February Update

Hello, stitchy friends!

I can’t believe we’re nearly halfway through February already. Time is flying by! I hope you’ve had some time to stitch. I haven’t had as much as I’d like, if I’m being honest, but I’ve been having other adventures…like my recent trip to London to see the Royal School of Needlework’s exhibit “A Girl’s Education in Stitch”. I’ll share details on that in another post soon. Today I’m here to share what’s going on in our chapter.

MORE new members! Question: how many stitchy friends is too many? Answer: there is no such thing as too many stitchy friends! We’re growing again, y’all, and as of 8 pm on February 13th, we have 82 wonderful members in our chapter. WOW! In the words of our amazing Treasurer/Membership ninja Anna Todd: “Can we get to 85?”

I’m not going to share their names on the website, as we’re still figuring out some of the finer points of communicating here, but I’m sure you’ll meet them at the next meeting or two…or maybe on a WIP Wednesday one night!

Speaking of new members, the “Facebook Memories” feature on Facebook recently reminded me of one of my favorite Stitch In Public days our chapter has ever had. If you’ve never heard of Stitch In Public before, it’s just an excuse for us all to get together and stitch…in a public place where people can look over and think to themselves “Wow! What a cool bunch of people over there. Look at all those amazing things they’re stitching. We should go over and say hi!”

On this particular SIP day, many friends were made – and by the end of our time together we had 3 new members. We even decided to take our new friends over to the Stitch Niche to introduce them to one of the amazing local needlework shops in the DFW area. Every time I see these pictures, I’m reminded of the reason I love our chapter so much: the friendships we make. I know life gets busy and messy…and I know it’s not always easy to get to our monthly meetings…but I do hope that all of our members take the opportunity to participate in the many activities our chapter has to enjoy. We’re all joined by the common thread of our love for this art form. I am so grateful that we continue to get new members and make new friends!

Upcoming Events. I’ve updated the Chapter Calendar with the latest events, including our next Stitch in Public day (this Saturday), and our Stash Sale. Be sure to check it out!

While we’re at it, I wanted to point out a very annoying issue on our calendar. Right now, you can view three months at a glance…but what a glance! As you can see by the example below, the months bleed into each other and make it hard to read. Just in case you’ve noticed it too, I want you to know I’m working on figuring this out and I hope to have it resolved soon.

Reminder: Donate Items for Stitching Texas “Opportunity Knocks” basket. Jeanne Maxwell is working on gathering donations for the gift basket we’ll raffle off at the next Stitching Texas retreat. If you have any stitchy stash or stitching gift related items you’d like to donate, please reach out to Jeanne. If you want to add an extra bit of flair, it’ll be helpful to share that this year’s theme is monarch butterflies…but you’re not required to donate items with butterflies on them. You can find Jeanne’s contact information in the Member Yearbook. If you don’t have the Yearbook or can’t find your copy (it’s a pdf file you were emailed when you joined…and it’s also updated and emailed to all members annually), please feel free to reply to any President’s emails you’ve received and ask me for a copy. That goes for any questions, really. Need something? Just yell!

March Program: Our Big Public Stash Sale! Who is ready? This is going to be so fun. Here’s how it’ll work: members who want to sell their stash, craft supplies, or stitching related gifts/items can buy a table for $10. There is no sign up list and no need to reserve a table. You can roll up to our March 4th meeting with all your stuff and pay your $10 on the day of the sale. From 9:30 am to 10:30 am, we’ll have a quick meeting. At 10:30 am, members will be allowed to set up their sales tables. The sale will run from 11 am to 1 pm, then clean-up will happen from 1 pm to 2 pm. If you’re selling, it’s up to you what types of payment you accept. And yes…you can split a table with one or more members if you don’t have enough to fill a whole table. Questions? Reach out to our Vice President of Programs, Debra Bessent, for more info.

February EGA Stitch A Long Facebook Group Project. For those of you on Facebook, EGA National has a Stitch A Long group that provides free monthly projects for everyone. The group is open to everyone whether they’re a member of EGA or not. This month’s project is called “Fill Your Hearts With Stitching” and it involves stitching a mini embroidery hoop pendant or ornament. You can find the group here.

April’s Program…it’s a Mystery! If you were at our last meeting, you got a copy of Sherri Hagar’s cross stitch pattern for our mystery finish project in April. If not, here’s your chance. Click here to download the pdf of the pattern. Between now and our April meeting, stitch this up in any color combination you’d like. Sherri will guide us through finishing it into a fun mystery shape at the April meeting. So what are you waiting for…get stitching!

Until next time…happy stitching!

2023: Off to a Great Start!

Happy January, everyone!

I’ve been busy cleaning and organizing my stitchy room and, wow, has it been eye-opening! So far I’ve found 82 WIPs, a finished punch needle project I’d completely forgotten about, and a brand new pair of unicorn embroidery scisors still in the package! What else will I find? Who knows!

We have some exciting things going on around the chapter, so let’s dig in.

NEW MEMBERS!

Please help me welcome new members Tanya R, Garrett K, Kim Y, Debbie W, and Vikki C!! Our chapter is growing and growing and we’re so excited to make new friends. Please check out the New Members tab here on the website. The Outreach team will be in touch with you soon.

CHAPTER CALENDAR

Our Chapter Calendar has been updated to include more than just the current month. I still don’t like the appearance of the calendar, but it can be difficult to find a plug-in that’s completely free. Since we’re a non-profit, that matters. 🙂 Our monthly Junior League stitch-in now ends at 1 pm…so you have even more time to bond with stitchy friends! There’s a Chapter Calendar tab across the top of the navigation bar above, or you can click here.

BINGO UPDATE

Sherri H. launched a fun Bingo fundraiser at the January meeting and tons of members bought Bingo cards. They’re $5 a card and have different needlework tasks on each box. Don’t worry, it’s not too late to buy cards and play along with us. You can get the details here.

In fact, Jeanne M (VP of Education), Debra B (VP of Programs) and myself all checked off a box when we went shopping at The Stitch Niche last Saturday…and then we went out to lunch, along with Jeanne’s hubby! You never know when the opportunity to check off a Bingo square will present itself.

Deb P. is going to help all Bingo players with space #13, which asks us to stitch something for charity. She’s come up with a great plan. Some of you may know Deb works for a non-profit that does therapy and they tend to lose or misplace the door signs that tell people they’re in session. If you’d like more info, check out The Art Station here in FW. www.theartstation.org

You can help by creating a door sign for the offices. They have a large number of offices both off site & inner office.

The only guidelines are the size & wording.

  • Size: 3 inch hoop (with ribbon) or 3×5 hangable finish (pillow or sign).
  • Wording: “In session” or “In session, please wait”.
  • For cross stitchers, Sherri has created a beautiful easy to follow chart of lettering (Thank you Sherri!). You can download it by clicking here.
  • For other forms of needlework, create your own and have fun!

You can use any color of fabric, thread and embellishments you wish to use. Need inspiration? Check out this example from Deb P. Keep it simple. Use what you have in your stash. Deb plans to collect them at the March meeting…so get going and have fun!

NEW SAL!

Mel A. has started a SAL with a free project you can download from Herschner’s website. If you’d like more information, please reach out to Mel either on Facebook or via email or phone. You can find her contact information in the chapter yearbook, which is updated every May and given to new members when they join. If you do not have one or can’t find yours and need to reach Mel or any member, please feel free to reach out to me for help!

WORKSHOPS COMING!

Our VP of Education, Jeanne M, is also working on some fun workshop possibilities for us this year! She’ll give an update at our February meeting…but please get ready to vote on something fun!

MEETING LOCATION: WE’RE MOVING IN MARCH!

Speaking of our February meeting, this will be the last meeting in North Richland Hills. Our March meeting will be in our new location at the Junior League in Arlington, which is just 5 minutes down the road from The Stitch Niche.

PROGRAMS FOR 2023

At almost every chapter meeting, we have a Program…which is a project, technique or lecture. Members can choose to participate or bring their own stitching and just have fun alongside us. Our VP of Programs, Debra B, has a great line up of activities for us this year! I’ll soon update the website with a list of everything for 2023. For now, I’ll share next month’s adorable project: a heart bookmark taught by Peggy V.

As always, please reach out to me if you have any questions or need any help or info about anything at all. Here’s wishing you a wonderful week full of joy and, of course, stitching!

Dianne S, Chapter President

2023 Bingo Challenge!

At our January 2023 meeting we started an exciting new challenge called “Move the Needle”, developed by the Louisiana Lagniappe Chapter. This challenge is in the form of Bingo cards, but the squares consist of various stitching related tasks to complete instead of numbers. We’ll individually work the tasks and mark off the squares hoping to achieve a “Bingo”. There will be 4 different cards and you can play one, two, three, or all four of them. Each card will cost $5.00 and the funds will be used to purchase prizes for a drawing to be held at our 2023 Holiday Party. There are various ways you can be entered into the drawing:

Card purchase = 1 entry per card

Bingo (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) = 1 entry

Bingo 4 corners = 2 entries

Blackout = 3 entries

Ready to get started? You can get the task list with rules and instructions by clicking here. Contact Sherri Hagar to purchase Bingo cards.  Cards will also be available at meetings and by mail if requested.

Let’s stretch our stitching muscles!

Welcome to our new home!

Hello, Fort Worth EGA members and friends! I am super excited to welcome you to our new home on the internet: FortWorthEGA.com . Wow!! We’re our own dot-com. Look how we’re growing.

This website will be the main source of information for our members and friends going forward. Here, you’ll hear from our President, the Chairs of all committees, our advertisers, and you’ll get to see everyone’s beautiful Show & Tell projects.

The sun has officially set on our newsletter. Please bookmark this website so you can find it when you need it, but rest assured that we’ll advise you of updates when there’s new information. We will not just leave you to randomly check the website, I promise. In fact, here’s how our communications update looks in 2023:

At the beginning of each month, all current members of our chapter will receive an email from the President providing updates on what’s going on for the month. The email will include links to updated parts of the website, as well as any articles that are new or noteworthy. Show & Tell pictures, updates on our current initiatives like the Girl Scout program and other Outreach activities, will also be linked in the email.

Mid-month, there will be a second email from the President to share a brief update and any reminders that need to go out.

What you will not see on this website: members’ full names, our chapter yearbook, or member personal information. We’re big on protecting your privacy. When the new Yearbook comes out, it’ll be emailed to members only.

We’ll also have a section especially for members who are new to the EGA experience. It’ll be chock full of information for EGA newbies, which will help our newer members with things like GCCs and seminars and what on earth is a master craftsman?

We hope you enjoy the new site. Explore it. Kick the tires. Flop on the couch and get cozy. This is our new home on the internet…we want everyone to feel welcome and included.

Dianne