Hi, Everyone —

Another fun day of stitching!  We did a few more stitches on Illusions — a great border of which only 1/5 of the design is shown in the picture.  Mostly, we walked through the remaining stitches on the piece and were promised an e-mail if we sent our questions to Ro.

Friday Progress on Illusion

The exciting thing that happened today was that I won a door prize in yesterday’s drawing!  My prize is a small kit from Orna Willis.  It is stitched on metal screen.

Orna Willis’s “TEVA” and Rosie’s Door Prize!!

After the day’s stitching was over, I did my 45 minute swim — five adult lap swimmers in the one lane pool!  A bit crowded to say the least.

So I’ll try to take some pictures at the awards dinner tonight, but I won’t post them until I get home — I don’t want to pay for another day of internet.  Harold will drive down in the morning to pick Sue and I up.  I think we are all ready to get home.  All in all this was a glorious week and I’m already looking forward to Anaheim!

Cheers!  Rosie

I can’t believe how quickly the week went by and yet last Saturday seems a long time ago. Has anything important happened in the world that we wouldn’t have picked up from USA Today? We haven’t had the TV on since we arrived. (I got the Yankee scores online). Today was a repeat of yesterday for me; just a wonderful class with a great teacher. We did a few of the blocks and reviewed the others. By changing the colors and rotating the canvas, it looks like a greater variety of stitches. The only problem will be to make sure that I am orienting the canvas correctly and using the right stitch and threads for each block.

Butterfly Mosaic at end of Friday!

After class, I needed to stretch out the leg muscles a bit so I walked to the LOVE square park–turned out to be a much shorter walk than I anticipated but I passed a number of interesting buildings.

City of Brotherly Love!

Tonight is the Awards Banquet. The NJNA gals, except Susan H., an award winner, will be sitting together. You can imagine the trouble we will create!
I am looking forward to our September meeting and seeing/showing our projects!
Sue

What a great class-I learned so many new techniques. Thursday we started with black work in gold with lots of shading so compensation was required often. At the end of the morning, I was so discouraged at how my piece was starting out especially compared to my classmates, many of whom had taken the gold work lion earlier in Seminar.
Things picked up in the afternoon when we couched the padding for the ram’s horn.
Today we couched pearl purl and began chipping beads to cover the horn. Very interesting techniques having never worked with gold like this.

Goldwork Ram — Progress at End of Class

Not sure how well I will love this piece when it is finished but I will have learned a lot.

Looking forward to the Awards dinner tonight and then it’s all over
Happy with what I learned, sad to leave my wonderful needlepoint friends

Last night was the event that many of the attendees were waiting all week for. In our area a needlework shop is relatively close by. (Maybe not as close as Rosie, but close enough!). Some of the women I have spoken with are hundreds of miles from a needlework shop. Just imagine being able to see so many painted canvases and charts live! There were other things there as well, including beads, jewelry, notions of all types. Susan H. found another vendor for the Needlefest next spring who has some great project bags in vinyl and at a reasonable price. (I bought one so can give you an evaluation by then!).

There were 35 vendors listed in the brochure, but since the printing the list must have grown by half again! Orna Willis was there with all the things that she has been showing on her blog and a beautiful display of her stitched pieces. There was a table of Genny Morrow designs and one of Jean Hilton. There was more magnet bling than I would know what to do with. I bumped into a number of friends–some new from this seminar and some long time.

Rosie, meanwhile was out with Meg so her inspiring writing about the event was left to me without pictures!

Sue

Hi, Everyone —

Another great day at seminar!

Today and tomorrow I am enrolled in a Ro Pace class called “Illusions.”  It is called illusions because it acts like an optical illusion with cubes ebbing and flowing into three dimensions.  This piece consists mostly of Jean Hilton stitches and (!) there is no need for thread laying!  This allows the stitching to move along quickly.  I would have said that there were about thirty people in the class, but Sue tells me that the maximum is 24.  All I know is that this is a BIG class.

Unfortunately this piece doesn’t photograph very well, so I will post two pictures — one showing the overall progress and the other a close-up to try to show the vibrant colors.

Day 1 Progress on “Illusions”

Close-up of a section of “Illusions”

(Well, maybe you just have to wait to see it in person!)  It may appear that we do not have much done, but Ro said she wanted to start with the two hardest stitches — a Sprat’s Head and a Walnetto.  It appears that we will start to move at warp speed tomorrow.

After class, I did my 45 minute swim.  Luckily, today there were not many children in the pool and I got most of my swim in without “company”!  I have to say that the daily swim helps to work out the kinks in my back and neck after stitching all day.

By far, the highlight of the day was my daughter Meg’s driving down from Plainsboro, NJ to have dinner with me.

Meg arriving at the hotel — photo credit to Sue C.

Meg had researched restaurants within walking distance of the hotel and made a reservation using the “Open Table” app at a restaurant called “RAW.”  Many of you know that sake is my beverage of choice, so she picked this because it had an extensive sake menu.  We were seated in an outdoor area, that was private and beautifully decorated.  We had a fun meal together despite mediocre (or possibly worse) service.  We did talk the waiter into taking a picture:

Doesn’t that sushi look yummy?

Now I’m off to beddy so that I can be ready for stitching in the morning!

Cheers!  Rosie

Today started with a 10 minute wait for the elevator along with a number of other stitchers. We did make it to class on time. And what a great class it is. Carlene Hardwick is a very relaxed teacher who is constantly on the move around the classroom helping and guiding as needed. We worked primarily on the butterflies today and have a portion of each stitch in one section or another. That will be the first part that I complete when I get home. Several women had trouble finding the correct “body part” to place the new stitch and put it in the wrong section. Instead of removing what was done, she just suggested they exchange places for the stitches. I like someone who can be flexible. I know that I will enjoy the piece!

Close-up of Butterfly Mosaic after Day 1

There was one marking on the diagram that a stitcher asked why it was there and her reply was “George forgot to remove it”.  George is her husband/editor. I am looking forward to tomorrow.
Sue

Hi, Everyone —

Well, today I lived up to my slacker reputation and went on a wonderful tour of the Winterthur museum and grounds.  Heidi has already posted some of the details of the tour.  For me, the remarkable thing about Winterthur is that it was a home that was designed around the concept of being a museum.  When I visited Biltmore in Asheville last year, I found I could just stand in the rooms and imagine what it would have been like to be a visitor in the heyday of Biltmore.  The views to the outside, the coziness of the guest rooms, the dining rooms, and all allowed you to dream of the good life.  Unlike Biltmore, Winterthur tried to be both a home and a museum and wasn’t really successful at either.  That said — the needlework collection that we viewed was amazing.

A Fishing Lady Canvas

The reason that I chose to show you this picture is that a canvas called “The Fishing Lady on Boston Commons” won a prize at the ANG Exhibits this year.  Apparently this used to be a very romantic notion and so all the young girls wanted to stitch a canvas like this.  There were two others in the Winterthur room where this one was displayed!  (Another intricate sampler was signed by the stitcher, aged 14.)

For me, the charm of Winterthur was the grounds.  Several vistas reminded me so much of the area around Eighty Four, PA where I grew up.

Pastoral Splendor!

I was also very impressed with this multistory “flying” staircase.  A staircase is considered to be flying if it is not attached to the wall.  I’m including this picture because I thought I might impress my daughter Marisa with my artistic abilities!

The “Flying” Staircase at Winterthur

It was about at this point that my camera was prohibited.  (I had to download sixty pictures — so obviously there are many more vistas and artifacts to share.)

When I got back to the hotel, I decided to go for my daily swim.  I was able to do my full 45 minutes in the one lane lap pool.  The challenge was sharing it with 14 kids between the ages of 18 months and 14 years!

Sue and I had dinner with Diane and Robin at Opa, a Greek restaurant about four blocks from the hotel.  It was a noisy, happening place, but we had a  delicious ethnic dinner, including baklava for dessert.

Dinner at Opa!

Now it’s time to shift gears and get ready for my new class “Illusions” tomorrow morning.

Cheers!  Rosie

A whole new project, a whole new experience. Today I worked with the teacher that Rosie enjoyed for the past 4 days. And I DID enjoy both her and the cupcake! She has a very relaxed approach and manages to make everyone feel comfortable. I was very comfortable because her directions tell you where to put the needle for each stitch, each stitch that we did was one I was familiar with and the project made you smile just to look at it. This was a perfect break following a more exacting class.

Valentine Cupcake!

Diane was here today for a one day class, Susan’s Ben’s Kites. We got time to exchange information both at lunch–RTM–and dinner at a loud Greek restaurant, Opa,where the food was delicious, conversation difficult, but we persevered! All in all a great day.
Sue

Long day teaching today.  Meeting after the class, teachers showcase after that and a celebratory party after that.

A whirl wind of a day.  It  was a great day.  Great students- very talented stitches!

Tomorrow I am in Sue Reeds  class and am looking forward to a restful day of sitting and stitching with Ellen.

Itchy