In the News
From left, Sandra Miller, Nancy Jacobson and Terri Garfinkel, all of Bratenahl, share stories, tips and friendship at Wool and Willow Needlepoint on Larchmere Boulevard. They are part of the Guilded Girls, a group that meets every Thursday to work on projects and chat at the popular and colorful shop.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- No topic is off-limits during the weekly gathering of the Guilded Girls at Wool and Willow Needlepoint on Larchmere Boulevard in Cleveland.
Husbands, health, books, religion, fashion and, yes, politics are all vigorously discussed -- without much eye contact, of course. It's hard, after all, to concentrate on your needlework and be totally socially correct.
But really, looking up during conversation is not necessary in this group that has been meeting for 90 minutes or so of stitching, followed by lunch, almost since the store first opened in a smaller space next door some 5½ years ago.Wool and Willow, delightfully cramped and colorful, sits at the corner of East 130th Street and Larchmere Boulevard. It is a comfortable and homey place to meet and relax, all the women agreed.
Oh, and yes -- it's a great gathering spot to focus on what member Gayle Maracz of Independence calls a "wonderful obsession" -- needlepoint.
"Everything I need to know I learned at this table," said Mary Cahen of Cleveland Heights, working away at a canvas image of her granddaughter that, once stitched, will be made into a doll. "We eat, laugh . . . and maybe stitch."
Cahen sat at the end of the table crowded with fellow stitchers and friends Maracz, Terri Garfinkel, Sandra Miller, Nancy Jacobson and Barbara Yeomans. All were bent over projects as they chatted nonstop -- often finishing one another's sentences.
The group can swell to 10 or 12 people at any time. They meet weekly at Wool and Willow to work on projects under the mothering eye of store owner Anne Forquer and employees such as canvas designer and expert stitcher Barbara Bergsten.
The moniker Guilded Girls is something new -- they invented it on the spur of the moment the day a reporter and photographer came to the store.
It's easy to be overwhelmed by the colors and choices of fiber at Wool and Willow Needlepoint on Larchmere Boulevard, so owner Anne Forquer, right, helps new customer Jane Malloy of Canton navigate the shop.That's a hallmark of the group: spontaneity and camaraderie."I'll come in here babbling and she'll [Forquer] help," said Maracz, a retired teacher who still works as a substitute now and then.
"This place is our lifesaver," said Miller, who lives in Bratenahl. She often commutes to the weekly gathering with fellow Bratenahl residents Garfinkel and Jacobson.
Miller was working, alternately, on two projects as she talked -- a floral tableau intended for a guest bedroom and an image of an Asian wedding basket. "It's a very peaceful and safe place. You can talk, or you don't have to talk."
There's always a bowl of Ghirardelli chocolate bites on the table -- but, with the exception of the chocolate, "the needlepoint police don't allow food or drink on the table," said Cahen.
The love of needlepoint is what first brought the group together. New friendships are the glue.
"I got the inspiration [for Wool and Willow] on a trip to Paris with my husband," said Forquer, a needlepoint lover for more than 30 years. The French stores were inspirationally "cozy," she said.
Because opening a store had "always been in the back of my mind," said Forquer, she decided to take the plunge within a year of returning to Cleveland from the trip.
The Larchmere location is perfect, she said, because of its quaintness and also because it is near a popular and already established knitting store, Fine Points. People who love knitting often love needlework, too, she said, so they started visiting by word of mouth. "It's one-stop shopping" for crafters, said Forquer.
The store has been particularly busy the last 12 months because "needle arts tend to go up [in popularity] during a hard economy."
Why does that happen? "It's very calming," said Forquer. "If you can't afford a vacation, you can start a project. It's comforting."
Every square inch of the walls, floor and display tables is filled with such projects as Christmas stockings, ornaments, baby gifts, shoes, belts, purses, wallets, wall hangings, chair coverings and religious objects.Space not covered with painted canvases (preferable now over counted cross-stitch blank canvases) is draped with every imaginable color and type of thread -- silk, fuzzy, sparkling, narrow and thick.
Needlepoint is not a cheap hobby. Some of the canvases can put you back hundreds of dollars. And that doesn't include buying thread, which can also cost hundreds of dollars.
Finally, the cost of finishing the project -- making it into a pillow, cushion, adding it to a shoe -- has to be considered. That can run more than a hundred dollars, depending on the project's size and/or embellishments, said Forquer. Wool and Willow employees either finish the projects for the clients, or projects are sent out for finishing.
It's obvious, however, that all the Guilded Girls consider the expense worth it. Their work becomes instant heirlooms -- and they have peace of mind and new friends, thanks to the weekly gatherings.
Lively conversation continued as the morning meeting progressed into afternoon. And to a certain extent, the give-and-take belied the message in the project being worked on by Yeomans, who lives in Cleveland near the shop. She was about 60 percent done with a canvas that read: "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most."
The "wonderful obsession," it seems, will continue for quite a while for the Guilded Girls.