Ordinarily, I wouldn’t choose to blog about the completion of my St. Margaret’s Star. However, after many frustrating attempts to post about the NJ Needle Festival using my iPad mini, I ended up back on my regular laptop. Now the point of getting the iPad was so that I could blog while traveling without having to lug the laptop and its myriad of cords around with me. And with apologies to those who “follow” the blog for the test messages — this post is actually a real test with pictures, captions, and all!

So, for this post I am using the application called Blogsy ($5 at the App Store) which I downloaded to my iPad at my daughter’s recommendation. I added my WordPress blog to it and after a brief tutorial, I am now writing my first independent post. So first I had to get the picture downloaded from the camera — that was easy! But I have to edit the photo in the photo application on the iPad and save it as a new photo. OK — did that, but I’ll probably need some practice with the approach — I like using my mouse better!

St. Margaret’s Star

Whew — I forgot how to insert the picture for a moment, but now I remember that I had to drag it into the post with my finger. Then I double tapped it to bring up a screen that allows me to add a caption. Unfortunately the caption doesn’t show up in the posting screen, but I know it’s there and that it will show up when I publish the post. (Because I tried it a lot of times during the tutorial!)

OK — I think I am ready to publish this. Blogsy is nice because it gives me font options as well as MS Word features like centering, bold, and underline. I’ve used my iPad mini, my flexible silicone full-size bluetooth keyboard, my camera, a special camera cord which is about three inches long, and that’s all! This set-up (if it actually works) will be easier on my back, but more challenging to my brain!

Cheers to all!

Rosie

Today was the second annual New Jersey Needlefest in Pluckemin, NJ.  The NJNA was well-represented at this event.

First, it was organized by Susan H of Foxview Needlepoint who is our reigning NJNA president!  She had Sue R and Ellen T helping with check-in and food and coffee service.  Our own Anne M from Mrs. Stitches was one of several vendors and it appeared that she was doing quite a business.  (In fact, I heard several women discussing the need to make a visit to her shop in Mendham!)

There were seven stitchers at our NJNA table and Sue C, Gwen, Rona, and Mary were all sitting with other groups.

Pam, Dee, Carol, Diane, Linda, and Kathy at the NJNA table!

A lot of our NJNA stitchers were working on St. Margaret’s Star and we attracted a  good deal of attention as others stopped by to view our different colorways and even variations in the same over-dyed threads.  Later in the day, Joan and Nancy stopped by to say “Hi” and to shop at the vendors!

Some (but not all) of NJNA attendees!

The lunches were made by the DAR who donates all proceeds to the Veterans Hospital.  We are so grateful that Susan chooses them to be the lunch vendor.  Don’t these look delicious?

Ham Sandwich Lunch

Vegetarian Lunch

Gwen and Sue C both won door prizes — so even though the NJNA table wasn’t so lucky, our members certainly were!

Gwen proudly displays her door prize!

Susan presenting Sue with her door prize!

Members or our chapter were thrilled to reconnect with some former chapter members and we hope that our friendliness and enthusiasm will entice them to rejoin NJNA.

All in all, we had a wonderful day of stitching with friends — and I can’t think of anything better!

Cheers!  Rosie

Hi, Everyone —

The SOTM stitchers met at my house yesterday to work on Debbie Steihler’s Bargello SOTM Project!   The ANG website was the first thing most of us checked on April 1st because we couldn’t wait to see what happened next!

SOTM Stitchers Hard at Work!

We worked diligently and two of us (Linda and Sue C) are completely done and waiting for the next steps.

Various Stages of Progress!

All the various color combinations are fabulous!  We helped each other out with placement, counting, and techniques!  I hope that we can entice a few more of you to join us on this project — it’s not too late!  Plus it is so awesome to stitch with friends!

I am eagerly awaiting May 1st’s installment….it’s like being a kid at Christmas!

Cheers!

Rosie

I was fortunate enough to go to see the Woodlawn Exhibit on Sunday and Monday this week.  It was spectacular!  There were so many things to see that I found two visits necessary and still didn’t remember everything.  My two favorite rooms included the room of small objects and the room of the geometric framed pieces.  Of course, there were wonderful pieces throughout the other rooms as well.  I saw some pieces that I recognized from the ANG seminar in Philadelphia and some pieces that our members have stitched.  Seeing all these things is inspiring to pick up the needle and stitch.  Our two guests from the March meeting had pieces on exhibit; Rona had five pieces and Mary two.  As I was going into the exhibit, I met them coming out and chatted with them.  There pieces were all in the room of primarily geometrics.  Maybe our chapter should make an effort to exhibit  some of our pieces in the future.  I was pleased to see a bargello box stitched by a friend of mine from another group (FCE) who had taken a first place!  She had not thought of entering her box, but her daughter-in-law insisted and even brought it down to Woodlawn!  And the two women I drove down with (FCE members as well) both exhibited and one took an honorable mention for a counted thread piece.

When we were not at the exhibit, we seemed to be living in the needlework shop about a mile away called In Stitches.  It has many charts and threads, some painted canvases and some knitting.  I indulged only a little, at least it looks like a small amount, but the bill was not.  That is what you get when you buy threads galore!  I hope to return next year as it is so inspirational.

Hi Everyone —

Carol and I arrived back from Mexico last night. We had such an awesome week — relaxing, productive, delicious, and fun!

We ended our “retreat” with more stitching done than when we started! Carol was able to start on the interior of her St. Margaret’s Star.

Carol’s St. Margaret’s Star

Rosie got as far as she could with the Or Nue. There were a number of errors/omissions in the article — but the one that stopped progress cold was when I ran out of Japan gold thread for the background. The article called for one spool (no mention of length), so this is as far as five meters would go:

Autumn Leaves OrNue

So, I’ll be visiting Mrs. Stitches sometime this week! I think this is a nice piece for teaching — but I’ll try to have some alternatives as well. The technique is pretty easy and I can think of a number of places where it would be dynamite!

We went back to the Italian restaurant at the resort just so that we could share the artful presentation of the food.

The flat bread had little Parmesan hearts baked into it!

The salad was tied (with an artichoke ribbon) and standing up on the plate. The dressing was sprinkled on top and the olives, cheeses and tomatoes were around the outside! Beautiful!

Ice Cream with Crescent Moon Cookie!

We also made the most unusual find at one of the shops — titanium necklaces! You can spread them or mold them into different configurations — truly unique and fashionable!

Titanium Necklaces with a few ruffles to demonstrate how they work! Cool!

We would love to do another retreat with more of you able to attend — so start brainstorming and we’ll see what makes sense…

Cheers! Rosie and Carol

Hi to All —

Lest you all think that we have forgotten that our time in Mexico is a “stitching retreat” — here is our progress through this morning.  First, Carol’s St. Margaret’s Star:

St. Margaret’s Star

And then, Rosie’s Or Nue Sample:

Or Nue Sample — about halfway done!

After stitching for all of yesterday morning, we decided to take a taxi into Puerto Vallarta.  The seaside is beautiful.

Seaside in Puerto Vallarta

We walked down the Malecon and shopped for goodies!  We came across this beautiful church near the end of the street.

Church in Puerto Vallarta

We chose a seaside restaurant for lunch and had guacamole made table side — clearly by a trainee with attitude!  I don’t know whether to show you the guacamole, or the food, or the double margaritas, or Carol!  Lucky you — I managed to get it all in!

Seaside Luncheon!

The hotel here was hosting a big Mexican fiesta and so the casual restaurant we had chosen for dinner was closed.  Because we had had a huge, late lunch — we decided to go to the Santuario, a central bar with small appetizers only.

Santuario

We sat out over the water on a wooden deck and ended up having front row seats to some fabulous entertainment.  There was a piano player from Jamaica, an artists painting Elvis, a unicyclist, a nightclub singer (and flirt) and Mexican dancers.  We couldn’t have planned for a more wonderful evening!

Mexican Dancers at Santuario

Wish you were here!

Rosie and Carol

Hi, Everyone —

On the off chance that someone has their IPAD open to our blog, Carol and I thought we would drop-in in real time!

These big guys are in the entrance to our hotel — it’s almost pitch black in there, so we hope you can appreciate the scale of these guys — at least three stories high!

Ancient Mayans

We are having a blast!  Yesterday we had facials at the spa (my first ever!) and learned that unlike our foot plunge pool, the plunge pool at the spa will restart your heart!

Plunge Pool in Room!

We had a delicious Italian dinner last night — wish we had taken a picture of the salad that looked like a bouquet!  Of course, we made a special toast to NJNA.

Toasting NJNA with Mexican Wine!

We have been enjoying almost all of our meals al fresco (except breakfast).  Our favorite lunch spot has a gorgeous view of the ocean and after I ordered the fish tacos on Monday, I haven’t tried anything else.  Carol has enjoyed chicken quesadillas, chicken fajitas and a gorgeous Cobb salad.  Our waiter knows to bring two margaritas each during their lunchtime happy hour!  It helps to become a regular!

Our Lunchtime View!

Last but not least, Harold informs me that Puerto Vallarta is known as the Mexican LGBT resort!  We might have guessed this from our flight and the new entrants to the mile high club!

And we thought we would share our biggest laugh — in competition with the naked bike parade from Philadelphia:

The photo that Sports Illustrated missed!

Wish you were here, but we miss seeing you at the meeting.

Cheers!

Rosie and Carol

Hi. Everyone —

Carol and I had an uneventful flight to Mexico and are enjoying stitching, swimming, and eating in the warm sunshine.  Our rooms are really beautiful and comfortable and have a total of eleven(!) beds!  (Plus two lounge chairs on the deck — overlooking the plunge pool where only our feet can plunge!)

Today we prepared for our week by hard boiling eggs, buying poptarts, making spa reservations, planning dinners, and, of course, stitching!  Carol is starting her stitching on St. Margaret’s Star in pink.

Hope we get to see your progress in Wednesday’s meeting summary.

Rosie is stitching the sample for our OrNue program in the fall.  Currently there are five meters of gold thread strung around our dining area!

Tonight we had a great Asian dinner (including sake for Rosie!) and our server took a picture of us toasting all of you.  The restaurant was called “Gong” and a guy we met while floating in the lazy river pool said that it was great but that our money would be Gong!

Wish you were here!

Rosie and Carol

Many of our group was away this month for the first meeting of the SOTM, but Gwen, Linda and Sue C. did meet and stitch for about 4+ hours and a short break for lunch.  We got quite a bit done leaving us with the feeling that the assignment each month will not take too many of our stitching hours!  We found that Linda’s primary color family was exactly the same as Sue’s secondary color family.  It will be interesting to see the different role the same colors will take in each design.  Gwen and Sue have very similar main colors.    Sue found with the publishing of Lesson three that the Kreinik ribbon that she chose will not work well so it will be back to the needlepoint shop for her!  (No complaints were heard about that, however!)  I am afraid that our resident photographer is away this month so that you will need to wait until the meeting to see our progress.  We hope that more of you can join us at the April gathering on April 6th.

Hi Everyone —

I’m sitting in California at my Mom’s and was so upset to miss the first meeting of the SOTM subgroup.  So I took out my canvas and joined you in spirit.  I am eager to hear how today’s stitching went and to learn how much progress everyone made.  I didn’t quite get through February’s assignment — let alone get started on the new March stitch!

So, the photo shows my progress at the end of the SOTM stitching day — I do hope others will share their progress and colors with us via the blog!  I miss all of my stitching buddies!

Cheers!  Rosie