Every craft guild I’ve encountered has a similar raison d’etre – to preserve the history and skills of that craft, and for the more skilled members to pass them on to everyone who wants to learn them. S o, in my liftetime I have joined embroidery and quilting guilds in many states of Australia, and while we lived in USA 1987-94 was a member of the EGA and two quilting guilds, and in many ways SAQA is a guild, too.
Last week I enjoyed a very interesting presentation to members of SAQA, Studio Art Quilt Associates, by Brad Cape, the Executive Director of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, EGA. I missed his opening remarks, but the talk was recorded and so I’ll watch again when it becomes available, and no doubt Martha’s introduction and the first part of Brad’s talk gave the origin and history of the guild and of course its mission, to quote from EGA’s website “…inspiring passion for needle arts through education and the celebration of its heritage.”
From the audience’s questions to Brad, I felt most of us watching were embroiderers and others who are aware of the growing importance of embroidery in art quilts, and whether by hand or machine, stitchery forms a significant element of surface design in both 2D and some of the 3D works now being made by some SAQAs. It’s a growing trend over the last 15 years that I’ve been really pleased to see and be part of.
In Darwin, capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, in 1977 I enrolled in a community college course titled “Creative Embroiderery”, as something to get me out of the house every week to help maintain mental health during the Wet Season up there. Unfortunately I had to leave mid year as Mike’s job required us to relocate, but by then I was seriously hooked on hand embroidery, and fortunately everywhere we moved after that I found embroiderers and some lovely community groups. Many were in quite remote places, but there were always a few taking correspondence courses from a guild down in the Big Smoke (capital city) and some embroiderers were able to attend a summer school every year or two… Information was circulated by state craft councils, and of course we learned from each other, books or visiting workshop teachers, which included Cynthia Sparks, Rusty Walkley and Constance Howard. What I learned at an incredible 9 day summer school in 1978 has continued to influence my textile/fibreart, and that generally includes either quilting and/or some form of decorative embroidery.
In 1987 the family moved to Denver CO (Mike’s job again) where, in addition to continuing with the embroidery I was so wrapped up in, I had time to learn the basics of patchwork and quilting too. These two crafts quickly merged and sometimes decorative embroidery was machined motifs that fit the theme of the work as I became involved in making 2D wall hangings or ‘art quilts’.
I’ve been making this kind of textile art since, and in the last few years delved into 3D soft sculptures, too, always decorated with some form of hand stitch and/or beading –
