Golden Needles share threads, friendship

The men setting up for a wedding reception in the parish hall of All Saints Episcopal Church surely walked away with more than one misunderstanding a few weeks back.

As they broke down tables and lined the walls with chairs, a small group of ladies with the relaxed familiarity of old friends sat around the sole table carrying on one eavesdrop-worthy conversation after another.

It started with one of the ladies recalling a conversation she had with a woman from England. "She says Americans are too concerned about their backsides. If it does not change the appearance of the front side, why worry about the backside?"

While the women pondered that thought, a deliveryman passed by their table wheeling cases of sweet tea into the kitchen. By the time he returned, they were on to confessing where each keeps her stash.

In the closet. In the bedroom. In the attic.

Eyebrow-raising conversation in most circles, but innocent for an embroidery club, where stash is common lingo for a person's thread supply and backside refers to the reverse of a needlework craft.

This is the kind of talk that has been going on for the last 29 years. From 10 a.m. to noon the first Tuesday of the month, members of Golden Needles, the Concord chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America, come from towns like Woodleaf and Mooresville to meet at the church and share threads, techniques, and friendship.

It's a tradition started in 1982 by a lady whose family knew a thing or two about thread.

Not many of the current members ever met Norma Cannon, of the cotton mill Cannons, but longtime member Jeanne McCarthy remembers the now passed Cannon as a talented and helpful embroiderer who owned a thread shop on the family farm in Concord.

"She was a good source," said McCarthy. "If we were doing something that required an unusual fabric or thread, she could get it for us."

At its peak in the 1980's the club had 75 members. Now there are 16.

"It's completely changed character over the years as various people have come," said McCarthy. "This crew now is so incredibly talented. They're delightful."

Although membership in organizations like EGA is down, it's not hanging by a thread just yet. Golden Needles is one of the 310 chapters in the guild, and part of its 10,150 members. Members of the local chapter often promote the hobby by teaching local groups like the girl scouts about the craft.

For a time, Golden Needles even had a male member, whose beautiful work is still displayed in the church's kneeling cushions and chairbacks.

Father Robert Blackburn, or Father B. as he was known, was a retired priest who published several books on stitching. His last, "Father B's 21st Century Book of Stitches" is still available on Amazon.

When he passed away a few years back, his family donated his stash, box upon box of threads and canvas in every color imaginable.

A thoughtful gift for a group who can never pass up the opportunity to add to their own stashes. For what some call hoarding, embroiderers have a more positive term: treasuring.

"You can have 40 skeins of green but they're all the wrong shade," said member Beryl Wilson, of Woodleaf.