Hi, Everyone —

It seems impossible to believe that my week in Louisville is almost over.  Sue will drop me off at the airport tomorrow before heading home to Mendham.  I think I would much rather be driving with Sue!

Today’s class continued much the same as the other days — with us just stitching whatever we wanted and Joan teaching us each new thing as it arose.  Today I learned the fly stitch for leaves and needle-weaving — also for leaves.  I finished two blue flowers and a smattering of pink ones.

Cardinal Country — Day 4

The EGA Banquets are much more compact affairs than the ANG ones — not so many speeches or prizes or drawings.  Sue and I both put in our preferences for classes next year in Phoenix.

Cheers, Rosie

I have been so fortunate to have spent so much time in the past three weeks stitching with friends and learning new things. I now have a wealth of things to work on during the dreary days of winter. You will see a big change in Zelda tonight as she now has a tail! Her ear hair has had it's first trimming. I need to wait for the final trimming sessions until I purchase a pair of sharp scissors with skinny blades that whisper when you cut.

Zelda with tail

It was not as difficult to attach the tail as I had thought. This technique would be great for pig tails! The tail will be shortened and attached again on the rump when all the stitching is complete. As it is now, it will be easy to move it aside to complete stitching the zebra. You will see that there is more added to the florentine ground. This was a case of two steps forward and one back. I need a quiet time to make sure that I don't mix up the color I should be using. I also added a bit to the sun. It took me so long to find where I was in the pattern that I did not straight round three! I did write a note as to where I left off in the design. The last thing we tackled today was the grasses of which you can see none. We can't add the grasses until the florentine ground is complete. The directions and Gale's demonstration will make that easy to do.

The week ended with the banquet of good food and good company and a great wait staff. We got hot, black tea served twice during dinner! Again it was a table laden with tea drinkers–five of the eight at the table. I am mostly packed, have written out the route changes–no Rosie to read it to me–and am ready to go. It has been grand this week to be able to share our excitement and fun with like minded people. See you at the next meeting whatever it may be! Sue

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The first hour of class today, as on Tuesday, is spent stitching on areas where we feel we need to work. For instance, this morning I knew that I needed to get the rump done in order to be able to attach the tail tomorrow and the head near the ear to fill in the ear with turkey work this afternoon. After an hour, Gail gave us directions on the white in the rump and how long to make or not make the satin stitches and why.

Untrimmed Turkey Work in Ear

Zelda's ear now looks like she needs a good trimming! I haven't finished the ear yet and will put it on my list to address first thing tomorrow when I get to class. After lunch we began the sky, a simple stitch that I finally got right on try number five! We are using Accentuate, one thread. Accentuate is a filament with very little to see, but it does glisten nicely. The pattern darning is over six under one, over six under one. Once you have gone out as far as you wish, you drop down one channel, go back or forward two vertical threads and head back. You “should” end up in the same relative position to the sun as where you started, “Should” being the operative word. Finally on try five I did! My problem was that it was hard to see the thread I was using and even harder to see where it came up and went down which resulted in poor counting. I hope that at home that part will be easier. I do understand what I should be doing.

I signed up for classes at the seminar next year in Phoenix. Three classes, am I crazy? They do have a number of nice canvas/congress cloth pieces which I find easier to work now and they are great designs. So my goal before then will be to finish the seminar pieces from this year at both seminars, a total of three. Since I enjoyed all of them, I expect that I will complete them.

One of the things that Rosie and I have both enjoyed at this seminar has been sharing meals with a variety of members from the Metropolitan region. Tonight's dinner included friends we have met from Long Island, Brooklyn, Paramus, Freehold, New Windsor, NY, Morristown and Mendham. It was a dinner of excellent food, many laughs and stories.

It hardly seems possible that tomorrow is the last day of seminar and we will soon be returning to our real lives!

Sue

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