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Mouse TalesVol 5 - Issue 2 April 2006Contents
President's MessageHello all!I hope the weather in your part of the world is treating you kindly. We are finally getting some much-needed rain here in Oklahoma, although we're still about 9" below where we should be for rainfall. And the drought continues. We just had a round of tornadoes here and one of our news helicopters captured, for the first time in history, hi-def footage of an anticyclonic tornado! It was really amazing to watch live, and the quality of the video was unbelievable! I know this footage has made it to at least the UK and New Zealand, so if you get a chance to see it again, be sure to look for the clockwise motion of the twister - what an incredible anomaly! I hope everyone is looking forward to the rest of the year with CyberStitchers! We have so many classes scheduled, I'm sure Anne L. will need 'mental health' days off before the end of the year! <gggg> Actually, most of us don't really know what it takes to pull off coordinating the sign-up and registration of this many classes, and Anne is incredible at it! My hat is off to her! I'm so glad she's a member of the chapter and the Board, and is willing to volunteer this kind of time and effort to the running of the chapter. And what's even more amazing is that this chapter (and especially the Board) is FULL of people like this - those who go above and beyond to further a good cause, help people reach goals, or to lend a hand to someone in need. What a marvelous group of people to associate with and be around! As I said earlier, we have tons of classes scheduled for the remainder of this year - some are BEE classes, and some are not, so be sure to check out Anne's current list of what's being offered and the spaces available in each. We have outreach projects going on now, too, as well as Outreach for One options. For more information, please contact Lynn B. - she's been wonderful at getting these projects going and keeping them in the spotlight for our members - or you can check out the website (www.cyberstitchers.org). Don't forget the President's Challenge (and the 'Challenge the VP' that has evolved from this!) - Artist's Trading Cards. There are several links on the website for more information, instructions, ideas, and even pictures of ATCs that have been posted! Please join us in this year's challenge - it looks to be truly a challenge, as well as tons of fun! See ya next time!
Outreach ProjectsJudi continues to accept handmade bookmarks for the chapter's Bookmarks
for Literacy project. The requirements are as follows: Meg reports that in handling Katrina Outreach: "I've got two more
packages to mail for the Katrina Outreach. They are two names given to
me by someone I already sent to. Other than that, the list I was getting
names from is gone and we managed to send something to everyone on that
list. I also sent three heavy! boxes to Accents in Stitches for their
event where they let Katrina victims pick out free stash replacement.
Several new thank you notes are posted on the website. Katrina relief
is pretty much finished." If you have any questions on Katrina Outreach,
contact Meg
for further information on how to help, and thank you to those who have
generously donated! Our "Outreach for One" folder is still there to provide members with other ideas for outreach. Go to our cyberstitchers_ega Yahoo! group. Click on "Links", then on "Outreach for One" folder. Maintenance of this list now rests with the chapter members. We 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. The committee always welcomes any ideas for chapter projects (either from the membership or the committee). As usual, it's a bit difficult to find something a chapter like ours can do. Any ideas will be gratefully accepted, and will be fully investigated by the committee. Please share your ideas with our Outreach Chair, Lynn. National has a new outreach project for the American Heart Association. Hearts is a counted-thread bellpull that can be stitched as five separate heart projects - bargello, Hardanger, pulled thread, blackwork, and fancy stitches. The hearts can be stitched on any 28-count fabric. Hearts was designed by Janet Bryant-Groves for Western Idaho Chapter's yearly project. The pattern is available for purchase from headquarters for $12.
Education ReportThe Education committee has been kept very busy registering for Big Education Event 3 (BEE 3) for next year. In addition to the classes offered for the BEE, we had a lot of folks wanting to take classes that were full, and classes that hadn't won selection as BEEs. It seems that everyone wants to do two or three GCCs this year! This has required setting up a bunch of non-BEE classes. Tiramisu alone filled FOUR classes - that is 82 people taking Tiramisu in sections spread throughout the year. WOW!! Here are the guidelines on how BEE operates: 1. Members who are taking the class as their benefit class have the first opportunity to sign up. Members are expected to take the class they voted for unless that class is not offered. If your choice is not selected for BEE 3, you will be allowed to select another class so long as it is not already full. 2. Other members will be allowed to join the class as fee-paying students. They will pay the text fee plus $16.50 for course fee and postage, if in the US; $20.00 if outside the US. The course fee and postage amount has gone up from last year due to the USPS raising their postage rates. 3. Members who already have the text but who want to take the course will be allowed to sign up during this time. They will pay the $16.50/$20.00 course and postage fee, but no text fee. 4. Any remaining openings will be made available to other EGA members through the EGA yahoo groups list and other such means. They will also pay the $16.50/$20.00 course and postage fee and the text fee (if they need the text). 5. Coordinators for the classes will not pay for their texts. Normally coordinators do not pay a share of the course fee as a way of thanking them for the work they do as coordinator. If someone is a coordinator, then the text fee counts as his/her benefit. Here's the latest GCC update as of 4/23/06 (BEE sections are so identified): Payment for 2nd quarter ended April 24. Any unpaid for spots will become available the 25th - tell Anne ASAP. Watch postings for openings. If you have any questions, please post them on chat4cyberstitchers@yahoogroups.com . Petite Projects:The latest petite project has finally been uploaded to our yahoogroups website. The project is called "Summer Landscape" and was designed by Karen Wojahn. 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". There is also a photo album labeled "Summer Landscape" in the CSPetiteProjects yahoogroup where you upload photos, scans, etc of this project. If you upload a photo, etc, please put your name somewhere in the title so we know who it belongs to! BAM: BAM is Bead-a-Month and grew out of a Stitch-a-Month program we purchased for several years. Our own Rissa picked up with BAM when SAM ran out of new files.. All diagrams are maintained 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: We have a few stitch-a-long groups going now such as the ornament group and a bead group. 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. Please address Education Committee questions to:
Of InterestImportant Note from the Board about Canadian Dues: Some really interesting fibers are coming out lately. I mentioned on the chat list about a neat fiber I found while shopping at a favorite LNS a few hours from my house. It is called Sea Grass, and is made by The Thread Gatherer. It is 100% cotton, and sea grass is a fairly accurate way to describe the look; at a glance it looks like it could be the texture of a piece of grass. It appears to me as if it is the same thickness as a standard piece of 6 stranded embroidery floss, but it is only one flattened strand - like a very fine width ribbon. It comes loose in a plastic baggie. I asked the shop if there were any patterns that call for it yet, but the ladies in the shop weren't aware of any. I did see in Thread Gatherer's newsletter that they first speak of it for stitching a witch's broom with a color called "Straw". I think it would be great for grass and beaches scenes of course <grin>. Another interesting fiber to come along is bamboo - yes, bamboo fiber! Rainbow Gallery brings us Mandarin Floss. It is 100% bamboo - yes, that's right, bamboo! It is 6 ply strandable floss that comes on 20 yard cards. RG's website, www.rainbowgallery.com states that, "Its semi-matte finish gives contrast to high gloss perles and cotton floss. It has a soft silk-like feel and luster. Yet it's strong, easy to use, and doesn't pill." There are 100 colors. By the way, the RG website has oodles of freebie patterns that I recommend you explore. Soy thread? I thought soy was a milk substitute or soy beans or used in tofu? Well there is also soy silk fiber. This product is formaldehyde free, thus helping those stitchers who have allergies to silks. The Pure Palette features Soy Luster which has 36 yards of 100% soy silk . There are 42 solid colors and 40 shadow colors. Shadow colors each have three shades of a given solid in them; each solid has a matching shadow. The Pure Palette website, www.thepurepalette.com, lists the characteristics as being hand dyed, being earth friendly, being formaldehyde free, having the durability of cotton and the luster of silk, and being as soft as the finest Merino wool. Designers Across America is EGA's third "Designer Series" booklet. Featuring some of the most popular projects in this series from 1993 to present, this third book has designs by Audrey Francini, Carolyn Sherman, Ginny Morrow, Dorothy Lesher, Gail Sirna, Donna Strader, Margaret Kinsey, Roberta Chase, Anthony Minieri, and Kay Stanis, whose "New Year's Eve Bag" is featured on the cover. This booklet can be ordered for $15 plus S&H from Headquarters. Angels for JoAnn:In our last newsletter I shared that Prairie Arts Chapter had lost their outgoing president, JoAnn Cappellini, in December after a long struggle with ovarian cancer.For many years JoAnn headed Prairie Arts' effort to decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees. She asked the chapter to make an "Angel Tree" next year in her memory. After reading this info, I thought it would be extra special if we reached out to our fellow stitchers in Prairie Arts and joined in making JoAnn's special tree. I contacted Hope Wright, who is the newsletter editor for Prairie Arts and learned that Prairie Arts had a very special idea in mind. This is what Hope says they are doing: "We are going to be dressing 5" porcelain
dolls as angels, using hankerchiefs with embroidered corners for the dresses.
We want all white or gold, not colors. For the wings we will be using
some of my pre-1866 Godey's designs and adapting them, so that probably
isn't something the CyberStitchers could help with, but any hankies with
embroidered corners would work quite well. Thank you for considering this.
We need by September 1 in order to have time to complete the dresses." I think if some of us would like to stitch a hankie for this project, it would be a nice way to reach out to some fellow stitchers in EGA. Of anyone is interested in making an "Angel for JoAnn", I'll be glad to collect stitched hankies to send to Hope. Let's set August 15 for a deadline. You can email me, Sue Sherburne, if you are interested in participating, and to get my snail mail address. The Dragonboats class is still up and running on yahoogroups.. A couple new members just joined the class so we will continue it for a while longer. If you are interested in making one of these cute little ornaments, the class is free for all members. Go to yahoogroups.com and sign up for CSDragonboats, or email Sue for an invitation. Sue Sherburne
Top 10 Ways to Hide the Stash:My friend Janice has gotten addicted to crocheting, much as I have been in the past. She found, and shared this with me and it was oh, SO easy, to make slight adjustments from buying yarn to buying fibers and fabrics LOL. Enjoy the laugh (and confess if you see yourself in this). If you ARE a knitter or crocheter, stop by and see Ms. Chin's yarns and patterns: www.lilychinsignaturecollection.com/ . Lily Chin's Top 10 Ways to Hide the Stash 1. Tape a bag of yarn to the underside of all the chairs - who'll know??? 2. Put a slipcover over a bag of yarn, stick it on the couch, call it a pillow. 3. Remove the cushions of the couch, stuff with yarn instead. 4. There are narrow books that don't reach all the way to the back of the bookshelf That dead space behind such books is good for several skeins. 5. Do you wear ALL your shoes at the same time? No, stick a skein of yarn in each unworn shoe (boots are great for this very reason). 6. Everyone has clothes in the closet that are never, ever worn. Sew up the bottoms of the garments, insert yarn. Do not forget to sew up bottoms of sleeves. There's enough in each sleeve for more than a bag's worth. 7. Never cook, only order take-out or go to restaurants. You've now got the whole oven! 8. Look to the china cabinet. That large soup turrine? Maybe a bag. Large teapot? A few balls. Covered dish? The same. 9. The freezer is advantageous for fuzzies such as angora or mohair. Make sure to place in plastic bag first. This is known as the high-fiber diet! 10. Get a really large box and fill it up with lots and lots of yarn. Put a tablecloth over it. Voila, instant dresser (but you can't get your feet underneath it)
Calendar:CyberStitchers Meetings:May 11-16, 2006:General meeting of CyberStitchers from 9PM (ET) Thursday, May 11 through 9PM (ET) Tuesday, May 16. June 8-13, 2006:Board meeting of CyberStitchers from 9PM (ET) Thursday, June 8 through 9PM (ET) Tuesday, June 13. Regional and National:May 4 - 8, 2006 SUN REGION SEMINAR
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