Melitastitches4fun's Blog

Woodlawn was a wonderful needlepoint exhibit sponsored by a talented and committed group, Nelly’s Needlers. They deserve a standing ovation for the work they do for the month of March. They are “a volunteer organization responsible for preserving and promoting the tradition of the needle arts among the general public . . . “.  They are dedicated as 3 meetings a month & 50 hours of community service work (such as work in classes to teach juniors) must be completed to be an active member.

FYI: All entries must be by a living person. For juniors, work must be completed within the last year (no such restriction for adult). Commercial includes charted or painted canvas, printed graphs, kits, class projects. We saw every technique displayed. And, canvas work is defined as embroidery stitched through an even-weave canvas (traditional using 1-4 stitches or multi-stitch using 5 or more stitches).

I was surprised to see a piece I had completed last year, Exodus Breastplate – I’d recognize it anywhere. And, my husband was the first to spot the first of 3 different Pieces of Eight displayed, each of which has been personalized by switching colors or adding additional stitches.

Catherine Jordan’s surface embroidery (IMG 3972, 3973, 3974, 4014) is amazing – you can see through them. They are so small but are whole scenes! Of the vast embroidery, the stumpwork impressed me most – possible because I hadn’t seen that before. The 3-dimensional effect of the bird was life-like (IMG 797). I saw some surface embroidery that makes me want to get back to the Brazilian embroidery I learned a year or so ago – just lovely work. There was a cross-stitch of dogs that looked like a photo. The crewel sunflower was spectacular (IMG 866). I thought the original lillypad design was stunning – not a large piece but it popped when you walked in the room – did for me anyway (IMG66)!! We never would have known but one of the hostesses told us that one piece had actually stitched on a bra (IMG3936)! In case you misplaced the link to the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/sets/72157623455198693/

Thanks to Jane (http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/) for instructions: If you want to look up the items that won awards that I mention, enter the IMG number in the search box. BEFORE you push Enter, use the Search pull down menu to choose Preservation Nation’s albums so that you don’t get results from all over Flicker.

For the People’s Choice Award, my husband & I both voted for a commercial piece that didn’t win a ribbon or even get honorable mention. It had a colorful multi-stitch needlepoint center design with a mat of a gold stitched frame design surrounding it & then framed again with a real frame. It was beautiful. It’s by Nancy Poe (#60) if you get there – unfortunately, it is not a photographed piece. Our 2nd place People’s Choice award goes to Gail Stafford (#67) for a small but original landscape design.

I learned how to spread Flair on a wire to create a wing of a dragonfly! And, lunch was delicious – don’t pass on the lemon tart!

We enjoyed Alexandria – beautiful city – loved the Frank Lloyd Wright house & spent most of the rest of the time walking/eating/drinking our way along King Street which was bustling – our feet are tired!

Thanks to Jane/Chilly Hollow for directions to ‘In Stiches’ – GPS didn’t recognize Pear Tree Court. They have a lovely store, classroom area, nice variety of items. I bought threads for the 2010 ANG Seminar name-tag contest. I thought it appropriate to use Sampler Threads from The Gentle Art as they are located in Ohio! And, ‘In Stitches’ found a chair for husband so he could read as I browsed.  Wonderful weather & weekend wandering!!