CRAFTS Hobby keeps sewing club members in stitches

Two years ago it was just for fun. Now, they sometimes amaze themselves.
KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Before the ladies became The Crafty Ladies Sewing Club, "crafty" wasn't an adjective they'd even toy with applying to themselves. Some had never sewed a hem; for others, years had passed since they'd stitched a button onto a blouse.
Then one day, gingerly, curiously and perhaps a little begrudgingly, each picked up a needle, stuck some tailor thread through its eye and started attaching minuscule sequins and beads to felt.
Now, almost two years since their first gathering, they're sometimes amazed at their own craftiness.
During these months, they've stitched intricate eggs and flowers that cover a tulle Easter tablecloth, colorful Christmas trees that hang independently from a twisted-wire tree. Purple tulle is adorned with intricate birthday cakes, bow-tied boxes and balloons.
After each creation is finished, the group draws a name to see who will be the beneficiary of the next. That Crafty Lady gets to choose her theme.
Myra Lancaster chose a Christmas theme for a table runner she wants to put together. At a recent meeting, held as most are at Peggy Riggs' house, members gently and proudly placed sequined and beaded ornaments, Santas and angels on the table before her.
The Crafty Ladies began with an invitation, issued from two women not particularly known for their abilities with needle and thread: Elizabeth Smith and Peggy Riggs.
"It said, 'We have a fun idea. Come and find out what it is,'" recalls Kate Crosland Juett.
Intrigued, she headed over.
"When Peggy and Elizabeth brought out these tacky Christmas tablecloths and aprons, I thought, 'They obviously don't have a life and are filling a void.'
"We had no idea how cute they could turn out to be. It's a fun, fun experience."
Remember when
The "tacky Christmas tablecloths" were a throwback to the 1950s.
Elizabeth remembers, when she was a child, being enchanted by the Christmas tulle tablecloth that belonged to her next-door neighbor's mother. "I remember this magical thing with sequins and beads," says Elizabeth, an interior designer. "It was all gooped up, which is what little girls love."
Elizabeth made sequined velvet Christmas stockings for her children. But that was three decades ago. Then, in the last few years, she began seeing the beaded tablecloths and placemats periodically while combing estate sales. And along about Sept. 11, 2001, she and Peggy decided that making tablecloths might be a good idea.
"After 9/11, everybody was so scared," Elizabeth says. "There was so much unrest. It was nice to go to someone's house and take your mind off all these worries by sewing all this frivolous stuff."
Between them, they asked 15 women, ranging in age from their 40s to 60s. During that first meeting, everyone discussed the project and decided to make it Easter-themed. Each woman received three pieces of felt, sequins and beads.
They set one rule: No glue. That turned out to be a sticking point for Kate Juett.
"I took my Easter egg home and hot-glued the sequins on. I took it to the next meeting and was kicked out of the club," she says teasingly. "I said things like, 'I can't believe you'd kick me out for using glue!' Then Peggy came over and helped me.
"We were required to do three pieces, and I did 60. This is so much fun."
New dimension
Kate, an artist, so took to her newfound pastime that she began incorporating beads and sequins into her collages.
"This added a whole new dimension to my artwork," she says.
On this third Thursday of the month, she and the others have gathered. They wander into Peggy's den and, upon seeing the Easter cloth spread over a green tablecloth, they ooh and ah at the 148 characters that cover their very first creation.
Diana Strauss walks in, carrying her bag of felt and thread. "This is so pretty," she says. Diana's was the project in which everyone beaded a felt Christmas tree. She then took them and hung them on a spiral-shaped metal tree.
For her project, Lynn Knox asked the Crafty Ladies to stitch either a dog or a cat. She decided the project would make great pillows, which could be auctioned off to benefit The Paws Cause, an event that raises money to help fund the Humane Society's Spay-Neuter Clinic.
"I had told Lynn I couldn't do it," Kate says. "Then I was in North Carolina and started it and couldn't stop. It's every dog I ever had: Nick, Tango, Abby, Doozy, Frisco."
For many years
When Sydney Hall's name was chosen, she decided she wanted something she could use more than once a year. With 10 grandchildren, she decided on a birthday theme.
"I drew a few birthday cakes and asked people I could talk into it into doing a big one," she says.
When everyone had turned her project in, she took them home and laid them out on a piece of felt on her pingpong table to determine where each should go. Then she stitched them onto the purple tulle.
During these three hours or so every month, they talk, they laugh, they share recipes or tips about which kind of thread works best. The meetings include lunch only two or three times a year; nobody wants to be the one who spills crumbs on such delicate work. Yes, they're creating pieces to be stitched onto tablecloths, runners, placemats that their grandchildren's children might someday use. But they're also, with each stitch, connecting themselves, creating something for each other.