November Meeting

Our meeting today started with the election of officers for 2015-2016.  The slate of candidates was announced and a voice vote was a resounding "Yes" to all those who were listed for Offices.

Susan D. ~  President

Stacy C. ~ Vice-President and Programming

Sal C. P. ~ Treasurer

Caryl C. ~ Secretary

Chessie & Me Class

Next weekend's Chessie & Me class will be held at the Embassy Suites on Route 896 which is right across the street from the college stadium.   Both the Saturday and Sunday classes start at 9 a.m.

Some pre-stitching completed for one of the classes....this is always the point when I wish I had signed up too!

Winterthur

Winterthur currently has several volumes of German embroidery books which they wish to purchase for their collection.   The books are said to be exquisite, detailed pattern books from the 18th (?) century.   Winterthur is seeking matching funds to their grant to purchase these volumes.   (I need to get more details.)   Please visit the Winterthur website.

December Meeting

Our December Meeting will be our annual holiday exchange.   It will be a covered dish luncheon with the Guild supplying an assortment of wraps.   From past experience, we all know there will be a vast variety of delicious foods to go along with the wraps.   But the highlight will be the exchange.  All are welcomed to participate and everyone should attend the meeting whether they are taking part in the exchange or not.  If you bring an item, you get an item.   Your piece should be a handmade small with a sampler theme to it.   Needlebooks, pinkeeps, scissor fobs and similar are the standard fare.   Check out the Holiday Exchange tab above to feast your eyes on some of the beautiful exchange items from previous years.

Penn Dry Good Market
The annual show and sale will be May 15 & 16, 2015.   Vendors will have antiques and vintage textiles, quilts, needlework, linens, baskets and more.   There are workshops and lectures to attend. All will take place in the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center, Pennsburg, PA.  Admission is $6.00.

Catherine Theron
There's a new needleroll pattern!  Deb S. is taking orders and payment for the kit.   Money is due at the January Meeting.    This for the KIT ONLY.  There is NO CLASS.   The price is $70.00.

Salty Yarns Classes
Sherry Jones will be teaching a class in April 2015.   Betsy Morgan will be teaching three classes in June.   More details will follow OR check out Salty Yarns website.

Woodlawn
Pat Y. will be collecting any stitched pieces that will be sent to Woodlawn at the JANUARY meeting.   Items are due to Woodland BEFORE our February Meeting and if you wish Pat to take your piece, please make sure you bring it with you in January.  We are so fortunate Pat makes this annual trek with our treasured pieces.   Of course, you can make other arrangements for getting your piece to Woodlawn by the deadline at the beginning of February.

Rehoboth
The Rehoboth Historical Society exhibit will be in May 2015.   It was suggested we send down all the scissors blocks completed from our challenge earlier this year.

Dues
Annual Membership dues will be due on January.   The amount is $25.   Our membership year runs January through December.

And now after all that information.....we had show and tell.   Our program today was to share your most challenging piece.    As we went around the room, there are some common themes.   The reasons varied from the difficulty of a pattern, to the multitude of color changes, to the size, to the frequency of color changes or, a cause near and dear to my heart, being lead astray to another piece and loosing interest.    The more we talk and learn about one another, the more we find we stitchers are all cut from the same cloth!

Please enjoy the photos and please don't hesitate to email me with more information or corrections to anything I have shared here.  Some are Show and Tell and some are from the Most Challenging piece column.   I have tried to identify which is which as best a my memory can tell me.

Quaker Scissors Pocket - An EGA project stitched and finished by Caryl C.

 Some of the stitchers decided to stitch on 40ct. instead of 32ct. shown here.

 It is a pretty piece either way.

Another cutie from our cutie Francine!

Also from Francine.   This is the 3-part sampler from Just Cross Stitch Magazine.

Jean T. always astounds us with her stitching and finishing.

 Jean T. - adorable!

 And two more from Jean.    The rushing around this little pillow was fabulous.

Those were all Jean's Show and Tell.....I didn't get a photo of her Challenging Piece.


Barbara G. shared this as her most challenging piece.   She felt it was the largest piece she had done to date and there were just many color changes, a stitch of this and two stitches of that.  This is Rosewood Manor, Quaker Spring.

Sorry for the glare everyone.   This one has less glare but the color is not as nice.

From Patrick

 And remember last month's post?   This little guy was not assembled last month.  Great job Patrick!

Patrick shared this as his most challenging piece.   The photos cannot even begin to show the detail and stitches in this beauty.

This little box was another members (sorry, I didn't get her name/she was without a name tag).  Assembling this was what made this her most challenging piece.

 And full of smalls to boot!

This is Pat Y. most challenging piece stitched.   Another one of those with a million color changes!  From across the room, this looks like an oil painting!

Karen K. and Pat Y. shared their quaker balls.   Karen's, forefront, is on 40ct, all the same color linen.   Pat stitched hers on 32ct. using two different color linens.   Karen - an expert finisher, said this was particularly difficult to assemble the squares and hexagons!

 Words can't even begin to describe this Japanese embroidery piece by Pat L.  It was truly exquisite and admittedly her most challenging piece.  Unbelievable.

OK, so that's our meeting this month.   Looking forward to seeing all you at our December meeting.

October Meeting

We had a stitch-in for our October Meeting ..... but they can sometimes be the best.   You have a chance to really talk to your fellow stitchers.   At our regular meetings when we have a speaker  you don't always get the warm and fuzzy interaction.

Our Nominating Committee was pleased to announce our slate of officers for 2015-2016.
      President - Susan D.
      Vice President and Programs - Stacy S.
      Treasurer - Sali C. P.
      Secretary - Caryl C.
The election will be held at the November meeting with these officers taking office January 1st.   Thank you ladies for your volunteer efforts to make our guild a wonderful place for all!

Some other upcoming events -

Chessie & Me Classes - If you signed up for either class, please visit the "classes" tab above regarding a change in venue.

The Morven Museum Sampler Exhibit   Several of our members attended the opening of the exhibit and highly recommend seeing it.  There are over 100 pieces on display.  Our own Patti H. will be speaking on Gloucester County Samplers on March 1.  Check out the museum’s website for additional information.  http://morven.org/shop

Sampler ID Day  The Sampler Consortium and the Sampler Archive Project will host one more Delaware Sampler Identification Days on November 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Historic Odessa Foundation in Odessa.

Winterthur’s Diligent Needle Exhibit   The exhibit has opened and will run through July 5, 2015.  The seminar will be held October 24 and 25.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum   Marnie B. recently visited Colonial Williamsburg and saw many southern samplers that are part of an exhibit The Material World of the Early South.

The Swam Sampler Guild Stitch-a-long  If any of you have signed up for our own Theresa B.'s Delaware Inspiration Sampler stitch-a-long, the Swam Sampler Guild has extended the deadline until 11/1/14.    You can sign up for both using Paypal at this link:

http://swansamplerguild.org/stash-enhancement.html   or you can email Cathy DeCaria at Cathyswan1@yahoo.com.

Vikki Clayton is doing a conversion to her silks for the Delaware Inspiration Sampler.  She is offering a solids version for $65 and a variegated version for $73, these prices include a 20% guild discount.  If you are interested in purchasing these silks here is a link:

http://www.hand-dyedfibers.com/oscnuked/modules.php?name=catalog&file=product_info&cPath=40&products_id=3759

UFO's  Don't forget to continue to bring your completed UFO's into the meeting for the UFO Challenge.    This challenge will run until the end of the year.

November Meeting - We are asking stitchers to bring in their most challenging piece to share in a group discussion.  

And now for some Show and Tell

The frog is some of Patrick's handiwork. 

This small sampler is by Francine.

Hey!  Look here!  Some of the stitchers finished the little wool needle book from the September meeting.  These belong to Francine, Marnie, Jean T. and Caryl C.

The ornaments, pin pillow and the box are from turbo stitcher Caryl C.  Love the tape measure loop!

I think Caryl has already brought in some of the companion pieces to this pillow.

Stitch on Guild members!  

September Monthly Meeting

Better pull up a chair and get a cup of coffee for this month's report.    We had a very full meeting.   Let's take care of some business before moving to our Show and Tell for the month.

Chessie and Me Class, November:  If you signed up for the Chessie and Me Saturday class, Linda is waiting on the linen for the kits.   Once it is received, we will let you know where/how to get your linen for the pre-work.

Nominating Committee:  They would like to hear from you.   No, I mean, really, they would like to hear from you if you are interested in taking an office for the next term.   I believe, all offices are up starting with the January 2015 term.    Please, PLEASE, they beg you, drop Marnie, Ann S, or Stacy S. a line.

Winterthur’s Diligent Needle Exhibit:  The exhibit has opened and will run through July 5, 2015.  A seminar is scheduled October 24 and 25.  By the sounds of it, lectures, etc. have filled up quickly. The planned talk by M. Finkel and Daughter has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict.

The Morven Museum:  This museum is located in Princeton, NJ and it is having an exhibit of samplers stitched by New Jersey girls.      A full day needlework symposium is planned for October 5 and will feature Stephen and Carol Huber, Amy Finkel, Peter and Leslie Warwick, Dan and Marty Campanelli and Daniel Scheid.  Reservations are now open for the symposium.

http://morven.org/events/event/needlework-symposium  The exhibit will run from October 3, 2014 to March 29, 2015 and there will be a catalog available.  http://morven.org/shop   Our own Patti H. told us that eight samplers and a man’s wallet from the Gloucester County Historical Society, Woodbury, NJ will be included in the Morven exhibit.   Patti has also been asked to lead a discussion on Gloucester County samplers at the Morven on March 1, 2015.   Patti will soon have charts available for two more Gloucester County samplers.  This makes 7 or 8 she has charted so far!   They will be available at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njgchs/Lucy.html   We are lucky to have Patti as a member and Gloucester County Historical Society is lucky to have her!  In addition to the catalog available through the museum.  Dan and Marty Campanelli will be producing a book “To Education Forms the Mind”.  (This is not yet available.)

Delaware Sampler ID Days:   The Sampler Consortium and the Sampler Archive Project will host two Delaware Sampler Identification Days: September 21st from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Biggs Museum in Dover and November 22nd from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Historic Odessa Foundation in Odessa.

Show and Tell:

Wow!  What a prolific group we are!  

Oh the photos don't even begin to show you how cute all Francine's smalls and finishes are!

 These are two of the samplers from Gloucester County charted by Patti H.  The one above was stitched by 6 year old Sarah Elizabeth Carney!

 Elizabeth Clark of the Greenwich School, South Jersey

This tray was stitched by Stacy S.   The inside is inter-changeable with three other designs....I think this is Prim Lady's Needle Society but I am not sure.

Jean T. has a basket full of the "virtues" by Little House Needleworks

 BJ S. stitched this beautiful box.   (I will have to get more info from BJ on our next stitching night on the designer)

Another completion by BJ S.    This is Victoria Sampler designs.  (Sorry for the glare ladies!    Silly me forgot my camera and was using my phone....not that the camera would have fared better.)

More from BJ S.  The Ann Bowers Sampler.  

Caryl C. stitched up this set.   It is the design of a guild in New England  

(Maine, I think) and has been offered in the EGA magazine.  That pine cone on the
needlebook is awesome and so is the coordinating fabric Caryl ordered from
Keepsake Quilting in Lake Winnepausake, NH

More cuties from Caryl C.  The star is so pretty and stitched with variegated thread.

And even more from Caryl C. - another (I think)   from Ladies Prim Needle Society

Pat L. is finishing up a storm and your photographer has her phone upside down!    Center top is from Shepherd's Bush;  one the right and center bottom are KITS! complete with even the backing fabrics from Cherished Stitches.   And on the left....."Just Bee".....I don't remember who's design but she got it from Elegant Stitch.   (they knew her well there ;-)

This is one that Patti H. charted and Karen K. ~adapted~  Patti charted it from one of the Gloucester County Samplers in her collection.  (Sorry for the glare!)

Thank you Caryl C. for sharing some of your pictures with me.

Kathy R. always picks the most interesting pieces.   It is no wonder we often follow suit and add her selection of patterns to our stash!  This is the Dorothy Walpole Sampler.

A couple more photos and a close up of the piece.

Imagine that, Pat Y. doing a piece with a nativity on it.  

More from Pat Y.

And last but certainly not least, what a cute zipper bag Stacy S. stitched and mom Carolyn might have had something to do with the finishing!   

We certainly are a diverse group of stitchers.

I've got more photos that our wonderful secretary Lynn emailed me so I may be adding more.  I typed this from memory and once I look at my notes and her photos, I may be making additions!

Following Show and Tell, Stacy S. lead the shared with the group how to make a felt needlebook.  Stacy had lots of hints to make the assembly easier.    

Isn't it just darling!  And a new adventure for some but sure is EZ-PZ just using a good old blanket stitch!  Thanks Stacy!  (Who knows what way I am holding my phone at this point.  It is not easy trying to get photos of everyone's work while trying not to disrupt the meeting!)

All that going on and we also managed to welcome two new members.  Mary Rita (M.R.) M. and Sarah S. as we’re glad to have you!

UFO Challenge:Don’t forget to bring in your UFOs.  The challenge goes to the end of the year!

August Meeting

(i'm guessing) These are some of Francine's beauties!

Much thanks to Lynn D., our wonderful secretary for her newsletter info....which I am duplicating here. 

With so many on vacation, we usually dedicate our August Meeting as a stitch in.  It is a nice time to stitch and socialize and catch up with one another.  Our UFO challenge continues.   Francine C. brought in many finished UFOs. Pat H. also had two finishes to share.  Her Shepherd’s Bush checker board (and a Santa pillow.  

Pat H.'s Santa Pillow

Lynn D.'s Biscournu

Evalyn G. shared an antique sampler she bought at the Penn Market event at the Schwenkfelder Museum in May.  

(need help ladies - I wasn't at the meeting - please let me know if I have identified the photos correctly.  thx)

It is time to start filling out your registration form for our fall retreat!!  So many of us look so very forward to this bi-annual event.  It will be held Oct. 3 to 5 at the Lankford Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland and is a MEMBERS ONLY event.   The cost includes a welcome wine and hors d’oeuvres party Friday night and a continental breakfast Saturday and Sunday.  The cost is $135 for the weekend, $10 per night extra for a single room, and a $50 deposit is required by September 13.

Please make checks out to Salty Yarns.  A big shout out to Stacy S. who will be handling all the arrangements again.  You can mail your registration to Stacy S.  or bring it to the September meeting.

Lookie lookie!  Check out the new promotional bookmark designed by Donna A.  We will have them available for needlework events to let people know about our guild.  (Sorry but the more I try to enlarge the photo the poorer the quality.)

The Morven Museum  is having an exhibit of New Jersey samplers.    The exhibit will run from October 3, 2014 to March 29, 2015 and there will be a catalog available.  http://morven.org/shop   A full day needlework symposium is planned for October 5 and will feature Stephen and Carol Huber, Amy Finkel, Peter and Leslie Warwick, Dan and Marty Campanelli and Daniel Scheid.  Reservations are now open.  http://morven.org/events/event/needlework-symposium  Sounds like a good day trip to me....even if you don't attend the symposium.   Hmmm, let's see....a day out with girlfriends who are like minded, a bit of needlework and lunch!  What could be better?  

Closer to home is the Winterthur Symposium   “The Diligent Needle” symposium will be held October 24 and 25.  Registration opens June 19.   http://www.winterthur.org/?p=1158

M. Finkel and Daughter will be hosting on October 26.  

And for Downton Abbey fans, the Downton Abbey exhibit will be on display at Winterthur through the end of 2014 (and maybe a little into the new year....a detail I need to check.)    It was a wonderful exhibit that a few us have had the pleasure of seeing.

 Edith's wedding gown

The display was wonderful.    Don't you all just remember the scene with Sybil showing up to dinner in this outfit!   Lord Grantham was fit to be tied!

Another great offering from Lynn D.   She found this battery operated portable light on Amazon. Lynn reported Amazon had quite a few choices that seem like the same thing.

Super Bright Portable LED Lamp  It is all about having the right tools.  This puppy is not much bigger than a deck of cards when collapsed.  Better hurry....I understand there is a run on them at Amazon.  Just like stitchers to share when they have a good find!  Thank you Lynn!

July Meeting

As with everyone.......busy times in the summer.   Our July meeting was a swap o' stuff.  Commonly called our Stash Reduction and Redistribution meeting.   We all bring stitching itms and patterns to swap, exchange, with the intention of 'downsizing' our stash......all too often we return home with more than we left with!

Quick update - I have to photos for our November class with Linda of Chessie & Me!    See our "classes" tab above for the details.  The cover and inside of the needlebook.  Deadline for sign ups is August 9th.