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Mouse TalesVol 4 - Issue 2 April 2005Contents
Welcome SpringA Note from your newsletter editor - Phew! It is finally Spring! I don't know about all of you, but Winter seemed particularly long this year - there was even snow for some of you in April. It was with great relief that I saw the first robin in the back yard, heard the first peeper frogs, and (as a boater) watched the docks going in at our marina on the Hudson River. With Spring, I feel a bit more motivated to stitch. I spent one day at the Metropolitan Region Seminar in New Jersey (and of course spent money in the bookstore and boutique). I took a trip to a favorite needlework shop and got some new goodies to stitch - I have been in a Key West mood since a trip in February with husband and friends, so I looked for something "Key West" to stitch and found Brightneedle's "Key West Sampler" to stitch with Gumnut Stars silks from Australia. We have wonderful GCCs that many of us are working on, and with the announcement of BEE2, have more to look forward to. Here is to a warm Spring, flowers in the garden to cheer and inspire you, and good friends to stitch with! Sue Sherburne Outreach PossibilitesThere is now a folder out on our Yahoo site which lists a number of outreach possibilies. To find them, go to our cyberstitchers_ega Yahoo! group. Click on "Links", then on "Outreach for One" folder. Some of the possibilities you will find there are: Angels for Hope, CASA ornaments, Cole's Quilts, Quilts of Hope, and St. Jude Bookmarks. The "Outreach for One" program is a way the the outreach committee came up with to let our members know what projects they can help with -- as individual stitchers, rather than when our chapter helps as a group. There are links to charities from several countries. The committee tried to make sure to have various forms of needlework represented -- sewing, quilting, cross-stitch, crochet, etc. That way you can pick either your favorite form of stitching or choose the country you want to help out the most. We also encourage members to post other links to charities you know of that need assistance, or you can send the information to our Outreach Chair, Lynn, and the committee will see that it gets posted. If you choose to participate in one of these programs, please do take photos of your finished pieces before sending them to the charity of your choice. Then post a little note to the Chat4 list (between meetings) or on our main cyberstitchers_ega list (during meetings) to let the rest of the membership see what you've done. That's our version of "show and tell" which is a regular feature of f2f (face to face) chapter meetings. We can also share them in future newsletters with your permission. Education ReportGCC's:
(Note: Votes from people who are no longer members of our chapter were removed from the final tally.) The chapter voted last year to underwrite 10 GCCs for our members. From the 12 classes available, "I Do, I Do" and "Flaming Jewels" were eliminated from the list since neither earned enough votes to qualify for the top ten. Our voting, however, did lead to an interesting dilemma - 17th C English-style Sampler garnered enough votes for 2 sections, thus eliminating one of the bottom classes from BEE 2. Choosing which of the bottom classes to eliminate was a hard decision. Fortunately, there is an education grant that is available from the Tennessee Valley Region, and we qualified for it! This grant will allow us to offer one more class, so BEE 2 now includes 11 classes, not 10! Although our request has not yet been approved by the TVR board, the paperwork was sent in and we hope we shall receive this grant. Here's the BEE 2 schedule for 2005: Registering 2nd quarter 2005: Registering 3rd quarter 2005: Registering 4th quarter 2005: If you voted for a BEE 2 class we will be offering, that class is marked as your BEE 2 choice. If you did not vote for a BEE 2 class we will be offering, please contact Anne offlist to get added to another class. If you did not vote at all for a BEE 2 class, please contact Anne offlist to get added to a class. A couple of classes are nearly full (21 students max), so don't wait - names are added on a first come, first served basis. BEE 2 students will only pay for the text. The cost for coordinators will be $0. Payment notices will go out soon to the 2nd quarter class. The 25 people who voted for 17th C English-style sampler will be split into 2 sections; if you have a definite preference for 2nd quarter vs. 4th quarter, contact Anne offlist; otherwise assignment will be random for the 2 sections. If you want to take another one of these classes as a paying student, also let Anne know offlist what class you want. Cost for paying students is the cost of the text plus $15.50 postage/course fee for US students, or plus $18.50 postage/course fee for non-US students. You can only have 1 BEE 2 class, but can be added as space allows to any of the other classes as a paying student. BEE 2 students, your cost is the cost of the text. The cost for coordinators is $0. Meanwhile, the last BEE1 are the GCCs Grrcia, Meadowsweet, Plum Blossoms, Star of Hearts, and Ukrainian Openwork. just got started. Enjoy if you are taking one of these! Petite Projects: The latest petite project has been uploaded to our yahoogroups website. The project is "Blackwork Dolls" by Eunice Wachtveitl. Instructions on how to save and print the petite projects is in the Files area of the petite project group. Here's the link to the petite projects group files: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CSPetiteProjects/files/ The project instructions are in pdf (Adobe) format. You will find the pdf file in the folder labeled "Current Petite Project" . This file is about 370 kb. SAM and BAM: As we know, SAM, the Stitch-A-Month program we purchased from the Vintage Stitchers chapter is completed. If you haven't taken advantage of this yet, we will keep the files up indefinately for all to continue to reference and learn. If you are not a member of CS-Stitch-a-Month and would like to be, send an email to Anne and she will invite you to the group. BAM, our Bead-A-Month program continues, courtesy of our Vice President Rissa. She has been supplying us with bead embroidery stitch diagrams. These diagrams will be in the CS-Stitch-A-Month yahoogroup. Look in the Files section in the Folder labeled "Files for BAM". If you are not a member of the CS-Stitch-A-Month group but would like to be, send an email to: CS-Stitch-a-Month-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Stitch-a-long: Our current stitchalong is "Bricks and Strands Beaded Bracelet". It can be found here: http://beadwork.about.com/cs/bracelets/a/bricksstrands.htm If you finish this project, please upload a photo or scan to the cyberstitchers_ega yahoogroup. Sign into the yahoogroup, then click on Files, Education Department, then Stitchalongs. There is a new folder labeled "May 2005 stitchalong" and that's where you should put your photo. The March 2005 folder is empty, so let's see if some of our beaders can't show off some nice bracelets in May. Please let me know if there is an interest in a group stitchalong, a small meeting stitchalong, or any other similar ideas you might have. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me. Anne
L Shop InformationBy Karen M. Campbell of the Camelia ChapterThe good news is, www.needledelights.com is back in business after Hurricane Ivan. The bad news is, for family reasons, www.kims-stitchingshop.com is going out of business. Edith suggests http://www.alaskastitching.com/ This is a real B&M store in historic downtown Skagway. They have needlepoint, quilting and cross-stitch, and report that what's on the website is only a fraction of what they have available. If you're looking for something out of the ordinary, whether Eskimo-themed or a landscape to commemorate your Alaska cruise, this is the place. Rachel sends along the conversion chart for DMC to MEZ and to Danish Flower Thread, http://www.nadelhexe.de/umrechnungstabellen.htm The main NadelHexe (needle witch) website is in German, but there are links to several needlework webrings. Fortunately, needlework is a primarily visual medium, so it's not necessary to read the language to admire the work. If you find something that you absolutely *must* read, you can get a passable translation by clicking the Translate link at altavista.com http://www.theneedlecase.com/ is another recommendation from one of my fellow list members. They have threads, Mill Hill, canvas, fabric and "needful things" -- a collection of useful accessories that you can hint at for your birthday. The threads range from sampler threads to silks. http://www.needleworkhouse.com/ is a new shop, opened Thanksgiving week 2004, run by a fascinating woman. Mary Blanton is a legally-blind stitcher; in her prior life, she was a computer programmer, so she maintains her own website. At this point, you cannot order on-line, but you can e-mail or phone in your order; on-line ordering is coming. The day I visited, the home page announced that Dinky Dyes from Australia are now in stock. Mary is open to suggestions of what *you* would like to find in her store. http://www.quiltshawaii.com/index.html has free patterns for both cross-stitch and quilting. There is a wonderful gallery of quilt photos, which took a while to load, but is worth waiting for. http://www.pacificrimquiltco.com/ is another Hawaiian quilt shop, with lots of the special fabrics you need for a tropical quilt, gifts, calendars, etc. The website reveals that they do some craft/quilt shows on the mainland. I'm told that Poakalani is the best of the Hawaiian quilt websites. They certainly have more pages listed than the other two. There are photo instructions on how to lay out a Hawaiian quilt, a history of how Hawaiian quilting evolved from the patchwork taught to them by the missionaries, and lots and lots of photos. I hope this little taste of the tropics helps you get ready for summer. Karen M. Campbell is a freelance writer/editor and paralegal in Sacramento, California. She writes this column for the Camellia Chapter newsletter, and shares it with other chapters for their newsletters. All URLs were functional on the day the column was written. If you have comments about this column, or suggestions for a future one, e-mail Karen at KMC528@aol.com. I thought it great to hear from someone with a broad variety of shops, even some quilting shops, that I wouldn't ordinarily know about. A thank you to Karen for graciously sharing with us here in CyberStitchers. - Sue Interesting Web Sites:We all are interested in finding good online experiences; some of us depend on them because there is no chapter near to our home. A few weeks ago I went to the Metropolitan Region's regional seminar in New Jersey. I passed on classes and helped run the bookstore. There were all kinds of wonderful books to whet your imagination and tempt your pocketbook. These books were made available through Ruth Kern books, which has a neat selection of titles on all types of needlework techniques. In finding Ruth, you also find The NeedeArts at needlearts.com. If you go to this site, you will not only find a link to Ruth and her online catalog, but to the EGA main site, but the American Needlepoint Guild that we've mentioned in our chats, sites for samplers, bunka embroidery, battenburg lace, crewel, Nordic Needle (a GREAT place to shop and spend), Elizabeth Bradley designs, plus a number of Needlework Articles on such topics as making perfect french knots, how to store antique textiles, using metal threads, and dealing with tangled floss. You can spend quite some time surfing through all the links. Another site with a lot to look at is the Needle Artworks. They bill themselves as "THE web resource for superior needlework books and self-directed projects featuring needlepoint, Japanese embroidery, crewel, silk & metal, surface embroidery, hardanger, blackwork, cross stitch, partial and full kits and chart paks." There are links to various designers, and a store called Stitchville, USA. The designers have made some wonderful online classes for you as well, so if you are looking for more classes, do look here. I am trying NOT to be tempted until I finish some of the classes I have JUST signed up for through our BEE1! Letter about Seminar 2005:SEMINAR 2005HEY, Y'ALL! WE NEED YOU! Seminar 2005 is fast approaching and we need your help! As hosts for the seminar, it is time for each TVR chapter to join in on the fun of preparation! Many of you were involved in making the "packaging" for the closing night banquet gifts and they are exquisite! Special thank you to each of you who gave so willingly of your time and talent to create them. I know those gifts are going to get rave reviews! At the recent TVR meeting, your president and/or representative received all the information for enlisting volunteers to help at the hotel and for securing ads for the handbook. There are six areas during seminar week which need volunteers. Even if you don't know your schedule at this time or which classes you will be in, please sign up to volunteer. We just need your name right now then Sheila Godwin will get in touch with you. All volunteer help is to come from our region. A copy of the sign up form is in this letter. An additional need is for advertising in the student handbook. We are asking each chapter to secure at least two ads from your area. The cost of printing the handbook will be completely paid for if we do our job! Remember, the ads do not have to be solely from needlework related shops......any place that YOU frequent: favorite lunch spots, car repair shops, beauty shops, nail salons, your husband's business...in short, any place where they LOVE YOU! The ad copy form from Faye Holland is also in the newsletter. Now is the time to get on the bandwagon and help the Tennessee Valley Region make this one of the most memorable national seminars ever as we prepare to greet our fellow stitchers from across the country! Again, my heartfelt thank you in advance for all you do for your chapter, your region and your EGA. Donna Smith, Chairman Seminar 2005 Calendar:CyberStitchers Meetings:May 12-17, 2005:General meeting of CyberStitchers from 9PM (ET) Thursday, May 12 through 9PM (ET) Tuesday, May 17. June 9-14, 2005:Board meeting of CyberStitchers from 9PM (ET) Thursday, June 9 through 9PM (ET) Tuesday, June 14. Regional and National:July 30, 2005:The Dayton Ohio Chapter of the EGA is hosting Ohio State Day. It's a one day workshop with a project designed and team taught by Jane Ellen Balzuweit and Marylyn Doyle. Information and a Registration form for members of an Ohio EGA Chapter can be found at the web-site: www.ohiostateday.sundrysites.com. Any questions can be directed to Bette Kelley, the chair for the event. September 4-9, 2005EGA National Seminar 2005
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