March 28-30, 2003/page 1 GT
Candid Photos / Collected Thoughts / Temari Photos
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| Temari NY 2003 - Top row left to right (on sofa): Sue H., Blair H., Harriet S., Barb S., Carolyn V., Paula G. Bottom row on floor left to right: Sue C., Ginny T. (with Scooter), Kathy H., Nicole B. (Puffin hid under the table) |
Wow -it's so hard
to realize that Temari NY Stitch-In for Spring 2003 is history already,
it seems like only yesterday that "the committee" and I were laying the
first plans. I have to start off by saying that there are really not words
to describe the time, it was truly THAT good... but we'll sure try. Plans
were in the works since November of 2002 to pull off the second annual gathering
of temari makers held here in Poughkeepsie NY (click into Temari NY Spring
Fling 2002 to catch up on last year's). Herewith is my review of the
time - soon to be added will be Nicole's and also thoughts from the group
as a whole.
Plans got under way when Sue Cameron (alias "the committee") arrived at Stewart (Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, here - and they laugh at it since there are only two gates) not only on time but early on Monday, March 24th. Security had indeed been tightened at SWF - so that you could not sit in the waiting area that is also the baggage claim area until the person you were meeting had cleared the gate (twelve feet away from the baggage carousels, all two of them) - you had to stand on the other side of the tape (eight feet from the waiting room seats) - go figure. We went though this song and dance with all the arrivals and had a grand time making life generally difficult for the TSA agent charged with "guarding" the chairs as the week went on. Anywho - Sue was in safe and sound and we were off and running. We had a great visit together for a few days while we finished off the prep for everyone else arriving later in the week. I could not be pulling this off on my own without the extra help Sue gives to be sure. When we got home from the airport we were greeted with a message from Blair Heald that her flight plans had been altered and instead of arriving at 3pm on Thursday she was rebooked to arrive at 11pm. Ok - originally we needed to meet Carolyn at the Poughkeepsie Train Station for Amtrak at 8:15 Thursday night... so rather than doing plane then train we'd do train then plane. Late night, but ok. Wednesday afternoon we did a dry run to the train station since it'd been years since I'd been there (and of course as most train stations now in the US it is not in the nicer section of town as things have changed) - and we checked with the ticket agent who, when he heard what train we were going to meet the next night laughed in our faces about it always being at least 2 hours late (Carolyn was coming in from Jamestown, NY, having caught the train in Buffalo, and it actually originates in Toronto, doing the entire tier of New York State on its run. NY is NOT a little state, trust me). Well - that night I looked at Sue and said "for two cents I'd book a limo for Blair" - between the combo of it being so late to begin with (it's still another 45 minutes home from the airport after getting baggage) - and the likelihood of things running late and not wanting Blair sitting alone in an empty terminal - the look on Sue's face was "I'll give you the two cents". So - next morning I called the limo service (newly installed in SWF) and booked the ride, called Blair with the info and that was all set. Worked great - her flight actually tagged in about 8 minutes early to SWF, the driver was waiting and they delivered her to my doorstep at 11:45pm.
In the meantime Sue and I were just ready to leave to grab supper Thursday when the phone rang and it was Carolyn's hubby Dennis - worried about how Carolyn was going to manage to get off the train with her 56 pound suitcase (Dennis had weighed it, she'd only the day before managed to condense to bringing one suitcase rather than two, and had gone out and bought a new one, the largest she could find, just to come to Stitch In) and her 3 carry-ons. I assured him that two of us were meeting the train, and that we had staked the place out the day before and knew just what we were doing (hah!). Actually we did - had supper, grabbed the last of the perishable groceries, checked the train time on Amtrak again (we'd watched it all day on the Amtrak website and she was never more than 15 minutes out of schedule), due in on time so off we hustled to the station. This was one of those times when being eligible for a disabled parking permit comes in very handy - since we slid in right at the front door. They called the train's arrival track and we moseyed on down to it and were joined by a nice couple meeting their son coming in from RIT for the weekend. I struck up conversation with them with the plan that if we needed muscle to get Carolyn etal off the train we might have help. She pulled in on time and then it was pickacar, anycar to find her - I asked the conductor about a lady with a lot of luggage and a funny hat and he said "yup - coming right here....." I'm still not sure exactly HOW it all got off but it did, and we had her safe and sound with all the adjoining pieces; Sue took to hauling the suitcase (thankfully on wheels), I took two carry ons and Carolyn the other with her handbag, and we all merrily headed for the car. Soon as we cleared the tracks into the station we reported into Dennis that we had her safe and sound. It was a good thing that no one else was on that pickup run since it took all three of us to heft the bag into the trunk which it filled.... Carolyn and her carryons were installed in the back seat and we took off for home, mission accomplished. We had a delightful evening yet, awaiting Blair's arrival - Carolyn had indeed brought everything but the kitchen sink, including a quart of homemade shrimp dip packed in ice and a quart of the family Glogg recipe (basically a mulled port wine that knocked your socks off). We gave Carolyn a little help on working a C10 division and thankfully that was before she started in on the Glogg. She then was working on a Temari egg.... that evolved into a very interesting design. I don't think I have to say that the fun had already begun. Sue and I tucked Carolyn and Blair into their respective rooms downstairs and we began our slumber party with the two dogs in my studio upstairs.
Everyone else's arrivals on Friday were calm compared to that - God smiled upon us especially after the winter we'd had here, and Friday was a gorgeous day to both fly and drive. Sue Hayashi from Michigan was first in to SWF; Barb Seuss and Kathy Hewitt arrived from Raleigh via Philly a few minutes early and Nicole from Nashville via Atlanta on time - Paula George drove in from Pennsylvania and joined us at SWF to be an extra car just as the last bags came off the planes. We then headed for the Marriott in Fishkill for Paula to check in and for us to greet Harriet and David Strout who drove down from Maine. David has a "guy time" around the area while Harriet joins in with us... so with all in tow, off we took for the house. Paula and company got separated from us although we had been assured that Paula and Harriet remembered how to get to the house from the Marriott (they'd done this last year). Make it they did but - later that evening we had quite a narration between driver and navigator.... Blair and Carolyn had been given their "chore list" for the afternoon and had munchies ready and supper heating while we were grabbing folks off planes. As everyone got their bed assignments (I slept 8 here at the house) and settled in, freshened up and then converged on the food, Temari NY Stitch-In 2003 officially began.
After supper of my homemade Sloppy Joes and a great green salad from Paula, Friday night was a time of mostly re-acquainting. It turned out that of all the attendees that made it (Karen St.Jean and her traveling friend Joline were due to roll in for the weekend in Karen's motor home on their way home from Florida - unfortunately Karen called Wednesday from Statesville, NC that they had blown cylinders in the engine. That took care of them getting here, as they then limped back to Florida for her brother to work miracles on the engine - they did make it safely. Karen and Joline still plan on stopping for a visit on the way home since they are heading back to Connecticut) with the exception of Carolyn had met at least one or two of the people here before at either the Southern gatherings or the weekend here last year, so there was very little ice breaking needed (trust me - NO ice breaking needed) - we could not have asked for a more congenial jovial bunch. Puffin and Scooter (my two cockapoos) had no problems schmoozing up with everyone and collecting their share of goodies and tidbits (they particularly zeroed in on Harriet who came oh-so-close several times to "donating" her dinner plate). The laughter started and just never stopped. The evening ended up to be mostly show and tell, each person taking turns displaying their temari that they had brought along with anything related like pattern notebooks etc... and as each shared many also had little "omiyage" for everyone - little memento gifts. Some of these included first run maple syrup from upstate NY, darling wooden temari stands, hand stamped bookmarks, hot pink baseball hats and Mardigras beads (Blair is VERY proud of the fact that MardiGras originated in Mobile, not New Orleans), hand made accurate Vrulers, memento gifts from Japan, handmade Martha Stewart Travel Slippers, and the debut of the Official Temari Bumper sticker). This year's Official Attendees Commemorative Collector's item was a limited edition coffee mug. Caroyln created exquisite one of a kind wearable pincushions for us all - but they are not G-rated so we can't share them here. Nicole again whipped up keepsake nametags.... and I was much humbled with the hostess gifts that were bestowed- including a gorgeous authentic Japanese yukata robe. (The coffee mug was limited to those attending but a similar one is available, as are the various temari shirts you will see in the photos - this is where those gals got them!)
The "committee" also had some things up their sleeves too....everyone attending was asked to bring a wrapped gift in the 5 to 10 dollar range; then optionally also to bring a completed Temari to trade, one to three teenies to trade, and a marked mari with the threads to stitch it with to trade. Almost everyone brought all of them so there were good opportunities. The teenies were all put into the teenie bag and everyone that put in was given a "teenie ticket" - then at random intervals you were presented with the teenie bag to close your eyes and choose one - one choice for each teenie you put in until you had traded for the number you brought (kept track of with the teenie ticket). Everyone was warned that if you lost your ticket you were out for the rest and if there were teenies left over, they'd be raffled off at the end of the weekend. Trust me - no one lost their ticket (and there were some rather innovative ways of keeping track of them)! Not everyone was as enthused about the TemariKai Trivia Quiz - but it did prove to be an eye-opening if not learning experience for everyone (and there was a prize for the most correct answers so it wasn't all bad). Friday night we tucked in about 11:30 pm - Paula and Harriet had trundled back to the Marriott about 10:45, since we all planned to be stitching by 9:30am the next day. That still meant I had 7 other "girls" to get to bed.... Sue H and Blair were bunking in the front room, Nicole and Carolyn were in my room (BIG mistake to put those two together) - Sue C and I moved upstairs and had a slumber party with the dogs (my cockapoos Puffin and Scooter, Scooter being a 9 1/2 month old puppy). I was on the couch, Sue on the aerobed. Scooter is in love with Aunt Susie and merrily came to the conclusion that Aunt Susie's Aerobed was Scooter's own personal trampoline (with Sue in it). When I mentioned that it must sound like a herd of elephants to the room under us Sue replied that we needn't worry - they were doing just fine on their own down there.
Continue to page 2 - Saturday...
Plans got under way when Sue Cameron (alias "the committee") arrived at Stewart (Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, here - and they laugh at it since there are only two gates) not only on time but early on Monday, March 24th. Security had indeed been tightened at SWF - so that you could not sit in the waiting area that is also the baggage claim area until the person you were meeting had cleared the gate (twelve feet away from the baggage carousels, all two of them) - you had to stand on the other side of the tape (eight feet from the waiting room seats) - go figure. We went though this song and dance with all the arrivals and had a grand time making life generally difficult for the TSA agent charged with "guarding" the chairs as the week went on. Anywho - Sue was in safe and sound and we were off and running. We had a great visit together for a few days while we finished off the prep for everyone else arriving later in the week. I could not be pulling this off on my own without the extra help Sue gives to be sure. When we got home from the airport we were greeted with a message from Blair Heald that her flight plans had been altered and instead of arriving at 3pm on Thursday she was rebooked to arrive at 11pm. Ok - originally we needed to meet Carolyn at the Poughkeepsie Train Station for Amtrak at 8:15 Thursday night... so rather than doing plane then train we'd do train then plane. Late night, but ok. Wednesday afternoon we did a dry run to the train station since it'd been years since I'd been there (and of course as most train stations now in the US it is not in the nicer section of town as things have changed) - and we checked with the ticket agent who, when he heard what train we were going to meet the next night laughed in our faces about it always being at least 2 hours late (Carolyn was coming in from Jamestown, NY, having caught the train in Buffalo, and it actually originates in Toronto, doing the entire tier of New York State on its run. NY is NOT a little state, trust me). Well - that night I looked at Sue and said "for two cents I'd book a limo for Blair" - between the combo of it being so late to begin with (it's still another 45 minutes home from the airport after getting baggage) - and the likelihood of things running late and not wanting Blair sitting alone in an empty terminal - the look on Sue's face was "I'll give you the two cents". So - next morning I called the limo service (newly installed in SWF) and booked the ride, called Blair with the info and that was all set. Worked great - her flight actually tagged in about 8 minutes early to SWF, the driver was waiting and they delivered her to my doorstep at 11:45pm.
In the meantime Sue and I were just ready to leave to grab supper Thursday when the phone rang and it was Carolyn's hubby Dennis - worried about how Carolyn was going to manage to get off the train with her 56 pound suitcase (Dennis had weighed it, she'd only the day before managed to condense to bringing one suitcase rather than two, and had gone out and bought a new one, the largest she could find, just to come to Stitch In) and her 3 carry-ons. I assured him that two of us were meeting the train, and that we had staked the place out the day before and knew just what we were doing (hah!). Actually we did - had supper, grabbed the last of the perishable groceries, checked the train time on Amtrak again (we'd watched it all day on the Amtrak website and she was never more than 15 minutes out of schedule), due in on time so off we hustled to the station. This was one of those times when being eligible for a disabled parking permit comes in very handy - since we slid in right at the front door. They called the train's arrival track and we moseyed on down to it and were joined by a nice couple meeting their son coming in from RIT for the weekend. I struck up conversation with them with the plan that if we needed muscle to get Carolyn etal off the train we might have help. She pulled in on time and then it was pickacar, anycar to find her - I asked the conductor about a lady with a lot of luggage and a funny hat and he said "yup - coming right here....." I'm still not sure exactly HOW it all got off but it did, and we had her safe and sound with all the adjoining pieces; Sue took to hauling the suitcase (thankfully on wheels), I took two carry ons and Carolyn the other with her handbag, and we all merrily headed for the car. Soon as we cleared the tracks into the station we reported into Dennis that we had her safe and sound. It was a good thing that no one else was on that pickup run since it took all three of us to heft the bag into the trunk which it filled.... Carolyn and her carryons were installed in the back seat and we took off for home, mission accomplished. We had a delightful evening yet, awaiting Blair's arrival - Carolyn had indeed brought everything but the kitchen sink, including a quart of homemade shrimp dip packed in ice and a quart of the family Glogg recipe (basically a mulled port wine that knocked your socks off). We gave Carolyn a little help on working a C10 division and thankfully that was before she started in on the Glogg. She then was working on a Temari egg.... that evolved into a very interesting design. I don't think I have to say that the fun had already begun. Sue and I tucked Carolyn and Blair into their respective rooms downstairs and we began our slumber party with the two dogs in my studio upstairs.
Everyone else's arrivals on Friday were calm compared to that - God smiled upon us especially after the winter we'd had here, and Friday was a gorgeous day to both fly and drive. Sue Hayashi from Michigan was first in to SWF; Barb Seuss and Kathy Hewitt arrived from Raleigh via Philly a few minutes early and Nicole from Nashville via Atlanta on time - Paula George drove in from Pennsylvania and joined us at SWF to be an extra car just as the last bags came off the planes. We then headed for the Marriott in Fishkill for Paula to check in and for us to greet Harriet and David Strout who drove down from Maine. David has a "guy time" around the area while Harriet joins in with us... so with all in tow, off we took for the house. Paula and company got separated from us although we had been assured that Paula and Harriet remembered how to get to the house from the Marriott (they'd done this last year). Make it they did but - later that evening we had quite a narration between driver and navigator.... Blair and Carolyn had been given their "chore list" for the afternoon and had munchies ready and supper heating while we were grabbing folks off planes. As everyone got their bed assignments (I slept 8 here at the house) and settled in, freshened up and then converged on the food, Temari NY Stitch-In 2003 officially began.
After supper of my homemade Sloppy Joes and a great green salad from Paula, Friday night was a time of mostly re-acquainting. It turned out that of all the attendees that made it (Karen St.Jean and her traveling friend Joline were due to roll in for the weekend in Karen's motor home on their way home from Florida - unfortunately Karen called Wednesday from Statesville, NC that they had blown cylinders in the engine. That took care of them getting here, as they then limped back to Florida for her brother to work miracles on the engine - they did make it safely. Karen and Joline still plan on stopping for a visit on the way home since they are heading back to Connecticut) with the exception of Carolyn had met at least one or two of the people here before at either the Southern gatherings or the weekend here last year, so there was very little ice breaking needed (trust me - NO ice breaking needed) - we could not have asked for a more congenial jovial bunch. Puffin and Scooter (my two cockapoos) had no problems schmoozing up with everyone and collecting their share of goodies and tidbits (they particularly zeroed in on Harriet who came oh-so-close several times to "donating" her dinner plate). The laughter started and just never stopped. The evening ended up to be mostly show and tell, each person taking turns displaying their temari that they had brought along with anything related like pattern notebooks etc... and as each shared many also had little "omiyage" for everyone - little memento gifts. Some of these included first run maple syrup from upstate NY, darling wooden temari stands, hand stamped bookmarks, hot pink baseball hats and Mardigras beads (Blair is VERY proud of the fact that MardiGras originated in Mobile, not New Orleans), hand made accurate Vrulers, memento gifts from Japan, handmade Martha Stewart Travel Slippers, and the debut of the Official Temari Bumper sticker). This year's Official Attendees Commemorative Collector's item was a limited edition coffee mug. Caroyln created exquisite one of a kind wearable pincushions for us all - but they are not G-rated so we can't share them here. Nicole again whipped up keepsake nametags.... and I was much humbled with the hostess gifts that were bestowed- including a gorgeous authentic Japanese yukata robe. (The coffee mug was limited to those attending but a similar one is available, as are the various temari shirts you will see in the photos - this is where those gals got them!)
The "committee" also had some things up their sleeves too....everyone attending was asked to bring a wrapped gift in the 5 to 10 dollar range; then optionally also to bring a completed Temari to trade, one to three teenies to trade, and a marked mari with the threads to stitch it with to trade. Almost everyone brought all of them so there were good opportunities. The teenies were all put into the teenie bag and everyone that put in was given a "teenie ticket" - then at random intervals you were presented with the teenie bag to close your eyes and choose one - one choice for each teenie you put in until you had traded for the number you brought (kept track of with the teenie ticket). Everyone was warned that if you lost your ticket you were out for the rest and if there were teenies left over, they'd be raffled off at the end of the weekend. Trust me - no one lost their ticket (and there were some rather innovative ways of keeping track of them)! Not everyone was as enthused about the TemariKai Trivia Quiz - but it did prove to be an eye-opening if not learning experience for everyone (and there was a prize for the most correct answers so it wasn't all bad). Friday night we tucked in about 11:30 pm - Paula and Harriet had trundled back to the Marriott about 10:45, since we all planned to be stitching by 9:30am the next day. That still meant I had 7 other "girls" to get to bed.... Sue H and Blair were bunking in the front room, Nicole and Carolyn were in my room (BIG mistake to put those two together) - Sue C and I moved upstairs and had a slumber party with the dogs (my cockapoos Puffin and Scooter, Scooter being a 9 1/2 month old puppy). I was on the couch, Sue on the aerobed. Scooter is in love with Aunt Susie and merrily came to the conclusion that Aunt Susie's Aerobed was Scooter's own personal trampoline (with Sue in it). When I mentioned that it must sound like a herd of elephants to the room under us Sue replied that we needn't worry - they were doing just fine on their own down there.
Continue to page 2 - Saturday...