The Embroiderers' Guild Moves its Stash!

We have had to move and reorganize our extensive stash -- prospective members, please note that this will be available to you, on membership, too! -- and since one large bag of materials relates to goldwork,a member specializing in goldwork offered to take custody of it, to bring it in on request for anyone needing to use it.

And this is some of what's in that goldwork stash:

 Many reels of silk thread in a range of colors, too, and a couple of fine kits with silk fabric and gauze and silk threads with charts.

It's only a fraction of what we have in our Guild stash, much of it a generous gift from a high end store which closed some years ago, as well as gifts from former stitchers,  and ranging from a wide range of flosses and perle, beautiful quality crewel wools, reference books, fabrics for stitching, hoops, there's a great treasure trove for members to use.

The goldwork is now safely in an undisclosed location, but available at any time on request.

So, if you're reading because you met us at the recent Festival of the Arts, or if you're a longstanding follower, and especially if you're a Guild member, this is just a reminder of the resources at our disposal.  Another wonderful resource is the generosity of fellow members who gladly learn and gladly teach, to paraphrase Chaucer!

We welcome new members to share with us, and we meet every Wednesday evening, year round, from 7-9, then there's our general membership meeting with program, on the first Sunday of the month.  Our October meeting will be about show and tell and catch up on unfinished stitching, with members teaching each other as needed.

Princeton Embroiderers' Guild out and about, at the Festival of the Arts

This event is an annual event in Plainsboro, in and around the Public Library, celebrating all the arts, visual and performing, and our local artists.  We've been doing it for many years, and I, your humble blogwriter, have the honor of being one of the founders, so I'm always very proud to see it go well, and to take part.

  
A visitor taking a look at our setup

 Evie and Florence catching up

  
Florence studying her schwalm work  in the meantime

Visitors admiring Evie's work -- the eyeglass case, exquisite
 

 Florence sharing some of her needlepoint expertise with a visitor

 Evie explaining fine points of embroidery to a visitor seizing the chance to talk with an expert

 What we love to see!  someone signing up to hear more about us.  Thank you, Simone.

This year, our Guild was mobbed all afternoon!  Evie S., Florence L, Florence K, and Ruth L. and I were busy all afternoon offering information, instruction  and invitations to our Guild, to a stream of interested onlookers.   Quite a few of them took our blog flyer as well as our membership apps, so I hope they see this!  and some of them  appear here, too.

Princeton Embroiderers' Guild starts a new program year

Today was the first general meeting of the new program year for the Princeton Chapter of EGA, The Embroiderers' Guild of America,  and it started with a great presentation on the Unicorn Tapestries in the Cloisters section of the Metropolitan Museum of NY,  by Karlfried Froehlich, an authority both on religious iconography and on the history of the period. 

Helen H. introduced our speaker seated at far right here

and he was very generous in responding to questions throughout the presentation and afterwards.

The slide show gave us insights into the tapestries many of us had visited at the Cloisters, but with an added layer of interest in that he explained the many levels of meaning in the tapestries, from the plain narrative of the hunt, to the religious,  botanical and historic symbolism seen throughout these iconic works. And he added in some material on the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cluny in Paris, equally wonderful, but not always as well known.

After his departure, the members gave a Show and Tell, with Carol G. showing the triumphant completion of a beautiful Kaffe Fassett design

Debi R.  with her completed bunny, two views here! 

and a cross stitch hooded bathsheet

 

for a recent arrival in her family, with another work under way for another lucky relative

.  

And your humble blog writer was caught in candids taken by Karen G., intent on threading the silk thread which keeps on flying out of the needle

and working on a tiny part of the wilderness piece in progress. 

This is in response to the question she gets about why she never appears in the pictures in  the newsletter or our blog, mainly because she's taking the pix.  Well, now she does!

And members did some catchup, since we hadn't been together in this group for several months

Future plans for the chapter include:

an appearance at the Plainsboro Library Festival of the Arts on September 20th, 1-5 p.m. to demonstrate our finished and ongoing work and talk with the general public about stitching and what fun it would be  to join us.  Come and meet us!

an October meeting, first Sunday of October, 1-4 p.m. for work on Unfinished Objects, of which most of us have plenty

a three day goldwork workshop at Mendham Convent in mid October, organized by Carol P.

an expedition to Winterthur in Delaware in early November, organized by Helen H.,  to visit both the needlework exhibits and the Downton Abbey costume display.

These are in addition to our regular Wednesday evening stitch ins, year round,  7-9 p.m.

Members and potential members are warmly encouraged to join us and can get exact directions by emailing us at the address given in the header of this blogpost.