—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Dec. 11, 1976
50
By SALLY BAIR
Feature Writer
Marusia Zearfoss is one of
those people who can do any
kind of craft and make it look
easy. She can sew dolls,
make doth flowers, create
dried flower pictures and
does many kinds of
needlework. And that is just
for starters.
In her home at 48 Mifflin
Street, Lebanon, many of her
craft items add interest to
her decor. But while she
makes any kind of craft
which she enjoys for herself,
she attends many craft
shows and hopes to sell most
of her items.
Perhaps the thing that she
likes to do most is cross
stitch embroidery. She at
tributes her interest to tier
Ukranian background, and
said she taught herself
embroidery as a young girl
by doing dresser scarves and
pillows.
She has progressed con
siderably since her dresser
scarf days and the work
which best shows her skill
and enthusiasm is a cross
stitch picture which hangs on
her living room wall. It is a
rural scene with a far
mhouse, a father picking
apples from a tree and a
little girl playing with sheep
in the pasture. Above the
picture is the alphabet and
below are these words:
“May this remain when I am
gone. For you my friends to
look upon.”
The picture is one
Marusia created for a
needlework contest spon
sored by Ladies Home
Journal magazine last year.
She said she read about the
contest three months before
the deadline, and she sewed
on her project for two
months.
“The first month I played
around with an idea, trying
to get an inspiration,” she
explains. When the idea
came, it took her two weeks
to plan out the design, which
was a scene reminiscent of
Marusia’s childhood in rural
New Jersey where she grew
up. The care she took in
preparing it was rewarded
by having her entry named
one of 57 finalists out of 2,000
entries.
Planning a design of such
intricacy is time com
suming, but important for
the overall effect when the
project is finished. Marusia
says, “I map it out on graph
paper, and being the
meticulous person I am, I go
to great extremes to make
sure everything is perfect. I
spend hours making sure
that what’s on the paper is
what comes out.”
She has many kinds of
completed cross-stitch
pieces, obviously not all on
the scale of her Ladies Home
Journal project. She is
currently working on tiny
cross-stitch angels and other
creatures in tiny picture
frames - a delight for
children of any age.
Cross-stitch was once
extremely popular, and is
regaining its popularity, if
the interest in samplers is
any indication. Marusia
pointed out that the old
samplers which are now
enjoying popularity were
once done simply for
practice. She said it taught
the young girls to sew the
basic stitches, numbers and
the alphabet. They were
named “samplers” because
the piece was a sample to
practice and to leam things
on. She also explained that
women copied patterns from
each other in this fashion,
and since people couldn’t
afford paper, this was often
the only way to copy a
pattern.
Marusia says she is trying
to develop some Penn
sylvania Dutch designs in
cross-stitch. While some
have been done in
needlepoint, there are none
available for cross-stitch
enthusiasts.
Another grand idea for the
future is a desire to create
embroidery designs as kits
or patterns.
“I would like to work'on
my own designs or recreate
old designs,” she says. But,
she’s only interested in doing
it on a small scale. And quite
aside from her wish to design
patterns, she says, “I would
love to teach eveyone to
make cross-stitch em
brodiery without a printed
pattern.”
But cross-stitch is just one
of Marusia’s interests - the
variety seems endless. She
said she has been doing
things with her hands all her
life.
“I remember when I was
little, I made clothes for
dolls, including little felt
shoes,” she says, continuing
with her thought she says,
“My mother made a lot of
clothes for me, and I
remember being given a cast
iron Singer sewing machine -
a toy.” She not only used the
machine as a child, but took
it with her when she attended
Shippensburg State College,
and put it to use there.
Surprisingly enough, she
doesn’t remember her
parents doing a lot of crafts.
Their interest, she said with
a laugh, “all came after I
started.” Her father now
does needlepoint and has
done latchwork rugs.
She has' been attending
craft shows for the past three
years, and sells a vanety of
crafts, changing from time
to time as her interest
changes. Cloth flowers were
one of her first ventures, but
she doesn’t make them now.
Once, when she was
“playing around with wire”,
she discovered she could
make earrings. They were
the clip-on style, and she
made them “entirely
myself” from steel wire and
some with copper wire. It
was a natural for her she
said, “Because I am allergic
to metal.” She doesn’t make
the earrings anymore,
because “the markets and
the interest change.”
She is presently working
with dried flowers, and she
admits, “I have a thing
about flowers ” She maked
dried flower pictures and
jewelry from the tiniest of
plants, which she says she
collects, dries, and presses
herself. Explaining that she
is always on the lookout for
Marusia plays her dulcimer - a purchase at a craft
show in West Virginia.
Homestead Notes
Marusia works on some cross-stitch embroidery at
her standing embroidery hoop.
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This cross-stitch picture was created by Marusia
for a contest sponsored by Ladies Home Journal. It
depicts her life as a child and was selected as one
of 57 finalists out of 2,000 entries.
' *''*‘■’3s*'“A
interesting plant material,
and she admits to sometimes
rising before sunup so she
can get the specimens in
their prime.
She and her husband
Craig camp a lot, and she
often collects plant material
when they are camping. She
even has her husband in the
habit of helping to look for
potential specimens, and she
always has a flower press
which her husband made for
her or a book in her car to
preserve what she finds.
She says her husband is
“my best salesman. He
brags about me.”
One unique way of using
dried flowers is putting them
on eggshells with a
decoupage finish. She said,
“decorating eggs intrigues
me. I tried the flowers on the
eggs - people liked it, I liked
it and so I keep on doing it.”
A recent addition to her
array is a corn husk ball,
rather like the traditional
kissing ball. Her com husk
ball is adorned with straw
flowers for a very pleasing
effect. She pointed out that
the ball can be used at any
season by changing a bow or
other adornment.
Marusia sews, and showed
a lovely patchwork quilt as
an example. She said she
mostly sews animals and
dolls, using magazine pat
terns. A special favorite is
making lambs, since her
family raised sheep when
she was young. She also
knits, crochets, and does
needlepoint and crewel
embroidery. At the time of
this reporter’s visit, there
was a partially finished pine
cone wreath in a corner.
Marusia mentioned that
while she likes to make
things in her own style, very
few ideas are completely
original. She said she often
“borrows” designs, and
adds, “I will beg, borrow or
steal.” But she always
makes some changes in what
she does so that the finished
product reflects her talent.
She has a collection of
needlework pattern books.
As an understatement,
Marusia says, “I love
making things.” But she
adds, “I do it because I feel
like doing it.” I don’t like to
take orders, because it
makes me feel pushed. I try
to pace myself, and I will
ofter work on something
while I ’listen’ to television.”
An English teacher at
Lebanon High School, she
said, “After school I like to
sit down and do something. I
cannot sit for very long.”
And for those who have
started a project and not
completed it, it will be a
comfort to hear Marusia
confess that she has many
projects going at once. She
said, “I may have 16 projects
going. One thing leads to
another. When my eyes get
tired with embroidery I go-M
to something else.”
Marusia began selling her
crafts quite unexpectedly.
When she was visiting her
parents’ home in Harper’s
Ferry, W. Va., she was
friendly with the people who
ran an old-fashioned country
store.
“They encouraged me to
make flowers and allowed
me to set up a table and sell
my things. I never dreamed I
could make money doing it.”
she says.
This spurred her on to
doing craft shows in this
area, although she prefers
doing them outside the
Lebanon area. She said, “I
will go almost anywhere that
draws people from outsifl
the area.” She attends the
regular - functions at
Schaefferstown, has been to
Mechanicsburg, Hazelton,
and, Mt. Gretna, and has
attended a crafts festival at
AUenberry.
The shows have become
very interesting for Marusxa
who admits, “I love to spend
my time talking to someone.
I am a teacher at heart, no
matter where I am.”
Most shows prefer to have
craftsmen demonstrating,
about which she says, “It is
hard' to demonstrate
something that is appealing
and eye-catching, but people
are more apt to buy if you
are demonstrating.”
She often embroiders
while at shows, and
sometimes she plays tM
dulcimer, which is a real
attention-getter. Marusia
taght herself to play the
instrument which she bought
at a West Virginia craft]
show. |
Marusia said that while itj
annoys her when people look!
over her crafts and suggest
that they can do it cheaper
themselve, she, on the other
hand, will spend great
amounts of time explaining!
in detail how to do a par-1
ticular craft if a passer-byl
seems particularly in-J
terested in it. She said she ia
not concerned about!
teaching others to do crafta
themselves because as sha
put it, “the things I do, tta
average person won’t
if they try it, it won’t con*n
out as well. I
I enjoy helping ©then
make things. I have givei
lessons in my home fron
time to time and I reallj
enjoy teaching needleworj
because the people reallj
want to learn.” Ufl
fortunately, she said, wrtj
her full-time teachinj
schedule there is not mucl
time for teaching crafts. I
There is a great interest 1
doing crafts now, she sail
“Because people a J
realizing that they have tr
ability. They get a lot <
satisfaction in doin
something themselves.”
Marusia’s abilities ar
diverse, and she says a litp
self-consciously, “I guess j
do have some kind of naturl
talent.” /
Her “natural talent” hi
created some delightfi
crafts, and a lot of 3
joyment tor herself and fj
others.