Sew Crazy For You!

June 16, 2015

This is my birthday month, and I turn to a Beatles song..."When I am 64!!!" How did that happened?

Just got back from the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery Seminar and what a blast we all had!

There were over 100 of us, from all over the states, Canada, Australia and Hawaii!!! We made new friends and watched others reconnect who knew each other over the years. 

The Guild is 24 years old, and have been meeting at the Concordia University for 12 years. So there were many who have come every year, and many of the founding members were in attendance.  I was just in awe!

I arrived on Sunday evening, and relaxed on Monday as the members got ready for all the stitchers to arrived on Monday evening. Everything was so well organized! Tote bags being prepared for the arrivals, lots of goodies in them!!!

Class projects were on display and the talent of all of these ladies was overwhelming for me!

The classes were set up from Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Needless to say, I didn't take any advanced classes, but I did learn 25 new stitches and now I need lots of practice! I was fortunate to win one of the 10 scholarships they award each year, so I filled up every morning and afternoon with classes. This is Rosalie Wakefield's work below and I learned several new stitches in her class. She was instrumental in me jumping out of my comfort zone to go in the first place, by convincing me  on the phone ahead of the seminar that I would enjoy it. And she was so right! Thanks, Rosalie!!!

One of the wonderful programs for the newbie is they assign an Angel to watch over you.  Well, mine had been lurking on the Brazilian FB site, and saw me post that I would be there. So Doni Palmgren called in and asked to be my Angel, and she was the best!

She had seen me post that I made a name tag for myself.

So she made me a gift of a needle book by tracing my initials. So thoughtful, I was blown away!

Thanks, Doni, I will always treasure it, and your friendship!

Gorgeous flowers for our Welcoming Tea!

 We all ate together in the cafeteria and the food was simply superb all week! In fact, I gained 3 pounds and I was doing my best to stay on my diet!!! Gotta get to the gym now!!!

 Debbie Kelly blew us away during entertainment...she competes in belly dancing, but the wax lips knocked us out of our chairs!!!

 The Concordia University was beautiful, and we had wonderful weather, which means in Oregon, it didn't rain!!!

 My first attempt at paper art...ok, I will stick with fabric!!!

 Here's one sample of my favorite stitch of the week, I think it's called, "Triple knotted cast on drizzle stitch", and that's a mouth full!  It looks like wisteria when done in purples, but I practiced with these threads to first learn the stitch.

Of course, I have much practice ahead of me, but I am hooked. I will be showing off these stitches on my crazy quilt projects.
The last night we had a banquet, with wonderful food and more belly dancing and entertainment. Then when it came to a drawing, the lady asked me to pick a name out of the box, and believe it or not, I picked my own name. But then so did the second lady!! What are the odds of that!
The goodie back they sent me home with was so awesome.  Though I did have to redistribute my luggage and carry on, I was over my 50 pounds by two. But they didn't charge me extra!

I had so much fun and loved meeting everyone, I can't even begin to list all the new friends that I made. But I will be back next year, since Loretta twisted my arm to sign up for teaching a crazy quilt class next year!!!