Hi, Everyone —

I tried writing this in California, but just couldn’t get it done.

As expected, seminar was great fun and I learned a lot from two great teachers!  My lovely brother picked Sue and me up in Anaheim on Saturday morning and after stopping to get my Mom, we drove to his newly-renovated “cabin” at Lake Arrowhead.  The renovation was extensive, but the result is a comfortable, relaxing retreat.

Bill’s Cabin

Lake Arrowhead was once a vacation destination for the Hollywood crowd, so Bill took Sue and I on a grand tour of the celebrity houses by boat!  He said that hearing me scream when he hit waves at high speed was “priceless”, but he shared all sorts of tidbits about various points of interest around the lake with Sue.

Sue is ready for her boat tour!

The lake is deep and clear (and cold), but I managed about 20 minutes of my swimming exercise routine!

We drove back to Riverside in time to attend the SBANG meeting which Sue has told you all about!  I picked up my pre-work for Ro Pace’s “Atlantis Rising” workshop which is being held by SBANG in late October.  The pre-work is extensive and I’m in a panic about getting it done in time.  So my seminar pieces will have to wait!

On Tuesday, Sue and I toured Riverside’s most famous landmark, The Mission Inn.  This is a hotel, that has the feel of a mission even though it was never used as such.  It has an interesting history that ties in with early California, the railroads, and orange trees!

The Mission Inn Bell Tower!

I picked this picture for the blog so that you can compare it to the bell tower at San Juan Capistrano!

Mission Inn Court Yard with rotating Clock Tower!

This court yard has seating for lunch, but it was over 100 degrees, so we sat inside!  The rooms on the top floor are all named after well-known authors who came to the Mission Inn to write!  What a nice way to round out our Anaheim experience!  Thanks, Mom!

Cheers, Rosie

After a wonderful weekend at Lake Arrowhead at Rosie's brother's “cabin” with no stitching, but total relaxation with good food, clean air, cool nighttime temperatures, and lots of reading, Rosie and I went to a meeting of our west coast chapter, SBANG, last night.

For those of you who are long distance members as we are, you know that at each meeting there are three door prizes to be won. You guessed it, I won AGAIN!

Tropical Santas on perforated paper

How appropriate for Southern California. Now who should I stitch them for?

We were made to feel so welcome as we're the other out of towners who had come to seminar and stayed over for the meeting and another workshop. I think Rosie will be telling you about some ideas that they do which we might like to try at our chapter.

The program last night was a one day piece by east coaster, Sue Reed, called Journey.

Sue Reed's Design and Kit

In a little over an hour she fed us with many hints, went through the stitches and demonstrated several she thought important for,us to see in person. We all agreed that she is an excellent teacher. You would never know that she had taught a two day workshop on Sunday and Monday which followed the week long seminar with only Wednesday free of any teaching! She was patient and thorough! I asked her to sign my copy and she even took time to write a note. By this time of the morning, 7:30, she is now on her way home to Peabody, MA. This has been a great “journey” for me!

Sue

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Hi, Everyone —

I’m sitting here with the Arizona football game on ESPN Gamecast on my PC, so I am writing this blog post on my I-pad mini.  Six minutes left in the fourth quarter and NAU just blew a fabulous drive — so the score remains 28-0 U of A!  I hope Marisa is in the stands for this great game!  Oops — U of A’s new quarterback just ran 64 yards for another touchdown so it’s now 35-0!

So today we continued on I-squared and did some additional beading.  I find it hard to lay stitches next to beads that are already in place, so I only added beads when there was something unique about the particular application.

Last Day of I-Squared!

Nancy Cucci was a wonderful teacher — serious, helpful, and I learned a lot from her.  I would highly recommend her classes to any of our NJNA members!  Today we received a wonderful participation “gift” — a wooden seashell shaped thread holder!

I thought you might enjoy seeing this needlework tote that Nancy received as a gift from one of her friends.

Nancy’s Custom Tote

This wonderful tote starts out as a tool carrier in plain canvas from Harbor Freight.  Her friend then used acrylic paint to paint the background rectangles and a paint pen to decorate the background.  This has so many compartments, handles, etc.  I think this would make a wonderful chapter project.  BTW, I also learned how to make a foam board carrier for in-process needlepoint.  Another potential chapter project!

I understand that it made the national news, but yesterday there was a freak storm in Riverside where my Mom lives.  There were high winds and rain (100 year storm levels) for about twenty minutes.  Mom was without power or phone for a long while afterwards.  The weird thing is that NONE of the towns around Riverside got any rain at all.    My brother says that “WE” have chores to do before we can go to the mountains tomorrow!

Hopefully Sue wrote about our banquet tonight — there was a terrific presentation to get us all psyched about Chicago in 2014!

Cheers!

Rosie

Today Rosie and I completed our classes for this, our second, seminar. Hot Pot was a fun piece to stitch and one I anticipate finishing. It was a learning experience for me as I had to compensate not for a straight edge, but for a CURVE, not my favorite thing! And more than one curve as you can see.

Hot Pot, day 2

I feel comfortable about finishing this piece on my own and I would definitely take a class from Dawn Donnelly again.

This evening was the closing banquet. Rosie and I sat with a group that included members from the Kansas City chapter, both current and former, including a teacher, Toni Gerdes, as well as Ann Carol, who we met last year at seminar. It was a good table that included us in their conversations. Dinner was fine with an awesome chocolate dessert–no menu was included so I have no clue what it was. Then came the announcements, opportunity basket winners, and awards. They also told us the money that was made during the seminar for ANG which included $77,000 from the two auctions, silent and live. The online bidding really boosted the results according to one insider I spoke with. The opportunity baskets raised over $4,000. At the opening banquet we were told a out an initiative to raise money for the Golden Threads for the celebration of ANG's fifty anniversary. At this seminar they raised $100,001 towards this foundation. You can see there is some wealth among the needlepointers!

The committee co chairs for Chicago in 2014 made an excellent PowerPoint presentation selling us on Chicago, what the city has to offer from museums to parks to music to needlework shops to food. It was amazing. That plus the classes being offered make me want to attend in August, 2014!

Hope you have enjoyed our view of the seminar for this year and hope that there will be more attendees from NJNA next year in Chicago!

Goodby for this seminar! Sue

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