August 2024 Meeting

Our August meeting was called to order by our President Eve C.  Eve welcomed all online via Zoom to the meeting.    There were 58 members online.   New members and guests were welcomed.  Minutes were distributed of the July meeting in the meeting’s follow up Newsletter.   Committee Reports were shared.

Items of interest

The Green Book - Patrick said to keep up the good stitching and continue to submit via email your finsihes throughout the year.   Patrick will print and add to the binder to continue to create a record of the finishes we have accomplished.

Conservation Fund - Marnie has sent reminders to the 18 organizations who received the grant forms for our 2024 grant funds.   To date, she has had four response with questions and interest.  The deadline is September 30 to apply for funding.  At that time, the committee will review the submissions and make a recommendation to the Board.

Secret Stitcher - Susan H has sent out the names to all those participating.  If participating, please reply to her email that you have received your Secret Stitcher’s name.

Holiday Exchange - Susan H will again handle the holiday exchange.   Away stitchers can participate.   Away stitchers watch for more information about signing up.   Those attending in person, there is no need to sign up in advance.   If you bring a wrapped small, you will be a wrapped small in return.

Questionnaire - Susan H will be working with Stacy S to create a questionnaire for members.  Watch for this in the coming month.

Hummingbird SAL - Band 8 at bottom left and Band 9 at top right are the August assignments.   Continue to work on the border.

Nominating Committee - Susan H, Linda D. and Mary Rita M are on the Nominating Committee. For this election we have two positions open:  Vice President/Program Director and Treasurer.   Please contact one of these ladies if you have any interest in holding one of these positions.

Upcoming Programs

September - Teresa Miller of Teresa’s Primitives will lead the class in finishing a fall small.   All members can attend the meeting.   For those who signed up for the class, you should have received your pre-stitch.   Please bring the completed stitch, with interfacing attached, to the September meeting.

October - This will be our Garage Sale.  Bring any stitching related items you wish to sell.  You set the prices.    The Guild suggests you donated 5 or 10%  of your profits to the Guild’s Conservation Fund.   Any items unsold, can be left and will be taken to Fireside Stitchery for eBay sales.  Any money raised from eBay sales will go into the Conservation Fund

November - We will have Kim Young of Sassy Jack’s discuss the Mabel Tukes Sampler.   Forms will be available from our August Meeting Newsletter.   It was decided this meeting would coincide with our Fall Retreat at Salty Yarns in Berlin, MD.    All members, whether at Salty Yarns or at home, will be able to participate in the meeting via Zoom.   The cost for the kit will be $80.   You will have the choice of 32, 36 or 40 count linen.   The Retreat form will also be available in the August Newsletter.   The cost has been increased to $75.

December - Annual Holiday Exchange

2025 - Upcoming in 2025 will be Catherine Theron/Sampler, Jackie DuPlessis/Berlin work, and a presentation by Dawn Cook Ronningen.

Next Meeting - In person, September 14th, 10 a.m.

June and July 2024

For June, our meeting was called by President Eve C.   She welcomed all new members.    Committee Reports were provided.   

Our program for the month was presented by member, Evalyn G.   Evalyn discussed silkworms and silk production.    It was informative as well as a fascinating discussion on the how silk was produced from the earliest times in America.    Evalyn suggested “American Silk - 1830 - 1930:  Entrepreneurs and Artifacts” as a great reference book, available (of course) from Amazon.  

For our July Meeting, President Eve C. welcomed all present today on Zoom. We had approximately 75 participants.  Committee Reports were provided.

 

For the July program, Beth Seal from Summer House Stitch Workes gave a presentation on Susquehanna Valley Samplers. What a wonderful discussion filled with a ton of information about the stitchers and the many schools (15) of the region where young girls learned their needlework.  Beth’s  sampler and her Fragments in Time pillows relate to the Susquehanna Valley area samplers.    The patterns were made available at a discounted rate through July from Salty Yarns.  Beth also shared “Harriet’s Valentine” pillow.

Photos taken from Beth’s slide show.  

Sophia Shindel, 1824

Notice the similarities of the baskets.   Points to possibly the same teacher/school

Elizabeth Sansinich, 1803

Close up of Mary Ann Stauffer

Beth discussed marking samplers and the importance for the young girls to learn to do markings for linens.

Another great presentation by Beth and arranged by our Program Director, Stacy S.

General News

·       Don’t forget to wear your name-tag at in-person meetings.    If you forget, you owe $1 to the conservation fund.

·       2024 SAL—For July,  members should be working on the July assignment (Band 6 with the Running stitch and Double Cross (or Smyrna Cross) and remaining border areas.)  If you have any questions, reach out to Linda D.

·        Secret Stitcher—If you wish to participate in the next Secret Stitcher Exchange, please sign up by the end of July.  There are  17 participants so far. Below is the link for the google form survey (if you wish to sign up for the next round).:  https://forms.gle/bpuqZAt3qFQdUEBK8

· The Green Book - Patrick maintains the “book of projects”for the Guild.   Member’s pages are filed alphabetically.   Members list their completed projects for the calendar year.  You can send them any time but definitely by December 30th. Patrick tallies the statistics and shares our statistics with the Guild in January.  Anyone who submits a list will get a prize.

·       Rehoboth Beach Historical Society and Museum 2024 Needlework Exhibition—Submission dates for this year are August 26th through September 4th. If you are interested in entering, please send an email to collections@rbmuseum.org and they will send you an application. Be sure to put “Add me to the needlework mailing list” in the subject line. The exhibition runs from September 14th through November 10th.

·       Continued thanks to Stacy S. for all her hard work in scheduling our programs!! We are planning to have zoom only for approximately 6 meetings and in-person (hybrid) for approximately 6 meetings. Watch your email for specifics as more activities are scheduled.  If you have ideas for future programs, please reach out to Stacy (stacystin@gmail.com)

Upcoming Meetings

August—(Zoom) Finishing Pin Drums - Member Caryl C. will lead a tutorial on how to finish drums. She will provide PDF Instructions prior to the meeting in case you want to take notes.   The meeting will be recorded.

September—(Hybrid) We will host Teresa’s Primitive Treasures. Teresa Miller will demonstrate how to paint and fully finish a fall themed tray.   The meeting time will be extended to 3 p.m. to allow enough time.  Away stitchers can participate.   Pre-stitching will be shipped from Teresa in early August.  In-person participants will have paint available, but away stitchers will not have that included in the kit. The instructions will include what you need to have available.  There are no plans to provide lunch so you will need to bring lunch or a snack.

October—(Hybrid) Garage sale. Bring your patterns including any you have decided that, although you like them, you have made the honest assessment that you will never get to them…..bring fabric, supplies, and any stash you wish to get rid of.  The Guild would like a nominal donation to the guild’s Conservation Fund from the proceeds of your sales.    You have the option to leave any items that are not sold to be taken to Fireside Stitchery for sale on eBay.    Any profit from eBay sales will also go to the Conservation Fund.

November (2024)—(Hybrid) Kim from Sassy Jack’s will join us to teach us the Mabel Tukes sampler. The membership voted during a spring meeting, to have the November Meeting coincide with out semi-annual retreat at Salty Yarns, in Berlin, Maryland (as we did last year). People not attending the retreat will be able to participate in the meeting and presentation by Zoom.

Both the flyer for the Mabel Tukes Sampler and for the Retreat at Salty Yarns will be with the August Newsletter.   The Retreat cost has increased this year to $75.00.

December (2024)—We will have our annual smalls exchange. The small should be sampler-related, but not holiday themed. It should also include your initials and the year.

On the drawing board and coming to DVHSG in 2025 are programs from -  Jackie DuPlessis, Catherine Theron, Dawn Ronningen

Continued thanks to Stacy Stinson for all her hard work in scheduling our programs!! We are planning to have zoom only for approximately 6 meetings and in-person (hybrid) for approximately 6 meetings. Watch your email for specifics as more activities are scheduled. 

Following in-person meetings, members are welcome to gather after the meeting for lunch  at The Well (6949 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin, DE).

 We currently have 219 members that have joined or renewed for 2024.

Next Meeting - Zoom - August 10, 10 a.m.

May 2024 Meeting

President Eve called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone.   New members and guests were invited to share a little about themselves.   We had 65 members in attendance via Zoom.

Treasurer’s Report was provided.   Payments and deposits were reviewed.    An informal audit of the Treasurer’s records was completed in April with no errors found.    We currently have 215 paid memberships.

 Conservation Committee -   Applications have been sent to 16 organizations.   In the next four to six week, Marnie will be reaching out to these organizations she sent applications to in case any have questions.   If you have a local society that houses samplers and could use assistance in restoration, let Marnie know.  The deadline for submission is September 30th.  

SAL—Members should be working on the May Assignment, Band 5, the bargello.  Linda suggested starting with the 3rd color row down so you can complete a full row.  Filling in above and below once the initial row is completed.   Hint - always come up in the empty hole and down into the full hole when doing bargello.

Secret Stitcher— Susan provided a great PowerPoint on the Secret Stitcher program.   The current Secret Stitcher year will end August 31st.   Between now and then, participants should send their last package and should reveal themselves to their secret stitcher.    To sign up for the next year’s secret stitcher exchange, a link to a questionnaire/sign up form will be in the next member newsletter.  You will need to sign up by August 31st.   

Current participants continue to share items they have been receiving on Facebook.  If you do not have a Facebook account, please pass your “thank you” on to Susan H and she will post it to the DVHSG FB page.   Thank you Susan for doing such a great job spear-heading this for our members. 

Retreat -  The Fall Retreat will be the same weekend as the November Meeting Day, (November 8th, 9th, and 10th). Members in attendance at the March meeting voted unanimously on this date for the Retreat.    More information on sign ups, etc. will be in a future member newsletter.

Designer of the Year - Our designer of the year for 2024 is Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle. Don’t forget to keep track of any pieces that you finish throughout 2024. 

June—(Zoom) Evalyn G. will give a presentation on how silk is created.

July—(Zoom) Beth Seal of Summer House Stitche Workes will discuss Susquehanna Samplers. We are still working out the details for purchasing sampler patterns/kits from Salty Yarns.  Watch your email.

August—(Zoom) Caryl C. will give a tutorial on finishing pin drums.

September—(Hybrid)Teresa Miller of Teresa’s Primitive Treasures will demonstrate a project she has designed for DVHSG. Away stitchers can participate. In-person participants will have paint available, but away stitchers will not have the paint included in their kit. The instructions will include what you need to have available. The order form was sent with the latest newsletter to members and is due July 20th.  A photo of the project is attached and is also on our Facebook page.  We are working on the details for a possible trunk show.  

October—(Hybrid) Garage sale - Bring your unwanted stash to the meeting.  You set the price of what you want for each item.  DVHSG would like ‘sellers’ to consider donating a percentage of their profits from sales to the Conservation Fund.   Any unsold items can be taken home  OR if you choose, they can be left and will be taken to Fireside for sale on eBay with the proceeds going to the Conservation Fund.

November (2024)—(Hybrid) Kim Young of Sassy Jack’s will be teaching the  the Mabel Tuke sampler.  More information and sign ups will follow.   This meeting is the same weekend as the semi annual fall retreat.  People not attending the retreat will be able to participate in the project by Zoom.

December (2024)—We will have our annual smalls exchange. The small should be sampler-related, but not holiday themed.  Please include your initials, the guild initials DVHSG, and the year on your piece.

For 2025 Stacy has lined up the following teachers/presenters:   Jackie duPlessis, Catherine Theron and Dawn Ronningen.  

Big thanks to Stacy S for her continued great programming efforts.   Please let Stacy know if you have an idea for a program.

President Eve called everyone’s attention to Marsha’s C. recent Facebook posts.   Marsha is the founder of the Guild and has been posting history of the Guild.  

Today’s Program

We were delighted to have Cynthia Steinhoff speak to us on her vast sampler collection.   Some 400 antique samplers at last count!   Cynthia has a vast resume. She is a stitcher, sampler collector and needlework researcher.  She especially enjoys  all things about genealogy.    Among her credits are a Masters of Library Sciences and Masters of Business Administration.  She is currently the Director of the Anne Arundel Community College.  

This is Marie Aull from New Castle, Delaware.   Born in 1799 and stitched in 1809.  In 1810 she moved to Missouri where she married in 1830.    She died at age 92.

Cynthia uses geography as her primary course for selecting a sampler she wishes to add to her collection.   She has mainly samplers from PEnnsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Hersey and New York.   She does have a few from New England and in her early days of collecting acquired some English as well as Scottish samplers.   She also considers the date the sampler was stitched as part of her criteria.   Her samplers are mostly dated between 1790 and 1850.  She oldest is a sampler dated 1730.  The styles she prefers are Quaker samplers, marking samplers, family registry samplers (helpful with her genealogy interests) and PA German samplers. 

Cynthia also likes a sampler that can tell the story of the stitcher, the teacher and perhaps the school the girl may have attended.  She also gravitates to a sampler that may be similar to something she already has in her collection.

Purchasing samples can be tricky.   Cynthia makes her purchases through antique dealers, auction houses and personal referrals.  

Marking sampler by Dorcas Bolden, 1807.   The Bolden family arrived in the colonies settling in Virginia.  Slowly family members moved into Maryland and then into Delaware. 

Rachel Wiley, 1815, New Castle, Delaware.   She lived with her family on East Third Street in a house build in 1738 which is still standing in Olde New Castle.

Emily Foxwood, born in 1834 in Brandywine Hundred, Delaware.  This is an undated marking sampler which we can assumed was stitched in the 1840’s.   A sampler stitched by her sister is in the collection at Winterthur.

Ann Vail, 1794.   The use of ‘boxes’ for text was probably her teacher’s style.  She was from Pencader Hundred in New Castle County, Delaware, stitched in 1794.

Beautiful close up of the flowers in Ann Vail’s sampler.

Elizabeth Dunn, stitched in 1811, aged 11.   This is in the Quaker style but not your typical Quaker design.   She married a man from Cecil County.

Below, Elizabeth Dunn, circa, 1850’s

Next are some samplers from the Baltimore area.   This is Sarah Miller, daughter of Rev. Thomas and Sarah Miller of Elliott City, Maryland.  This is referred to as an “Eyeglass” sampler because of the way the gate is stitched.

Close up of gate. See how it resembles a pair of eyeglasses?

Another “eyeglass” sampler with the gate by Elizabeth Kollinger, born 1808.  This sampler is not dated.

Virginia Husky, age 9,  marking sampler, stitched in 1841

Mary Elizabeth Startzman, of Baltimore, age 9, 1845, another marking samplers

Blanch Welch, Bel Air, Hereford County, Maryland, 1859.   Simply beautiful grapes and vines, pineapples and floral urn.

Henrietta Maria Hall, Ann Arundel County, Maryland, 1827. Another sampler with a beautiful border.

Lanah Baum, PA German Sampler, Hummelstown, Daulphin County, Pennsylvania.   Her ancestors were the founders of Hummelstown.   Lanah included the name of her teacher, N, Farney

Louisa Baum, born 1819, stitched in 1827, also of Hummelstown, PA,  Louisa also notes her teacher as  L. Kean

Cynthia is a valuable resource for all things sampler.  She has given presentations on samplers at numerous guilds, Winterthur’s needlework conferences, and the Sewell C. Biggs Museum in Dover.   An avid genealogist, CYnthia also does presentations to genealogy groups.   In addition for her work for Anne Arundel Community College she also has to her credits work on several books on samplers.   Including, but not limited to:

Contributed and copy-edited Wrought with Careful Hand: Ties of Kinship on Delaware Samplers with Dr. Lynne Anderson and Dr. Gloria Seaman Allen

Co-Author with Dr. Gloria Seaman Allen, Delaware Discoveries:  Girlhood Embroider, 1750-1850

Cynthia also wrote Delaware Schoolgirl Sampler, an essay hosted on M. Finale and Daughter’s website.  

It was a wonderful program.  Cynthia seems to really enjoy sharing her collection as well as her knowledge of samplers.  She is truly an asset to the world of samplers.

Next meeting - June 8 - Zoom only - Presentation on the silk worm and silk production.  

April 2024 Meeting

Our meeting was called to order by Evalyn C. and she welcomed all present  including those on Zoom.

Committee Reports were shared - 

Treasurer’s Report - Payments and receipts totals for the month were provided.  Outstanding is the balance due to Jackie duPlessis for teaching and kit fees as well as travel expense.  

IRS FORM 990, which will maintain our non-profit status with the IRS, has been filed for 2023.  

We currently have 212 members who have renewed/joined for  2024.   The member roster has been updated and will be provided in the April Newsletter to members.

Conservation Committee -  The committee has forwarded applications for the funds to 16 organizations, such as Winterthur, Hagley Museum, and the Concord Museum. If you have an organization you would like the Committee to consider, please reach out to Marnie B.

SAL—Members should be working on the March Assignment, Bands 3 and 4, as well as the  adjacent top and side borders. 

Secret Stitcher—Members continue to share items they have been receiving on Facebook.  If you do not have a Facebook account, please pass your “thank you” on to Susan H and she will post it to the DVHSG FB page.  This year’s program runs until August.  Members sign up for the next year will be in August to participate from September to August of 2025.

Retreat -  The date for the Spring Retreat is the last weekend in April (26^th-28^th). If you didn’t sign up you can check with Stacy S. to see if spots are still available. 

Designer of the Year - Our designer of the year for 2024 is Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle. Don’t forget to keep track of any pieces that you finish throughout this year. 

Upcoming Programs

May—Our May meeting has changed.  It will be Zoom only.  Our original presenter had a conflict.   Stacy was able to schedule Cynthia Steinhoff will join us to discuss some of her samplers.   Cynthia is only available via Zoom.   The Board determined that members present at a live meeting would not be able to enjoy the Zoom presentation in person due to lighting in our meeting room.  Therefore, for the ease of everyone being able to view the presentation, the board decided to make this an all Zoom event.

June—(Zoom) Evalyn G. will give a presentation on how silk is created.

July—(Zoom) Beth Seal of Summer House Stitche Workes will discuss Susquehanna Samplers. Additional information on purchasing sampler patterns will be forthcoming.

August—(Zoom) Caryl C. will give a tutorial on how finishing pin drums.

September—(Hybrid)Teresa Miller of Teresa’s Primitive Treasures will demonstrate a project she has designed for DVHSG. Away stitchers can participate. In-person participants will have paint available, but away stitchers will not have that included in the kit. The instructions will include what you need to have available. The order form was sent with the latest newsletter to members and is due July 20th.  A photo of the project is attached and is also on our Facebook page.

 October—(Hybrid) Garage sale

 November (2024)—(Hybrid) Kim Young of Sassy Jack’s will join us to teach  the Mabel Tuke sampler. More information and sign ups will follow.   This meeting is the same weekend as the semi annual fall retreat.   Membership at the meeting when this was discussed (71 members) voted to have the meeting on the same day and at the retreat). People not attending the retreat will be able to participate by Zoom.

 December (2024)—We will have our annual smalls exchange. The small should be sampler-related, but not holiday themed.  Please include your initials, the guild initials DVHSG, and the year on your piece.

Today’s Program

Jackie DuPlessis of It’s Finally Finished joined us to teach two wonderful projects. She gave us a brief history of her stitching journey as well as her coming to America and settling in the Boston area.  She is from South Africa and told us of the limited availability of supplies as well as resources when she grew up there. She also shared and discussed some of the samplers she has acquired.  Jackie requested we not share any close ups of her samplers as they are potential new charts for her.  They ranged from Berlin work to Darning Samplers to more standard samplers.  Those present had ample time to look at them up close.

The project for the morning was the beautiful Margaret Towns Sampler. In the afternoon, she taught how to make a paper mock-up of the Cherry Berry Sewing Roll, which was based on the design of the morning sampler, although stitched one over one rather than over two. We were so pleased to have Jackie with us and look forward to her hopefully joining us again at a future date. If you want to follow her on Facebook, look for JackieIFF. If anyone wants to purchase the morning sampler kit, please contact Stacy S. a.s.a.p.  It really became a group effort when Jackie was showing those on the Zoom class how she does the pierced ladder stitch.

 If you have ideas for future programs, please reach out to Stacy. 

We had Show and Tell displayed but it was not done formally so I don’t have names and patterns for everything.

This is by Patrick.  It consists of 56 individual leaves stitched in different needlepoint stitches finished and assemble in a wreath.   The patterns were publish 5 or 6 every other month in a needlepoint magazine.  A big accomplishment for sure!

This is a Jeannette Douglas Pattern

A Jeannette Douglas Pattern Fall into Autumn

Magnificent sampler stitch by member Marsha C.

A Blackbird Design, stitched by Linda D for her grandson

Another piece stitched, front and back by Linda D for her grandson

Stitched by Linda D.

And to continue the Linda D show, this design from La-D-Da

Project bags from Susan L.

Jewelry Box Redo

Next Meeting - ZOOM Only - May 11th