Happy New Year!
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A little late, but heartfelt!
This new year brings lots of new energy and new projects.
This newsletter links you to two fascinating articles about:
- An incredible stitching project undertaken in Annapolis, MD
- A needlepoint town
It also includes a review of and link to a Chinese embroidery book written by a stitching icon.
Note to my Stitching Buddies – You are not forgotten. This project has been delayed for a few more months. Thanks again for your patience.
Happy Stitching!
Tapestries of Annapolis
This stitching project involves a community of volunteers stitching historical events that occurred over three hundred years. Wow! What dedication and heart – qualities a great stitching project enjoys. Three tapestries, each 3 feet by 6 1/2 feet and dozens of smaller ones stitched by 10 core needlepointers, but the also includes hundreds of community stitchers. This article describes the first tapestry that will go on display later this month at the Historic Annapolis Museum. This first panel took 39 shades of Persian yarn and 3,266 volunteer hours to complete.
This project invites the community to add their own stitches to this artwork. This article points out that “anyone can help make history by putting in six stitches on a small canvas that women in the project take to area events.” The museum is planning to allow visitors to add a few stitches to a small canvas in progress. This project is truly a community effort.
The project planners raised funds for materials and exhibit. They worked with historians and a local needlepoint expert and artist to determine the events and people to depict who helped vet their canvases for historical correctness.
Maybe this article can inspire others to take on similar projects, or smaller family history projects, stitched as a community, sharing stories through the process.
Needlepoint Town
A needlepoint town has grown up in Louisiana. The Christmas village is set up in the rectory of St. Joseph Catholic Church in French Settlement, Louisiana. This project has grown from one needlepoint schoolhouse to more than 350 major pieces. It was all started by Father Jason Palermo’s great aunt, Sedonia Louvierre, who made 13 of the original miniature buildings out of needlepoint.
This project is another example of a community coming together through needlepoint to create a magical spectacle for others to enjoy.
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Silk Embroidery
An icon, an ancient art, and contemporary designs: How one woman is changing the landscape for ancient Chinese silk embroidery techniques. What’s old is new again.
The book Painting with a Needle presents the story of Young Yang Chung and her extraordinary dedication to the textile arts. This book displays ancient and contemporary renderings of exquisite embroideries. She presents the techniques used to create the embroideries and inspires stitchers to pick up a needle and begin the journey. In this book she writes,
“Small needles and homespun threads proved to be powerful, life-changing tools that provided me and other Korean women with a viable vocation as well as an expressive and rewarding creative outlet… needlework carried me from a small Korean village of 30 families along a fascinating pathway across time and geographic region.”
Su Embroidery Studio provides a detailed review of this book as well as others written by Young Yang Chung. This site offers many articles about these ancient embroidery techniques as well as products created using these techniques.
If you have not yet been exposed to to this type of needleart, get ready for for a fascinating journey.