Callaway 2010 and 2011

I had not realized how long it has been since I posted on my blog. I promised somewhere along the line that I would write here more frequently and I see I have done just the opposite. Maybe this year I will be better about it all.

Catching up on my life: after E-Week last fall, I mailed out a ton of Townhouse instructions for people signed up for the class at Shining Needle Society. The class doesn't start until next month, but we did an 'early-registration-start-the-Nun's-Stitch' month in December. I ran it right along with my 'Stitch Gay Ann Stash' program for Shining Needle Society also.

After I mailed Townhouses, I had to start on Callaway preparations. I love to go to Callaway! It is my favorite needlework venue. I am not the only needlework teacher who feels this way -- in fact most of my long-time peers love it best. There is something so relaxed and wonderful about Callaway. The whole setting is informal and beautiful, friendly and hassle free.

This year at Callaway I took photos and posted them on my website in hopes of giving people a feeling for the ambience there; then I had permission to post next year's classes, Callaway 2011, and I just finished posting them. As usual, Callaway seems to have the best of the year's offerings -- go have a look and see if you don't agree:

www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on 'Callaway 2010'. If you scroll down, you will find 5 pages of photos for next year's classes.

Next year will be special because it is the 40th Anniversary for the Needle Arts School.

I am newly back from Callaway 2010 and am transitioning into a winter and spring of writing instructions. I have a full plate with classes for EGA in San Francisco and for Callaway next year. Right now it looks like I will be busy writing instructions for about 4.5 - 5 months. Yikes! I had best get busy.

Gay Ann

Transitioning out of E-Week and Back to Normal Life

As a part of E-Week in October I posted my Townhouse Sewing Case, soon to become a class at Shining Needle Society. I first taught the Townhouse at EGA's 50th celebration seminar in Louisville, then at Callaway. I look forward to trying a cyber class. Although I have had my ongoing classroom at Shining Needle Society for 2 years now (just past the second anniversary), this will be the first time I have taught a class online. I am hoping my students will help me do it well by making recommendations.

I am curious to know what people like and dislike about online classes and would be happy to hear any opinions, along with suggestions how cyber-classes might be improved.

Technology has come such a long way toward helping the prospects of online activities. I realize I am such a beginner at this whole technology game. I keep trying to learn more about it and one of the highlights of my week is going to Apple's classes.

Last week at my Apple class there I showed several people the most awesome thing I have found connected with needlework online: Tricia Nguyen's animated needle! I hope you will go and see her needle make a stitch. As I said, it is awesome!

Here are the links to the animated needle:

http://thistle-threads.com/animationtest/animationtest.html

It is also in the middle of the movie on this page:

http://thistle-threads.com/teaching/projects/onlineclasses/goldworkmasterclass/teach_goldworkmasterclass.html

The animation was done by Tricia's brother a freelance computer animator and also an embroiderer in his own right. His company, Smudge Animation, is doing animated needles demonstrating 28 different stitches for her upcoming Tudor and Stuart Master Gold Work class.

I would love to take the class just to watch those needles!

Gay Ann

Mail Jail: maybe not forever after all

Mail Jail, at least E-Week Mail Jail, may not be forever after all. I am almost at the end! If I stick with it through the weekend and I have no bumps in the Jail Road, I should finish next Monday.

Then I plan to do some serious stitching!

I am working on a chatelaine right now. I had an idea for how to make the chatelaine chain and I can't wait to see how it works. I have been following my own 12 Stitches a Day program to get through it and it amazes me how much stitching my little 5-minutes-a-day accomplishes! I should finish the stitching for the chain about the same time I finish E-Week.

As soon as I am out of Mail Jail, I will plan a special week of stitching assignments for my class at Shining Needle Society. I can't wait to try this and see if people follow it. It should be a very fun game!

More about it when E-Week Mail Jail finishes....

Gay Ann

Mail Jail is Forever

I just finished E-Week, my big sale of the year, and now I am in Mail Jail. If I could wish for one thing in my life I would wish for organization skills. I look at my friends with their perfect files and lists and I sigh. Somehow I missed the Organization Gene. It just isn't there.

Here is a typical example: I haven't emptied my purse yet from seminar in Pittsburgh. My plane ticket is still in there and so is my paycheck. I need to empty it and sort it all out and at least deposit my check. So what am I doing? Writing this post instead.

Poor MacSoph, my computer. She isn't organized at all and the Apple tutors, those I have regularly, have given up. They don't bother to teach me organization any longer because they say I don't do it.

So now I have E-Week Mail Jail which is my low point each year. I am doing better this year but it is far from the way my organized friends would proceed. Take for example my friend Julie who came to help me. She gave me some suggestions about the way it should work, but I fear I am light years from that point. And Pat, to whom I sent two copies of Cranfield House by mistake, suggested many of the same things Julie talked about. They both mentioned terrifying concepts like spread sheets and QuickBooks, etc. etc.

One time Julie (who loves organization) told me I should quit worrying about it, that I have a creative brain and creative brains don't think in columns. Is this a plausible excuse? The problem is, it still doesn't solve the problem, so on I go.

Back to Mail Jail. Mail Jail is forever. Alas, so are mess and disorganization.

Gay Ann

Early Morning E-Week Sales

It's early morning and I am up and waiting to start my Special E-Week Sales. They start at 7:00 a.m., in 45 minutes.
I think I have checked everything and am set to go.

Off to have breakfast and watch the morning headlines.
Gay Ann

E-Week Eve and Day 1

E-Week Eve was one of those beautiful fall days in Southern California! Bright sun, blue ocean and a nip in the air.

I actually finished Queendom Website late on Tuesday afternoon and DH said, why not go out to dinner and celebrate!
We went to our local bookstore and browsed awhile then to a restaurant new to us and great! We were home again about 8:00 and I was all excited about E-Week. It was like I was 7 years old again on Christmas Eve.

I watched the time. I had hoped to stay up till midnight. Kate was helping -- she was writing emails, so we were busy having an E-Conversation and I was busy checking everything.

At 10:20 I started posting everything and by 10:30 it was all live. I checked it and Kate checked it and we found some errors, so I changed some things, then shut down MacSoph (my computer) who had been working so hard.

The next morning (yesterday) I woke up thinking just how magical E-Week Eve had been. What is it that makes a basically ordinary day seem like magic? I am not certain. Just the mood, I guess, the lull before activity, maybe just the beauty of the day.

Yesterday, Day 1, was a scramble and MacSoph and I hit it hard. Questions, corrections, re-do's and in the midst, my cleaning lady was here. That is always a scramble because I have TOO MUCH STUFF!

So I fled for an hour and some. I went to a favorite bead shop and came home with new ideas. New Ideas are always magic to me! And beads. I have too many beads! I would have to live to be 650 to use all my beads, but I added to the stash yesterday.
Home again and emails into the evening.

And today? I am working all day on my Special Sales for Saturday and Sunday mornings. These sales began 3 E-Weeks ago on my blog and now they are a tradition. It is lively and a scramble, but I love doing it!

I have neglected blogging in the first year of Queendom Website. My website took all of my attention, but now I have decided I should return to blogging a bit.

Gay Ann

E-Week Eve

It has been a while since I have blogged. I have been away at the EGA Pittsburgh Seminar and since, I've been at work almost non-stop on my E-Merchandise Week Sale (E-Week for short).

I am almost finished with E-Week and it is a good thing because it starts tomorrow!

This is E-Week Eve.

This year I have 30 designs for sale (not counting my early morning sales on Saturday and Sunday), many are ones I have never sold before, except for the EGA, ANG and Callaway classes where I taught them. As I scroll through it, I must say I think it is a pretty sale!

I think I will post it all just before I go to bed tonight. This is my Third Annual E-Week and I must confess, it is exciting!

Gay Ann

My second design for my pre-week sale: a Sewing Case

This morning I posted the second design for my pre-week sale: Townhouse Sewing Case. It isn't actually for sale, it will be a class for Shining Needle Society in the spring; people who sign an interest list now will save a bit of money on the class, should they decide to take it.

www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on 'Pre-Week 2'.

My third design will arrive on my website just before I leave to go to EGA's Pittsburgh Seminar on Oct. 2.

Gay Ann

The First of My Designs for Wind-up to My Yearly Sale

Tomorrow morning I will post the first of the designs I will sell in the windup to my yearly sale, E-Merchandise Week.

Gay Ann

The Epilogue to my Month-Long Needlework Mystery

My month-long needlework mystery finished yesterday with a trip home on our private jets.

Today begins a week-long Epilogue, followed by Prizes for E-Gemstone Star Awards.

www.GayAnnRogers.com

Gay Ann

A Special Class on my website tomorrow

As my month-long fantasy draws to a close, I offer a special class in a very special place on my website.
It will all appear tomorrow morning.

www.GayAnnRogers.com

I hope to see you there.
Gay Ann

August's Mystery: what is missing from my Birkin Bag

Something is missing from my Birkin Bag. It will be essential to Part 4 of our mystery.
But nobody has guessed yet what it is.

I asked today: what is coming next? And so many people were so close, in fact a couple had it right, but only in part.
If you can think of what is missing from my Birkin Bag, chances are good you will know a good part of the answer to what comes next.

Why bother with this in a needlework discussion group? Because it dovetails with our discussion.
I think there are a handful of ingredients that help the creative process and a playful nature is one of them.

Gay Ann

www.GayAnnRogers.com

August's Mystery: Part 4

We know about Jane Birkin, we have been in Richistan for quite a while and we all have E-fantasy Birkin Bags that we have filled with stitching goodies, so what now as my mystery winds its way through August?

Part 4 started today.
Stay tuned to see what happens.

Gay Ann

www.GayAnnRogers.com

August's Mystery: Part 3: the Ultimate Tote Bag

This morning I posted on my website the beginning of Part 3 of my mystery: the ultimate stitchers' tote bag.

Gay Ann

www.GayAnnRogers.com to have a peek

August's Mystery: Part 1 Revealed Today!

Today I posted the identity of the Mystery Woman on my website.
You will now know who she is, but a part remains a mystery:

What does she have to do with needlework?

Coming soon!
Gay Ann

www.GayAnnRogers.com

August's Mystery on my Website

On August 1 I started a month-long mystery on my website. It is a Mystery in 4 parts and Part 1, a Mystery Woman, is well under way. Two more days and we learn who she is.

Who she is, but not what her connection to needlework is. That will come later.

Join me on my website and in Shining Needle Society as the mystery unfolds. Take part by answering each day's question and earning an 'E-Gemstone-Star award'. The three people who accumulate the most E-Gem awards will win prizes and take part in an E-Ceremony at the end of the month, a farewell to summer and a hello to autumn.

To join Shining Needle Society, write to Kate Gaunt (KateGaunt@aol.com). Membership is free.

Shining Needle Society is now 2500 enthusiastic stitchers strong.

Gay Ann

www.GayAnnRogers.com

Techniques 4

This morning I posted Techniques 4 on my website. Again it is about Bullion Knots and comes from a question I received.
Next time, unless I receive another great question about Bullion Knots, I will move on.

Gay Ann

Techniques 3

I just posted Techniques 3 on my website.
I also posted new colors for Summer Sunshine, colors I wish I had used when I stitched the design.

www.GayAnnRogers.com
for Tecniques click on navigation bar.

for Summer Sunshine's new colors, scroll down on home page and click on the geometric.

It's been fun to do both of these projects!
Gay Ann

Bullion Knots 2 in my Techniques Column

On July 8, as a part of my website's anniversary celebration I began writing a column on needlework techniques I have found helpful over the years. I began with Bullion Knots, fitting I thought because my students have always dubbed me 'The Queen of Bullion Knots'.

This morning I posted 'Bullion Knots, Part 2'.
Enjoy! And remember, the secret to making a Bullion Knot is not a mystery; it is simple practice.

Gay Ann

12 Stitches a Day: I've Completed Week 4

I just posted my progress for week 4 of 12 Stitches a Day on my website.

I am surprised again by my progress, particularly when I look at where I started and where I am now. I have hardly spent any time on this program. Admittedly I have done it every day, but I have stitched on it in little minutes I probably would have wasted, like time spent waiting for DH when we are going somewhere, minutes like that.

The secret is leaving the project out and set to go so that I sit down and take 5 or 6 stitches instead of twiddling my thumbs.

If you go to see my progress, you will see that I have now completed two of the four little pieces and am quite far on the two others.

www.GayAnnRogers.com
and click on 12 Stitches.

Happy Sunday!
Gay Ann