Sep25

NJNA Myrtle Beach Retreat 3

Posted on September 25, 2015 by dmbstitch

Today dawned a bit rainy and overcast. Lucky for us, it slowly cleared, a watery sun came out, and it started to warm up. I took a long walk on the beach which had a lot of others walking, relaxing, hunting for sharks' teeth, and even swimming! Despite a strong breeze from the north, it was a great walk.

Later, Carol and I decided to play tourist and played a round of miniature golf at the Hawaiian Rumble course, the #1 rated course in America and endorsed by the PGA. Unfortunately due to the rain, the volcano wasn't working so we didn't get to experience its rumble! Neither of us managed to hit par, however we did each get a hole in 1! It was a lot of fun especially since neither of us had played mini golf in years.

Meanwhile Sue did some more stitching on her humbug. Carol and I also got to do some more stitching before it was time to finish cleaning up and get ready to go to the Sheraton for seminar.

Thanks Carol for arranging a wonderful spot for us to relax and get in some stitching and camaraderie before Seminar classes begin.

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Sep25

From relaxing retreat to stimulating seminar

Posted on September 25, 2015 by suesci

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It is hard to believe that this morning I was sitting on a fifth floor balcony overlooking the ocean watching the beach walkers and waves, and now I am in my hotel room at the Myrtle Beach ANG Seminar, 2015! I did accomplish some stitching on my Summer Wonderful Humbug by Ada Haydon, a CyberPointers chapter meeting project this morning before packing and getting ready to leave our retreat hosted by Carol. I am currently working on the ladybug walk section.

Summer Wonderful Humbug

My first class begins at 8:30, my stitching bag is packed and ready to go!

Sue

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Sep24

NJNA Myrtle Beach Retreat 2

Posted on September 24, 2015 by dmbstitch

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Rosie left Wednesday morning and Diane arrived in the evening after a minor detour inadvertently to the same address in Myrtle Beach, which unfortunately was 1/2 hour south of where she was supposed to be in North Myrtle Beach! When will I learn to check the map rather than just trusting the GPS?!

Carol, Sue, and I had dinner Wednesday at a lovely Bistro that Rosie and Carol had eaten at earlier in the week. The food was fresh, plentiful enough to bring home for Thursday’s lunch, and quite delicious. The apple vinaigrette salad dressing was unique and light but flavorful. We passed on dessert, although the tiramisu was really tempting.

Thursday was gloomy although the sun kept trying to peek through. Sue and I tried walking on the beach but were turned back by the rain. We enjoyed being inside stitching, listening to the rain, while staying dry. Diane made progress on another block of Serengeti and the first ribbon on Razzle Dazzle, Sue made significant progress on Summer Humbug and Kurdy Biggs’ Diamond design, and Carol has begun work on the sky on her Cow Jumped Over the Moon nightlight.

Thursday progress

We did venture out to do some food shopping particularly for breakfasts during seminar. Meanwhile, there were a few brave fisherman and others on the beach right outside our condo.

Looking North from our condo

Looking South from our condo

Dinner at Flying Fish was excellent. The fish was fresh, delicious, and plentiful enough to bring some home for lunch Friday.

Tomorrow we head over to the Sheraton for the start of Seminar and the arrival of many of our members.

Diane

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Sep22

NJNA’s Myrtle Beach Retreat

Posted on September 22, 2015 by rosielunde

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Hi Everyone —

Carol, Sue, and I are prepping for our week of stitching at the ANG Seminar with a retreat in North Myrtle Beach!

Sue and Carol enjoying some quality retreat time!

Carol traded her time share for a PERFECT setting in North Myrtle Beach!

Bargello Wallpaper in the Bathroom!

We’ve spent most of the time stitching, listening to the ocean waves, and reading! Tomorrow, Diane will join Sue and Carol.

We are making progress on our stitching: Carol is stitching a Cow Jumped Over the Moon night light, Sue is stitching a Summer Humbug and a Kurdy Biggs’ Diamond design, and Rosie is trying to catch up on Razzle Dazzle for SOTM.

Stitching Progress at the Retreat!

Get ready to be bombarded with posts from NJNA at Seminar! We have nine members attending this year’s seminar! That’s about a third of our entire membership!

Enjoy!

Rosie

Aug16

Stitch and Pitch 2015

Posted on August 16, 2015 by rosielunde

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Hi Everyone —

We had a small group attend the 2015 stitch and pitch, but it was a merry time — just like last year! It was a gorgeous night for a ball game — not too hot and hot too cold.

It threatened to rain, but our luck held.

The Patriot’s Mascot really seemed to like our group! He was flirting terribly with Rona and tried to sit on her lap! I’ve never heard Rona laugh so hard — and of course, they featured it on the Jumbotron!

A group was giving out yarn and knitting and crochet patterns so that we could make chemo hats to donate. Not being a knitter, I couldn’t believe how many women started AND finished the hats during the ball game.

Our luck didn’t extend to the Patriots. But, no worries, there were fireworks either way!

BOOM! BOOM!

Cheers! Rosie

Aug12

Need Suggestions, please

Posted on August 12, 2015 by bglmom

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Hi there,

I’m starting to spend a lot of daydream time thinking about the ANG annual seminar that is coming up in late September/early October. I will be a first time attendee. I’ve attended many other needlework seminars, so it’s not entirely new to me. I have also attended multiple-day needlepoint classes, so I have some notions (pardon the pun) of how I want to organize myself. However, as a first time attendee, I value your ideas of how and what to pack needlework wise. I want to make sure I don’t leave something important at home. That would be distressing! I will be driving, so there will be no issue with space. I also would like to know your comments on what to expect. I’m signed up for one three day class, only. I wanted to enjoy my first experience without feeling overwhelmed. I hope that strategy works! Can’t wait to read your ideas.

I am unable to join the rest of the drivers due to the Jewish holy days, so I will be driving solo. I will be stopping in DC the first night to visit with a friend. Due to some physical issues, I’m not sure I will be able to drive the remainder of the trip in one day or will have to make another stop in North Carolina somewhere. If any of you have driven to Myrtle Beach, do you have favorite towns to explore? I will be going down 95 most of the way.

Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing all of you again once the summer is over.

Myrtle Beach, here I come!

Barbara

Aug12

2015 SOTM

Posted on August 12, 2015 by dmbstitch

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The Stitch of the Month group met for August at Rosie’s house with 7 of us in attendance making progress on our Razzle Dazzle project. Our focus this month was the center star and the leaves. While most of us were still filling in petals, Sue and Jill started on the leaves, which involves lots of counting and couching Actually a lot of this piece involves a lot of counting, which means we need to focus on what we’re doing instead of chatting!

Since Nancy and Rosie are doing the same colorway with different accent colors, it was wonderful to see the impact of the accent colors. Unfortunately Nancy left before we took the picture so we’ll have to wait for next month to show it. As usual, one of the highlights of this project is the different color combinations with some of us using Anne Strite-Kurz’s colorways and some of us designing our own colorways. Choosing what color to use for those designing their own colorway leads to some interesting discussions and insights into each other’s preferences for brighter or more subtle color.

Meanwhile, most of us still are making slow progress on the Smyrna stitches outlining the ribbons. Who knew how long it would take to do all those Smyrnas! We need to have one quadrant done for next month to start working on the ribbons.

To top it off, Sue brought a fabulous Blueberry-Zucchini cake – check the recipes section of our website for the recipe. Jill and I would gladly have finished the entire cake, it was so moist and tasty!

For anyone interested, these sessions are wonderful therapy. It’s a great opportunity to get together with friends, spend some time stitching, talking, discussing books and current events, etc. The time passes way too quickly!

Unfortunately Nancy and Mary left before our picture was taken.

Aug1

St. Simons Island

Posted on August 1, 2015 by rosielunde

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Hi Everyone —

Last weekend I had the privilege to stay with friends on the beautiful Georgia island of St. Simon’s. On our way to sightseeing on Friday morning, we passed a shop that just called out to me.

The Stitchery on St. Simon’s Island.

The store was lovely and inviting on the outside. The owner was off and so I wasn’t able to take a picture on the inside. The stock was mostly yarn for knitting, but there were a number of painted canvasses. I asked about stitch guides and was told that I was supposed to do those myself! I found one needlepoint of the lighthouse on St. Simon’s, but that appeared to be the only local interest canvas — so I bought it!

St. Simon’s Island Lighthouse!

What do you think? I thought it was pretty realistic.

St. Simon’s Lighthouse — the real deal!

My recommendation for stitchers going to SSI? BYOS — Bring your own stash!

Cheers!

Rosie

Jun25

H2P III

Posted on June 25, 2015 by lindam55

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My apologies for taking so long to post this last installment. It has been a very hectic two weeks culminating in graduation last night. But that is a different story …

Our last needlepoint stop in Pittsburgh was Beehive Needle Arts in Mt. Lebanon, a southwest suburb of Pittsburgh. This was by far the largest of the three shops we visited. Situated on Washington Road, a busy commercial street, Beehive carries both needlepoint and cross stitch supplies.

I must say that Beehive is probably one of the most organized shops I have seen. They have an extensive inventory of painted canvases and threads, all arranged in beautiful displays. The shop has little alcoves with tables to lay out a canvas and threads for matching. And I noticed that multiple canvases of the same design were all clipped together. What a pleasure to browse in this bright and sunny shop!

Beehive Needle Arts is located at 650 Washington Road, on Facebook and on the internet at www.beehiveneedlearts.com. They are open Monday, Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and on Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. There is convenient on-street parking as well as a large parking garage across the street.

I did manage to find a few canvases to take home with me. And I ordered a University of Pittsburgh Santa – we all had a laugh that the in-stock canvases were from schools in neighboring states but not a single canvas from UPitt.

A few more canvases …

I will be visiting all three shops in future trips to Pittsburgh. If you have the opportunity to either visit the city (and it has much to see aside from these shops) or just pass through, I would encourage you to make a point to visit at least one of the needlepoint shops.

Happy Stitching!

Jun16

H2P Part II

Posted on June 16, 2015 by lindam55

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Point Breeze is a residential neighborhood on the eastern edge of Pittsburgh. Our destination, Needle Point Breeze, is nestled on a quiet tree-lined street with other local shops and restaurants. The lower level is dedicated to canvases and threads while the upper floor (which we didn’t see) is dedicated to office and classroom space. We didn’t make it much past the front door before we started to pick out some items of interest! There is an entire room devoted to Christmas items (with some 2015-06-11 14.02.00 Halloween thrown in as well). One of my objectives for this trip was to start collecting UPitt canvases and I was able to find a few. I did pass on the University seal (for now – I think it would make a great pillow).

The shop was holding a Zecca trunk show; not really my style but I did pick up one of the canvases. The manager, Lorraine, was very helpful as were the other ladies in the shop. I even ordered a canvas because they had one I was looking for but in the wrong color. Depending on when it arrives, they will either mail it to me or I’ll pick it up when we return in August to move Nora into the dorm (and that’s my excuse for returning to the store).

Needle Point Breeze is located at 6734 Reynolds Street in Pittsburgh and on Facebook. They are open Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

And here are my souvenirs …

The baby block is a gift for one of Nora’s long-time dance teachers who is expecting twin boys in August (I ordered &More’s baby dreaming canvas in blue as well). Kennywood is an amusement park in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin. It opened in 1899 and is still in operation today with some rides and structures dating from its early days. Nora and Steve had been there on previous trips to Pittsburgh. Nora would like the Pitt Panthers finished as a “stand up” for her dorm room. And, by the way, I searched for the Pantone numbers for the UPitt colors and then found a conversion chart to DMC colors so that the UPitt canvases will be accurate (or as close to accurate as I can approximate).

Baby Block Canvas Kennywood Canvas