EAC Seminar 2017 - Rock, Needle, Scissors - Part 1

Seminar was a blast! Last year everything was new and I was very nervous going in, but this year it was all about meeting friends again and also making new ones.

My class kit all ready to start

I flew out on Monday so we would be there a day before registration day. We find that it worked out quite well last year. It gave us the chance to unpack and relax. Many people come in even earlier for meetings, but there is an even bigger crowd that comes in on the Tuesday and they all want to get checked-in and settled.

We booked a two bedroom suite again this year. It comes with a private bath. Unfortunately, no kitchen. Instead every floor had a shared kitchen area as well as a study lounge. So lots of sitting area to meet up in.

The lovely view from my room! The sun comes out early in St-John's waking us up. Not to mention the birds that you can hear outside. I've woken up many a morning at 5:30. It's no wonder I came home exhausted.

Tuesday morning we woke up early to get some breakfast. After wards, my roommate Fran had to go to an ACRAM meeting. It's a three hour meeting where the Atlantic and Central region chapters of EAC meet. I didn't have to go as there were representatives from both of my guilds attending but it was very interesting all the same. They went around the table and each guild representative had to give two good points that happened to them this year as well as one thing they would like to improve. The one point to improve that kept coming back was how guilds can attract young members. Which was very funny since they had what is most probably the youngest seminar attendee actually sitting in on the meeting; namely me :) I was sitting, quietly stitching on Roses and the Bramble.

After the meeting, it was registration and a rush to submit our exhibition pieces. This years seminar packet contained a lot of goodies: an origami ORT box (purple chevron), a needle-book made from a paint sample card (mine's blue), flower beeswax, some threads, a fob, needle threader, some patterns and the seminar pins. I love the puffin one!

After wards, I don't have pictures, I spent the rest of my afternoon helping Patricia the owner of l'Atelier de Penelope setup her boutique. I did it last year and it was a lot of hard work, but also fun to get a peek at all the products she brought with her. I always enjoy spending time with her, we talk about the latest products and books. We even went shopping for table clothes and baskets. Later that night we had the opening reception. We had a harpist entertaining us. (you need to open the post in your browser to watch the video).

The very next day, we woke up early eager to start our class. We were in the science building and it took a while to get used to the campus and how to get to each location. This year classes were scattered among 3 buildings so we couldn't exactly visit each other during breaks. this was a HUGE bummer. Anyways, I picked a spot somewhere in the middle right of the classroom right next to the window. I brought a lamp with me, but I much prefer natural light. Turns out I picked right, since our teacher, Jetta Roy Finlay Heath, was using the projector and was constantly turning the lights on and off.

Fran, Clare, Pauline and I were all taking the same class together again. The biggest surprise was meeting our teacher from last year's seminar Barbara Kershaw, this time as a fellow student.

The rest of my kit

Jetta had a display at the back with some of her designs. They were all so pretty.

This is the piece that we were working on. It's called Hedebo Enchantment.

Day one was all about satin stitches and the square stitch. We ended the day with a TON of homework to do for the next day. Most of it was needed to be able to do the cut work in the border. The entire time we were there, I don't think any of us ever finished our homework the day before. We were always staying up late to stitch and then coming in an hour before class started to finish in time for the day's lesson. It wasn't just us either, you went on any floor at the residence (we took over about five floors) and chances are you would find a group of stitchers sitting together and working on their assignments. It was very fun because even if we couldn't see each other during the day, we could catch up at night.

Day two, we took out our scissors to do the cutwork. I got the chance to try out some of my new tools which I brought with me. The pineapple pin is a stitch marker made by Floss Candy. The pineapple is just the right size to hold in hand to remove fabric threads. I also got the chance to test out the tweezers my sister bought me. They are so much better than my old ones. You don't have to exert a lot of force when you are pulling and the grip is very comfortable. I'm looking forward to using them more.

At the end of day two, we had Merchant night, a night we were all very much looking forward to. You will just have to wait till the next post to see what I bought ;)