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.