Visit to Freehold Historical Society

The Guild took to the road today, to Freehold NJ, to the home of the Monmouth County Historical Society. Their collections are legendary, and we were treated to a special display of needlework brought out from storage in our honor.

The town is full of history; close by was the Battle of Monmouth, of Molly Pitcher fame, and the needlework we examined was created by local girls, dating back to the early 19th century and further.

Wonderful afternoon in a historic house/museum,  with a knowledgeable guide, happy to have fiberart lovers to talk to.

Here's a sampling

Oldest known work on linsey-woolsey in NJ. 18th century.

Globes, previously seen at the Morven, Princeton, exhibit. They were created as learning pieces, and guides to geography studies. These are terrestrial, but there exist rate examples of celestial globes, though not in this collection.

There is a website with a lot more of their collection digitized and displayed. Go to https://monmouthhistory.org

And we're invited back, maybe for weskits and bed hangings..and maybe next year's stitch-in. Stay tuned!

Antique Quilt lecture and display deserves a blogpost!

The April 2018 program meeting was another wonderful offering by chapter member Lyna Wiggins, an authority on antique quilts, an appraiser, and a replicate quilt expert.  

As always her explanation of patterns, dyes, the history of the times, was a great treat as well as an education.  We asked a lot of questions, and her detailed answers showed us she is simply an encyclopedic resource on this whole area of fiber art. 


Holding up the quilt were Ginny, visible here and there, herself an expert on antique fabrics, and a fine quilter, 

Holding up the quilts were Ginny, visible here and there, herself an expert on antique fabrics, and a fine quilter, and at the other corner, Carol P, who was out of sight of your photographer!


Lyna brought a couple of her favorite reference books for us to see, including one in which a quilt from her own collection is featured 

The pictures show only a fraction of what we saw, an array which covered the mid nineteenth to mid twentieth century in American quilt arts.  So here are some

 This is, as you'll see from the hands helpfully holding it, thank you Carol G and Mari, a miniature quilt

  
But this one is enormous, and brilliantly designed, fully under control while depicting a swirling mass of movement
 

 Lyna particularly loves the schoolhouse design and we saw several fine examples of it

Here's a quilt with the corner flipped over to show you the back. Backs of quilts can be interesting, too.

One aspect of Lyna's collecting is that she likes to find genuine antique quilt tops, that is quilts where the top is complete, but it was not backed and quilted.  With an unquilted top you can see the back of the work and how it was designed and finished, of great interest to embroiderers as well as quilters. Thank you so much, Lyna, for another wonderful adventure in the quilt art world.


And as a little extra, here's a quilt new member Mari M. created from a drawing of her mother's. 

Mari is an expert quilter, creating and documenting wonderful works for family members, and very welcome to our chapter.

And another (fairly) new member, Saasha B., is an expert fine cross stitch worker. 

This piece is the start of a very large and wonderful design, in extremely fine stitching, I believe 40 count.  She's a cross stitch star! We're in awe of her skills.

 

Princeton Chapter EGA Holiday Party 2017

Your humble writer promised to write a blogpost about our holiday party, and in the confusion of the moment, left her tablet, on which she takes pictures, at home, charging!

So Margaret K generously stepped in, and made a lovely series of pix of our embroidered projects, sent them on to me, and you'll notice I credited her with the pix.  Thank you for saving the day, Margaret!

Helen and Jane, original founders of the Chapter, invited Liz into their annual picture, since for once she was not taking the photos, and she was happy to be included

 

 

We all wish everyone who was able to come, and absent friends, a wonderful holiday season and a good New Year to come.

Liz says good bye to the guild blog

Good morning!

I just want to let you know that this is the last post of this blog in its current form.  As the creator, writer and photographer since its inception five years ago, it's now time for me to step away, since my own priorities need changes in my commitments.

It's been fun, very much appreciated, that's always nice, and I will not delete anything.  I've loved celebrating our chapter and activities and the wonderful members and their work, so I will leave this in place. This link will still work, you will still be able to scroll back as far as you want to read and enjoy.

What I'm hoping is that another chapter member will try her hand at it, and I'm willing to sit with her to set up a new blog, same platform, but new lifetime.  This one is on my personal email, so I can't transfer it, but I can show another person how to continue, so that members won't detect a difference, except in style and touch.

If you're feeling ready for a new adventure, here's one!

And thank you everyone for all the encouragement and appreciation you've given to your humble writer.  This includes the readers in other countries who occasionally get in touch to let me know they follow along.

I'm not going anywhere, will still stop in now and then at chapter meetings and stitch ins, but the blog will be on hiatus, until a new writer shows up.

Stitching spans generations in the Princeton Chapter of EGA

The Guild skipped a meeting today, so I thought I'd seize the day and post a favorite picture I took recently, at a stitch in.  Between youngest and oldest stitchers all hard at work, there is almost 85 years difference in age!  The young friend learning shashiko, and making a great job of it, is the granddaughter to Carol, on her right.
Across the room is Polly W. one of our older members, and still a serious needlepoint stitcher.  Debi is working on a canvas in amazing colors over there on the left, turquoises and golden browns.

Just a reminder: make a note that the May 7th meeting, first Sunday in May, will be Smocking, taught by a visiting instructor, a very experienced worker in this artform.  Nearer the time you'll hear more about costs, and what to bring, but note your calendar now, since this has been in the works for a while.

Princeton Embroiderers embark on Shashiko

This month's adventure in stitching, prepared very thoroughly, and taught by Ginny H, is in shashiko, a traditional Japanese stitching form.  Originating centuries ago as a repair technique for clothing, it developed into an art form, the white stitching on indigo background becoming an end in itself, as well as a means of extending the life of clothing.  

Seen as a quilted form, in fishermen's work gear, and monks' clothing, as well as other everyday garments, it has developed into a beautiful form.  The stitch itself, a stabbing movement, shashiko meaning stabbing, is simple to learn, but its application can be as complex and beautiful as the maker can take it.

The outreach to the Robbinsville Chinese Club, led by Ginny for several years, incorporated this stitch into last year's projects, as the group branched out into other Asian stitching directions, and you see here the students' success in their shashiko work.

Today we had choices of many kit patterns, and fabrics, as well as the official shashiko thread, to work with, and we couldn't wait to set to. 

Ginny brought in reference books and fabrics, in addition to the kits.

Many thanks to Ginny for terrific preparation, as always, and generous sharing of her expertise and knowledge.  The group had a great afternoon.

Speaking of great, here's an update on the latest work from Florence K, who is on number nine of the bat mitzvah bags she has created in needlepoint for great granddaughters.  They are really heirlooms, wonderful to see and handle, and here she is, with number 8 finished

 and number nine still on the frame.

Inside are messages about the girl's family, and the stitcher! Florence tells us that these are the last bat mitzvah bags she plans on making!  It's a privilege to be around this great stitcher, and to be able to record this work on our guild blog.