C2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 10,1981
Cross-stitch
proves "fun"
for this needleworker
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
For needleworkers, the Pennsylvania Farm Show
which opens tomorrow in Harrisburg, offers an endless
variety of original work sure to inspire new amibitions of
perfection.
This year Mary Alice Fyock, 905 Orchard Road, Lititz,
is entermg something in the needlework category for the
first time since she sent 4-H projects there as a child. Her
creation is a counted thread wreath, with 22 threads per
inch on hardanger cloth, which she designed from a line
drawing.
Mary Alice related that she created the wreath as a
project of the Red Rose Embroiderers Guild which gave
out the line drawing and had a contest among members to
translate the drawing whatever kind of needlework they
chose.
Obviously eager to accept a challenge, Mary Alice says
casually, “I charted it.”
By charting it, she means she spent about 25 hours
working out the wreath on grapn paper to make sure she
'got proper light variations on the objects. She recalls, “I
had to ask ‘Will it look rounded 9 How much dark and light
should it have 9 How can Ido diagonal strips on the candy
cane 9 ’ ”At one point she got out her father’s art books to
study lighting so her shadings would be accurate
If spendings 25 hours on a chart boggles your mind,
consider that she then spent nearly 40 hours actually
working the wreath in the cross-stitch Mary Alice says
simply, “I really like that kind of thing. Once the chart is
complete it’s cake ”
Mary Alice’s painstaking attention to detail paid off,
and in the Embroiderer’s Guild contest she won first place
with her four-inch wreath She won’t know until later in
the week how she’ll do at Farm Show, but it meets the
quahfication which states that work must be completely
the design of the exhibitor.
She was the only one in the Guild to do the wreath in
counted cross stitch although others created the design ir
other forms. After winning the popular vote, Mary Abet
was awarded a silver thimble in a red velvet case
Mary Alice’s cross-stitch is obviously fine, but she
enjoys other kinds of needlework as well. She says, “I like
any kind of stitchery - the finer the better.”
Mary Alice joined the Embroiderer’s Guild in 1976, one
year after it formed, and is enthusaistic about what she
has gamed from it. She says, “I’m really interested in old
art forms- the kind we don’t have tune to do anymore I
like the luxury kind of embroidery - the cut work and the
white work.” she said the Guild has certified speakers and
workshops which are very valuable in learning to do
needlework.
She says she can’t remember when she first started
doing needlework, but adds, “Since I was a child I was
always interested in creative things and hand work ”
Her eight years as a 4-H member spurred on Mary
Alice’s interest in fine work. She and her husband David
were both Lancaster County 4-H’ers
She said her start in counted thread work came after
taking a trip with her husband to North Carolina where he
Mary Alice concentrates on the stitches on one of the many pieces of
needlework which she has underway m her work basket. Although counted
cross-stitch is her favorite, her abilities include needlepoint, crewel and lesser
known needlework forms.
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Mary Alice Fyock works with her daughter Amy on
a project she has started. Amy, 7, seems to have
had served in the Army. “I sniffed out needlework shops,
and found material m a shop in Wilmington, N.C..”
Mary Alice says, “Counted thread work is an old art
which has been revived A lot of design comes from the
South. The revival starts there and moves north. I’ve been
doing counted cross-stitch ever since I have given more
away than I have here.”
In fact, as we began to look for things to photograph,
Mary Alice lamented that she had very few things to
display m her own home
One of her favorite cross-stitch pieces are Kate
Greenaway figures to which she adds birth information
and gives away as baby gifts But she adds, “None of my
children has one.”
Mary Alice says that counted cross-stitch is her favorite
at the moment, but adds, “I wish I liked crewel more. It is
a real art when you do that It’s an heirloom ’’ But she
notes, anything created becomes a “heritage type piece.”
In her basket are examples of many beautifully created
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Mary created this version of a Della Robbia wreath in counted cross-stitch for
a contest sponsored by the Red Rose Embroiders Guild. It was voted a winner,
and she is entering it in competition at the Pennsylvania Farm Show this week.
There are 22 threads per inch, worked on hardanger cloth.
inherited her mother’s interest and ability.
pieces m forms that are not well known. She has some
Russian punch work, which she learned m a “Mini
workshop.” She also has some white work which she
described as “very fine,” and black work which when
done properly is reversible
She also has a cathedral window patch quilt, and can do
needlepoint, crotcheting and knitting Her work basket is
filled with many kinds of needlework in varying stages of
completion
Asked how she feels when she completes a piece which
has taken many hours and months of tune, she says, “I’m
very glad when it’s finished because I get very tired of it.
That’s why I do so many different things at one tune. If it
has any kind of repetition I get tired of it.”
She is quick to agree that there seems to be a lot of in
terest in needlework and what she describes as the “old
arts - like the kind you find m drawers. It is
handwork and often we don’t know what it is.”
She adds, “There is a lot more interest in history and
heritage. I think perhaps it is a way women can stand out
if they can revive a craft.”
Mary Alice admits that she is never without ideas about
what she’d like to do next. "I have a dozen things I want to
do Most things are not for myself - various friends have
much of what I’ve done
One of her future projects includes designing a sampler
of the Fyock farm, including information about the
family. “It will take tune,” Mary Alice states, but adds
that she has a piece of handwoven linen given to her by a
friend on which she will work the sampler
Although she has already mastered many needlework
forms, she has a dream of an art she would like to learn -
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