There were only four of us that were able to make the December meeting as trips and other events interfered. The four of us did spend a number of hours stitching and beads were added to both Robin and Linda's canvases. I expect that you may see them completed at the next NJNA meeting this coming Wednesday. As we did last December, we had a potluck luncheon this year as well. You will soon be able to find the recipes for Robin's pear and grape slaw, Linda's wild rice dish, Diane's roasted vegetables, Sue's maple glazed salmon, and Sue's chocolate angel food cake with a chocolate honey glaze on our website.

Doesn't this look tasty?

Join NJNA next year for SOTM!

Sue

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I really must apologize … I meant to blog about my class at The Enriched Stitch in Wilton, CT over the weekend.  But, as usual, I got involved in other things.

Saturday, if you remember, was a horribly rainy day.  Driving up to Wilton was something of a challenge but the class at the end of the trip was well worth it.  The shop is on two floors with downstairs for canvases, threads and all of the accessories you can imagine while upstairs is devoted to classroom space.   I of course didn’t take pictures of the shop (I seem to have some sort of phobia about taking shop pictures), but you can view some photos on the shop’s website www.enrichedstitch.com.

Once we all dried out, the fun began.  Mary Susan is a wonderfully patient teacher not only sharing her thought process in picking the stitches and threads, but demonstrating stitches as we went along.  We started on the door wreath, which is stitched in Colonial Knots with Painters Thread.  My knots are generally somewhat haphazard – sometimes beautiful and sometimes pretty pathetic.  Mary Susan demonstrated (repeatedly) how to make perfect Colonial Knots and then we practiced with some embroidery floss before tackling the actual wreath.  Painters Thread is also something I’ve never used, so right out of the box I learned a new technique and used a new thread.  Painters Thread has gorgeous names – we are using Turner for the wreath and Kandinsky for the sky – the package says it is a YLI Ribbon Floss Shimmer dyed thread.

Here you can see the beginnings of my wreath.  We jumped around with the Colonial knots so that the color would be more random.

We then moved on to the moon which is stitched with a Threadworx Fine Braid.  The stitch is very interesting – eyelet stitches of different shapes and sizes.  We all thought the eyelets looked like the craters of the moon; it’s a very interesting effect. Next up was the snow on the roof.  I posted the full canvas picture on Facebook and the stitch for the snow got a number of comments.  It is a Diamond Pavilion Stitch in Silk N Colors Mint Frost with a Walnetto in Sparkle Braid (thank you, Michael Boren and Carole Lake!) in between and a Myuki Bead in the center of the Walnetto.  Absolutely fabulous!

We talked about the various other stitches and then wrapped up the afternoon working on the sky.  It is a Bargello pattern done in five different threads as well as an empty row.  The order of the threads varies throughout the sky.  Some of my fellow stitchers do not care for empty canvas so they will eliminate the empty row.  We were given a pattern to follow but I went out on a limb and actually developed a random pattern.  The compensation around the lettering was discussed at length and I will approach it with caution.

Here you can see my roof snow and the sky pattern as well as the canvas at the end of the class.

Mary Susan had her canvas finished as a stand-up music box.  The finished product is gorgeous and such a clever way to finish a piece.  I am probably going to have mine finished similar to an ornament so that it can be displayed on an easel. I know you are all shocked that I’m not thinking about framing it!

Here are pictures of the music box.  Isn’t that finishing just fabulous?  You can buy the music box through the internet so you get whatever music you like.

I am taking some time off over the holidays and I hope to catch up on some of my in-progress projects before I get started on more new projects in the New Year.  And so maybe you will see some progress on this (and other) projects in 2015. Until then …

Here’s the Wildflowers colorway on pink canvas

Mariposa — Cherries colorway

The stitches go pretty quickly and are fun to do. I do like the Cherries on pink canvas. I also finished the Wildflowers colorway on pink canvas — it is very soft and reminds me of the frosting on a wedding cake. Can’t figure out how to add a second picture so I’ll do another blog entry.

I know it’s taken a few days to post about the second day of The Enriched Stitch retreat. Unfortunately, work got in the way!

We spent Day 2 on some of the other buildings in the piece. You’ll notice that these buildings are covered more fully since they are in the foreground. I love the tied stitch on the large red building.

I had a wonderful time stitching Winter Farm Fun. The class was very enjoyable and the venue couldn’t have been nicer. And the weather was just glorious! I am looking forward to finishing this piece. I hope that my schedule allows me to attend next year’s retreat.

Happy Stitching!

The weather was much better today than yesterday.  A beautiful blue sky and bright sunshine …  Even though we were indoors, the beautiful autumn weather was still uplifting.

Upon arriving at the class this morning I was delighted to see that the canvas Winter Farm Fun is even more gorgeous than the picture I had seen.  This is the type of canvas that has intimidated me for many years – beautifully painted with stunning shading.

Winter Farm Fun – Karen Cruden for Ewe and Eye

Although i have one or two in my stash, I have hesitated to try to stitch them as I thought the stitching would actually detract from the piece.  I could never imagine how to recreate all that shading.  Well, now I know.  The coverage is very light on this canvas with lots of open stitches so that the painted canvas shows through!

Suzie Vallerie, the owner of The Enriched Stitch, is teaching the class along with two assistants.  The class is very relaxed and no one from the needlework police is in attendance.  Today we worked on the sky, which is stitched with Accentuate (not an easy thread to manipulate) as well as the snow (done in a darning pattern), some of the trees, and the red house on the left side.  Here you can see my progress on the house – the exterior walls are done in Weeks Dye Works and the roof in Kreinik.  Tonight I am going to try to finish some of the threads that have been started, just so I can start off tomorrow without a lot of spaghetti.

Red House

The hotel facilities are terrific and the grounds are stunning.  After we finished stitching for the day I took a walk around and even visited the beach.  Then I had a massage which I really needed after a day of stitching.

Long Island Sound

My Room

Rear of Water’s Edge Resort and Spa

And I was remiss in not posting that we each received a lovely “goody bag” upon check-in at the hotel.  All the necessities – a bottle of water, a needle magnet, a very cute little accessories bag, and chocolate!

Day 2 tomorrow after which I will be heading home.  Please keep your fingers crossed that I-95 through Connecticut is moving smoothly!

Happy stitching!