Stitch Retreat

SCHOOLGIRL SAMPLERS OF WESTERN NEW YORK – Hannah Coughnet 1841

Full-day retreat – Friday, April 23, 2027 | Saturday, April 24, 2027 9:30 am to 4:30 pm

(Choose one day)

Location: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1 East Main St., LeRoy, NY 14482

This full-day retreat will offer an immersive historical experience as we look at the unusual sampler that 12-year-old Hannah Coughnet stitched in 1841. A short lecture about her life and times will be accompanied by a slide show. The day includes a cross stitch project related to her sampler that comes fully kitted, and participants will also receive a printed booklet including the chart of her sampler and information on Hannah’s background. A visit to the historic LeRoy House (just steps up the street) allows participants to see Hannah’s sampler as well as numerous other needlework pieces in the collection. Morning coffee, a catered lunch and door prizes are also included in the day. The retreat room is down one flight of stairs – there is no elevator.

Registration begins on Thursday, October 1 at 9:00 am EST.

This is being hosted by Leslie DeLooze of LeRoy and Emily Williams of Chapel Hill, NC. This is their second collaboration on historic samplers (see below for the information on the 2024 retreat). Proceeds from the retreat benefit St. Mark’s Church and the LeRoy Historical Society. If you have questions, please contact Leslie at leslie.delooze@gmail.com or Emily at ehwilliams201@gmail.com.

LeRoy is located about halfway between Rochester and Buffalo and is exit 47 on the NYS Thruway (Rt. 90).  Local attractions include the LeRoy Barn Quilt Trail, the Genesee Country Village and Museum (6 miles), the Holland Land Office Museum (10 miles), Letchworth State Park (20 miles). 

Hobby House Needleworks is 36 miles away in Victor and easily accessible via the NYS Thruway.  Other area needlework shops include The Mouse House Stitchery in Sodus and Lazy Daisy Stitching in Clarence.

Please contact Leslie if you are interested in places to stay in LeRoy. Accommodations are also available in Batavia, about 11 miles away. https://visitgeneseeny.com/where-to-stay

Christmas Cross Stitch -2025

Cross-Stitch Retreat on Saturday, November 8, 2025 from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1 East Main St., LeRoy, NY 14482

Holiday creativity was in the air on Saturday, November 8 for Christmas Cross-Stitch, a full day retreat.  It was a day of stitching, good food, a trivia contest, and time with other stitchers.

Each participant received three fully-kitted Christmas ornaments and finishing options, a custom-made fabric Christmas project bag with goodies inside, morning coffee, a catered lunch, a chance at the door prize, and an optional tour of an exhibit at the LeRoy House (steps up the street from St. Mark’s) called “Threaded Stories: Utility, Beauty & Expressions in Textiles.” It was a fun group of 36 participants. 

Christmas Cross Stitch wa a fundraiser to support the mission and ministries of St. Mark’s Church, a small Episcopal parish dedicated to serving the wider community. 

Retreat in 2024 –

Schoolgirl Samplers of Western New York: Jane Boyer 1834

Cross-stitch retreat on Saturday, October 19, 2024 from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1 East Main St., LeRoy, NY 14482

This full-day cross-stitching retreat offered an immersive historical experience in the very neighborhood where 10-year-old Jane Boyer lived, stitched her sampler, went to school and attended church.  Her beautifully stitched sampler is in pristine condition and is in the collection of the LeRoy Historical Society.

Participants were given two fully-kitted cross-stitch projects based on her sampler to work on that day and a digital pdf chart of the full reproduction sampler.  Three talks during the day focused on her life, on the momentous decade of the 1830s in LeRoy and beyond, and on stitching the model of the reproduction sampler and other related cross-stitch topics. In addition, participants received a guided tour of the historic LeRoy House (just steps up the street from St. Mark’s), viewed the samplers in the collection, and visited the Jell-O Museum located behind the LeRoy House.  

Proceeds benefited St. Mark’s Church and the LeRoy Historical Society.

Hosts for this event we Leslie DeLooze and Emily Williams.

Speakers:
Leslie (Jordan) DeLooze  Leslie’s maternal grandmother taught her to cross-stitch 60 years ago, and Leslie has stitched off and on since then.  Two years ago, when she suggested reproduction charts as a fundraiser for the LeRoy Historical Society, she really dove into the subject, attending major stitch retreats, visiting several museums featuring schoolgirl samplers, taking a class at the Genesee Country Village & Museum on raising and processing flax (used to make linen), stitching some samplers, learning design software, and listening to many, many flosstubers speak about stitching and samplers.  Her former career as a public librarian was a good start to the research she continues to do on Jane Boyer and her family.  Leslie and her husband, Jim, live in LeRoy.

Emily Williams (nee Hill) (LeRoy High School, Class of 1976) took up cross-stitch in the 1980s, adding it to her fiber arts hobbies of knitting, crocheting, and sewing. She now makes quilts for family and friends (and on commission), has a nascent long-arm quilting business, and spends many hours per day stitching and doing other needlework. She has a weekly video on YouTube called ‘Flosstube and Variety Show’ in which she discusses the cross stitch projects she is working on along with books, games, sudoku, and many other topics. Every six weeks or so she and her quilting partner make a video called ‘Galloping Horse Quilting’ in which they discuss their quilting projects and other topics related to the quilting world. She has greatly enjoyed stitching the model for Jane Boyer 1834! She now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with her husband, Byron.

Lynne Belluscio is the Municipal Historian for the Village and Town of LeRoy following her 34-year career as the Director/Curator of the LeRoy Historical Society.  Prior to that, she worked at the Genesee Country Museum where she set up their cooking program, cheese making and basket making and coordinated many special events, such as the Agricultural Fair.  Her knowledge of LeRoy history is wide-ranging, and she has spoken about such things as the invention of Jell-O, Amelia Earhart’s visit, Calvin Keeney’s snap beans, and the LeRoy family to local groups as well as to national museum conferences.  Her columns in the LeRoy Pennysaver and now Batavia’s The Daily News both entertain and educate her many readers.  Perhaps her biggest contribution is shining a light on women’s history related to LeRoy with her knowledge of Ingham University (1837-1892), the first chartered women’s university in the U.S.; the first woman to vote in LeRoy Delia Phillips; LeRoy aviation pioneer Dorothy Layne McIntyre; and many other unsung women.