The Review...
It is so hard to believe that this was
the third - yes THIRD! Annual StitchIn here - and by all accounts we
managed to pull off another one. This year made history on two counts -
it was the largest with 14 in attendance, and it marked the first
international gathering as well (probably also the one with the most
number of US states represented). We had temari-ites from Tacoma,
Washington (Kathy H); Wyomissing, Pennsylvania (Paula G.); Fairbanks,
Alaska (Carol C.); Nashville, Tennessee (Nicole B.); Atlanta, Georgia
(Sue C.); Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sue H.); Fairhope, Alabama (Blair H.);
Upper Marlboro and Rockville, Maryland (Ryan W and Marion L.);
Plainfield, Connecticut (Karen St.J.); Cornish, Maine (Harriet S.);
Berea, Kentucky (Eric C.)Poughkeepsie, New York (Ginny T.) and Devon,
England/UK (Sarah B.). Nine brave souls camped here at the house, and
five more sane ones kept the local Marriot Courtyard on its toes.
This was also a longer running one, if
unofficially; Sue C arrived a week ahead of time not only to visit but
also to be my arms and legs again (without which these events would not
be), flying into Stewart International (gosh that sounds impressive,
when in reality there is one gate and two baggage carousels) on
Saturday April 17. We had some visit time over the weekend before
hitting the deck running on Monday to get things stocked; then Sarah B.
arrived on Tuesday the 20th, having flown into Newark Liberty (just a
few more gates and carousels) on British Air. We'd been planning and
hoping for this for a year (or more) - and I had a limo (ok, Lincoln
Towncar) waiting for her upon arrival, so that she was delivered on my
doorstep within two and half hours of touching down. As has happened so
many times, meeting for the first time was like a longlost reunion and
none of us could believe that we had not already known each other.
Sarah settled in nicely and even managed to stay awake till about
8:30pm that first night, having been up the equivalent of about 40
hours at that point; despite thoughts of moving in with a bunch of axe
murderers and determining that the proof was the pile of "previous
stitchin attendees relics" in the living room (I have two dogs who get
a new bone nightly but I assure you they are beef bones......) - she
had a good night's sleep. Wednesday saw us getting more errands done,
being sure that Sarah had the proper gifts to take back home (her four
year old had ordered up a "large blue pretend horse", which most
amazingly the local ToysRUs supplied us with nicely if a bit smaller
than Isobel was hoping for) and seeing a little of the local area
(although perhaps taking her to the cemetery as the first stop was a
bit off kilter... but it is the place with the most local history and
all of the gardens were coming into bloom..... that didn't help the axe
murderer suspicion though) - then it was back home to supper (or "tea")
- and another cozy evening of stitching and sharing. Thursday got us
getting the final gift shopping and groceries done, then awaiting the
beginning arrivals for the weekend (due to Stewart's wide reaching
capacity some found it easier to come in a day early). Blair arrived
for a late supper and then we had a good stroll around the neighborhood
(which is a nightly routine for the dogs) including Brendan (my adopted
little brother that lives two doors down and was thoroughly enjoying
the ever-growing parade each night, sort of like the Pied Piper. The
neighborhood got into how many Ginny was going to have in tow next
time... and then the call came that Sue H and Carol C were on the
ground and had claimed the rental car, and were on their way from
Stewart (believe it or not, they ended up on the same connection from
Chicago into SWF).
(That helped a lot - either I have been incredibly naive or luck
in previous years in that most everyone arrived within about a three or
four hour window; this year these two were the only ones I had coming
in within six hours of each other. It still worked! God bless Sue H.
for the idea of renting the car, which meant an extra vehicle and
person to help with the chauffeuring.) They pulled in about 11:30 - not
having had supper so after a quick frozen pizza we tucked in for the
night. That brought us to five.
Sue C and I took off for Stewart again
Friday morning, leaving Sarah and Sue H to mind the fort.... and
claimed Kathy H from her flight up from Raleigh where she had been
visiting family before coming in to the weekend, grabbed the last of
the perishable groceries and got back home for a late lunch. We also
got home to find out that Nicole was throwing tantrums in the Nashville
airport since she got there (which is about a mile from home for her)
to find out her flight to Cincinatti had been cancelled.... she was
able to reticket in on a later flight and we scarmbled to try to get a
message to Eric that Nicole would not be meeting him in Cincinatti on
the same connection as had orginally worked out. Sue H and Sue C took
off again to Stewart late afternoon to claim Eric on a 5:30 arrival
while I worked on Friday supper and welcomed the driving-inners: Karen,
Paula, Ryan, Marion and Harriet. The last Stewart shuttle rolled in and
we tucked into hot steak sandwiches, salad and assorted munchies (of
which we were not lacking).
Much as we hated to not be able to wait
for Nicole (and needless to say, Nicole was in charge of nametags... so
the five freshman and a few others that were here on separate years had
to wing it till they arrived. However, we're not too sure how much help
they were - according to Nicole, Blair didn't exist and Se C had
somehow reloacted to Poughkeepsie from Atlanta without Sue knowing it),
we got rolling after supper with the distribution of
goodies and Show and Tell. As you know if you have been following the
StitchIns the last years, I try to come up with a keepsake for
everyone, and this year we had custom embroidered totes - there was a
method to my madness in that with this many people, every bag had a
nice big name tag on it - first order on the agenda was write your name
on your tag and get instructed to keep your stuff in your bag (!). The
bags however did not come empty. We were extremely fortunate with
donated goodies from both corporate and private sources. My local tourism agency donated
thee different local sourcebooks that included good readable history of
the area (my thanks to Mary Wright); Vicki Smith of YLI Threads Corporation donated
full-spool samples of Pearl Crown Rayon, Candlelight and Bunka; Tracy
Chapman of Sew Thankful
contributed full size balls of Valdani and Finca Pearl Cottons; our own
Beth Stoll from the TalkTemari list had made temari fabric coasters for
everyone and Carolyn Volk also from TalkTemari and a StitchIn alum from
2003 who
could not make it this year (or so we thought) had hand painted small
wooden balls in traditional temari patterns as magnets for everyone..
In addition to the giftbags these folks also provided door
prizes along with yet others; in told we had about six hundred dollars
worth of donated goodies (in gift bags and door prizes) to go around
and I am deeply grateful to
everyone who made it possible.
We then rolled into the traditional
Show and Tell - whereby just about everyone takes turns showing off
what they have completed during the year (or longer if they were
freshman to the event) - and this is also when many of the group give
out to the others their little "o-miyage" - small token gifts of
sharing and friendship. While certainly not obligatory, this has also
become kind of a favorite tradition ( and it may be in many forms
including sharing special talents). We had quite the gamut from origami
bookmarks, tiny glass eggs, handmade display balls with photos of our
temari, book holder-open/propperuppers, rice hulls, silk threads, rayon
threads.... all generating oohs and ahhs - and, we were
also treated to traditional Japanese munchies and sweets. Nicole
finally managed to guide her limo driver in about 10:30, and we caught
her up (I'd been playing for two to be sure her goodie bag was getting
filled).... and we finally all found our ways to beds (including
Nicole's Teddy Bear, Sweetie, named for her hubby that arrived with her
and yes, she did indeed sleep
with him) be they
here at the house or at the Marriott by about midnight, since we agreed
to an 8:30 get-going time in the morning. I have to admit - all things
considered, it was a quiet crew considering some years!!!
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G.Thompson