Hi, Everyone —

I’ll start by issuing a retraction on my post from yesterday.  Betsy Devonshire’s sister is murdered, not her Mother.  Thanks to Dee for the correction — I guess my listening ears weren’t tuned in well.

So today I started my second seminar class, Geometric Butterfly.  This beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright inspired design by Toni Gerdes appears deceptively easy, but so far I have learned tricks for straight stitching, starting and ending threads, and color shading.  We had a lot of stitching time and so I was able to make amazing progress.

Geometric Butterfly — End of Day One!

My duties as the class angel are to take attendance, to fill out forms for missing people so that they can get their kits sent to them, to hand out evaluation forms on day two, and to turn in the evaluation forms to the SFC (Seminar Faculty Committee) at the end of class.

Exciting news today — I won a door prize!

A Little Zippered Case to Hold and Protect my Laying Tools (from my wood chewing granddog, Bella)

Carol, Diane, and I ate dinner at Benny’s, a steakhouse about two blocks from the hotel and recommended by the concierge.  In addition to a delicious Steak Tartare, I had a deconstructed, grilled Caesar Salad.

Love those Little Fishes!

After dinner, Diane and I decided to take a gander around EATALY, an Italian superstore.  EATALY covers two floors and contains multiple restaurants, a green grocer, a book store, a nutella boutique, books, , olive oil, pastas, a gelato stand, and wine!

Beautifully stocked shelves full of imported food stuffs!

Did I mention wine???

I had a yummy salted caramel gelato to sustain me on my one-block walk back to the hotel!

Finally, compliments of Meg, a look at our blog stats for the past few days!  Congratulations NJNA!

Two Days — Over 1000 views!

Cheers, Rosie

Today we did begin the westward journey across the Mississippi once we learned the stitch for Illinois. Much less compensation is needed with these states with mostly flat borders! You can see that we are moving away from the greens and into the blues and purples. Wondering why Wyoming is sitting out there by its lonesome? The design calls for the waffle stitch which is 9 threads square. Which means we needed to make the state a multiple of nine squares or find some way to accommodate extra stitches or threads. I took a canvas thread from Montana to help out and have put a row of tent stitches on the west and east borders as well as a slanted Gobelin between each column of waffle stitches.

We did learn the stitch for South Dakota, but I decided to get another waffle into Wyoming instead of using the ten minutes we had for the Old Florentine which will go in South Dakota. Unfortunately, what I stitched for Nebraska had to be removed as I put it in the wrong place, it is pretty and will be stitched soon.

It is apparent that some of our instructions tomorrow will have to be verbal as class does end at 4:30 and by that time most of us cannot even think straight. I did go to the well lighted but cold stitching room this morning at six to finish up a few threads and complete the Upper Peninsula of Michigan so I got off to a good start this morning with only a few loose threads!

Wagons Ho!

Last day of this class tomorrow.

Sue

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Our second (and final) day of class was very busy. We learned how to do our Waffle stitch and background, worked on two buildings and couched down the ribbon on the third piece of organza. Because the organza is very bowed, it makes the ribbon look crooked but I swear the stitching is straight!

There is still lots left to do – like chords and musical notes. But Joni gave very detailed written instructions and reviewed them thoroughly before class ended.

Last night was the opening banquet – got to meet some lovely people and ended up with one of the special award winners at my table. She was sooo excited!

Here is my progress on Chicago Blues.

Today starts Little Yellow Basket

Best,

Carol

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I was so frustrated yesterday with having to redo sections because my counts were off, I finally started basting around the different sections last night after dinner! What a difference it made today for knowing where to begin each section. You can see the shapes off the different sections outlined below – lots of trapezoidal, rectangles, triangles with a square in the center. There are 14 sections In all so I still have a little basting to do.

I started the day with a run along the river and a stop at Starbucks on the way back. What a great way to get some fresh air before 7 hours of stitching.

Puzzle Pieces - day 2

Today we focused on sections 4 and 5. Section 4 has Rhodes, scotch, and Byzantine stitches. I loved Jackie's suggestion on the Rhodes to add a final stitch that is the same as 1-2; it gives a nice definition to the stitch. Section 5 is fabulous but complex. We began by doing padding sections where we had to watch the stitch counts and placements. Once that was done, we did 4 Hilton triangles – one in each corner – that overlap each other. Once again, getting the stitch counts correct was critical. We then filled the center with 2 triangular Rhodes. I actually finished the section as you can see. It is dramatic!

The camaraderie in the class is wonderful, especially as we all curse having to pull out and redo sections and get knots in the loooooooong thread required for the Hilton triangles. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

The evening was filled with the Opening Banquet. Afterwards, I took another walk down and along the river enjoying the city at night.

Chicago at night

Now I have to finish basting the remaining sections so I'm ready for tomorrow. I'm also looking forward to the Exhibition since those who already stopped by it were ecstatic with praise for the work displayed.

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Hi, Everyone —

Today was the second day of classes and the last day of my first class, “Chicago Blues” with Joni Stevenson.  We made a lot of progress today and I feel confident that I will be able to finish this piece in short order.  Unfortunately, the newest techniques, like applying a line of music to the canvas, only get talked through because so much stitching has to be completed first.  Anyway, here’s my end of class progress:

I’m blue in Chicago because “Chicago Blues” has ended!

We ate at the Corner Bakery Cafe again for lunch today, but we didn’t even have to debate where to go for dinner since tonight was the opening banquet for seminar.  We had a speaker, Monica Ferris, who writes mystery books about a lady, Betsy Devonshire, who inherits a needlecraft shop, Crewel World, when her sister is murdered.  So now Betsy solves mysteries that happen to crop up around her shop!  While Monica learned various needlepoint techniques to support her writing, she was told — and this is for you, Linda M — “if you can count to five, you can do hardanger.”

At the opening banquet the special award winners from the needlework exhibit are announced.  The most prestigious award is the Princess Grace award and the woman who presented this award was the daughter of the Princess Grace award at a special needlepoint exposition in Monaco.  She said her Mother was a very modest woman who hadn’t ever told her of this achievement.  But the daughter said if anyone ever HAD asked her about it, her Mother would have said, “It was fun and I was happy.”  And doesn’t that sum it all up?

I’m on to my second class tomorrow for which I am the “angel”.  I think that means I take attendance and hand out evaluation forms, but I’ll have more to report on all of this tomorrow!  Sweet Dreams!

Cheers, Rosie

We covered eleven states today, so we are behind a state. But I'm not worried. The stitches are so wonderful that it will be a joy to savor each state as I finish it. Of course the state of my canvas doesn't reflect my joy since there are more tails and tape than stitches. But I will happily attack some of them tonight before I go to brd. Diane is out for a run while I am sitting with a G and T and my canvas. It is such a pleasure sharing a room with Diane. Dee showed us her canvas from her two day class and it is spectacular. Here is a picture of my mess.

My Joyful Mess

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We are moving on! Today we only got to 11 states. Most were easy because the borders are more regular in the Northwest Territory states as well as a few of the southern states. But Florida! Lots of compensation, lots and lots! I now have only two blue threads left to use and one state east of the Mississippi to begin, Illinois. You will see quite a few hanging threads left to finish and one more completed state, Indiana. Plus a couple more history lessons–the Toledo War was “fought” in Congress when Michigan was supposed to enter the union in 1835 along with the slave state, Alabama. Ohio congressmen were blocking the admittance because they wanted the city of Toledo on Lake Erie in their state. You can see a jog in the Ohio/Michigan border just for that. Does make it more interesting. One of the women in the class took close up photos of the piece with her iPad so that as she is stitching she can look at a blown up photo of the state she is stitching. this is valuable when you cannot quite figure out how to begin the next row or when you are not quite sure of the location of the border between two states–they are not all straight lines and those rivers do wiggle around! I am glad that we still have two more days of class as I am on a roll, enjoying the teacher as well as my stitching neighbors.

Cropped picture would not transfer!

Hope to complete some loose threads before class tomorrow!

Sue

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What an amazing first day! The photo in the seminar brochure did not do this piece justice – the threads are gorgeous. I have never ironed fabric onto a piece but did it today. Now we are working to couch the fad own the fabric with multiple layer of stitches.

Chicago Blues 1st Day

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After a quick trip to the grocery store for a few snack items of both the liquid and solid types, Heidi and I decided we wanted burgers for dinner. We both thought we'd passed a place in one direction from the hotel but couldn't find anything. Coming back toward the hotel, we found a restaurant that looked promising only to find it had at least an hour wait (of course, it's Saturday night in the city!). I had seen Weber Grill (yes, as in Weber grills) by the grocery store and we were able to get 2 seats immediately at the chef's bar where we could see them cooking at the grills. Burgers were absolutely delicious. I am glad though I got the 1/3 lb and NOT the 1/2 lb one!

The chefs at Weber Grill

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Hi, Everyone —

Before Meg can get the idea that I’ll be woeing through this post, I need to say that “Chicago Blues” is the name of the project I am doing today and tomorrow and not my state of mind!

I didn’t make a blog post last night because I wanted to focus on getting the Meeting Summary out from Wednesday’s NJNA monthly meeting.  The notes went out just before classes started this morning and new blog followers can check it out by clicking the link.

Chicago Blues is being taught by the designer, Joni Stevenson.  I saw the finished canvas on display in Anaheim and I knew that this would be my first choice piece for Chicago.

The threads in this kit are more beautiful that you can imagine.  We got 20 inches of the most wonderful knitting yarn called Dune and 10 inches of a French scallop ribbon in sorbet!  Plus several colors of Kreinik and two colors of Bijoux to give the canvas lots of bling power!  We also have organza and denim and sequins, so just WOW!

Now I have to admit that the class started on a low point — ironing!  Not one of my finer domestic skills….

But then we started stitching and voila!

Chicago Blues — Day 1

Sue, Jill, Carol, and I walked about a block from the hotel to the “Corner Bakery Cafe” for lunch.  It was fabulous — all fresh baked bread, homemade soup and lovely sandwiches.  Panera but better!

Carol and I did about 45 minutes of aquacise after class and it worked wonders at stretching those stitching kinks out of our backs!

For dinner, the four of us from lunch walked to an Italian cafe called Quartino’s where we sat outside and had a ringside seat to all the bachelorette, birthday, and other miscellaneous Saturday night celebrations.  What fun!  Jill has the picture so I am counting on her to post it for you.

Cheers!  Rosie