Oct6

Day of “Rest”

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Neither Rosie or I had classes today so we could pretty much do as we wished. The very heavy rain that hit Louisville made us decide not to go to the Louisville Slugger factory today. I began the day volunteering at the Registration Desk from 7:30 to 9:30. There were four of us doing that job and business was very slow! Rosie came down at 9:30 and I was finally able to escape so that we could go for a late breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe in the hotel. After breakfast we went to the bookstore and exhibit area then on to the boutique shop, my downfall! With the help of Rosie, one very knowledgeable saleswoman and two other friends who appeared on the scene for the final selection here is what I purchased.

Frankie colors, with an alternate choice

I caouldn’t decide on the “yellow” so have narrowed it down to these two. I do realize that these colors fit neither with the Michael Boren idea of what is right nor the colors of Frank Lloyd Wright, but to me they are appropriate colors for stained glass windows.

We stopped at the room displaying the classes for next year’s seminar in Phoenix and were able to find a few things that we liked, never the same classes. The resort looks beautiful and the rooms are suites with free parking and a refrigerator! Wow!

When we returned to the room, we worked on our SOTM and finished the audio book. Banquet is tonight. I know I will be too tired to write after the banquet so I am posting now.

Sue

Oct5

EGA Seminar begins!

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Rosie and I arrived at the Galt House Hotel about noon today after driving from Mendham through Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The drive was beautiful with some fall colors in Maryland and West Virginia. There was very little traffic for most of the drive making it a relaxing drive. We listened to much of an audio book on the drive. Since it was not over as we pulled into the hotel parking, we will finish it in the room.

The hotel is beautiful, but it may be Friday before the map of the layout is fully embedded in my brain. The hotel has two towers on either side of Fourth street. Our room is on the 19th floor of one tower and our classes, registration, exhibit, boutique, book store are in the other tower. Restaurants can be found in both towers. There is a walkway on the third floor which goes over the street. Our room is larger, brighter, more elegant, as well as more comfortable than the one in Anaheim this summer. Our view is of the Ohio River!!

Coal barge going upriver

We went out to lunch, don’t ask, and came back to investigate. Rosie investigated the literature in the room while I investigated the classes for next year and the boutique. What did I find in the boutique? They carry a full line of Finca!!! Hopefully tomorrow, I will be able to make some color selections for “Frankie”, a workshop that NJNA is doing in the spring of 2014. When I returned to the room, Rosie and I got out our SOTM to work on while listening to more of our book on Rosie’s computer and watching the barge on the river.

Rosie stitching away. The blurry hand is her rapid stitching!

I think that we were stitching at the same time as the group at Carol’s home was stitching!

We found a good place for dinner about two blocks from the hotel which was not a chain restaurant, had good food at reasonable prices. We have decided that we could return there again!

Tomorrow is a free day for both of us so we should have fun at the bookstore, etc. Look for more tomorrow!

Sue

Oct1

Adirondack Retreat

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Hi, Everyone!

What a wonderful time we had at our Adirondack Retreat!  Diane is a wonderful, casual hostess and made us all feel welcome and comfortable.

Our Casual and Welcoming Hostess!

Our Relaxed Hostess soaks up some fresh air!

Diane, Carol, Sue C, and I drove up on Friday.  It took us about four hours and we all met up for a wonderful lunch in Warrensburg.  Then we drove as a caravan to the cabin on Garnet Lake.

Beautiful Garnet Lake!

Beautiful Garnet Lake!

You can see that we picked a wonderful weekend to observe the autumn colors!

On Saturday morning, we tried out Sue C’s “Omelet in a Bag” recipe for breakfast (it’s on the NJNA website).  It was amazing and tasty.  We all had our doubts, but this recipe really works!

A kitchen designed to allow multiple cooks -- who didn't spoil anything!!

A kitchen designed to allow for multiple cooks — who didn’t spoil anything!!

We met Heidi and Pam in North Creek for lunch and shopping!

Lunch Bunch in North Creek!

Lunch Bunch in North Creek!

While we were walking along the street, a train pulled into the local station amid much noise and whistling.  A good number of folks got off and would spend a few hours in town before heading back home on the train.  Luckily, we beat them all to the deli for lunch!  After lunch, we all jumped at an opportunity to take a gondola to the top of Gore Mountain.

Gondola!

Gondola!

The ride up (and back down) provided stunning views of the fall foliage, the surrounding mountains, and even Garnet Lake!

Top of the World!

Top of the World!

Then it was back to the cabin and stitching, eating, stitching, eating, talking, stitching, and sleeping!  Most of the gang had set some sort of stitching goal and I think that most of us met them!  Pam finished this colorful poncho.

Pam models her handiwork!

Pam models her handiwork!  Beautiful!

Heidi finished her “H” and got started on “I”.  (I forgot to get a picture but you’ll see it in the next meeting summary!)  And here are the rest:

Top: Carol's SOTM, Rosie's Journey, Diane's Stocking Middle: Sue C's Christmas Cracker Bottom: Carol's Lilac Time, Carol's Ram, Diane's Tea Cups!

Top: Carol’s SOTM, Rosie’s Journey, Diane’s Stocking
Middle: Sue C’s Christmas Cracker
Bottom: Carol’s Lilac Time, Carol’s Ram, Diane’s Tea Cups!

We were all amazed at how many helpful hints we shared:  from the Halloween fairy; to Rabbit, Rabbit; to cooking bacon; to some fab recipes!  I know I’m missing some, so everyone help me out in the comments!

Many, many thanks to Diane for orchestrating this wonderful get-away for us!  We hope more of NJNA will join us on future retreats!  We all wanted to stay a few more days — and we probably had the food to support that!

Sue and I leave for the EGA seminar in Louisville on Friday — so stay tuned for more updates!

Cheers!  Rosie

Oct1

Inspirational!

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After returning from our fabulous NJNA Adirondack retreat at Diane’s wonderful cabin, I was inspired to go on our blog. I have just spent the last hour reading backward in time to January. What a delightful read. I promised Rosie and Sue that I would overcome my fears and try posting a blog. Pam wanted to let all the retreaters know that she figured out last night why she napped so well after saying she couldn’t nap. Her holistic pharmacist has started her on meladonin (sp?) to adjust her body clock to Japan time in 10 days. So she was drugged! Then again I felt drugged with delicious food, great company, and beautiful vistas. What a terrific weekend.

Sep24

Extensive Prework

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Hi, Everyone —

It has been very exciting for me to see the increasing number of posts and posters on this NJNA blog!  It is rewarding to know that this blog is being used to share our member’s needlework and needlepoint adventures with the rest of the group!  Do you know that we have 300 followers??  WOW!

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had picked up pre-work for Ro Pace’s “Atlantis Rising” which is a workshop that I am taking through the San Bernardino ANG group.  The pre-work is extensive and I have been in a slight panic to get it done before the NJNA retreat and the EGA Seminar in Louisville.   (More new projects — Nooooooo!)   So after stitching on the pre-work like crazy, I am happy to say that I have finally have it done!

Pre-work for Atlantis Rising

Pre-work for Atlantis Rising

The two borders alone consist of 700 Smyrna Crosses — so at 4 stitches per Smyrna, hmmm.

The next big challenge is figuring how to get it out to California for the workshop.  I changed my mind about doing this on 18-count canvas when I realized that it would be too big to carry on an airplane!  So, I think I’ve enlisted Harold to help construct a carrier out of foam board.  I described what one of the other students in my seminar class had, but he was redesigning it before I got done with my description!  My back-up plan is to take it off the stretcher bars and reattach when I get to California.  I’ll report on any further developments!

Keep on blogging!

Cheers, Rosie

Sep21

Ukrainian Embroidery Class

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Every Monday morning I get an email from Nordic Needle and there is usually a story about one of their customers. In May of this year the featured stitcher hailed from Astoria, Queens, and talked about the classes she takes at the Ukrainian Museum in NYC. I was very intrigued – my father grew up right down the block from the museum. Although he attended the Polish Church with his father, his mother and sisters attended the Ukrainian Church.  And they all spoke Ukrainian at home.

I actually got started in counted cross stitch while in college because I had found a piece of cross stitch that my grandmother had done and I tried to replicate the pattern. So I signed up for the embroidery class that started last Saturday.

It is an interesting class, running from 1:00 to 3:30.  There are about 15 women in the class but it is more of a gathering than a formal class. There were about eight beginners at the class and the teacher sat with us one-on-one. We are working on a band sampler. The more advanced students are working on a number of different projects using other techniques, including cutwork.

We beginners are using DMC floss (four strands) on 25-count Lugana. I have to admit I am having a very hard time with it. Not because it’s difficult to learn – the first class was all running stitches (essentially darning patterns). But we are working “in hand” without a hoop or frame, the threads are not separated and then recombined, and we are not using a laying tool. This is not how I’m used to stitching!

I will have to look closely at the teacher’s sample to see what the threads look like because I can’t decide whether I should just shrug and accept that the stitching is not going to look like I’m used to seeing; determine that the final product when done expertly looks like something that I should strive to achieve; or secretly work a second piece at home on a frame with a laying tool (or maybe just #8 pearl cotton). I will bring in my class piece to the next monthly meeting and ask your advice.

In the meantime, here is my progress from the first class. We are using DMC 310 (black) and 321 (red) which are traditional colors in Ukrainian embroidery.  I did finish the motif on the fifth band last night but didn’t take a picture before packing everything up for class today.

Image

Linda’s Sampler – Class 1

The first band (at the top) is a simple over/under three threads and the second band is over/under two threads. The third band is a “vee” with the red thread woven through it on the surface.

I’m not really sure how many bands we complete during this eight-week session. I think it depends on how fast one stitches. Many of my fellow beginners are not needleworkers so we all had a different number of bands completed by the end of the class. My homework was to complete the fifth band although we didn’t start it in class. The teacher told me to go ahead and take a picture of the band so that I could figure it out at home. While I had the camera out I took pictures of the rest of the teacher’s sampler.

Lubow's Sampler Area 1

Lubow’s Sampler Area 1

Lubow's Sampler Area 2

Lubow’s Sampler Area 2

Lubow's Sampler Area 3

Lubow’s Sampler Area 3
Lubow's Sampler - Closer View

Lubow’s Sampler – Closer View

I have been doing some internet research on Ukrainian embroidery and I hope to learn more in the weeks ahead. Now I’m off to my second class! I hope to post about Slava Russki later this weekend, as well as my progress with this class. I hope I don’t start boring everyone!

Enjoy your Saturday. I hope you all get lots of stitching done.

Sep21

Changed my stitching life

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hello fellow stitchers, 

I pointed pics of my newly installed elfa craft storage system from the container store. My BFF shared with me her research on comprehensive storage for needlepoint. I realized that my supplies, WIPS, charts, stash, canvases, magazines, et al were clogging up four different rooms in my home. I needed to get organized. I decided it was worth the time and expense to get this going. One of the best decisions I ever made. The use of vertical space is genius!  The components are completely modular and can be rearranged easily.   

One of the best features is that all the tracks and supports as well the peg board are galvanized –they take MAGNETS!  Which means even more storage options.

 

anyone who wishes a tour is welcome to contact me!