I know I’m a bit late with this post, but did want to share!

Day 2 of our Loon Tunes class was interesting in the way Ann Strite-Kurz approached it. She spent the first part of the morning explaining everything we had not yet worked in and then set us free to work on whatever section we wanted. She encouraged us to work on the water areas as they require compensation around the circles. The one section was easy but the bottom one is a bit of a challenge.

Ann also set aside time where she could demonstrate the spider stitch to small groups of us so we could see what she was doing. Likewise she demonstrated the buttonhole stitch covering a metal ring which will be applied for the eye. This was far better in both cases for me than having her demonstrate to the whole class at once or to provide charts only to do this. You can see I got the idea but need some more practice to improve my spiders.

One class member had gotten the blue canvas but the grey threads. It gave a softer view to the background. I decided to try a combination of the blue and grey threads to liven up my background but realized I needed to put in more of the Loon before deciding. At least it’s an option to play with!

Meanwhile, we did lunch once again at The Local Baker and Café. Their food is outstanding and their cookies are to die for! I ordered a sandwich to take on the plane and they wrapped it to keep it fresh.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class and am eager to have time to do more work on my Loon. Even though it was a pilot, the material was very well done and I had few questions or suggestions. It was great fun meeting Pat, Ann, and several other members of the San Bernadino ANG chapter.

Here’s my and Rosie’s progress at the end of class:

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Rosie and I are taking the pilot class for Loon Tunes by Ann Strite-Kurz. The class is sponsored by the San Bernadino chapter of ANG so it’s been great fun to meet people we had only communicated with via email before. The class is held in a local bank’s conference room which has an outside entrance. The room is large and bright, which makes for the perfect stitching environment.

We had done some pre-work outlining the loon and the side borders. Day One, we did the two upper left sections of the loon’s head and neck. Ann used Blackwork to simulate the stripes of the lower left section of the loon’s head. Ann provided the start for the Blackwork and encouraged us to use that to learn how to do the rest. The upper left section is a combination of pearl cotton and Kreinik which gives a wet look to the loon’s head.

I’ve learned a lot about carrying threads in open canvas and keeping the threads straight in the border diamonds.

Rosie and I went to dinner at Kishi’s, a Japanese steakhouse, with Ann, Pat C from SBANG, and Kathy, another student in the class from out by the coast. It was great fun with a lot of interesting discussion.

Ann is an interesting teacher who provides lots of background commentary, knowledge of other needlework teachers, and detailed information on the piece. I am thoroughly enjoying this piece.

Here’s our progress after Day One. Mine is the gray, Rosie’s is the blue. We’re eager to see the comparison of the different color ways once completed.

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