Central New York Chapter |
"The purpose of this organization shall be to foster the highest standards of excellence in the practice of the art of embroidery through an active program of education and study and to preserve the heritage of the art of embroidery." (EGA Bylaws, Article II)
We have an exciting three months coming up! Our holiday parties are just around the corner.Both committees have been planning and working, and you will find further information on the meetings elsewhere in this newsletter. I hope you have been stitching an ornament for the exchange, because the ornament exchange is always a highlight of the December meetings. Don t forget that our meetings are one week early in December; we will meet the second Tuesday evening and the second Wednesday, instead of the third.
At the end of this month, we ll all agree that we are in a new millennium and a new century. If you haven t completed your Millennium Bells challenge, presented to us last year by Jean Hughes, this would be a good time to get it out again and finish it off. If you ve finished the challenge, please bring the results to the December meeting for all to enjoy.
The board met in October and served as a program committee for the planning of the 2001 program year. Everything is now pretty well finalized, and you will be receiving the program along with a new membership book at the January meetings. We have some good things coming up next year, the first of which is tatting. Corky Avery and Mary Hickox have agreed to teach us tatting in January and February; they will start us off with needle-tatting, and anyone who wishes may also bring a shuttle, and Mary and Corky will also teach shuttle tatting. Mary has tatted some examples to whet your appetite; they will be on display at both December meetings. So gather your supplies and come out in January to learn something new or refresh your skills.
There has been a lot said lately, in the press, on the news, and even in our own newsletter, about the copying of charts and the distribution of illegal copies over the Internet. As members of EGA, I think it is important for us to remember that without the designers, we wouldn t have things to stitch; and without their designing businesses, the designers would have to go do something else. Copying a chart from someone else may be a quick solution to a short-term problem, but it creates long-term problems for all of us that are far worse. I don t know about you, but I really don t want to experience withdrawal from my needlework! Let s begin now to set an example for the world around us, and uphold the copyright laws and the standards that we all know to be right and just.
Now I m going back to my Christmas stitching, and I d recommend that you do the same. Have a wonderful and blessed holiday season, and be sure to set aside some time for stitching! Let it be your gift to yourself -- you deserve it!
Weather Cancellations - The day meeting will be canceled on days when Fayetteville-Manliusschools are closed due to weather. Evening meeting cancellations will be announced on radio stations WSYR 570 AM and Y94 FM, and on WTVH Channel 5 television. In any case, members should use their own judgement before venturing out into our Central New York weather!
| December | |
| 2 | 10:00 a.m. Board meeting. All board members should attend; other chapter members are of course welcome. |
| 12 | Holiday Buffet and Ornament Exchange. |
| 13 | Holiday Luncheon and Gift Exchange (optional) |
| January | |
| 16 | Evening meeting - Needle Tatting with Corky Avery and Mary Hickox |
| 17 | Day meeting - Needle Tatting with Corky Avery and Mary Hickox |
| February | |
| 3 | 10:00 a.m. Board meeting. All board members should attend; other chapter members are of course welcome. |
| 20 | Evening meeting - Needle Tatting(continued) and Shuttle Tatting withCorky Avery and Mary Hickox. |
| 21 | Day Meeting -Needle Tatting(continued) and Shuttle Tatting with CorkyAvery and Mary Hickox |
February 2002 - CNY EGA Exhibit, Baldwinsville Library - thanks to Kathy Fonda. More to come!
Mark your calendars and plan to join us for our annual Holiday Buffet. Bring either an appetizeror dessert to share. Who needs a main course? Volunteers are needed for beverages and paper products (for those too busy to cook, here is your opportunity!); a signup sheet will be provided at the November meeting. We will also be having our ornament exchange. If you choose to participate, bring a wrapped ornament with your name on it as the giver. Don't forget show & share; also, bring any holiday works in progress and/or your favorite stitched holiday items to inspire the group. For more information, or to volunteer your services, call Fran O'Donnell.
The December 13th meeting will be a cover-dish luncheon. Please bring your own table service and a dish to pass. Beverages will be provided. We will have the usual gift exchange [optional]. Please bring stitched items. The program will be Collections to Share. This year we are asking that you bring your collection [or part of it] of stitched ornaments for us to admire. If you have any questions, please call Jean or Dottie. Hope to see you all there
Have you looked at the delicate lace on your Grandmother's tables and thought to yourself that you wanted to make that? Well, wish no longer and learn to tat. That's right. It's not the lost art that everyone claims. There are over 1000 people on e-groups (the internet) that are enjoying this "come-back" craft. It's a great STRESS reliever too!
Unlike days of old where only a shuttle was available, now you can learn NEEDLE TATTING! This gives you the SAME results as shuttle tatting and uses the same patterns, but is MUCH EASIER to learn. You'll be doing it in 10 minutes, it's THAT easy!!! So join us at the January and February meetings (day and evening) to learn tatting. We'll start on needle tatting and graduate to shuttle tatting if interested. Learn to make the rings and chains, and test your new skills on a wreath ornament for your windows or a bookmark. Once you get hooked, you'll never look back!
Here's what you need and where to get them!
I've been shopping and price comparing over the past week and found all these items at both AC Moore's and Michael's. Books and videos on needle tatting are also available at these places as well as beginner kits. Once you see how the knots are formed, shuttle tatting will be so easy to learn so pick up one of those little plastic shuttles as well. You won't be sorry!
I want to thank everyone who volunteered their time to stitch at Barnes and Noble bookstore on November 11th and 18th. Hopefully we will get some new members to keep our group growing.
Once more it is time to select a long ago started project from your stash and finish it for a Billie Award in June. Please sign your name on the sheet at the day or evening meeting. If you sign and do not finish your piece, you pledge to pay our treasury $5.00. We just want you to have the joy of completing one more piece of embroidery.
To All CNY member friends: Many thanks for all the beautiful encouraging notes, cards and calls while I was recuperating from my mishaps.
My thanks go to Phyllis Woodard and Judy Cain for leading the second part of the temari workshop when I was not able to be there. I heard that they did a great job with very little advance notice. I'm looking forward to seeing Judy's temari t-shirt at a future meeting.
Book donated by Jean Klym
Books donated by Dixie Nohara
Books donated by Ann Woodrow
These books are located in the evening library and are ready to be borrowed anytime.
When signing out library items, please put the date you are taking out the book, NOT the date it is due. We are getting a combination of both, and it is hard to keep track of things.
Joan Murphy is looking for the return of her video on Needle Tatting. Someone borrowed it a while ago and she can not remember who. She needs it for a class.
Floral Stitches: An Illustrated Guide, by Judith Baker Montano (author of Elegant Stitches) lookslike a wonderful resource to be added pto your wish lists.
For Lent of this year, I decided to make myself stitch the required sampler for the Apprentice level of the SAGA Masters' program. (SAGA is Smocking Arts Guild of America.) I turned it in and waited for my evaluation. When it came back, I had passed with flying colors: out of a possible 525 points, I had earned 519 or 98%. So on to the next level, right?
Wrong! A month later, I got a phone call from Jann Young, who is in charge of these "artisan submissions." It seems that she had seen one too many poorly done pieces and was putting a book together to show, in minute and magnified detail, how smocking should look. She was also planning a mentoring program for those who had failed the submission once (or more), using especially successful artisans as the mentors. Jann wanted to know if I would be interested in mentoring and in submitting samples for her book. At that time, she seemed to think that she would like to use my evaluated sampler as the cover piece, but she wasn't sure about how the colors would show up.
I made the samples as requested and sent them off. Jann followed up by mailing me to ask if I would mind very much restitching the whole sampler in SAGA's colors -- blues and gold. For a week I did nothing but smock and email Jann about my color choices and stitching progress. We decided to use gold for the hearts in the new piece because red hearts would have created a red, white, and blue effect, no matter how much gold I added, and that was not the effect Jann wanted. I nicknamed the piece "Heart of Gold," and it stuck. Jann even put that on the cover!
On the last day of my stitching schedule, I noticed that the bottom left corner of the sampler seemed to droop, curving off the straight lines of the rest of the piece. Using a ruler with a 1/8 increment, I discovered that that portion of the work was in fact, 1/8 inch off line even though it was right on the pleating threads. Somehow the fabric had shifted when I was pleating it. I pulled out the offending lines and in pencil faintly drew in straight lines for me to smock over. By the end of the day, I had made the needed corrections, finished the rest of the piece and phoned Jann to say that the sampler was done but not perfect. I sent it off to her, hoping that maybe it would be good enough to be used.
A few more emails followed in which Jann asked what I thought was wrong with the sampler and confessed that, even having been told where to look, she could not find my corrections. We are our own worst critics! The sampler is on the cover of Stitch Anatomy and the original is on the back. Both pieces were on exhibit at SAGA's national seminar in Atlanta in early September where "their" book sold out of its first printing. I have my Apprentice Certificate, my allotted 15 minutes of fame, and somewhat less anonymity (at least among smockers) than I might wish!
Our next board meeting will be December 2nd, at 10 a.m. at the Liverpool Christian Church. Wedid not have a quorum at the October meeting, so we were unable to transact any official business. If you are an elected officer or a committee chair, please (please!) make every effort to attend. Members of the chapter are always welcome at board meetings, so feel free to stop by even if your presence there is not official. We begin at 10:00 and are finished not long after 11:00 a.m. The next two board meetings have been scheduled for February 3 and April 7, 2001.Please mark your calendar and try to attend them.
The Mid Eastern region has a website. Check it out at http://www.cstl.syr.edu/ega. Our chapter has one at http://www.dreamscape.com/lkaplan/ega/index.html.
Deadline for the next issue, which covers March through May, is February 21.
Guild members,
You are in the Guild because the beauty and quality of treasures made by hand are important to you. Consider the practical beauty of an heirloom Longaberger® Basket to complement your project. You may use the classic Magazine Basket (as I do) to transport your current work in progress, or you could use the Address Basket (with a lid!) To bring order to the chaos beside your favorite chair. I d love to be part of your creation. Please give me a call! Carol Maurer - JHMaurerJr@earthlink.net