Spirit of Cross Stitch Festival in Sacramento
ran...@sfov1.verifone.com
Sacramento convention center. I have a couple of classes on
Thursday 10/20/94 that I have already signed up for and something
else just came up on that day that I need to take care of that day.
If anyone would be interested in taking "Passionate Pansy" (stitching
on silk) or "One-over-one linen Project" please email me.
I will still be attending Fri/Sat/Sun - hope to see you there.
Thanks,
Randy internet: ran...@sfov1.verifone.com
Sue Ellen Adkins
Sacramento embroidery fairs these past few weeks. Who's going
to be the first to turn me green with envy by telling me all
about the wonderful classes and fantastic "finds" you purchased?
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend either...maybe next year.
Sue Ellen
Marina Salume
Okay, I'll bite. I was at the Spirit of Cross Stitch Festival
in Sacramento last week, for just two days. Both of my classes,
"Nutcracker" and "The Secret Garden" were by the same teacher,
Lauren Guardino (altho she has gotten divorced and changed her
last name back to her maiden name, Sauer). Nutcracker is part of
her series of pictures based on famous ballets. The Secret Garden
is a needlecase with a garden gate flap that covers up the "garden"
where the needles are kept. It used watercolor silk floss and is
just gorgeous. I stitched a lot on mine yesterday and it is going
remarkably fast--I may have a new needlecase soon! :-)
Of course I did some damage to my credit cards in the vendor's mall.
Many of the small booths last year were back in larger booths this
year. My major purchase was a silver thimble from the Anne Powell
booth--I am mostly a quilter and have worn out several thimbles so
I decided my finger is worth it! :-) I also got a packet of the new
DMC colors, and "just a few" new charts.
I stayed at the Holiday Inn, which is about ten blocks from the
Convention Center but if you are going with your non-stitching SO
to the festival, I would recommend the Holiday Inn as a place to stay
because it is next door to Old Sacramento AND a new shopping mall.
Old Sacramento is lots of fun especially on weekends, as everyone
seems to go there and hang out. It is a recreation of an old town,
with wooden sidewalks and horsedrawn carriages. Many of the bldgs
are actually old, the others fit right in. There is a wonderful Train
Museum there, as well as lots of shops and restuarants. The shopping mall
had a shop with lots of train stuff, I stocked up on Thomas the Tank
Engine goodies for Christmas presents for my son. There was a free
concert in the mall during the day that my husband also enjoyed.
Sacramento also has some good used bookstores and we browsed a couple
of those before heading home Sat night. It's a 2 hour drive to San
Francisco, near where I live.
One thing I learned--DMC donates all the thread and Zweigart donates all
the fabric for the teacher's kits if they use thread and fabric from those
companies. That lowers the cost of the kits, but the teachers do not set
the price of their classes, that is set by the organizers of the festival.
And the video class preview will cost $7 this year, not $5 like last year :-(
--marina
Elizabeth Frank
|>
|> Okay, I'll bite. I was at the Spirit of Cross Stitch Festival
|> in Sacramento last week, for just two days. Both of my classes,
|> "Nutcracker" and "The Secret Garden" were by the same teacher,
|> Lauren Guardino (altho she has gotten divorced and changed her
|> last name back to her maiden name, Sauer). Nutcracker is part of
|> her series of pictures based on famous ballets. The Secret Garden
|> is a needlecase with a garden gate flap that covers up the "garden"
|> where the needles are kept. It used watercolor silk floss and is
|> just gorgeous. I stitched a lot on mine yesterday and it is going
|> remarkably fast--I may have a new needlecase soon! :-)
|> --marina
I've heard several people rave about "The Secret Garden" needle case.
Does anyone know if there is a book or leaflet out with directions
for those who haven't taken the class? I don't want a copy of the
class instructions. I've heard of several teachers who get understandably
upset when they find out their class instructions are being passed
around.
--
-Beth Frank (fr...@cs.uiuc.edu)
To send or not to send that is the question. Whether it is nobler to risk
the flames and arrows of outraged readers, or lurk in silence and never post
inappropriately.
Paula Trumble
The instructions for the Secret Garden needlecase are available from:
Wyndham Needleworks, 233 Old Colony Road, POB 65, Eastford CT 06242.
The copy I got at Spirit of XS was $7. They may also have kits available
with the special supplies (fabric, brass charms, DMC perle cotton and Spruce
Waterlilies) to make up the case.
Someone told me that Wyndham usually has the patterns for many of the
projects from Spirit of Cross Stitch, in case anyone else is hunting for
them.
Paula
ptru...@delphi.com
Marina Salume
Yes, the Secret Garden Needlecase is a published pattern that you can
buy. (she didn't have any class notes). In fact, I have an extra copy
that I purchased last year, interested in buying it? I also bought
the fabric and the silk floss required, but not the metal charms. I
will have to check the price but the "kit" (you'll still need to supply
a few things like regular floss) was probably about $15-$20. I love
this project but will probably not stitch another one so I will sell my
extra pattern and fabric. You can also order direct from Lauren:
Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches
p.o. box 606077
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-0577
216-229-0424
I think the Secret Garden pattern costs $8 plus postage.
Her designs are very unique and wonderful, which means they
take more explanation. The pattern is several pages long-- almost a
booklet--and it takes a lot of reading to figure it out. Now that I am
actually stitching on the needlecase, I am finding it is quite easy, but
that's because I could see the actual thing in class. For instance, the
border of the "gardens" use a pulled thread stitch that is not
illustrated in the booklet. If you are an advanced stitcher, you may
already know this stitch. But if you aren't, the photo on the front
cover is no help, it is too small. I hope Lauren starts paying for
professional photography and typesetting soon--she does it all herself
(typewriter type--she doesn't own a computer yet, altho she said she is
going to get one to keep her business accounts :-)
The fabric she uses is a soft green linen, but she is stitching a new
model on soft brown, and suggested that we try other colors like dark
grey or black--altho a student stitched one on pink which Lauren didn't
like. If you change the color of the fabric, you may also need to choose
a different shade of the watercolors silk floss--she says that at least
one of the shades in the varigated floss should be similar to the color
of the fabric.
If anyone else starts to stitch this project and can't understand the
pattern, let me know--I'm about half done with mine and may be able to
help you over the rough spots :-) I've already made my share of mistakes
and have done a bit of "unstitching". But it is coming out gorgeous.
--marina
Kathleen M. Dyer
O.K. You asked...
I went to the Festival in Sacramento, arriving Tuesday evening and leaving
Sunday noon (would have stayed longer but had to be back for an opera
chorus rehearsal :-) ).
I took an all-day Intro. to Hardanger class on Wednesday, taught by Meg
Thompson Shinall. The real project is a table runner, but in class we
worked on an ornament that incorporated all the stitches used in the
table runner. We had time to finish the ornament in class, including the
part where one CUTS the fabric. Many nervous people at that point.
The Wednesday night pajama party was fun. We all got nifty green night shirts
with a special saying on the front. Some people had the nerve to wear
their p.j.'s to the party, which meant that they must have walked through
the lobby of the Hyatt that way... Jean Farish Huls was in a granny nighty
with curlers in her hair. Ice cream, popcorn and soda pop were provided.
It was a good chance to wander around and see what other people were working
on.
At a paragraph of description per class, this message could get to be a book.
So, in shorter form, here are the other events I participated in.
Classes on how to make tassels and cord, how to cover boxes with fabric,
how to stitch on 40-count silk gauze (took 2 of these), how to use Kreinik
metallics, hands-on framing, using Caron collection fibers in an ornament,
a stitched design intended to cover a box, and duplicate stitch (mouse eating
a watermelon). And far from least, the Teresa Wentzler Peacock Tapestry,
taught by Teresa Wentzler herself. And yes, I _did_ get her autograph.
Also the Saturday night banquest and the Discovering Sacramento tour.
Met 6 r.c.t.needlework folk at one time or another...
Went home and collapsed, dreaming of fibers and fabrics and stitches.
--
===========================================================================
Kathleen Dyer kd...@crl.com (home)
kd...@netcom.com (home)
kd...@llnl.gov (work)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Time has little to do with infinity and jelly doughnuts."
Elizabeth Frank
<snip>
|>
|> Classes on how to make tassels and cord, how to cover boxes with fabric,
|> how to stitch on 40-count silk gauze (took 2 of these), how to use Kreinik
Ooh, ooh! Tell us more! What kind of fibers did you use? What did
you make? What was hard about it, what was easy?
Michelle A. Berteig
>> Okay, I know that a lot of you have been to the Anaheim and
>> Sacramento embroidery fairs these past few weeks. Who's going
>> to be the first to turn me green with envy by telling me all
>> about the wonderful classes and fantastic "finds" you purchased?
>> Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend either...maybe next year.
Hi,
I went to the I Love Needlework fair that was in Anaheim. I had
posted a couple of comments earlier, but thought I'd add a little
more to it. I only met one other "netter" there, Gillian Cannon.
Did anyone else go?? I was hoping to meet y'all! :-)
I'm nostly into cross-stitch, but I wanted to do something different
this time. I took 2 full days of classes, 1.5 days with fiber artist
Candace Kling on making flowers using ribbons and fabrics. I learned
how to make several kinds of roses, pansies, daffodils, fuchsias, and
leaves and buds. I definitely have ideas of embellishing clothing
using these! I also became obsessed with all the beautiful variegated
ribbons there are out there. They make beautiful flowers. Anyway, we
made lots of flowers and each had a sample board to take home, for
inspiration. Candace must have had hundreds of her pieces on display
for us, they were all beautiful.
The other half-day was a class on learning to tat, with Katherine
Reynolds. I'd always heard it was so difficult--but after a couple
of hours, she had all of us tatting! I like it, it seems to go pretty
quickly. We started a small Christmas wreath ornament in two shades
of green. The more I practice it, the easier it gets. I also like
tatting because it's very portable, you can tuck it in your purse or
something and work on it in a few spare moments here and there.
I went to a dinner (with about 50 others) featuring designed Judith
Montano, who is known for her work in crazy quilting and silk ribbon
embroidery. There was a "show and tell" at the dinner, you could
bring a project of yours to show everyone else. Judith Montano gave
a talk (with slides) about her life. She is a very fascinating
woman--had many stories of the women she met all around the world
while teaching. At the end of the evening, they gave away a few
dorr prizes, and lucky me, I happened to win the big door prize of the
night, which was a basket filled with one package of each color of
silk ribbon, for silk ribbon embroidery! I counted all the little
packages when I got home, and there are 85 of them! I was really
shocked! I've never done silk ribbon embroidery before, but I
bought a few books and I'm looking forward to giving it a try.
I allotted a day to spend at the merchandise mall, but it was very
small (compared to the Sacramento fair, which I was at last year), and
it only took about 2-3 hours to see everything, and that was being
slow! Of course, I had to buy a few new cross-stitch charts! But,
that's about it. I had a good time.
And since I'm back, I've been buying ribbon (gotta have my own stash!)
and I found a local place that has classes in silk ribbon embroidery...
soo...looks like a plan to me!
-Michelle
Martha Johnson
Thanks for your description of the festival. Sounds like you were very
busy the whole time! I've been considering taking an intro to Hardanger
class at the festival in Winston-Salem next year. Do you recommend the one
you took? I haven't had any experience with hardanger at all. Also I'd
like to hear more about your class on the Caron fibers. If you have a name
for it or a teacher's name that would be great. Then when I get the class
list for W-S I could look for that or something similar. Thanks! TTYL!
Martha
.. CP #25 ~ Don't hold in Laughter, it expands the hips!
Kathleen M. Dyer
> In article <38q8ou$m...@crl.crl.com>, kd...@crl.com (Kathleen M. Dyer) writes:
> <snip>
> |>
> |> Classes on how to make tassels and cord, how to cover boxes with fabric,
> |> how to stitch on 40-count silk gauze (took 2 of these), how to use Kreinik
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Ooh, ooh! Tell us more! What kind of fibers did you use? What did
> you make? What was hard about it, what was easy?
They were both taught by Paula Minkebige, who is the designer for Crossed
Wing Collection. She and her husband are avid bird watchers, and her
charts reflect this interest.
We had a choice of 5 or 6 designs to work on. The gauze is a 40-count silk
interwoven mesh, originally designed for use in the medical industry, for
burn patients. Even though the mesh is small, the holes are quite large,
relatively speaking. The gauze comes mounted in cardboard frames, in sizes
such as 3"x5", 5"x7", etc. The unmounted fabric, if you could find it, costs
over $300 (yes, three hundred) a yard. For those of you into specifics,
a 40-count mesh worked over one thread works out to 1600 stitches per square
inch.
We used very small, sharp needles. I believe she said they were #10 crewel
needles. The fiber was silk. We used single strands, each probably less
than 10" long. Dazor magnifiers were provided, thank goodness.
The stitch used wasn't a cross stitch, rather it was a tent (?) stitch--
the one that looks like a half stitch on the front, but leaves a diagonal
on the back rather than a vertical. This stitch was used rather than a
half stitch, to provide better coverage and to make it easier to begin
and end threads on the back.
The rest was just like doing a standard cross stitch chart. The teacher
told us of a friend of hers who has done all the Crossed Wings designs,
including that giant garden one, on silk gauze. Apparently the friend
also has done some Lavendar & Lace or Marbek angels the same way.
Anyway, the resulting picture is incredibly tiny and detailed. One of the
classes was for a box lid. The other was for a small brooch.
Kathleen M. Dyer
> Thanks for your description of the festival. Sounds like you were very
> busy the whole time! I've been considering taking an intro to Hardanger
> class at the festival in Winston-Salem next year. Do you recommend the one
> you took? I haven't had any experience with hardanger at all. Also I'd
> like to hear more about your class on the Caron fibers. If you have a name
> for it or a teacher's name that would be great. Then when I get the class
> list for W-S I could look for that or something similar. Thanks! TTYL!
Yes, I would strongly recommend the Hardanger class. It was my first
cut at Hardanger (so to speak) and found this teacher very easy to follow.
She mad a point of repeating everything 3 or 4 times, because she realizes that
people stitch at different rates.
The Caron fibers one was called Remembrance, taught by Linda Barry. We
stitched a fairly simple design on perforated paper, to produce an ornament.
What I found interesting about it was the chance to use several different
fibers--overdyed silk floss, Rachel (a stretchy material like a ribbon made
of nylons) and a fiber called "Snow". I fell in love with Snow. It's
a white, sparkly cord which doesn't fray or snag. Lovely stuff.
Kathy
lb...@austin.ibm.com
I keep reading the posts re: the recent X-S Festival in Sacramento...I'm SOOOO
jealous!!! I don't know how I will be able to wait until NEXT August when
the festival comes to Austin. TX. This is worse than waiting for
Christmas :)
Paula Trumble
I've taken some of the same Spirit of XS classes that you have, particularly
the 40-count silk classes. I got to see a set of the Marbek angels that
someone did on silk gauze, and the effect is just unbelievable. Another
sample were some Lavender & Lace flowers done up as a pin. For anyone who
hasn't tried this, as long as you've got a magnifyer, it really isn't as
difficult as it sounds. The result is amazing and beautiful.
Paula
ptru...@delphi.com