On permanent display in the public gallery of Plainsboro Town Hall is a banner created by the Princeton Chapter of EGA, and this is a small tribute to the great skills of the 23 members -- one, Jane Sweeney, still very active in the chapter -- who created this artwork.
Here's the whole banner, seen from the side
And the top segments
Middle segments
And the bottom segments
It includes many forms of embroidery, from Jane's blackwork, to Mountmellick whitework, pulled work, canvas, and crewel. It features several ways of depicting the Mercer Oak, an iconic symbol of the Princeton region, relating to the Battle of Princeton, a turning point of the Revolutionary War. Also to be seen is the Eastern Goldfinch, the New Jersey state bird, and the violet, the state flower. There's a lot to see!
The piece is hung in an area too narrow to back up and get a front image of it all, so I photographed it from the side, and then did segments, so as to include all the parts.You'll see overlap if you study the three pictures.
And here's a picture of the accompanying literature explaining the planning, and naming the participants. their names and the form of embroidery they used are shown in a grid which correlates to the banner itself, so you can see who did what and how. Click on pictures to see better.
Browse and enjoy!
First Sunday of the month, and our monthly meeting, with a brief visit of Suzette D., from her new home in Texas, bringing with her the project her new group is working on,
goldwork on perforated paper, before getting to work on our current project
and we welcomed a guest, who also took part right away in this month's butterfly design, presented and taught by Ginny H., our program chair.
This project, which can be made up as an ornament or a scissors fob -- and this writer plans to make a fob to replace the tatty old bit of yarn currently attached to her embroidery scissors -- is one of those fast and satisfying projects which will most probably be finished!
Sally C. showed some of her completed work -- a doorstop and two biscornu, the biscornu on the right a wonder of piecing and joining as well as stitching
And there were works in progress, here Debi R. works on her turtle, a group project introduced and taught to the group by long-time member Caroline M., who sadly died recently, and will be honored at our holiday party with a reunion of turtles, and picture- taking, to share with her daughter, also a stitcher.
and Sally C passed around her almost completed Christmas stocking -- some haircuts required for the characters on it, then it's really complete. It looked wonderful to us already, though.
Liz A. shared magazines and other stitch related items given to her for rehoming, and some of them found new homes. One of the items, a framed picture of irises, she plans to complete and offer as a gift to the giver, as a thank you for the stitch related treasure trove. But beads and goldwork might get in there..they seem to get into most of her work.
If you're local to Princeton NJ, and would like to join us, contact us at the email address given in our header, and we'll get back to you with exact times and location and an invitation to come join us. We have a stitch-in, informal group, every Wednesday evening 7-9 p.m., and our monthly general meeting takes place at 1-4 p.m. on the first Sunday of the month. We welcome guests to come and see if they like us, before they need to think about official membership.
Our Guild chapter took part in this huge event, and we thought you'd like to see a panorama of what went on! the lady with the bouquet is one of our Presidents, Liz A. who's active in the art scene in the town, and you'll see there Ginny H. teaching, as always, at the stitchers' table. Florence K and Florence L were there explaining about our chapter and our stitching, and Ruth L brought in works, too. We put up a great showing for this outreach.
To see, go here: http://beautifulmetaphor.blogspot.com/2013/09/festival-of-arts-2013-plainsboro.html
Welcome to the opening post on the Princeton Embroiderers' blog. We're a group of stitchers and friends, we welcome visitors to our monthly meetings and weekly stitch-ins, and our blog will show us at work, at play, and on the road! To get in touch and ask for more information, email princetonega@yahoo.com.
Our October meeting, on the first Sunday, will be a talk on the Unicorn Tapestries in the Cloisters, the medieval section of the Metropolitan Museum of NY.
Currently we have a group exhibit, up for the month of September at the Mary Jacobs Library in Rocky Hill, and our blog admin. took pictures. Eventually one of the library staff insisted on taking pix of her, too, and placed her in front of each side of the exhibit!
Comments I heard in the course of the photo shoot: what amazing work, look at that miniature quilt, and oh, is that blackwork? and needlepoint? It went over well with library patrons, and if you're local, come and see it, too.
So here's the gallery of pictures:
