President’s Message
So one of our biggest milestones of the year has come and gone, the 2013 San Diego County Fair. I’ll be bringing my (third place) prize winning Hardanger table topper to the July meeting on July 15. Hope to see the rest of our chapter’s winners there, including Sandy H.’s Christmas stocking.
We had three visitors at the June meeting, and we’re sure hoping that Lana M. and Kim T. will come back for more fun. Nancy D. brought a visiting friend who lives near Richmond, Virginia, and we told her about the Gentle Pursuits EGA chapter. A lot of us have a friend in that chapter, who used to be a member of our San Diego chapter, so we know Nancy’s friend will be very welcome there.
There are still a lot of seats available for the two Gary Clarke Workshops scheduled for November 8, 9, and 10th. The two projects we’ve contracted with him for are a brilliantly colored Cockatoo on a black percale background. That’s set for Friday, November 8. I think we’re going to be very glad we have a room with lots of natural light for this design. The technique is listed as “Working in the Dark”, and the stitches are worked as surface stitches, as opposed to counted thread techniques.
The two-day class, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, November 9th and 10, is a gorgeous Fantail, another bird, stitched on layers of tulle and organza. Again, these stitches are surface, as opposed to counted thread techniques, and they all look very straightforward to me. This project does appear to have stumpwork, or fabric cutting, or anything else that I think some of us are still a little afraid of. A big part of the beauty of this piece is the semi-sheer nature of the ground fabric.
For other educational opportunities, I want to remind everyone that any member of EGA can attend the biannual seminars of other regions. For prices that are usually lower than the annual national seminars, you can often have very similar experiences with nationally-known teachers and sometimes even “encore” presentations of projects from national seminars. And they’re a great way to get acquainted with members from around the country.
Margi T. recently sent me an announcement of the Rocky Mountain Region’s 2014 Regional Seminar, entitled Miles of Memories, Route 66 in the 1950’s. The seminar takes place July 31 to August 2, 2014 in Albuquerque, NM, and includes such classes and favorite teachers as Betsy Morgan’s counted thread Elizabethan Etui, and Lois Kershner’s Garden of the Gods. If you’ve been able to attend any previous EGA national seminar, you’ve seen Lois’s beautiful landscape scenes. You can check out www.rmrega.org for more information. And you can check the national website for links to the other regions’ websites.
I hope you’re all looking forward to learning a new-ish technique for most of us, in the Princess Lace project that Laura B. will present at the July meeting. This looks like a fun way to create some very beautiful lace by a form of applique onto a tulle background, and adding basic embroidery stitches for further texture. (Hope I haven’t misled everybody, Laura!)
And looking further ahead, Laura will lead us in another one of her personal favorite techniques, Sashiko, at the August 19th meeting. For the low kit fee of $5.00, we’ll create a needle case.
And keep working on your bookmarks, for Ina G.’s library. The theme for this year’s summer reading program is Reading is Delicious. There are so many ideas you can find in almost any cross-stitch book or magazine that you have in your stash – I assume everybody does, because I do!
We’ve missed Angelina H. for the June and July meetings, but she had the opportunity to take the whole family on a European vacation (while Mom’s working). If you’re one of her Facebook friends, you’ve probably already seen that Elizabeth got to celebrate her ninth birthday in Paris! What a lucky little girl!
Hope you can all make it to the July 15 meeting! In the meantime, Happy Stitching!
Gini