From Janet B.: The First (I hope annual) Orange County Stitch-In was
hosted by Glenna Kipp at The Piecemakers Country Store in Costa Mesa
California. It was a small group this time, just Glenna, Sandy (a
student of Glenna’s from the LA area) and me, Janet Bochin, who drove
about 200 miles to go to the Stitch-In.
We met around dinnertime on Friday. I have never visited the
Piecemakers Store and it was absolutely amazing. Not only do they
sell fabric and quilting supplies, but they also sell yarn, holiday
items, jewelry, ribbons, buttons, all sorts of handcrafted items, and
various food items, including delicious breads that they make. It
is a 2-story building, full of rooms beautifully filled with items to
admire and purchase. A number of the rooms have tables in them
that are used by the multitude of classes they offer, and they have
several rooms and an outdoor tent where they serve their delicious
meals. On Friday we were fed a yummy Chinese chicken salad, fruit
salad and an assortment of chocolates and homemade chocolate chip
cookies. Saturday we were served wonderful muffins as a morning
snack, turkey sandwiches on cranberry bread with pumpkin soup for
lunch, and a scrumptious pumpkin dessert as an afternoon snack.
It seems that we spent as much time eating as we did stitching.
This store is unlike any other store I’ve ever seen, and I highly
recommend visiting it if you are anywhere in southern California!
Friday evening we got acquainted and looked at each other’s temari
creations. I was overwhelmed with the quantity, quality and
variety of Glenna’s temaris. She has been stitching them for many
years, and her creativity and ability to figure out patterns from the
Japanese books seems to be endless. She is inspired by colors and
shapes and has the vision and talent to stich wonderful
creations. We took many photos, I asked her to explain how she
had made many of her balls, and she looked at the Japanese books that I
have that she doesn’t have, and vice versa, to get even more
inspiration.
On Saturday morning we met at Piecemakers again, spent more time
getting acquainted, looked at books and tried to figure them out, and
decided on a pattern the three of us would try to stitch. We
chose a herringbone pattern that none of us had tried before (actually
it was only to be Sandy’s second attempt) but that looked like we could
do in one day. Glenna stitched hers on a blue mari and used
colors that reminded her of the sea, I used a hot pink mari and used
pastel threads, and Sandy used a white mari and stitched with
variegated orange and yellow thread. Around noon a Japanese
friend of Glenna’s joined us. Her name, I think, is Toshiko, and
she came with her husband. She was dressed in a beautiful black,
cream and red kimono, and traditional Japanese wooden sandals (geta
sandals??). Although her mother and grandmother had made temari,
she had never made one, so she too stitched with us. She also
helped us interpret some Japanese patterns, and talked about Japanese
culture with us. She was a delightful addition to the group.
Glenna had prepared some goodie bags, to which we all
contributed. I was the lucky recipient of a beautiful green, gold
and black complex ten division ball that Glenna had stitched. We
received bowls that had been made from gourds by Sandy, Glenna’s
lanyards for our scissors, crocheted water bottle holders, some wrapped
maris, and other fun items in our bags.
We all finished our projects by the end of the afternoon (photos
attached) and were the last folks to leave the store when it closed at
5:30.
It was a wonderful weekend and I thank Glenna for organizing it!
I’ve been greatly inspired by seeing her creations and experiencing her
enthusiasm for this art form. I will make every effort to go to
any future Orange County Stitch-Ins, and urge any of you near southern
California to join us.
More from Glenna: - I
am so glad Janet was a good photographer, because I was so busy I
forgot to shoot pictures on Saturday!. I'll just add in some info to
what you are seeing in the photos - Janet's report of the weekend in
total is on target. Janet took photos of my boxes and baskets
before we unpacked :>) Here is more information about what she shot:
“Everyone’s Project” is our Double Herringbone experiment. Janet
and I had seen it, but none of us had stitched this pattern before. In
the photos, in the bowl Janet’s pink is upper left, Toshiko’s Christmas
is center, my Sea Fever is on the right, and Sandy’s variegated orange
is down front. This was Sandy’s second temari ever (webmaster's
note - good job, Sandy!).
Janet has a few shots of my temari that are in my "America" photo
composite. This series of patterns was put together by Judy Shorten
with reference to the song “America.” I stitched the series for
each of my sons as a gift. Sandy and Janet enjoyed seeing
the collection. I was lamenting the fact that I can’t find a
suitable display stand for them. Because most of the temari I brought
to share had been seen elsewhere, I let Janet pick the ones she wanted
to photograph.
Toshiko and her husband took some photos as well. I have emailed
her to see if she will share the group photo she took of us. That
way you can see Janet!