Busy February 2013

Our January Outreach program was rescheduled because of bad weather, so our February has been busy.

We started the month with National Stitch In Public on Feb. 2.  We met at the Short Pump Barnes & Noble and had quite a crowd.  There were lots of different projects and we had quite a few people show interest in our work. 



Carol had been finishing the gold work on the coif, so she brought it to the Stitch In, so we had a few more questions about that.

 

 

Next, we met on Saturday, Feb. 16 for our rescheduled Outreach Program. Diana found some really nice bookmarks online that easily fit a small square of stitching on plastic canvas.  You can see how many of those we were able to finish in just a few hours.  Plus a couple of bookmarks done before the session.  We are well on our way to the 70 bookmarks we need by May.  And the pizza was great!



On Tuesday, Feb. 19, we had the second part of the acorn stumpwork class.  With any luck, somebody will bring their work to the next meeting so we can see how things are going - and get some photos to post.

Speaking of our next meeting, on Tuesday, March 19, fellow member Jennifer Stumpf will present a lecture class on tambour embroidery. If you would like to see some of her work, you can visit her blog at: http://stitchinginthepursuitofhappiness.blogspot.com/

Don't forget March 19 is the sign up deadline if you want to take part in the April 16th retro-embroidery iron-on class.

2012 Holiday Luncheon

As usual, our annual Holiday Luncheon at the Hermitage Club was wonderful. Thanks to everyone who worked to set things up. Everyone enjoyed the measuring gauge favors.  And of course, we all loved the ornament exchange.  It is always so exciting to see all the different techniques and styles that appear from the bags. 

Don't forget, our January program is Bookmarks for Literacy.  Diana will have lots of simple kits for us to work on and FINISH at the meeting.  Please bring in any you have worked on as well.  We are trying to gather 70 stitched bookmarks so all the children in one school can get one.

Tuckahoe Library Exhibit

We were invited to set up an embroidery display at the Tuckhoe Library again this year.  The theme was Holiday Stitching and there were lots of lovely pieces on display in October. Thank you to everyone who lent their work for the display.

Don't forget our meetings for November:

November 10, 2012 BIG Meeting
BIG (Beading Interest Group) will continue to work on our holiday bracelets. Please join us from 9:00 to 11:00 AM at the Twin Hickory Library to learn the technique for this project or work on a project of your own.

November 20, 2012 Meeting
Kathy, our Education Committee Chair, will present From Flax to Linen. This will be a lecture and there will be no cost to attend. We encourage you to bring a piece to stitch on while you listen.

Start of a New Program Year and New Beading Group

Our Program Committee has some very exciting activities set up for us this year.And we have a beading group.  And we will have a lecture in November and our Christmas luncheon is set for December 15.

September 18: Member Appriciation Program. Catherine wil show us how to make cross stitch completely reversible and beautiful on both the front and back of your work. Perfect for projects such as book marks, afghans, collars, table linens, cuffs, and coasters! We will cover how to work cross stitches in any direction and how to hide beginning and ending threads invisibly. Your coaster will be finished with the reversible Four-Sided stitch. We will be working on Zweigart® Biella fabric which is 26 count working over 2 threads.  Here are two of the six designs you can choose from.

October 16th and February 19th: the stumpwork acorn project. We have decided to use two meetings for this project - October and February! Cynthia will facilitate the October meeting where we will focus the class on making the three dimensional acorn and cap. We will be practicing on a larger wooden bead than the one in your kit. We will continue with the making of the leaves in our February class. Please feel free to bring your project to other monthly meetings. We will be available to help you during the time period prior to the start of the chapter meeting.

March 19th:a lecture class on the art form of tambour embroidery with member Jennifer Stumpf. If you would like to see some of her work, you can visit her blog at: http://stitchinginthepursuitofhappiness.blogspot.com/

April 16th:“Let’s Go Retro” with iron-on transfer embroidery. Won’t this be loads of fun? To the right is just an example of what can be done

May 21st:Victorian beaded embroidery with Merry Susan. We will be doing something similar to the piece below, but it will be done on a printed fabric, not on canvas. This class will be a technique class. You will be able to finish your piece as you like.

 

 

We now have a Beading Interest Group (BIG) in our EGA chaper.  The group started with these lovely scissor fobs.  At the next meetings, on October 13 and November 20 the Beading Interest Group (BIG) will continue to work on our holiday bracelet. THey will explore the peyote stitch with the two-drop variation. The meeting is held from 9:00 to 11:00 AM at the Twin Hickory Library.

Here is the group in the Twin Hickory meeting room.

 

 

We are always happy to see visitors and new members.  You don't need to be an expert embroiderer, you just need to enjoy doing needlework.  Please see our website in the links to the side for more information.







Goldwork and Stitching in Public

We started our year with a program to support our Agecroft Hall Coif outreach project.  The silk embroidery is nearly done so the goldwork tendrils and highlights are next.  There was no specific project for the outreach class, just a chance for everyone to play around with various goldwork stitches.  Everyone received some linen, a needle, and some #8 Kreinik braid to play with.  But there were also notebooks and samples of lots of different types of gold and metallic thread were given out so everyone could see the wide range of threads available.  We discussed how to use gold threads, using metallic threads to highlight projects, and some of the ways gold was used in older embroideries, like the coif. 

February 4th was Stitch-in-Public Day and a group of our members met at the Barnes & Noble.  Lots of interest in all the lovely things.  Any excuse to stitch!

Our February program, on Tuesday the 21st, will be the Historic Sampler Study Box from EGA.  Hope to see you there.

October Regional Meeting - MAR

The Mid-Atlantic Region EGA meeting was held here in Richmond in October. As well as a business lunch, it was also the SMART Weekend so there was a wonderful lecture on antique needlework tools by Carol Meacham on Friday night and two great classes with Joyce Lumkomski to learn about beading and filling stitches. Gentle Pursuits chapter hosted the meeting and Catherine, Kathy, and Laurie, and many of our other members did a great job setting things up.

Here are Dee, Laurie, Kathy, Nancy, and Catherine at the Welcome table on Friday.

And here is Joyce with one of her amazing necklaces. Her fabulous fillings class was great as well.

Many people also made the trip to Agecroft Hall to see their latest exhibit - Woven into English Society: Textiles and Embroidery from the 16th and 17th Centuries. This exhibit includes many of the amazing textiles in the Agecroft Hall collection as well as the partially completed coif Gentle Pursuits has been working on. The exhibit runs until next year, so if you are interested there is still time if you are going by Richmond.

EGA National Seminar

It looks like our chapter president, Catherine Jordan, is having fun at the EGA National Seminar in Naples, FL! Here she is with Patty Smith-Gardner, the MAR Newsletter Editor. If you want to see more of what is going on at the National Seminar, check out the latest entries on the EGA Blog.