Well- little did Martine realize what she was starting four years ago when she posted to the list and said "I'm determined to make a local get-together work" - and she did. Temari Southern Style 2001 was the first true gathering of temari-ites; it was a huge success and more importantly perhaps, Martine showed us all that it can be done. Herewith are the thoughts of the latest Southern Style gathering held in Nashville TN in November 2004, straight out of the ah, participants mouths:

KJ Wilson.... WHAT AN INCREDIBLY EXPERIENCE!!!! My 20 yr old cat had a stroke on Oct 19th, so I stayed at a different hotel that allowed pets and my husband and our daughter came along, too. This was my first stitch in and I'm totally hooked.  So is my daughter and she doesn't even stitch! I first met everyone on Sat. morning at their hotel and we settled in for a fun filled "how to" session. Sue H was the last to arrive.  She flew in around 10:00. And, just how, one might ask, did Sue H get to the hotel... hhhhmmmmm... let's think about this for a minute.  A seasoned world traveler.....a hotel... close to the airport... that actually has shuttle service to and from the airport!  Who'd a thunk it!!???  (Ask Sue C about the "new friend" she made at the airport while waiting for Sue H who, by now, was already at the hotel! ).  We made the mistake of turning Sue loose without a cell phone when she went in search of, you guessed it, Sue.  All these "Sue"s got you confused?...well you're not half as confused as the person at the airport that Nicole tried to explain all of this to.  (Rumor has it, they knew it was Nicole calling so they all pretended that no one was home. They eventually figured out that Nicole as just going to keep hitting "redial" until someone actually answered.) It didn't help things a bit when we realized that no one knew which airline Sue flew in on, let alone the flight number. Now, the person on the other end of the phone was having a difficult time understanding the cryptic message "Tell Sue that Sue is here." but I swear I smelled brain cells frying when Nicole switched to, "Tell Sue Sue is at the hotel."  That'll teach them to answer the phone!. Sue finally got the message that Sue was at the hotel and the "name" thing seemed under control.  Until, that is, Nicole made lunch reservations for us.  Ask her what her name is now. :>)  (What really impressed me is that, throughout all of the laughter and confusion, Nicole not only taught me how to mark a 162 pole ball, she made it understandable and made it fun!  You should ask Eric about the "hairnet" he worked on).
When we were finally all together and got ready to take a lunch break, I took all my supplies to Nicole's room.  When I got into the room and turned around, I saw a HUGE plastic bag full of temari.  My reaction was. "THIS IS SO COOL!!!", which garnered a few giggles from the others.  This was the absolute first time in my life that I had actually seen temari stitched by others.  Pictures are great and I've seen a ton, but to see a 3 dimensional ball that someone stitched and to be able to touch it and pick it up was just mind blowing.  I was absolutely fascinated with them.  I just can't put into words what it was like.  It was such an epiphany for me.  I was able to oogle them and take as many pictures as I wanted (and believe me...I wanted A LOT!)  When I calmed down enough to actually look at the rest of the room, temari were everywhere.  I'm so glad one can't overdose on them!
We had a wonderful lunch at a fantastic restaurant.  Nicole had arranged for us to meet a Japanese woman that also made temari.  I think she was a little surprised about how knowledgeable we were on the subject.  She was fascinating to speak with. She came to the U.S. in 1959 but stopped making temari when she moved here.  Who knows...maybe she'll get the itch to stitch again after meeting with us.  I hope so!  After lunch she went with us to Metamorphosis, which in an incredible thread shop.  I was amazed at their inventory and selection.  The variety of materials that they carried was unbelievable.  I've already told my husband that whenever we to go Nashville (usually for soccer games) that I'm going back to Metamorphosis. You should check'em out!  If you get a chance to see any of the threads Eric purchased, make sure you tell him they are all too green!
When we got back, some took a break.  Me?  I took more pictures and browsed through books that others had brought.  My husband and daughter came over for a while and had quite a giggle with the games Nicole had lined up. By the way...just in case you're ever asked...there are 9 buttons at the top of the Temarikai home page.  And if you ever get curious about the number of visitors the site has had since it started,  just ask Eric. He only missed by 4. (Which translates into the number of people that visited between his last "quick check" and the Temarikai trivia test. )   Another fun game was to guess who stitched what ball in our GITS. Besides getting a beautiful GITS (pictures will be posted shortly) I won a canvas "temari in progress" bag that will hold 6 balls at a time!  It came with a beautiful card that also contained pictures of our one and only Ginny T. tie-dyeing some bags.  By looking at the pattern on my bag, I was able to i.d. it as one of the ones that Ginny was actually working on in a picture!  My prize actually turned out to be 2 prizes in one. Nonie, my almost 13 yr old daughter, fell in love with the box the bag was wrapped in so she got a "door prize" too!  Sue H. was kind enough to try to figure out a pattern from a Japanese book that has me stumped. She got farther in 15 minutes than I have in 6 months!  We had such a blast!!
Sunday came all too quickly.  I met the crowd around 9:00 for a last picture/hug/goodbye session.  Some were flying out, some had long drives, so it was a short morning together.  It was so sad to see everyone leaving.  I hated to see it end.  I was the least experienced stitcher and had never met anyone there, but I immediately felt like I was truly one of the family, and I do mean FAMILY.  The connection was that strong.  I don't know if I'll make it to the Spring Fling this year, but I am so looking forward to the next gathering I can attend. Nicole did a phenomenal job of putting things together.  She was able to get donations from various suppliers for our goodie bags.  The hotel was wonderful.  Her family is delightful.  All of her hard work and the many hours she put into it for us can't be underestimated.   A true hallmark of how much time, commitment, and attention to detail is put into any function is how well it can run itself once the guests arrive.  The stitchin was "smooth as silk"  Thank you so much, Nicole for all you have done.  I'd also like to thank Elsie again for the thread run she made before coming to Nashville.  I will always think of the stitchin whenever I use any of the wonderful threads and fibers I now have.

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Martine: It has been a tradition at our stitch-in for those attending to write about the event. Being the "mother" of southern style stitch-in by organizing the first ever regional gathering of termari people, my impressions of the most recent (4th annual) southern stich-in center more around the friendships that have formed among our group. Enough time has passed that the original attendees or attendee wanna bes (Susan C. kept getting sick on us til this year) that we actually have a history together. We know the names of member's family members, we hear about children as they grow up, we watch each other as our lives take us to different experiences. More than the swirls, C10s and now multipoles, I look forward now to reuniting with great old friends and meeting new
ones. Nicole-you did a wonderful job....we've come a long way!

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Elsie: Thank you, Nicole, for planning and hosting the gathering!  Thanks to all for the great time!  My parents were so happy I had such fun and got home safely.  "You're going to ride to Nashville with some stranger in order to meet with eight other people, all of whom you met ON THE INTERNET??"  I am a new temari crafter, having stitched only since May of this year, and I attended the recent Nashville, TN, stitch-in.  Here are my thoughts on this extraordinary event...from the perspective of a first-time person: Except for Kay Jay who had to stay in a different hotel with her family and recovering cat, we all stayed at the host hotel, even Nicole, the organizer of the event.  That made it easy to visit late into the night, pop back to the room for some forgotten item, and chat over breakfast.  The hotel allowed us to stitch Saturday morning in the sunny lobby area, too!  Nicole had a suite where she (and maybe another person??) slept.  It had a mini-kitchen so we could keep things cold, cook in the microwave, use the coffee maker, etc.  It had a counter, too.  Desk, couch, chairs, tables were also in the living room of the suite, and we brought the plastic balcony chairs inside so all ten of us could have a place to sit.  It was a perfect size for the group of ten. We had Friday dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Saturday lunch was at a Japanese restaurant (NOT one of those flashy-cook-at-the-table- flipping-shrimp-in-the-air places, but a real Japanese restaurant) where we met a delightful 79-year-old Japanese lady who showed us her many temari stitched before she came to the US in the late 40's.  Saturday evening we ate in the suite. There were snacks and goodies available, provided by the attendees. GITS: On the back of the door into the bedroom of the suite was a drawstring bag for our GITS.  Each of us ducked into the room to deposit our GITS in the bag for the Saturday night event.  To exchange them, Nicole had each one numbered.  We got a numbered paper and wrote down who we thought had stitched each one.  I think I recall correctly that the one who got the most correct got ball #1, and so on down the line.
TEACHING/LEARNING: I learned how to mark a C-10, do a multi-pole (Yikes!), and stitch a swirl (Well, it looks good from across the room!!!)   Nicole had directions printed out for us for a variety of things.   The experience of seeing bags, boxes, and jars filled with temari stitched by others was invaluable!  To see techniques, color choices, texture variety, and expertise of the group members was mind-boggling.  It was visual overload for me, and I wish I had a digital camera. FUN AND GAMES: We had a contest to identify (by feeling only) the contents of a dozen or so temari-related items in stapled-shut lunch bags.  After exchanging and correcting the papers, the one with the most correct got to choose the prize of his/her choice. Of course we had the TemariKai quiz, ten items about Ginny's website.  Well, I got four right!  SHOPPING FOR TEMARI SUPPLIES: We went to an incredible shop -- Metamorphosis.  They had cases and cases of threads.  There was one wall of metallics, a ten-foot+ section of No. 5 pearl, the same of No. 8 pearl, and racks and racks and racks of fibers from Rainbow Gallery and more.  Wow!  We went crazy!  Well, a few of us crazier than others.  I have only Hancock's, Michael's, and A. C. Moore nearby, so I was one of the crazier ones with the slightly melted credit card! Three of us were first-timers, and the group of returnees made us feel so very welcome from the first moment!  The camaraderie, laughing, caring, laughing, expertise, laughing, and teaching were so wonderful!  How can a bunch of previousl strangers come together so quickly and bond so well?  It was a magical weekend! Oh...one of the nicest things is getting to put faces with the names I'd learned to know from TT postings.  Now when these folks post, I see their faces!  More magic!   I'm ready for next year!

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Sue H: It has taken me the past several days to even begin to recover from this past weekend!  Wow! I tossed and turned all Friday night... I couldn't wait to get on the plane. The alarm popped on at 5 AM and I quickly snapped it off because my husband said he wanted to "sleep in"... (he's up at 5 every morning to do his daily run). My bags were all packed, just tossed in the last-minute stuff.  As I was coming out of the shower, there was my husband saying how great it was to sleep in (it was now 5:30 AM). Got dressed, grabbed a cup of coffee, downloaded the email, threw the bags in the car, and by 5:45, I was starting down the highway from Kalamazoo to Detroit - (a 2-hour jaunt). Stunning sunrise about 7:30, just as I was hitting the Jackson/Ann Arbor area. My flight went smoothly, and my 2 bags were among the first out in Nashville. Alas, some how, I was not aware that anyone was being sent to pick me up.  And having researched where we were staying, and that the hotel had free airport shuttle service, I just naturally assumed I would (and did) grab my bags, and hop on the next shuttle as it came through. Arrived at the Marriott Courtyard in good order only to learn that Sue C. was driving in circles around the airport looking for me!  I did offer to take the next shuttle back and look for her... thankfully, Nicole managed to connect with the airport paging system, and Sue C. was able to return without too much of a headache (however, it is my understanding that the security guard and Sue C. now have a "thing" going...)...Kay Jay has pretty much described the Southern Style gathering.  By the time I joined the group at 11AM, most everyone was well into learning the details of multipoles. This was our 4th Southern-style gathering.... amazing how the years have flown by, and the friends we have made.  I recall at our first foray with Martine at the lead, how Eric and I kept emailing each other with last minute details of what we would be wearing and the bags we would be carrying so we could identify each other at the airport. This year, we were delighted to have Mary Ruth, Kay Jay and Elsie join our throng of "regulars"... it was clear by the time we all went our separate ways on Sunday, that our "family" has grown. We may be strange, but we are no longer strangers. Nicole did an outstanding job of arranging our lodging, food, and all the details that come with it.  (Not sure if Marriott will ever allow her back in that hotel again... something about wild party on the 4th floor... people with colorful jiggling balls running through the halls... trails of rice hulls winding down the elevators...)... Sunday came all too soon.  As it turned out, I was the last to arrive and the last to leave - with my flight at 5:50 PM.  I would have loved to take up Nicole on her invitation to visit her home for those few extra hours, but I had already made arrangements to meet up with another long-time friend and her husband (neither of whom I had seen for several years) for a late lunch. My flight back to Detroit was uneventful, and I made good time in my return drive back to Kalamazoo, arriving home about 10:45 PM.
Temari Southern-style 2004 - a fun-filled weekend of sharing, inspiration and friendship!

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Blair H:  I don't think I can add on to what others have written without repeating what has been said. I do know that Nicole ROCKS! That multipole division was just plain inspiration.  Eric - I do know you were close in my thoughts as Monday afternoon, November 15, I was at the local thread store only to be sorely disappointed in what they had, especially after seeing that gorgeous black/gray wrap you had done. I do know the yarn shop in the next county will be getting a visit from me as soon as I can get over there. Nicole, thank you for everything you did to make our stay in your "neck of the woods" such a pleasure.

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Sue C.: Oh my, didn't we have fun???  Soon I will try to unscramble all that's going through my feeble mind and add a few words to go with the pictures.
But right now, I want to thank each of you for the part you played in making this such a memorable weekend ... again, this is a most unusual group!!!  I feel truly blessed to have this marvelous "family" - it's grown by three new sisters this time ...  And a most special THANKS to Nicole for taking such wonderful care to make sure that we were totally comfortable, happy, well fed, and enlightened.  These get-togethers don't just happen - it takes a lot of hard work and organization ... and Nicole devoted herself to both.