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SAVE THE DATE!!!
Our 50th Anniversary celebration luncheon will be held on
Saturday, June 7, 2025, 11:30 am –3:30 pm
Charlie’s of Lincroft
700 Newman Springs Road
Lincroft, NJ.
The Chapter will be subsidizing a portion of the luncheon cost for all MCEGA members. Registrations will begin in January.
In just a few short months we will be celebrating our chapter’s 50th anniversary! Information about registering for the luncheon celebration will be in the January 2025 newsletter.
Over the past several issues of Talking Threads we have included articles about how our chapter began, where we met, the number of classes, workshops and lectures offered and the many benefits of being a Monmouth Chapter member.
This article will focus on our stitching, or to be more exact, our stitches. There are more than 400 types of different stitches from around the globe. The most popular embroidery stitch is the satin stitch along with the running stitch, back stitch, chain stitch and X stitch. The names of these stitches provide the stitcher with an idea of what the stitch will look like or how it is achieved. But we wanted to know –
Why is the daisy lazy?
Is the flame stitch (aka bargello) hot?
Do you take the tent stitch camping?
Does the feather stitch tickle you?
Do non-meat eaters prefer the fishbone stitch?
Do you need a passport to stitch the Florentine, Greek, Scotch,
Parisian, Rumanian or Hungarian stitches?
Do animal lovers like the Pekinese stitch?
Do you need to use chopsticks with the rice stitch?
Are farmers the only ones who know about the seed stitch?
Do home builders like the brick stitch?
Is the burden stitch too much of a responsibility or is it too heavy?
Do the eyelet stitches see?
Are you uncertain when stitching the hesitation stitch?
And do you need longer arms to stitch the long arm cross stitch?
Monmouth Chapter was originally the Molly Pitcher Chapter with our first meeting held on
May 22, 1975. As we became chartered, we learned that all chapter names had to be geographical in nature and so we became the Monmouth Chapter in July 1975.
We plan to have a celebration in 2025 -- more information will be announced shortly.
Planning for our chapter’s 50th anniversary in 2025 is continuing with more information to be
announced shortly. Historically, Monmouth Chapter has been meeting on the 3rd Thursday
of the month since we first became a chapter, which is our general meeting. In 1991 the Jersey Shore Chapter joined Monmouth Chapter and met on the first Monday of the
month thus becoming our evening meeting. In 2011 the South Mountain Chapter joined Monmouth as our Sunday meeting. MCEGA members can attend all three meetings each month.
As we plan to celebrate our chapter’s 50 th anniversary in 2025 Monmouth Chapter:
Held over 825 meetings
Provided over 75 workshops
Ran several bus trips and outings to museums and needlework shops
Conducted classes by our members
Provided classes with embroidery instructors
Viewed slide shows and listened to lectures
Participated in Group Correspondence Classes
Used Petite Projects
Held Notebook Classes
Challenged our members by completing UFOs
Utilized President’s Challenges
Celebrated Holiday Gift Exchanges
Stitched every form of embroidery from appliqué to weaving
… and since 2020 have provided meetings and classes online
Since we began in 1975 Monmouth Chapter has grown with the times and changed to
meet the needs and wants of our members. We have moved meeting locations to better
accommodate our members. Our Chapter was one of the first chapters to develop a
website and we now have presence on the social media platforms. Monmouth Chapter
always offered our members a vast variety of in-person educational opportunities but has
expanded to offering virtual meetings and classes, thus allowing for even more classes
with teachers. The number of stitching events offered to our members has increased with
our Stitching Times. Because of these educational opportunities, our membership has
grown to not only include local members but members from our Region and across
the United States.
Back in the late 1980’s there was a television commercial by an upscale credit card
company that announced, “Membership has its’ privileges”. The implication was that
certain things were available only through the use of this card and that if you wanted
to get in on all of the rewards, you had to be a member.
Membership at Monmouth Chapter EGA has many benefits. We’ve discussed in previous
articles how much education has been and continues to be offered to our members. Our
members benefit from the many discounted programs that our Chapter subsidizes so
that we can provide our members with a multitude of stitching opportunities.
While education is our primary goal there is a benefit to membership that we have not
yet discussed. It’s the friendship and camaraderie that our members share by getting
together at meetings (both in-person and virtually). Some of our best friendships started
all because we became members of Monmouth Chapter. When we each joined Monmouth
Chapter it was because we had an interest in needle arts. This shared interest bonds us
with each other. It’s like a “stitcher-hood”. As William Butler Yeats said:
“There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet”.