Have Your Say

One of the things we love about our newsletter is never knowing which articles, questions or ideas will inspire someone to write in with their own thoughts, memories, or answers. This week we’ve collated a wonderful collection of responses that we’ve received since sending out All Stitched Up! issue #388.

After reading about stitching frames in ASU #388, it seems Judy has been invigorated to dust off her old frame… 

‘In 1981 my oldest son died at the age of 19. My mother saved my sanity by introducing me to embroidery. I spent many a solitary hour in the wee small hours with needle and thread in hand. Soon I had joined the local chapter of the EGA and haunted the five or six embroidery and needle point/tapestry stores within a half hour’s drive from my home. 

One of the members of our EGA chapter worked at one of these stores, Needle Arts Inc. in Dearborn, Michigan. Owned and operated by the renowned Shay Pendray, teacher, author, and PBS star of her own TV show. Her husband developed a wooden floor stand that she used in her studio for all her students. I paid a small fortune for mine and although it is cumbersome, it allows you to sit comfortably in a chair and have your stitching sit in its frame directly over your lap, thus allowing for easy two-handed stitching. 

My frame had sat forgotten way back in the closet that houses much of my stash. To be honest, my rooms are somewhat small and can barely accommodate my furniture, but now that there is no one here but my little dog and myself, who cares right?! Now I think I’ll give the frame another go and see if it helps these ancient hands and eyes manifest the longings of my heart.’

Peter emailed in with a suggestion for Marjan who was wondering how to stop her tabletop stand from falling over. Peter’s suggestion was to ‘Try putting it on a rubber mat so it doesn’t move.’

We were pleased to receive a ‘completed’ photo from Sara, whose chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America was featured in ‘What Are You Stitching?’ in ASU #388. Her chapter had a community event coming up and decided to create an identification banner with a different technique stitched on each pennant.

She also included the most ‘attention getting’ pennant. ‘Chris Day’s cross-stitched pennant is an actual functioning QR Code that fair attendees could snap with their smartphones and be instantly transported to our chapter’s website! Now, how modern can you get?’

To finish this week’s ‘Have Your Say’, we have a query from Elizabeth after she found herself thinking about the conversation that often unfolds when one says, ‘I am an embroiderer.’

‘When people ask me what I do for work, I used to say, ‘I’m a housewife, but by profession I’m a Chinese teacher.’ Since beginning serious embroidery training with the RSN and others, I’ve started to see myself differently. I now consider myself to be an embroiderer, albeit still in training.

In my experience there are three types of response to ‘I’m an embroiderer’: Those who don’t get it at all, those who immediately ask if I’ll do x or y for them and offer to buy the threads (even though they just asked for 100 or more hours of my time and work for free!), and those precious individuals who actually do get it. I wonder what reactions other readers get?’

And on that note, we look forward to hearing if anyone can empathise with Elizabeth, or maybe you have an entirely different experience with saying ‘I’m an embroiderer’ you’d like to share with the Inspirations Community.