SAS report - long

SAS (aka Share A Stitch) is the annual seminar hosted by the Tennessee Valley Region of EGA. Travel to Nashville was easy, since it's just a hop, skip, and 2 jumps from me and a friend (control freak type) did all the driving.

Despite arriving close to check in time, many of the rooms weren't ready. After a short delay, we were assigned a room on the first floor; although it was a trek to and from the lobby and classrooms, we didn't have to queue for elevators as is often the case at these events.

Thursday evening, the program featured 2 wimmen (they were really Southern so I misspelled on purpose) who talked about all the 'treasures' they had found at flea markets and yard sales. They were a hoot!!!

Friday morning, I helped out in the pre-registration area for next year's event and then went to class in the afternoon!!! Kay Stanis' silk and metalwork class had been billed as intermediate, which led me to think I could handle it, even though I had never done anything like it before.

OY VEY!!!! I got flustered trying to mount the congress cloth perfectly straight and breathed a huge sigh of relief when someone volunteered to do it for me. That process took more than 2 hours. After a brief discussion, we opened a tube of flat silk to practise with ... That stuff was impossible to handle without it fluffing out and snagging. I never got the hang of how to use my stiletto laying tool to smooth it without introducing more fluff By the end of that session, I was ready to admit defeat but since I had paid for the class and materials, I'd attend the other sessions just to see what the other techniques might be.

After a brief power nap, my cohorts and I lucked out by quickly snagging a bellman to help us get boxes and boxes of books from the car to the table in the merchandise night room. It didn't take all that long to set up so we were able to stroll around the room to see what else was being sold. Almost everyone was willing to do early sales and I got some real bargains like a picture frame painted needlepoint canvas complete with all threads for $5, bags of edmar threads for $2, and 2 sudberry like boxes for $15/each

Very few people bought our books; they were such classic references that many already owned them. Despite this, we netted a tidy sum for our scholarship fund. The PTB (powers that be) will have to decide what to do with them as I eventually want them out of my garage.

Saturday was really intense class sessions as Kay taught us more about working with various silks and a really, really, really neat trick for attaching lengths of cotton cord that would later be covered. After warming our beeswax in our bras, we ran the cord repeatedly over it to make it slightly sticky. Then we couched it to the ground and later practised covering it with extremely closely spaced satin stitches in several threads. The stickiness helped if a thread had to be slightly nudged in place.

Who knew that trebizond could be stranded? I certainly didn't!!!!

Who knew that 'gold' purl was hollow and attached like beads by running needle/thread through it? I certainly didn't!!

There's more but I've typed enough. I may never finish the piece or if I do attempt it, I'll fake the techniques and probably end up with a pretty picture that'll bear only a slight resemblance to the original design.

Reply to
anne
Loading thread data ...

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.