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ROCKY MOUNTAIN WEB STITCHERS

NEWSLETTER

February 2020

Rocky Mountain Region of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America

Plan to attend the RMWS Quarterly Chapter Meeting

February 1 through February 6

RMWS Board Members

President: Nancy Munier (nfmunier@gmail.com)

Vice President: Wanda Anderson (wja107@msn.com)

Treasurer: Susan Clayton (susanclayton84@gmail.com)

Region Rep: Barb Ing (ingb01694@tds.net)

Secretary: Lisa Hurley (Lisahmt@northerntel.net)

Education: Rosemary Denton (dentonra@wavecom.net)

“Education Guru”: Karen Anthony (nmkat18@gmail.com)

Newsletter: Charlotte Brooks (cbrooks55@bresnan.net)

Web Master: Becky Autry (egastitcher@hotmail.com)

Membership: Lisa Hurley (Lisahmt@northerntel.net)

NeedleArts Rep:

MISSION STATEMENT: The purpose of this chapter is to foster the highest

standards of excellence in the practice of the art of embroidery through

an active program of education and study to preserve the heritage of the

art of embroidery.

ACROSS THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE is the newsletter of the Rocky Moun-

tain Web Stitchers Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, Inc. and

is published four times a year. Deadline for submitting articles for this

newsletter is the third Saturday of the month prior to publication,

GENERAL MEETINGS: February, May, August & November

MEMBERSHIP: Dues are $59 annually. Plural membership dues are $15

inside Rocky Mountain Region and $20 outside of Rocky Mountain Region.

ADVERTISING RATES: 2” x 3” ad is $10 per year

REPRINT RIGHTS: EGA Chapters have permission to reprint, with proper

credit to the chapter and individual, any original material in this news-

letter except those items clearly marked with the copyright symbol, on

which no blanket permission is given.

CHAPTER WEBSITE: www.rmwebstitchers.org

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: www.egausa.org

ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION : www.rmrega.org

Region Director: Trudy Pohawpatchoko

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Help wanted

Are you good with numbers?

Are you bad with numbers but good with a calculator?

Did you resolve to volunteer more in 2020?

The Rocky Mountain Web Stitchers has the answer.

This chapter still needs a Treasurer to replace Susan Clayton whose term has expired.

While the pay is nothing to write home about —truly, the pay is nothing—the gratitude

from the RMWS membership and the warm, fuzzy feeling you’ll get from helping the chap-

ter is priceless.

And honestly, this position will be a whole lot easier to accomplish

than losing that last 10 lbs.

Susan can be reached for questions and more info at: susanclayton84@gmail.com

Membership News

Welcome to our newest member , Deborah Greener from Frisco , North Carolina.

We’re glad you’ve joined us.

Our Chapter now has 56 members. This represents 37 primary members and 19 plural members.

Our membership comes from 15 states including the Rocky Mountain Region covering Montana, Idaho,

Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and West Texas. We also have members from Nevada, Texas,

Arizona, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Connecticut, and North Carolina .

Notes from Nancy

Hi all. I hope everyone has recovered from the holidays and getting into stitching again. We have some great projects lined up thanks to our ed dept. Rosemary and crew need your in-put on some of the items.

Also...be sure to vote in our new choices for board members (more on this in an email to each of you). Please respond so we can keep this chapter going.

Spring into stitching and support your chapter and EGA.

Nancy

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Outreach Project

Deciding how to create an Out Reach program is difficult for our online chapter. It’s “who do we

help” ‘ how do we help” . Well, our Out Reach does not have to be a community

service. Out Reach also means getting the word to people about what we do and how they can

be a part of it. Sharing our skills with others is part of our mission.

The idea is that we make bookmarks to share. Sharing with teachers who might use them for

rewards, libraries for the same reasons, book club members, a thank you for friend, a little some-

thing in the mail for a grandchild, etc.

I will provide the patterns for making the designs for the bookmarks. They are made on 14 count

aida and the patterns are worked by needle weaving with #5 pearl or 6 strands of regular floss.

The members will give them to whomever they wish. Each month there will be a new design

which will arrive in an email about the same time each month. The member is asked to report

the number given out and any other information that we might like to know.

The Out Reach activity will be done in emails that will only be sent to those that accept the chal-

lenge. You may try it for a couple of months and decide if you want to continue receiving the

patterns. More details in the first email.

Barbara Ing

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RMWS EDUCATION NEWS – January 2020

HAPPY WINTER from your Education Committee (Rosemary, Karen, Barbara, Yvonne, and Jennifer)

This is our quarterly RMWS Education News; you’ll receive supplementary emails as necessary with time-sensitive information. You are welcome to contact any of us if you have Education-related ideas or ques-tions:

Rosemary Denton, Chairman – dentonra@wavecom.net

Karen Anthony – nmkat18@gmail.com

Barbara Ing – ingb01694@tds.net

Yvonne Hallock – yhallock@gmail.com

Jennifer Wollesen – jwollesen@gmail.com

GCC for 2020 – I sent out an email on January 8 with a poll for an RMWS-sponsored GCC to start this spring. The two most popular were The Princess and the Pea and Mystical Myrtle with 6 votes each. Of course, EGA just added another new GCC Encore, Fandango with Barbara Kershaw, and I’ll add that to the mix. You can check out this Whitework course at https://egausa.org/courses/fandango/ There will be a vote at the upcoming February Chapter Meeting to see if there is enough interest in any of these to offer it. If you’d like to do any of these GCCs, please attend the meeting to vote (you can vote for more than one).

The Princess and the Pea Mystical Myrtle Fandango

Education cont...

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EGA Stitch-a-Longs – EGA continues its program of offering monthly stitch-a-longs. You can find the infor-

mation on the EGA website. They are all fairly short and vary the types of embroidery they call for. I encour-age you to check them out.

GCC Lightning Rounds – There are four Lightning Round GCCs that you can register for until February 29,

2020. They are: English Summer, Cosmos, Star Spangled Puzzle Ball, and Papillon. You can find the de-scriptions on the EGA website at https://egausa.org/lightning-rounds/ . As a reminder, we will refund you half the Registration Fee upon successful completion of the class.

EGA Online Classes – Have you checked out EGA’s Open Registration Online Classes? This is another way

to take your embroidery to the next level. The five currently offered are Basket of Gold, Beginning Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery, Bejeweled Heart, Fingertip Gloves, and Hidden Trellises. You can find the descrip-tions at https://egausa.org/online-courses/ .

Other EGA Stitching Opportunities – There is SO MUCH going on in the EGA! What a wealth of infor-

mation about online classes, seminars, and other stitching opportunities are found in your NeedleArts maga-zine and EGA News monthly emails! I also encourage you to visit https://egausa.org/latest-news/ to check out the latest offerings. As a reminder, we have an incentive program to reward completion of any EGA sponsored program, course, class, or even small stitching project – such as Stitch-A-Long project, Master Craftsman step, GCC, ICC, Lightning Round, EGA or RMR Seminar UFO, etc. Send us a description of what you did and photo(s) for us to put on the website and Facebook (by sending us your information, you are giving us permission to post it). We’ll enter your name in a drawing for every one you submit. Every June 1 we’ll draw two names; each will receive $25 to be used for something stitching-related.

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January/February 2020 EGA

Stitch-a-Long

English Summer Cosmos Puzzle Ball Papillon

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Education News (cont.)

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2020 Rocky Mountain Region Sponsored Project – Our region is sponsoring Crewel Necessi-ties with Kim Sanders. The registration window is January 1 – January 31. The full description is in the Region Newsletter, Border to Border, which you should have received via email earlier this month. If you are interested and need more information since the registration is ready to close, you can call Ellie Ames at 505-400-7993, or e-mail her at ellie.ames@q.com .

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON??? Are you taking advantage of any of the EGA or Region stitching opportunities? Even if you’ve just started something and haven’t finished it yet, we’d like to know. Simply email me at dentonra@wavecom.net and tell me what you’ve cho-sen to do. I’ll link you up with any other RMWS members who are working on the same pro-ject so that you can compare notes!

** COMING UP – 2020 Explorations ** – We have changed the name of the web page cur-rently called “Play Date” to “2020 Explorations” and will be combining several currently inde-pendent features of the Education Program under this umbrella, tying them to a common theme. This includes our quarterly stitch-a-longs, resources/websites, stitching tips, book re-views, etc. We will be starting with a topic that every stitcher can relate to: THREAD (such as discussion about the various thread companies and what type of threads they have, thread substitutions, etc.) Quarterly there will be a new topic. Some of the topics we are consider-ing are: color theory; adapting patterns; needle weaving & needle lace; samplers; and finish-ing techniques. If you have a topic you’d like us to consider, please let us know. You can ex-pect to see a roll-out of the first topic, Thread, this Spring.

Please take advantage of our stitching opportunities going on now and coming up. If you have any suggestions, please let us know as we are YOUR Education Committee!

Rosemary Denton

RMWS Education Chairman

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I Love a List

Here is the updated list of favorite needlework shops for online and mail orders. The first group of shops

are the newest suggestions provided during our November 2019 RMWS member meeting.

Favorite Online Needlework Shops

Twisted Stitches Needlepoint Albuquerque NM twistedstitchesnp.com

Stitcher’s Garden Albuquerque NM www.facebook.com/mystitchersgarden

The Attic Mesa Arizona atticneedlework.com mail orders can be placed by phone or e-mail.

The West Tucson Arizona thewestinc.com Telephone orders “happily accepted!”

Old Town Needlework Scottsdale Arizona oldtownneedlework.com

Family Arts Needlework Shop Phoenix AZ “online shopping is coming soon”

A Stitching Shop Denver Colorado stitchingshop.com

SJ Designs sj-designs.net

The Black Sheep Orlando Florida theblacksheepshop.com Accepts phone orders.

Needlecraft Corner Baltimore Maryland needlecraft-corner.com

Stitch & Frog stitchandfrog.com online only

123 Stitch Bluffdale UT 84065 123stitch.com

ABC Stitch Therapy Houston TX abcstitch.com

Stitch Therapy Needlepoint (This is a sister site to ABC Stitch Therapy) stitchtherapyneedlepoint.com

Needle In A Haystack Alameda California needlestack.com

From Nancy’s Needle Rockford Illinois fromnancysneedle.com Online only

Nordic Needle Fargo ND nordicneedle.com

The Silver Needle Tulsa Oklahoma thesilverneedle.com

Stitching Bits and Bobs Plainwell Michigan stitchingbitsandbobs.com

Updated January 2020 based on RMWS member suggestions.

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Regular Registration for Rocky Mountain Roundup is now

open! Centennial State Chapter and Colorado Chapter

would love you to join them in Denver, Colorado

August 13 – 15, 2020 at the newly renovated

Doubletree by Hilton Hotel

We are offering six great classes and studio time. Our own chapter member, Kurdy Biggs will

be teaching Elegance Cubed. Kurdy’s classes are always fun and this piece is a real gem!

Celeste Chalasani is teaching The Berry Box, a lovely stumpwork embroidery piece. Celeste is

EGA’s nation Director of Education. If you have always wanted to try goldwork, we have the

class for you. Kate Festo is teaching A Gilded Bloom featuring a variety of silk and metal thread

techniques. Toni Gerdes is a member of RMR and specializes in Canvas embroidery. Toni’s

Klimt Kimono is sure to please. Canby Robertson will be teaching a blackwork and surface

embroidery piece – For the Orts in Your Life. Joan Thomasson will be returning to the Rocky

Mountain Region to teach Patterns and Posies. “Students will receive the same kit, but may

choose to change colors in any pattern or rearrange patterns as the mood strikes.” In Studio

Time Susan Goodman will be on deck to help you with projects you already have in progress.

Susan has a wealth of creativity and stitching experience to draw from!

If you like books, you will love the “Book Swap.” Bring a needlework related book that you no

longer want and exchange it for another in return. You may also buy used needlework books at

very reasonable prices. Recycle your needlework books that are no longer of interest and find

others that you “must have.”

Penny Franz from Ewe Count in Cheyenne, Wyoming will provide wonderful shopping

opportunities. Centennial State Chapter and Colorado Chapter members are supplying Silent

Auction items that you are sure to find too tempting to resist! Merchandise Night will provide

even more retail therapy.

To register go to the region website at: rmrega.org and click on the RMR Seminar 2020 tab to

find the Rocky Mountain Roundup brochure and registration materials. Remember regular

registrations must be postmarked no later than April 30, 2020!

Questions about registration may be directed to Registrar Valerie Cowan at

rmr2020registrar@gmail.com or (303) 258-6260.

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Woman’s Work

Hard Working Samplers

Young girls in the 18th century were given sparse educations focused on preparing them for marriage,

childrearing and running a household. As part of this training, girls often completed two embroidered

samplers, each serving a different purpose. The first sampler, often worked when the student was only

six or seven years old, was a marking sampler. This consisted of a small piece of cloth, usually an even-

weave, with rows of letters and numbers in cross stitch. This sampler served two purposes. It was used

to teach the girl the alphabet and numbers. It also taught the stitcher how to embroider marks, or ini-

tials and numbers on the family linen. This allowed the housewife to keep track of her household linen

when it was sent out for repair or when items needed to be rotated to prolong their wear.

Girls from wealthier families graduated to private female boarding schools to continue their educations.

Here the girls might be taught French and history but increased emphasis was placed on the more gen-

teel female accomplishments like music, drawing, dancing and fine embroidery. The girls learned the

skills needed to embroider a second, decorative sampler or perhaps a detailed embroidered scene.

These pictures could showcase flowers, trees, architecture and wildlife. They often contained lengthy

verses meant to show the embroiderer’s piety, obedience to her family and God and her skill at needle-

work. Sometimes the samplers provided detailed family ancestry information. The completed samplers

were often proudly displayed in the girl’s home. Amelia Peck of the Metropolitan Museum of Art de-

scribes the purpose of these samplers as follows:

While less straightforwardly useful than marking samplers, decorative samplers and needlework pictures also served an important function: they revealed the values of the girl and her family to potential suitors. The completed work was usually framed and hung in the parlor, proclaiming the maker’s obedience, patience and skill. It also communicated that the girl’s parents were wealthy enough to send their daughter to school and that the family valued the arts of refinement.1

These samplers did a lot of work for the young stitchers of colonial times. Today, we stitch samplers and

other types of embroidery for pleasure and fulfillment. These early schoolgirl samplers were meant to

give a girl literacy, prepare her for future household duties and advertise her gentility, piety and worthi-

ness as a wife. That’s a heavy lift for a piece of cloth and some fine silk threads.

Charlotte Brooks

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1Peck, Amelia. “American Needlework in the Eighteenth Century.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art His-tory. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/need/hd_need.htm (October 2003)

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I am excited to tell you that RMR is holding its next Retreat in 2021 at the Homestead

Resort in Midway, Utah! The venue is in place, but now I need three people willing to

be on the Retreat 2021 committee. This committee consists of a Retreat Chairman,

Retreat Registrar and Retreat Mentor Chairman. As the Seminar/Retreat Coordinator I

oversee the committee, and Debbie Tennis the Region Treasurer will act as the Retreat

Treasurer. If you would like to see what these positions entail all pertinent Retreat

Guidelines and Forms can be found on the region website.

The majority of the work involved with these positions is done on the computer, but

each chairman is expected to register and attend the Retreat in order to fulfill their

responsibilities. Frequent emails and occasional Skype meetings between the

committee and myself will keep everyone on track. If you are interested and would like

to find out more, please contact me at joannalord@q.com. I would love to hear from

you!

Thank you,

Joanna Lord

RMR ARD and Seminar/Retreat Coordinator

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Rocky Mountain Region 2021 Retreat Opportunities

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2020 Events Calendar February 1-6 RMWS Member Meeting February 1 Stitch-in-Public Day April 4-8 RMWS Board Meeting April 20 Newsletter submissions due April 27 Newsletter published May 1-6 RMWS Member Meeting July 4-8 RMWS Board Meeting July 20 Newsletter submissions due July 27 Newsletter published August 1-6 RMWS Member Meeting August 13-15 “Rocky Mountain Roundup” – RMR Seminar –Denver September 4-8 2020 EGA Nat’l Seminar “Boston Stitch Party” October 4-8 RMWS Board Meeting October 19 Newsletter submissions due October 26 Newsletter published November 1-6 RMWS Member Meeting