorite activity, besides stitching of course, was viewing the exhibit of all the beautiful pieces sent by ANG members.

Tomorrow I have the first day of my three day class. Wish me luck!

I am trying a different app to write this blog. If it looks or acts strange, please give me feedback. Thanks!

Sep27

Color Play, day 2

Posted on September 27, 2015 by suesci

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Today was a good day for stitching! We began with the background stitch which is a double running stitch that creates a hexagon design when completed. Three back and forth passes create the honeycomb. We worked a row across the top or bottom to create the frame work and will complete the background off of that section. The stitch is worked with a single strand of DMC Jewel Effects. The way that the light reflects off it makes a perfect simple background. We did start the last hexagon which will eventually use four different threads to complete it. Now it looks a bit like a smattering of mud on top. Once I established the design and completed the thread. I returned to complete the two smaller hexagons and to work on one of the large ones. The addition of the red thread, only a single line in each pattern made all the difference. It was a fun class and oh what I learned!

Day 2of Color Play

Sue

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Sep27

Myrtle Beach Seminar Day 2

Posted on September 27, 2015 by carolkingbarrow

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Seminar is now in full swing! Classes started on Friday but my first class was Saturday: Hark the Herald Angel by Susan Hoekstra. First order of business was correcting the class sign – we had a “Herald Angle” – and getting all the lights working.

It is great catching up with Susan. For many years, we were fortunate to have her in our chapter. But now she has moved north so events like Seminar and Needlefesr let me see her again.

We made great progress on the angel. Work was done on her sleeve, wing belt and bodice. More to come on the rest of her dress.

Day 1 Progress

It is really terrific that the angel can be finished by the stitcher (with some help from friends in stretching the canvas). Susan and her husband have made the wooden angel form, trumpet and stand so I should be in good shape (well, maybe just ok) to finish her.

Day 2 Progress

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Sep27

Day One of Color Play by Jennifer Riefenberg

Posted on September 27, 2015 by suesci

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She is the designer of the Carrots, the Radishes , and the Beets! This piece is fascinating in the way that the underlay of paint on the canvas changes the thread and the thread changes what you see. Add onto that the use of variegated thread, Wildflowers, and it is amazing. I should have taken a picture of the unstitched canvas.

Note the canvas colors

If you just look at the small top hexagon, you get an idea of what we are doing to the colors you see. When you realize that the area it is covering was once the same color as the other hexagons, it seems as though you might be looking through smoked glass.

Today we began the stitching on four of the hexagons with the more difficult (read careful counting required) before lunch and the easier stitching after lunch. Later this morning we will begin the last hexagon as well as the background stitching and learn about the outline stitch we will do. Jennifer loves explaining about color and the various features of what we see as well as the why and how of what we are perceiving.

Robin is also taking this class and enjoying it. I am sitting next to a woman that Rosie and I spent much of an afternoon with when we were in. Phoenix. It took us about half the morning to recall how/where we met, but it was long enough to recall a number of facts about each other. She is a pleasant stitch ing neighbor as is the woman on the other side of me. Once I returned in the afternoon wearing my winter weight sweatshirt jacket, I was comfortable!

End Day One

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Sep26

Autumn 3 Ways – Day 1

Posted on September 26, 2015 by dmbstitch

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I’m taking Toni Gerdes’ class called Autumn 3 Ways. Believe it or not, we did no stitching until this afternoon as we spent the morning learning to attach fabric to the canvas and needle felting today. Just picking the fabric to use for the leaf on the top left was an experience! Learning to needlefelt the leaf on the right meant picking what colors felt roving we wanted, then figuring out placement on the canvas, as well as learning to use felting needles with the felting block (hint: the needle must go in straight!)

Learning to Needlefelt

As you can see, I haven’t made much progress as I’ve spent a lot of time frogging both the blanket stitch around the fabric leaf and some of my needlefelting.

Day 1 Progress

I’ve definitely been outside my comfort zone in this class but Toni is an excellent teacher. Her instructions are very clear, she repeats instructions, and she is more than willing to answer questions. I’m looking forward to Day 2 of this class.

Diane

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Sep26

The Gang’s All Here

Posted on September 26, 2015 by rosielunde

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Hi Everyone —

The rest of the NJNA contingent made it into Myrtle Beach today! We celebrated with a group dinner at the Sea Captain’s House on the ocean.

A Beautiful Garden to Welcome NJNA!

We had a LONG, LONG dinner, but the food was lovely. The Sea Captain’s House is known for their seafood and I had a lovely meal of grilled sea scallops.

Bon Appetit!

My class today was Colorful Croton with Joni Stevenson. This is my favorite piece in the whole seminar. Today we colored dryer sheets and fused them onto our canvas! Then we started stitching. I think we got quite a bit done for one day! What do you think?