February 2018 Meeting

President Mary Rita welcomed everyone and started the meeting.

Secretary Caryl C. reported she has found part of the email problem.   The emails come from the DVHSG yahoo email account.   Some email servers block email from Yahoo.   Please check your spam filter/junk mail.  Emails are sent the day of or day after the monthly meeting and the Sunday before the the monthly meetings.   Please let Caryl know if you are not receiving the emails.  

Treasurer Nancy F. shared the Thank You notes received from Bergen County Historical Society, Winterthur, and the Gloucester County Historical Society.  Each organization received a donation from DVHSG to be dedicated to sampler restoration.  

Broken Needle Ceremony

Patrick conducted a Japanese Broken Needle Ceremony.  This ritual is a twice yearly event held on December 8th, the date of Buddha's enlightenment and February 8th, the date of Buddha's birthday.  This ceremony was done for stitchers to acknowledge the hard work there needles had performed for them the previous year and to pay tribute to the hard work of the needle.  It was also believed that since your needle is your constant companion, the needle knows all your secrets.  When you bury the needle into the tofu, you are burying your secrets.  The ceremony also wishes you better sewing skills in the the new year. Following the burying of the needles, Patrick recited a prayer of gratitude written for the Broken Needle Ceremony.  

Programs 

March - We will host Nikki of Nikki's Creations for the morning meeting and an afternoon class.  The morning meeting is open to all members.  The afternoon class required advance sign-up which is now closed.

April - A guest speaker will bring some of your collection of over 100 antique samplers.  She will share her knowledge of samplers, how she finds them and how she goes about selling them.

April - MEMBERS ONLY Retreat at the Lankford Hotel/Salty Yarns in Ocean City, Maryland will be April 27, 28 and 29th.   The cost is $140 which includes two nights, two continental breakfasts and a Friday evening welcome reception.

May - Debra Wilson will be our guest speaker.   For our meeting she will share the history of gold work.   In the afternoon, she will teach a gold work class.  The afternoon class is $58 and will include lunch and materials.   More information on sign ups will follow.   Please pay attention to the additional information that is provided with the sign up information.   It will list items each stitcher MUST SUPPLY.

June - Many will be attending the Symposium at the Biggs Museum on this same date so the June Meeting will be a Stitch In.

Stitch-a-Long

There are errors at the beginning of some rows.  Marnie has the next set of rows charted for the Lauren Sauer Band Sampler SAL.  It appears stitchers will run out of the forest glade green supplied.  It was suggested to use another green on the dividing bands.  Also, the Montenegrin stitch consumes a lot of floss so a substitute stitch should be considered.  For the rows with flowers, it is suggested to put in the vines first and then come back to do the flowers.  Also, some are doing all the stitching but the satin stitches and will return to the do the satin stitches last.  

2017 Challenge

Patrick thanked everyone who participated in the 2017 challenge.   Collectively we finished 185 projects.   The top fourteen were awarded prizes.  They each received a telescoping wand with a magnet on the end.  Perfect for picking the needle dropped under the table.   For 2018, the Challenge will be repeated.  The binder will be available at every meeting for members to list their completed projects. 

This month's program

Patty Yergey of Samplers Revisited was our guest speaker.   She brought along many samplers and spoke in detail about two.   The Lydia Wharton Sampler, from Millsboro, DE (top) and the Phyllis Tally Sampler from Talleyville, DE (below)  Through research, Patty provided so much information about Lydia and her prominent Sussex County DE family.  The Wharton Family name is very popular in Sussex County.  At one time, her family owned 2,000 acres of farm land.  Her sons become Senators and Congressmen. Her sampler is more plain and primitive looking then Priscilla Talley's sampler.   Priscilla's sampler indicates a girl with more schooling then Lydia and a family of social status and money, shall we say, refinement.  However, that said, there is little known about Priscilla and her family other than their farm was located in what is called Talleyville north of Wilmington, DE.

Priscilla Talley's sampler appears on the soon to be published book by Gloria Seaman Allen.

Many other samplers were on display.   Below, in the center is the from Lancaster County, PA. Fianna's Show Towel taking towel motifs and arranging them in a sampler.   The pumpkins are first and second in a series by Pat Yergey.

 Sarah Greene Sampler, circa 1849

Jane McNair Ketching Scottish Sampler, circa 1862

Hay Cairns Scottish Sampler, 1840

 Show & Tell

SamSarah Design, stitched by Kathy Reed

Also stitched by Kathy Reed.

From HeartStrings Samplers, stitched by Kathy Reed.

Cherish Stitches pillow kit stitched by Pat L.

Goldwork stitched by Carolyn N.

 This trio was stitched by Carolyn N.   It was one Drawn Thread pattern that she stitched individually.  She switches them out within the same frame for the different seasons.  Clever clever clever!

 Also stitched by Carolyn N.   Charted for pastels, she changed it up to the patriotic themed colors.

This stunning piece was stitched by Deb E.   It was an online stitching class from the Gift of Stitching in 2006.   Each section is dedicated to a different region of the world and came with interested facts and an explanation of the motifs for that area.

Basket of pillows from Little House, stitched by Jean T.

January 2018 Meeting

Due to the cancellation off ur December Meeting our Holiday Exchange was postponed to the January Meeting.   The January Meeting was held at the Hockessin Library.   Because we were in the Library, we could not have our usual potluck luncheon.   Nonetheless, we were about to meet and have our exchanges with many thanks to the Library for allowing us to meet in their facility.   We will be back at Cokesbury in February.   

At our meeting we took time for a big THANK YOU to Susan D.  who served as our president for the past three years. We are all grateful for the wonderful job she did and we are appreciative of her willingness to volunteer for the position. We also welcomed Mary Rita Miller as our new president.

2018 Stitch-a-long

For those who took the Lauren Sauer Class in September, we will be working on her band sampler as a Stitch-a-long.  If you are participating, we are working on bands 1 to 8 this month.  The dividing bands are included in this count.  Thank you to Marnie B. for (trying) to keep us on track  with this project. 

If you didn’t take the class, please consider selecting a sampler from your stash to work on throughout this year. It will be fun to see everyone’s progress. Wouldn't it be fun to have close to 100 completed band samplers by the end of the year?

Conservation Fund

This year we donated $1,000 each to the following organizations to assist in sampler conservation.  

• The Gloucester County Historical Society (for 3 NJ samplers); 
• Winterthur (to support their symposium in the fall); and
• The Bergen County Historical Society (for 2 woolwork pieces). 

If you know an organization that is interested in applying for a grant, applications are accepted up till August.  (see our Conservation Fund tab above)

Email Account  

We have been having off and on issues with our Yahoo email account. Members are not receiving reminders and newsletters. Although people are included on the distribution lists, the emails don't always get delivered and we do not get any notification from Yahoo that delivery has failed.  Reminders are sent on the Sunday before meetings and newsletters are typically sent within one to two days after meetings.   If you are concerned that you are not getting either our emails or if you know someone who is not receiving our emails, please reach out to me at my home email (carthew99@comcast.net).   Thank you for your patience as we work through this hiccup!  

Upcoming Meetings - 

• February: Patty Yergey of Samplers Revisited will be giving a presentation. She will debut the Priscilla Talley 1839 sampler and will be bringing charts that will be for sale ($25). She will also debut the Lydia Wharton 1821 sampler and the chart will be available for members for $15.  These sales are in advance of Nashville. In addition, she will have some other charts of new and previous releases for sale. She requests cash or check only—no credit cards. Sounds like fun! The Priscilla Tally sampler is the cover photo for the new book by Gloria Seamen Allen that will be on sale at the Biggs Museum in the spring.
• Also at the February meeting, Patrick will also lead us in the Broken Needle Ceremony again this year, so bring any needles that need to be retired!
• March: Niky Farrauto of NikysCreations will present an Italian Flower Pot Needleroll.  During our regularly scheduled meeting she will give a presentation.   The project class will be in the afternoon.  For those participating in the class, Stacy distributed the  kits for the pre-work.
• April: We will have a presentation from a sampler collector and we will learn about how she researches and collects samplers.
• May: Deborah Merrick-Wilson will be with us to teach a class on English Precious Metal Embroidery. She will talk about goldwork and its history in the morning and teach a class in the afternoon. The project is a simple leaf and would be appropriate for both beginners to goldwork and as well as more advanced stitchers.
• June: TBD
• July : Pat Young will give a presentation on angels for Christmas in July. We would also love to have members bring in their examples of stitched angels!
• August: Our annual stash relocation event!

Annual Holiday Exchange

We had our holiday exchange—everyone that participated brought beautiful things. We are a talented group and it definitely showed.   I was not at the meeting and I may have some of the pieces in the Show and Tell Section instead of the Exchange Section.  :-( 

What a talented and generous group of stitchers.



Show and Tell

Stitched by Patti H. 

Stitched by Carolyn N. 

Stitched by Patrick B.

Stitched by Jean T.

Lessons in Abecedarian from With Thy Needle and Thread/Brenda Gervais

Stitched by Caryl C.

Stitch Everyday Drum from Hands On Designs

SamSarah Design finished as a drum also by Caryl C.

And lastly from Caryl C., this patriotic small from Mani di Donna

 Stitched by Ellen P.

Also by Ellen P.

Handiwork of Jane G.

Also stitched by Jane G.

Pioneer School Girl, Betsy Morgan Class, Stitched by  - ..............

 Seashore stitching by Stacy S.

 Thank you Caryl for your immediate turn around of the notes and for posting all the photos on our Facebook page.