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Fine Arts Fiesta keeps party going to very end

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Pens head home with momentum for Game 5

<p>KINGSTON &#8212; Hundreds of stitches? Of course.</p><p>Thousands? Certainly.</p><p>Millions? Well, probably.</p><p>The Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild of America has been going strong for 34 years, and when you think about all the quilts and pillowcases and shirts and socks and wall hangings its members have decorated since the early 1980s, Nancy Eckhart, of Mountain Top, estimates she and fellow members have easily made more than a million stitches.</p><p>Not that anyone&#8217;s counting, she said. They&#8217;re having too much fun.</p><p>&#8220;This is our &#8216;ta-da&#8217; table,&#8221; Eckhart said during a recent meeting at the Kingston Recreation Center, pointing to a display of completed projects. The handiwork ranged from a framed square that proclaimed &#8220;I Love My Cat&#8221; to a pair of striped socks that featured red, orange, yellow and at least four other colors.</p><p>You don&#8217;t need seven or eight different balls of yarn for those socks, said Renee Bebla, of Mountain Top, who had knit the pair for her son, a Harry Potter fan, using all the colors of the Hogwarts houses. You only need one kind of yarn, if it&#8217;s the right kind, she said, holding up a multi-colored skein.</p><p>As presenter Deborah Tirico got ready to show the group how to make a wool applique pin cushion, several members used the time to stitch away at nearly completed projects.</p><p>Helene Maszeroski, of West Pittston, for one, was binding a quilt she had brought along and Blanche Kania, of Drums, embroidered a rainbow of colorful flowers onto a pillowcase.</p><p>Kania said she&#8217;s been embroidering since she was 7 years old, when her grandmother taught her.</p><p>But you don&#8217;t have to be a lifelong expert to join the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild. Interested crafters at all levels of experience are welcome to come and learn, said president Alice Knepp, of Harveys Lake.</p><p>The art of needlework may be &#8220;as endangered as the Bengal tiger,&#8221; as Gina Thackara, of Kingston, one of the local chapter&#8217;s founding members, described it. But the group is determined to keep their art alive by sharing their skills and advice.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a sisterhood,&#8221; Tirico said, adding the history of embroidery and other needle arts is &#8220;much older than the United States.&#8221;</p><p>Though people might think of embroidery as a primarily feminine accomplishment, she said, men belonged to embroiderers&#8217; guilds during the Middle Ages and the royal embroiderers King Henry VIII chose to decorate his eye-catching clothing would have been men.</p><p>By the time families were settling in Colonial America, stitching was typically considered &#8220;women&#8217;s work,&#8221; and women sometimes found the pins and needles they used were hard to come by.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s where the phrase &#8216;pin money&#8217; came from,&#8221; said Alice Rae Kutish, of Kingston. &#8220;They had to save up to buy them.&#8221;</p><p>Anyone who would like to learn more about needlework is invited to attend the group&#8217;s public meetings, or &#8220;stitch-ins&#8221; which are held from 10 a.m. to noon on the fourth Friday of the month at the Hoyt Library on Wyoming Avenue in Kingston.</p><p>Evening stitch-ins are also held in members&#8217; homes, and you can bring whatever project you&#8217;re working on to a meeting, Eckhart said.</p><p>The local chapter of the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild is part of the national, not-for-profit Embroiderers&#8217; Guild of America, which is based in Lexington, Ky. Members said joining gives you not only an opportunity to perfect your craft, but hours of enjoyment.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s relaxing, and a way to get together with your friends,&#8221; said founding member Evelyn Shedlock, of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s cheaper than therapy,&#8221; member Kathy Baker, of Bloomsburg, added with a laugh.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Rose Marie Amico, of Pittston, holds up an example of Brazillian embroidery to show fellow members of the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Embroiderers Guild of Ameria. She will teach a workshop on that topic in June. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL052717embroidery1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Rose Marie Amico, of Pittston, holds up an example of Brazillian embroidery to show fellow members of the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Embroiderers Guild of Ameria. She will teach a workshop on that topic in June. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL052717embroidery2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Instructor Deborah Tirico hands out materials to teach the class how to make pin cushions during the Embroiderers Guild of America workshop at the Kingston Recreation Center on Wednesday, May 17.  5/17/17. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL052717embroidery2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Instructor Deborah Tirico hands out materials to teach the class how to make pin cushions during the Embroiderers Guild of America workshop at the Kingston Recreation Center on Wednesday, May 17.  5/17/17. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL052717embroidery3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Instuctor Deborah Tirico, who demonstated the making of a wool applique pin cushion during the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild meeting, holds up a finished quilt so everyone can admire it. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL052717embroidery3-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Instuctor Deborah Tirico, who demonstated the making of a wool applique pin cushion during the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild meeting, holds up a finished quilt so everyone can admire it. </caption2><photoCredit2>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL052717embroidery4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kathy Baker, of Bloomsburg, decorates a table runner using a process called English Paper Piecing during an Embroiderers&#8217; Guild workshop at the Kingston Recreation Center on Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL052717embroidery4-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Kathy Baker, of Bloomsburg, decorates a table runner using a process called English Paper Piecing during an Embroiderers&#8217; Guild workshop at the Kingston Recreation Center on Wednesday. </caption3><photoCredit3>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_emb1-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Rose Marie Amico, of Pittston, holds up an example of Brazillian embroidery to show fellow members of the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Embroiderers Guild of Ameria. She will teach a workshop on that topic in June. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_emb1-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>Rose Marie Amico, of Pittston, holds up an example of Brazillian embroidery to show fellow members of the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Embroiderers Guild of Ameria. She will teach a workshop on that topic in June. </caption4><photoCredit4>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_emb3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Instuctor Deborah Tirico, who demonstated the making of a wool applique pin cushion during the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild meeting, holds up a finished quilt so everyone can admire it. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_emb3-1.jpg</photo5><caption5>Instuctor Deborah Tirico, who demonstated the making of a wool applique pin cushion during the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild meeting, holds up a finished quilt so everyone can admire it. </caption5><photoCredit5>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit5></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_emb4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kathy Baker, of Bloomsburg, decorates a table runner using a process called English Paper Piecing during an Embroiderers&#8217; Guild workshop at the Kingston Recreation Center on Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo6>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_emb4-1.jpg</photo6><caption6>Kathy Baker, of Bloomsburg, decorates a table runner using a process called English Paper Piecing during an Embroiderers&#8217; Guild workshop at the Kingston Recreation Center on Wednesday. </caption6><photoCredit6>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit6></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p>&#8226; The next stitch-in for the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Embroiderers&#8217; Guild of America will be 10 a.m. May 26 at the Hoyt Library, 284 Wyoming Ave., Kingston. For info, call Nancy Eckhart at 570-868-8197.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Valley Chapter of Embroiderers’ Guild keeps their art alive